State and Local Government Law Commons^™

Ohio Hazardous Material Transportation Act: An Overview, David J. Leland, Steven D. Lesser

Akron Law Review

On June 24, 1988, in Miamisburg, Ohio, Governor Richard F. Celeste signed into law H.B. 428, (known as Ohio's Hazardous Material Transportation Act, hereinafter referred to as the Act) a comprehensive legislative initiative regulating the transportation of hazardous materials. The signing of the Act was the culmination of a two year effort to solve a problem that Ohioians, and the nation as a whole, became aware of in July, 1986 in Miamisburg, Ohio. The new law provides for: a registration system with a graduated fee structure, pre-notification and route assessments for "ultra-hazardous" materials, and a civil forfeiture system with penalties …

Taking It With Them The Dynamics Of Changing A State Income Tax Residence, Hamlin C. King

Akron Law Review

Since nonresidence is taking on "hot issue" status in Ohio, it is the purpose of this article to closely focus on two issues regarding the taxation of such nonresident income. The first issue is what constitutes a state income tax residence change. The second is to identify the income items originating from Ohio sources that may pass out to nonresidents free of the Ohio income tax. As we go along, we will take notice of how these two issues impact the taxpayers' federal income tax, as well as their Ohio and federal estate taxes.

Deregulation Of Telephone Services In Ohio, Frank P. Darr

Akron Law Review

Part I reviews the market changes that exist and which, in part, drive the regulatory changes and have emerged because of them. Parts II and III establish the basic regulatory schemes that existed prior and subsequent to divestiture and deregulation at the federal level. Part IV sets out the Ohio regulatory structure which previously controlled the actions of the Ohio commission. Parts V and VI then address the response of the Ohio commission and supreme court to the changes at the federal level and note some potential institutional barriers to deregulation. Part VII introduces the legislative response to deregulation, House …

The Constitutionality Of State-Passed Congressional Term Limits, Martin E. Latz

Akron Law Review

In Part I, this article explores the underlying policy debate surrounding this issue. Our Founding Fathers debated variations of these arguments in the Constitutional Convention. Academics and political columnists are currently tackling this issue in the popular press. Part II examines the debate over whether to allocate the power to limit congressional terms to each individual state instead of to the federal government (through a constitutional amendment or federal law). Part III investigates potential constitutional challenges based on the qualification and election clauses in the Constitution. Finally, Part IV addresses possible first amendment free speech and fourteenth amendment equal protection …

Attorneys' Perspectives On Choice Of Forum In Diversity Cases, Victor E. Flango Ph.D.

Akron Law Review

This report will first outline the arguments relating to proposals to change diversity of citizenship jurisdiction from the perspective of how additional empirical evidence can advance the arguments, and then provide data on lawyers' perceptions of factors that are important in the decision to file in either state or federal court.

Jenkins V. James B. Day & Co.: A New Defense Of State Tort Law Against Federal Preemption - Is It Legitimate?, Richard J. Scislowski

Akron Law Review

This Note will recount the general law of federal preemption and its recent developments. Next, it will describe the Jenkins case, the facts leading to the litigation, the prior procedure in the lower courts, and the Ohio Supreme Court's reasoning in the opinion. Lastly, this Note will critically evaluate the court's new argument supporting the preservation of state tort claims in light of familiar principles of statutory construction.

Can Soldiers Be Peace Officers? The Waco Disaster And The Militarization Of American Law Enforcement, David B. Kopel, Paul M. Blackman

Akron Law Review

One of the most significant trends of federal law enforcement in the last fifteen years has been its militarization. The logical, perhaps inevitable, consequence of that militarization was seen in the disaster at Waco, Texas, resulting in the deaths of four federal agents, and seventy-six other men, women, and children. In this article, we use the Waco tragedy as a starting point to examine the militarization of federal law enforcement, and similar trends at the state and local level.

Part Two of this article sets forth the details and rationale of the Posse Comitatus Act--the 1878 law forbidding use of …

Utilizing School Voucher Programs To Remedy School Financing Problems, Dominick Cirelli

Akron Law Review

This comment will focus on the existing problems in school financing, and the judicial treatment of these problems. Additionally, this comment will address whether school voucher programs are a viable option in addressing school financing inequities,"' with a particular focus on the existing voucher programs in Cleveland and Milwaukee." Finally, this comment will evaluate whether a voucher program would survive equal protection scrutiny.

Equal Protection Challenges To The Use Of Racial Classifications To Promote Integrated Public Elementary And Secondary Student Enrollments, Kevin Brown

Akron Law Review

This essay is entitled Equal Protection Challenges to the Use of Racial Classifications to Promote Integrated Public Elementary and Secondary Student Enrollments. I delivered this essay as a speech in Akron, Ohio, at a conference titled “Education and the Constitution: Shaping Each Other and the Next Century” in March of 2000. The topic of this essay is particularly relevant for a conference with this title because it addresses one of the most significant issues in race and public education since the Supreme Court started America on the path of desegregation. Discussion of this topic in Akron, Ohio, is also particularly …

Humphrey V. Lane: The Ohio Constitution's David Slays The Goliath Of Employment Division, Department Of Human Resources Of Oregon V. Smith, Jeffrey D. Williams

Akron Law Review

This Note explores the renewed relevance and power of the Ohio Constitution’s free exercise language in combating the weakened protection afforded an individual’s free exercise of religion under current federal analysis. The Goliath of the Smith analysis is slain by the David of the Humphrey analysis, which is rooted in the Ohio Constitution.

Culpability Evaluations In The State Supreme Courts From 1977 To 1999: A "Model" Assessment, Dannye Holley

Akron Law Review

A key premise of this article is that a fair assessment of the performance of state supreme court judges with regard to culpability evaluations must begin by differentiating among the states based upon the relative quality of statutory guidance available to each court on this crucial substantive criminal law issue. In light of the above discussion defining culpability evaluation and legislative action with regard thereto, this article categorizes states based on relative improvement in their statutory culpability evaluation scheme: first are those states with a set of hierarchical culpability concepts, which are specifically defined in relation to types of objective …

Is Justice For Sale In Ohio? An Examination Of Ohio Judicial Elections And Suggestions For Reform Focusing On The 2000 Race For The Ohio Supreme Court, Kara Baker

Akron Law Review

“Is justice for sale in Ohio?” asked a television advertisement in October 2000. Another advertisement informed voters that “today in Ohio, instructors teach and students learn, in spite of Justice Alice Resnick.” These advertisements are examples of the derogatory judicial campaigning that is becoming prevalent in the United States.

Part II of this comment will focus on the 2000 Ohio Supreme Court campaign between Alice Robie Resnick and Terrence O’Donnell as an example of current problems in judicial campaigning. The effect of this campaign and of similar other campaigns on the judicial system and public perceptions of justice will be …

Pay No Attention To That Man Behind The Curtain: Concealment, Revelation, And The Question Of Food Safety, Denis W. Stearns

Seattle University Law Review

Despite knowledge that commerce in food is a profit-driven enterprise, the public has consistently put great faith in the wholesomeness and safety of the food being purchased. To some extent, such faith is necessary, even if not always justified. In making the decision to put a bite of food in one’s own mouth, or the mouth of a friend or family member, a form of faith or trust must accompany the act of eating. For who would knowingly eat food suspected to be unsafe? But that is precisely what millions of people do every year, with a great many of …

Citizens Not Subjects: U.S. Foreign Relations Law And The Decentralization Of Foreign Policy, Nick Robinson

Akron Law Review

After surveying in Part I these judicially created limitations on localities’ actions that affect foreign relations, Part II then explores how international tribunals increasingly circumscribe state and local actions. Although none of these tribunals’ decisions are directly binding on localities, these bodies can penalize the United States as a whole for a locality’s action that brings the U.S. into noncompliance with an international treaty or agreement. In turn, U.S. courts may find that these tribunals’ decisions, or simply a tribunal’s attention to a complaint, constitute enough interference with foreign relations to strike down the locality’s suspect policy. Indeed, the mere …

What Is A Pond? Michigan Court Of Appeals Interprets “Waters Of The State” Under Michigan Law, Nick Schroeck, Justin Serk

Law Faculty Research Publications

No abstract provided.

Profiles - Ucan’S New Campus Construction Project, Chicago, Illinois, James Hagy, Sahar Nikanjam

Rooftops Project

Funding and constructing a new $41 million facility may be a once-in-a-generation, if ever, event, for many social service not-for-profits. Choosing a site that invests directly in the neighborhood and the people served can have ripple effects far beyond the central purpose of the delivery of services the buildings are designed to support. The Rooftops Project’s Sahar Nikanjam and Professor James Hagy walked the site of UCAN’s new campus construction under way in the Lawndale neighborhood of Chicago.

From Market Failure To 100% Access: Toward A Civil Justice Continuum, John M. Greacen, Amy Dunn Johnson, Vincent Morris

University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law Review

No abstract provided.

I Did My Time: The Transformation Of Indiana’S Expungement Law, Joseph C. Dugan

Indiana Law Journal

This Note evaluates the transformation of Indiana’s expungement law. Part I addresses the socioeconomic impacts of a criminal record. Part II presents normative arguments both for and against expungement, concluding that the balance tips in favor of forgiveness. Parts III–IV discuss Indiana’s original expungement provisions, the 2013 statute, and the 2014 amendments. Part V explores the reaction to the new law. Finally, Part VI offers recommendations to improve the statute so that its second-chance promise is equitable, accessible, and robust.

Proportional Response: The Need For More—And More Standardized—Veterans’ Courts, Claudia Arno

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Over the past two decades, judges and legislators in a number of states have recognized significant shortcomings in the ways traditional systems of criminal corrections address cases involving criminal offenders who are veterans of the U.S. armed services. This recognition has come at a time when policy-makers have similarly recognized that, for certain subsets of criminal offenders, “diversionary” programs may achieve better policy results than will traditional criminal punishment. In accordance with these dual recognitions, some states have implemented systems of veterans’ courts, in which certain offenders, who are also U.S. veterans, are diverted into programs that provide monitoring, training, …

State Refusal Triggers Constitutional Crisis: Past Is Prologue On Energy And Infrastructure, Steven Ferrey

Suffolk University Law School Faculty Works

There is a new Constitutional “federalism” issue, pitting multiple states versus the federal government in a legal fight over control of competitive power supply as the U.S. moves to more renewable energy. In the new electric economy, while federal agencies mandate competition, several states have refused. FERC Order 1000 prohibits states' favoring monopolies via state “Rights-of-First-Refusal” to insist that all power movement be given to incumbent monopolies rather than competitively allocated. This invokes both the Supremacy Clause under Article 8 of the Constitution, as well as the Article I Commerce Clause.

State sustainable energy policy has endured 10 recent significant …