State and Local Government Law Commons^™

Reclaiming The Streets, Vanessa Casado-Pérez

Faculty Scholarship

Pedestrians have been getting the short end of the stick in street policies and regulations. Drivers and cars dominate our streets even though automobiles’ externalities kill thousands of people every year. Given the environmental, health, safety, and community effects of cars, municipalities should embrace a policy that puts pedestrians at the center and produces more miles of wider, well-maintained sidewalks. Sidewalks make communities greener, healthier, safer, more socially connected, and even, wealthier. COVID-19 lockdowns have shown both the relevance of sidewalks, as well as the possibility of pedestrians regaining space currently allocated to cars by widening sidewalks.

This Essay identifies, …

Evolution Of Metropolitan Planning Organizations (Mpos) Into Multi-Functional Regional Roles, Janice C. Griffith

Suffolk University Law School Faculty Works

In the United States, all three levels of government, federal, state, and local, are engaged in coordinating the movement of goods and people. Recognizing the importance of an inter-connected transportation system, Congress enacted legislation in the mid-twentieth century that conditioned federal transportation funding upon continuing, comprehensive, and coordinated (“3-C”) transportation planning linking cities and suburbs. Thereafter, Congress mandated that the states create Metropolitan Planning Organizations (“MPOs”) to undertake 3-C planning on a metropolitan scale. Congress has now expanded the scope of transportation planning criteria to include environmental protections, energy conservation, local planned growth, economic development patterns, mitigation of storm water …

Guns In The Sky: Nevada's Firearm Laws, 1 October, And Next Steps, Dylan Lawter, Anya Sanko

Nevada Law Journal Forum

With incidences of high-profile mass shootings as well as daily gun violence continuing to rise throughout the United States, Nevada residents cannot help but wonder what the state is doing to stop and to prevent future incidents. Nevada has historically had permissive gun laws, being part of the “Wild West,” but in modern days, particularly since the 1 October shooting, Nevada legislators have enacted more gun laws. Additionally, judges and justices in Nevada courts have had to interpret new and old gun laws in novel ways, due to living in the modern era where gun violence seems to be the …

Green Energy V. The Constitution: New York State’S Battle With Home Rule Provisions In The Age Of Environmentalism, Alexa L. Archambault

Buffalo Law Review

In the era of metal straws, reusable grocery bags, and glass water bottles, there is no doubt society is becoming more and more environmentally conscious. This ecological ethos has manifested itself inhuge policy shifts away from traditional fossil fuel energy and toward renewable energy, such as wind and solar power. Lawmakers throughoutthe world are making agreements and commitments aimed at decreasingreliance on fossil fuels. In the United States, New York State has taken a leading role in the quest toward renewable energy. With New York State’s ambitious climate goals, though, have come serious encroachments on powers traditionally held by local …

Executive Unilateralism And Individual Rights In A Federalist System, Meredith Mclain, Sharece Thrower

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

Presidents have a wide array of tools at their disposal to unilaterally influence public policy, without the direct approval of Congress or the courts. These unilateral actions have the potential to affect a variety of individual rights, either profitably or adversely. Governors too can employ unilateral directives for similar purposes, often impacting an even wider range of rights. In this Article, we collect all executive orders and memoranda related to individual rights issued between 1981 and 2018 at the federal level, and across the U.S. states, to analyze their use over time. We find that chief executives of all kinds …

Appeal No. 0992: Ll&N Headwater Ii, L.P. V. Division Of Oil & Gas Resources Management, Ohio Oil & Gas Commission

Ohio Oil & Gas Commission Decisions

Review of Chief's Orders 2020-287; Crawford B Unit (Eclipse Resources I, LP)

Appeal No. 0993: Ll&N Headwater Ii, L.P. V. Division Of Oil & Gas Resources Management, Ohio Oil & Gas Commission

Ohio Oil & Gas Commission Decisions

Review of Chief's Orders 2020-288; Crawford D Unit (Eclipse Resources I, LP)

Appeal No. 0991: Ll&N Headwater Ii, L.P. V. Division Of Oil & Gas Resources Management, Ohio Oil & Gas Commission

Ohio Oil & Gas Commission Decisions

Review of Chief's Orders 2020-286; Crawford A Unit (Eclipse Resources I, LP)

Appeal No. 0994: Ll&N Headwater Ii, L.P. V. Division Of Oil & Gas Resources Management, Ohio Oil & Gas Commission

Ohio Oil & Gas Commission Decisions

Review of Chief's Orders 2021-10; Randall B Unit (Eclipse Resources I, LP)

Appeal No. 0990: Ll&B Headwater Ii. L.P. V.Division Of Oil & Gas Resources Management, Ohio Oil & Gas Commission

Ohio Oil & Gas Commission Decisions

Review of Chief's Order 2020-275; Randall A. Unit (Eclipse Resources I, LP)

No Time To Waste: Can A State Prevent Nuclear Waste Transportation Within Its Borders Once Yucca Mountain Becomes Operational?, Ryan Franklin

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

Following the drop of the first atomic bomb over Hiroshima on August 6th, 1945, the United States seriously began contemplating the use of atomic energy not just as a weapon, but as an efficient energy source. President Eisenhower delivered his “Atoms for Peace” speech in front of the United Nations eight years later, effectively launching a massive American campaign to build numerous nuclear power plants to generate enough clean energy to power the entire nation. As these plants were being constructed, however, policymakers and lawmakers who were champions of this endeavor failed to consider the problem of nuclear waste generated …

Congestion Pricing And The Opportunity To Confront New York City's Air Quality Emergency, Chad Hughes

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

Poor air quality in New York City is a public health emergency that disproportionately harms the city’s most vulnerable populations. Recent studies have found that exposure to particulate matter pollution previously thought “safe” causes significant damage to perhaps every organ of the human body. While New York City has reduced particulate matter exposure over the last decade, progress has stalled. In fact, climate change, the shift in the automobile market from sedans to SUVs and “light” trucks, and the federal pullback of environmental enforcement under Trump suggest that air pollution in New York City is likely to worsen.

While the …

Beyond “Children Are Different”: The Revolution In Juvenile Intake And Sentencing, Josh Gupta-Kagan

Washington Law Review

For more than 120 years, juvenile justice law has not substantively defined the core questions in most delinquency cases—when should the state prosecute children rather than divert them from the court system (the intake decision), and what should the state do with children once they are convicted (the sentencing decision)? Instead, the law has granted certain legal actors wide discretion over these decisions, namely prosecutors at intake and judges at sentencing. This Article identifies and analyzes an essential reform trend changing that reality: legislation, enacted in at least eight states in the 2010s, to limit when children can be prosecuted …

A Firm Pillar Of Local Justice: The Failures Of The New York Town And Village Justice Courts Supporting Statewide Adoption Of The District Court Model, Noah Sexton

Journal of Law and Policy

Town and village justice courts have been the center of municipal law, both civil and criminal, since the mid-nineteenth century. However, in the modern world, they have become corrupt, poorly managed institutions, creating issues involving procedural integrity and civil rights. In order to remedy these failures and modernize the New York State Unified Court System, state legislators must look to the district court model as it currently exists in Nassau and Eastern Suffolk Counties. The district court model offers several benefits, including the imposition of educational and experiential requirements for judges, the creation of internal and external oversight institutions, the …

Landlord Bounty Hunters: Qui Tam As An Effective Tool For Housing Code Enforcement, Alex Ellefson

Journal of Law and Policy

Millions of American renters live in substandard housing. Conditions in these homes not only affect individual renters’ quality of life, but in the aggregate create enormous burdens on public resources in the form of higher healthcare costs, demand for public benefits, and lower economic productivity. Furthermore, the legacy of racist housing policies in the United States has concentrated poor housing conditions in low-income communities of color. This Note argues that existing methods of housing code enforcement are inadequate. Instead, housing advocates should turn to an ancient remedy that has been used to prosecute fraud, labor violations, and even pirates: qui …

A-Void-Able Consequences: Void Sales & Subsequent Purchasers Under Arkansas’S Statutory Foreclosure Act, Hannah Hungate

Arkansas Law Notes

This Comment explores Arkansas’s Statutory Foreclosure Act and addresses the question of whether there can be a “subsequent purchaser for value” when a foreclosure sale is void from the outset. After a review of the Act itself, distinction between void and voidable foreclosures of property, findings of other state courts, and proper application of the Act, the author urges the Arkansas Supreme Court to make a formal declaration finding that purchasers of property foreclosed upon in a void sale are not “subsequent purchasers for value” under the meaning of the statute.

Water Banks In Washington State: A Tool For Climate Resilience, Jennifer J. Seely

Washington Law Review

Water banks—a tool for exchanging senior water rights and offsetting new ones—can address multiple problems in contemporary water law. In the era of climate change, water banks enable needed flexibility and resilience in water allocation. As growing cities require new water rights, water banks can repurpose old water for new uses. These advantages should lead the Washington State Legislature to incentivize water banks, but in the 2018 “Hirst fix” it embraced habitat restoration as a false equivalent for water. The Legislature is rightfully concerned about the speculation that some private water banks allow. But overall, water banks enable new and …

Researching Marijuana Law, Seth Quidachay-Swan

Law Librarian Scholarship

This article provides a brief overview of the current legal framework governing the regulation of marijuana at the federal and state levels in the United States. It also provides an overview of the state of Michigan’s current regulatory framework and resources for attorneys interested in learning more about marijuana regulation.

The Termination Of Parental Rights In Texas: The Long Run Cut Short For Parents In Bexar County, Gabriel A. Narvaez

The Scholar: St. Mary's Law Review on Race and Social Justice

Abstract forthcoming.

The Impact Of Climate Change On Virginia's Coastal Areas, Jonathan L. Goodall, Antonio Elias, Elizabeth Andrews, Christopher "Kit" Chope, John Cosgrove, Jason El Koubi, Jennifer Irish, Lewis L. Lawrence Iii, Robert W. Lazaro Jr., William H. Leighty, Mark W. Luckenbach, Elise Miller-Hooks, Ann C. Phillips, Henry Pollard V, Emily Steinhilber, Charles Feigenoff, Jennifer Sayegh

Faculty Publications

As part of HJ47/SJ47 (2020), the Virginia General Assembly directed the Joint Commission on Technology and Science (JCOTS) to study the “safety, quality of life, and economic consequences of weather and climate-related events on coastal areas in Virginia.” In pursuit of this goal, the commission was to “accept any scientific and technical assistance provided by the nonpartisan, volunteer Virginia Academy of Science, Engineering, and Medicine (VASEM). VASEM convened an expert study board with representation from the Office of the Governor, planning district commissions in coastal Virginia, The Port of Virginia, the Virginia Economic Development Partnership, state universities, private industry, and …