State and Local Government Law Commons^™

Accountability In The Administrative Law Judiciary: The Right And The Wrong Kind, Edwin L. Felter Jr

Journal of the National Association of Administrative Law Judiciary

This article discusses and evaluates several forms of accountability in the administrative law judiciary, and compares them with prevalent forms of accountability in the judicial branch. Felter argues that codes of judicial conduct, as well as formal enforcement mechanisms, work together to maintain a balance of independence and accountability in the administrative law judiciary. The article analyzes the "right kinds" of accountability as distinguished from the "wrong kind" of accountability, i.e., political accountability. The article maintains that decisional independence is the cornerstone of any properly functioning adjudication system. The price of decisional independence is accountability to concepts and mechanisms other …

Out Of The District And Into The Towns: Local Efforts To Protect Lgbtq Rights, Jeff Graham, Beth Littrell, Anthony Kreis, Sonja R. West

Working in the Public Interest Conferences

Focuses on issues faced by the LGBTQ community, highlighting the importance of local laws and ordinances. With many levels of government involved in making critical decisions about legislation affecting the LGBTQ community, it can be easy to orget the very real effects of local laws.

Ordinances Targeting The Homeless: Constitutional Or Cost-Effective?, Ellen M. Marks

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Issue 3: Table Of Contents

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

The States Of Immigration, Rick Su

Journal Articles

Immigration is a national issue and a federal responsibility — so why are states so actively involved? Their legal authority over immigration is questionable. Their institutional capacity to regulate it is limited. Even the legal actions that states take sometimes seem pointless from a regulatory perspective. Why do they enact legislation that essentially copies existing federal law? Why do they pursue regulations that are likely to be enjoined or struck down by courts? Why do they give so little priority to the immigration laws that do survive?

This Article sheds light on this seemingly irrational behavior. It argues that state …

Preemption And Choice-Of-Law Coordination, Erin O'Hara O'Connor, Larry E. Ribstein

Michigan Law Review

The doctrine treating federal preemption of state law has been plagued by uncertainty and confusion. Part of the problem is that courts purport to interpret congressional intent when often Congress has never considered the particular preemption question at issue. This Article suggests that courts deciding preemption cases should take seriously a commonly articulated rationale for the federalization of law: the need to coordinate applicable legal standards in order to facilitate a national market or to otherwise provide clear guidance to parties regarding the laws that apply to their conduct. In situations where federal law can serve a coordinating function but …

Seeing Past Emergencies: The Institutionalization Of State-Level Debtor Protections, Emily Zackin

Schmooze 'tickets'

No abstract provided.

Ohio Sb5 And The Attempt To “Yeshiva” Public University Faculty, Mary Ellen Benedict, Louis M. Benedict

Journal of Collective Bargaining in the Academy

In 2011, the introduction of Ohio Senate Bill 5 (SB5) attempted to drastically curtail public sector collective bargaining in Ohio. The bill included a proposed amendment designed by the Inter-University Council of Ohio, an organization of the top administrators of the state universities in Ohio, under the guise of applying the United States Supreme Court’s decision in NLRB v. Yeshiva to faculty at Ohio’s public universities. The avowed intent of the proposed language was to classify all faculty as supervisors or managers and thereby make them ineligible to bargain collectively. After mounting opposition and grass roots efforts, SB5 was ultimately …

The Road To Abolition: How Widespread Legislative Repeal Of The Death Penalty In The States Could Catalyze A Nationwide Ban On Capital Punishment, Nicholas M. Parker

Legislation and Policy Brief

On December 17, 2007, former New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine signed into law a bill that abolished his state’s death penalty, saying he felt a “moral duty to end ‘state-endorsed killing.’” With Corzine’s signature, New Jersey became the fourteenth state to eradicate the death penalty, and the first to do so legislatively since Iowa and West Virginia legislators did away with capital punishment in 1965. The vote by New Jersey lawmakers followed close, but ultimately unsuccessful, votes on similar bills in Colorado, Maryland, Montana, Nebraska, and New Mexico earlier in 2007. And while it took more than thirty-one years for …

Circumventing The Electoral College: Why The National Popular Vote Interstate Compact Survives Constitutional Scrutiny Under The Compact Clause, Michael Brody

Legislation and Policy Brief

It’s Election Night 2016. Brian Williams stands by at NBC, waiting to give the first returns of the night. “Kentucky to Christie,” Williams triumphantly announces to kick off the evening’s festivities. Kentucky turns flush red on NBC’s virtual election map. Williams continues: “Maryland to Clinton.” Now comes the hard part for Williams. Clinton won Maryland by an incredible two-to-one margin. NBC viewers intently watch the map, expecting to see the Old Line State turn blue. Instead, Maryland sits idly in its static grey color. This election has something new.

Confused NBC viewers keep watching, waiting for Williams to provide an …

Playing God: The Legality Of Plans Denying Scarce Resources To People With Disabilities In Public Health Emergencies, Wendy F. Hensel, Leslie E. Wolf

Florida Law Review

Public health emergencies can arise in a number of different ways. They can follow a natural disaster, such as Hurricane Katrina, the 2004 tsunami, and the recent earthquakes in Haiti and Chile. They may be man-made, such as the September 11 attacks and the anthrax scare. They may also be infectious. While no pandemic flu has yet reached the severity of the 1918 flu, there have been several scares, including avian flu and most recently H1N1.

Few questions are more ethically or legally loaded than determining who will receive scarce medical resources in the event of a widespread public health …

The Government's Role In The "Purification" Of Religious Organizations, Robert L. Toms, Lisa A. Runquist

Pepperdine Law Review

No abstract provided.

Joint Custody As A Parenting Alternative, Billy G. Mills, Steven P. Belzer

Pepperdine Law Review

Joint custody of children has been a recently accepted alternative to the traditional child custody/visitation orders that usually follow dissolution proceedings. In 1980, California became one of the first states to provide, by statute, a presumption in favor of an award of joint custody to the parents. The authors present the legislative history of this joint custody statute and synthesize the various views that have been expressed on the subject of joint custody. Also presented is a discussion of the legislative intent behind the statute and whether the current law is the most effective means of protecting the best interests …

Legislative Update: Revisions In The California Drunk Driving Law, A. Randall Farnsworth

Pepperdine Law Review

No abstract provided.

State Preemption Of Cable Television Regulation — Whatever Happened To The Sanctity Of Contract?, William M. Marticorena, Lynda E. Marticorena

Pepperdine Law Review

California Government Code section 53066.1 as recently amended gives cable television operators the right to obtain rate increases even in the face of the city or county franchisor opposition. Since most cable franchise agreements allow the franchisor to control rates for the cable service, there is a conflict between the statute and the franchise contracts. This article examines the issue of whether the statute violates the constitutional provisions against the impairment of contracts and whether the franchisor or a subscriber of the service has the necessary standing to assert the constitutional argument.

Under The Influence Of California's New Drunk Driving Law: Is The Drunk Driver's Presumption Of Innocence On The Rocks? , Douglas Caiafa, A. Randall Farnsworth

Pepperdine Law Review

On January 1, 1982, the new California drunk driving law went into effect. This law makes it a crime to drive a motor vehicle where one's blood alcohol level is .10 or more. The law also marks a legislative attempt to curtail the practice of plea bargaining in drunk driving cases and significantly increases the penalties imposed upon those convicted of drunk driving. This Comment will discuss the provisions of the new drunk driving law and examine its constitutionality.

William E. Nelson, Fighting For The City: A History Of The New York City Corporation Counsel, Douglas D. Scherer

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Appeal No. 0843: Summitcrest, Inc. V. Division Of Oil & Gas Resources Management, Ohio Oil & Gas Commission

Ohio Oil & Gas Commission Decisions

Permit Issuance; Chespeake Exploration, LLC

Equal Employment Opportunity Commission V. Wyoming: Appomattox Courthouse Revisited , Richard M. Stephens

Pepperdine Law Review

A highly divided Court again addressed the relatively new doctrine in constitutional law: state exemption from federal regulations due to the concept of federalism. Although the Court applied the tests from National League of Cities v. Usury and its progeny, the Court reached a different result which, without expressly overruling that controversial case, severely limited National League of Cities to its facts. The hope of modern states' rights advocates proved to be short lived.

Dr. Boulderlove; Or, How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love Local Antitrust Liability , Kevin Charles Boyle

Pepperdine Law Review

Community Communications v. Boulder arose in the context of local cable registration, but the decision raised the specter of antitrust liability for nearly any local regulatory activity. This comment reviews state legislation enacted in response to Boulder against a framework of the post-Boulder "Parker Doctrine" and its probable requirements.