State and Local Government Law Commons^™

Appeal No. 0857: James M. Huebner, V. Division Of Oil & Gas Resources Management, Ohio Oil & Gas Commission

Ohio Oil & Gas Commission Decisions

Chief's Order 2013-182; Mandatory Pooling (Sisko Unit #1 Well; Everflow Eastern Partners L.P. Inc.)

Carbon Outlasts The Law: States Walk The Constitutional Line, Steven Ferrey

Suffolk University Law School Faculty Works

State carbon policies to control climate warming and our energy future are under legal attack. A successful barrage of litigation now invokes the dormant Commerce Clause and the Federal Power Act as interpreted through the Filed Rate Doctrine, as well as the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution, to challenge the legal validity and sustainability of these state carbon-based laws. California and other states have survived these legal challenges sparingly, and then often only by prevailing with procedural defenses that dismiss the case before a decision on the legal merits of their state energy regulation. This Article examines and analyzes …

Massachusetts Municipal Performance Management Program (Mpmp), Michael Ward

Office of Community Partnerships Posters

The mission of the MPMP is to make the ongoing, systematic use of data, measures, and goals a permanent feature of Massachusetts municipal government, and to accelerate the sharing of ideas among Massachusetts municipalities.

Through a team of highly-skilled Performance Management Analysts, each working directly with a portfolio of cities and towns, the MPMP provides on-the-ground support to Massachusetts municipalities on all aspects of data and analysis.

Some Reflections On The Past, Present And State-Dependent Future Of Lotteries In American Gaming Law, Stephen J. Leacock

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Participatory Democracy And The Entrepreneurial Government: Addressing Process Efficiencies In The Creation Of Land Use Development Agreements, Ramsin G. Canon

Chicago-Kent Law Review

Can the development agreement become a tool for community-based planning? Development agreements and related land use planning instruments have steadily increased in popularity over the last few decades. Standard zoning regimes have proven to be too rigid and inflexible to accommodate the evolving nature of large-scale, and particularly mixed-use, developments. The bilateral nature of development agreements also allows cities and counties to effectively compete for development dollars by crafting incentives. However, this type of ad-hoc planning can run afoul of the reserved powers doctrine and its progeny, and can face vehement political and social opposition. This type of opposition results …

Rethinking Traditional Conceptions Of Child Pornography: An Analysis Of How The U.S. Supreme Court Decision In Stevens Impacts The Illinois Supreme Court's Decision In People V. Hollins, James D. Konstantopoulos

Chicago-Kent Law Review

In 2010, the U.S. Supreme Court, in deciding United States v. Stevens, held that rational basis review was no longer sufficient to criminalize depictions of acts if the acts depicted are themselves legal. In 2009, Marshall Hollins entered into a consensual sexual relationship with his seventeen-year old girlfriend. As is becoming common in our technological era, where every phone can record video and photographs and send those files to other devices, Mr. Hollins and his girlfriend used the technology available to them to document one of their excursions. Following his conviction for child pornography, Mr. Hollins challenged the Constitutionality of …

Sentence Creep: Increasing Penalties In Michigan And The Need For Sentencing Reform, Anne Yantus

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

The governor and several legislators have requested review of Michigan’s sentencing practices with an eye toward sentence reform. Michigan leads the country in the average length of prison stay, and by internal comparisons the average minimum sentence has nearly doubled in the last decade. This Article explores cumulative increases to criminal penalties over the last several decades as reflected in amendments to the sentencing guidelines, increased maximum sentences, harsh mandatory minimum terms, increased authority for consecutive sentencing, wide sentencing discretion for habitual and repeat drug offenders, and tough parole practices and policies. The reality for legislators is that it is …

A Cost-Benefit Analysis Of Sugary Drink Regulation In New York City, Shi-Ling Hsu

Scholarly Publications

No abstract provided.

Truth Stories: Credibility Determinations At The Illinois Torture Inquiry And Relief Commission, 45 Loy. U. Chi. L.J. 1085 (2014), Kim D. Chanbonpin

UIC Law Open Access Faculty Scholarship

This is the first scholarly Article to investigate the inner workings of the Illinois Torture Inquiry and Relief Commission (“TIRC”). The TIRC was established by statute in 2009 to provide legal redress for victims of police torture. Prisoners who claim that their convictions were based on confessions coerced by police torture can utilize the procedures available at the TIRC to obtain judicial review of their cases. For those who have exhausted all appeals and post-conviction remedies, the TIRC represents the tantalizing promise of justice long denied. To be eligible for relief, however, the claimant must first meet the TIRC’s strict …

The Double Helix Of Supremacy And Commerce Clause Constitutional Restraints Encircling The New Energy Frontier, Steven Ferrey

Suffolk University Law School Faculty Works

This article unwinds the legal double helix to examine the constitutional jurisdictional assault on American energy infrastructure and law. We examine pivotal elements of the Commerce Clause, the Supremacy Clause, and procedural aspects of ongoing challenges on energy and climate change law. We untwist and dissect energy law and regulation, focusing on key cases in the East, the Midwest, and California. In integrating the recent federal court interpretations, the Article I and VI constitutional double helix remains the critical legal restriction arresting the future of U.S. energy policy and infrastructure. Each region's law creates a distinct wedge into energy infrastructure, …

Panorama - London Olympics Site Redevelopment, James Hagy, Dmitriy Ishimbayev

Rooftops Project

The 2012 London Olympics are over, yet the work is just beginning. Solicitor Linda Fletcher of the London office of the law firm Pinsent Masons talked with Dmitriy Ishimbeyev and Professor James Hagy about the 18-year project to redevelop and repurpose the Olympics venue for the longer term as a major, sustainable, mixed-use community in east London.

Profile - The Noguchi Museum, James Hagy

Rooftops Project

Few not-for-profit cultural or historic sites can be traced through a single thread, from heritage in an unlikely industrial setting in Queens; its conversion to workspace for the creation, staging and deployment of art throughout the world; its rededication by the living artist as a museum space while still a working gallery; and ultimately its preservation as a permanent cultural destination. At the Noguchi Museum, members and visitors can appreciate artist Isamu Noguchi’s full body of work in many media, enjoy the tranquility of galleries and gardens in a profoundly close-by urban setting, and understand the context in which that …

Profile - Not-For-Profit As Urban Neighbor: Groundswell, James Hagy, Scott Haggmark

Rooftops Project

Few not-for-profit organizations can claim to have made a dramatic, permanent, outdoor visual impact on more than 450 city blocks through the five boroughs of New York City. Groundswell has done just that. As part of a continuing series looking at not-for-profits as urban neighbors, The Rooftop Project’s Scott Haggmark and Professor James Hagy visit with Amy Sananman and Sharon Polli at Groundswell’s Brooklyn headquarters.

Profile - Not-For-Profit As Urban Neighbor: The Bowery Residents’ Committee, James Hagy, Tamara Salzman

Rooftops Project

From the very beginning of its new headquarters project, The Bowery Residents’ Committee set out not only to serve its mission but to be the very best neighbor. Seriously, how many of us freeze our garbage before putting it out for collection? Muzzy Rosenblatt, Christine Lalor-Chisholm, and John Johnson of The Bowery Residents’ Committee, and Charles Thanhauser and Sarah Corcoran of its architectural firm, TEK Architects, talk with the Rooftops Project’s Tamara Salzman an Professor James Hagy about their approach to this unique project in the heart of Manhattan.

Utilizing Michigan Brownfield Policies To Incentivize Community-Based Urban Agriculture In Detroit, Nicholas Leonard

Michigan Journal of Environmental & Administrative Law

As residents have increasingly moved from urban centers to suburbs, several cities have not been able to create effective solutions to the problems that such population loss has presented. Abandoned properties have proven to be the primary problem, and nowhere is that problem more pronounced than in Detroit. Urban agriculture has been widely embraced on a grassroots level as a potential solution to the pervasive problems that abandoned properties present and that cities have been unable to solve. While urban agriculture networks have largely arisen outside of municipal control, several cities are beginning to recognize urban agriculture as a potential …

Can We Trust Trustees? Proposals For Reducing Wrongful Foreclosures, John Campbell

Catholic University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Invading The Realm Of The Dead: Exploring The (Im)Propriety Of Punitive Damage Awards Against Estates, Emily Himes Iversen

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Punitive damages are traditionally understood, at least in part, as damages designed to punish. It should therefore come as no surprise that, in the majority of states that have decided the issue, courts have chosen not to allow punitive damage awards against the estates of deceased tortfeasors. After all, the tortfeasor can no longer be punished (at least by tort awards). Nonetheless, punitive damages can also serve other purposes, such as deterrence. This Note argues that Michigan, a state which has not yet taken a stance, should adopt the minority position that allows punitive damages to be awarded against estates. …

Taking States (And Metaphysics) Seriously, Sanford Levinson

Michigan Law Review

Sotirios A. Barber has written many incisive and important books, in addition to coediting an especially interesting casebook on constitutional law and interpretation. He is also a political theorist. An important part of his overall approach to constitutional theory is his philosophical commitment to “moral realism.” He believes in the metaphysical reality of moral and political truths, the most important of which, for any constitutional theorist, involve the meanings of justice and the common good. He not only believes in the ontological reality of such truths — that is, that these truths are more than mere human conventions or social …

The Carbon Suite In The Hotel California: "We Are All Just Prisoners Here, Of Our Own Device", Steven Ferrey

Suffolk University Law School Faculty Works

As in the Eagle’s classic album and song “Hotel California,” California became a legal “prisoner of its own device,” amid a suite of legal challenges for exceeding the U.S. Constitution’s limits on state power. What distinguished California is not the large suite of recent legal challenges, but the fact that they are initiated by all stakeholders -- environmental, low-income, and industry groups. California was declared to have acted illegally on some basis, or it capitulated through settlement, in the majority of these challenges.

This article charts more than a half dozen recent and often successful challenges to California regulation based …

Agenda: Fracking, Water Quality And Public Health: Examining Current Laws And Regulations, Network For Public Health Law, American Society Of Law, Medicine & Ethics, Public Health Law Research Program

Fracking, Water Quality and Public Health: Examining Current Laws and Regulations (March 20)

Improved technology developments in directional drilling and hydraulic fracturing, more commonly known as "fracking," have resulted in an oil and gas production boom nationwide. Fracking involves pumping pressurized water, sand, and chemicals down wells to crack bedrock, freeing petroleum and natural gas. Wastewater discharges, hydraulic fracturing fluid releases, and other accidental spills pose potential water quality risks, sparking concern for public health.

This webinar will examine the laws and regulations governing water quality issues related to fracking, recent state court decisions affecting regulations, and implications for public health.