State and Local Government Law Commons^™

What Really Is “Objectionable Conduct” In New York Co-Ops? Navigating A Board Deferential Standard Of Review Post-Pullman, Jenna Tammaro

Brooklyn Law Review

Home is where the heart is, and in the United States, home ownership is an integral part of the American dream. A place to call home offers emotional safety as well as financial security. Property ownership can even mark the start of generational wealth. Since a home is something that can mean so much to so many, the loss of one’s home is an unimaginable fear. The risk becomes even greater when the odds are stacked against homeowners, particularly for cooperative corporation (co-op) shareholders in New York. Co-op proprietary leases exploit the risk of loss for these owners. Most proprietary …

Texas Means Business: Constitutional Challenges To New Business And Appellate Courts, Daniel H. Ramirez

St. Mary's Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Illusion Of Choice: Why Texas’ Open And Obvious Defect Doctrine Fails Injured Workers, Madalyn R. Parr

St. Mary's Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Texas County Appraisal System, Chad J. Pomeroy

St. Mary's Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Solving The Public Defense Crisis In Kansas, Malia N. Brink, Pamela R. Metzger

Deason Center Reports

Kansas has a constitutional obligation to provide counsel to any arrested person who cannot afford to hire a private attorney. But attorney shortages in Kansas threaten this core constitutional right. According to the American Bar Association, there are an average of four attorneys per 1,000 people nationwide. However, only six of Kansas’s 105 counties have two or more attorneys per 1,000 people. In 44 counties, there is just one attorney or fewer per 1,000 residents. The situation is particularly worrisome in rural Kansas. In 2023, nearly half of Kansas’s population lived in rural counties, but 80% of its lawyers lived …

The End(S) Of Bankruptcy Exceptionalism: Purdue Pharma And The Problem Of Social Debt, Jonathan C. Lipson, Pamela Foohey

Cardozo Law Review

The Supreme Court’s recent 5-4 decision in the controversial chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization of opioid-maker Purdue Pharma ends the use of nonconsensual third-party “releases,” which discharge (eliminate) liabilities of nondebtors who may share liability with a corporate debtor. Although the majority opinion is correct that the Bankruptcy Code does not permit this, it failed to recognize the problematic exceptionalism of the lower courts which approved those releases or the “social” qualities of Purdue Pharma’s mass tort liability.

Bankruptcy exceptionalism has been a contested concept since it emerged over fifteen years ago and reflects a willingness to bend the rule of …

Biomanipulation, Laura K. Donohue

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Scientific and technological advances in the latter part of the twentieth century transformed the field of biometrics. Carleton Simon, for instance, first postulated using retinal vasculature for biometric identification in 1935, but it was not until forty years later that an Eyedentify patent brought the idea to fruition. In 1937, John Henry Wigmore anticipated using oscilloscopes to identify individuals by speech patterns. Decades later, digitization and speech processors made voiceprint identification possible. In the 1970s, biological discoveries similarly led to the development of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) sequencing. And while Alphonse Bertillon in the late nineteenth century postulated iris distinctions, it …

P*Law 2025: Access To Housing Justice: Eviction Diversion Programs, Center For Public Service Law, Public Interest Law Student Association (Pilsa), Nathaniel Newman, Julia Leibman

2024–2025 Flyers

A panel discussion on eviction diversion programs and access to housing justice, held on January 28 in Room 1008. The event featured speakers from the National Center for State Courts, Center for Justice Innovation, Urban Justice Center, and Mobilization for Justice. Moderated by Nathenial Newman and Julia Leibman, both Cardozo Law Class of 2027.

The State Action Doctrine In The Era Of Social Media: When Do Government Officials Cross The Line Between Private Speech And Government Speech?, Tristan Diegel

Akron Law Review

Over the last decade, American jurisprudence has been playing catch-up as the technological era has taken over the world. Social media has become one of the most prominent and influential tools when put into the hands of everyday people. For government officials, however, while social media serves as an invaluable tool to reach large scale audiences, it also carries certain legal risks. The State Action Doctrine serves as just one legal doctrine struggling to reconcile its own precedent with a changing world. While the Supreme Court may have resolved the doctrine’s applicability to social media for the moment, the many …

The Forgotten Fundamental Right To Free Movement, Noah Smith-Drelich

Northwestern University Law Review

There is a powerful fundamental right hiding in plain sight: the fundamental right to free movement. This right goes beyond the consistently acknowledged—though infrequently applied—fundamental right to interstate travel. The true scope of the Constitution’s protection of movement through substantive due process safeguards local, interstate, and international travel. Though overlooked today, the fundamental right to free movement has deep roots in history and tradition, and in the decisions of numerous state and federal courts, including the Supreme Court.

This Article is the first to examine freedom of movement using the history and tradition test for unenumerated fundamental rights. This Article …

Taking Back Control: Using The Takings Clause To Hold Animal Agriculture Responsible For Its Waste Problem, Rowan Aragon

Northwestern University Law Review

Between the mid-twentieth century and modern day, the animal-agriculture model has shifted from small farms to industrial operations. During that evolution, the negative externalities of animal-farming practices have intensified. One of those externalities—animal waste—has become particularly problematic. Because of the sheer number of animals raised in the United States for slaughter and dairy production, the magnitude of animal waste produced is overwhelming. To deal with this problem, animal farmers often liquefy the animal waste and then spray it onto open fields. In that spraying process, liquefied animal waste carries through the air and reaches nearby homes, coating those properties with …

Peeping Town: Drone Surveillance And The Exclusionary Rule In Long Lake Township V. Maxon, Stuart Massa

Northwestern University Law Review

For years, legal commentators have pondered the effect of the Fourth Amendment on drones, but purely as an academic exercise. No court had ever considered drone surveillance under the Fourth Amendment––until now. In Long Lake Township v. Maxon, a northern Michigan township flew a drone over a local resident’s home to gather photographic evidence of an alleged zoning violation. Relying on that evidence, the township sued to enforce its zoning ordinance. The resident moved to suppress the evidence, arguing that the drone’s warrantless surveillance violated the Fourth Amendment. The case made it all the way up to the Michigan …

State Legislatures And Trans* Genocide (?) In The United States, Shannon Fyfe

Scholarly Articles

Certain state legislatures in the United States have targeted trans* people and other members of the queer community through an onslaught of legislative efforts since early 2020. Many of these efforts have targeted trans* youth specifically, by banning or limiting their access to gender-affirming care. As I have shown, gender-affirming care is necessary health care for trans* youth and is crucial for their mental and physical health and well-being. Some have argued that these legislative efforts targeting trans* youth are genocidal, that they are intentionally aimed at destroying the trans* community. I agree that the harm experienced by the trans* …

Puppy Dog Eyes: Begging For Treats And The Regulation Of Dog Breeding, Abigail Barford

Kentucky Journal of Equine, Agriculture, & Natural Resources Law

In this note, Abigail Barford explores the lack of regulation over dog breeding in Kentucky, particularly the harms caused by puppy mills and backyard breeders. Barford explains that loopholes in the Animal Welfare Act and Kentucky’s absence of state-level protections contribute to dog overpopulation, inhumane conditions, environmental damage, and financial burdens on taxpayers. Barford argues for Kentucky to adopt strong breeding regulations modeled on Pennsylvania’s laws and its own equine breeding system. She proposes statewide legislation to license breeders, enforce humane standards of care, and regulate small-scale breeding to curb overpopulation and protect animal welfare.

2025-2026 Factbook, Tennessee. General Assembly

Factbook

This Fact Book provides an overview of the state's budget for the fiscal year.

Through A Glass Darkly: How Securities Disclosures Give A Distorted View Of The Economy, Gerald F. Davis

Seattle University Law Review

Our understanding of the American economy often relies on stylized facts derived from mandatory disclosures by listed corporations. Data vendors like Standard & Poor’s vacuum up 10Ks and proxy statements into databases, and scholars distill these into tentative maps. This may have been adequate for a postwar economy centered on asset-heavy manufacturers, but it is increasingly out of step with an information-based economy. Companies listed on the stock market are fewer in number and less representative than they were, light in tangible assets and people, and heavy on IP. Basic facts such as what industry they are in are increasingly …

Martinique’S Octroi De Mer: Ancient Dock Dues Threaten The Integrity Of The European Union’S (Eu) Internal Market And Contribute To The Cost Of Living Crisis., Johanna Leffler

American University International Law Review

In 1670, France implemented a tax on all imports known as the octroi de mer in Martinique, a Caribbean island in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies. The octroi de mer outlived France’s colonial rule over Martinique, and today, it is imposed on both imported and locally produced products. This Comment argues that the octroi de mer system undermines the integrity and coherence of the European Union’s (EU) legal order, violating Article 349 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU or Treaty) because its very nature is contrary to the fundamental principles of the EU …

Taming The Kangaroos, Matt Garcia

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Low-level state courts frequently disregard federal law. And though the judgments of these courts have profound legal consequence for millions of Americans, they receive little oversight. Rather than bastions of justice, low-level state courts are too often sites of lawlessness, earning them the shameful label “kangaroo courts.” This article proposes a path forward by which advocates can curb that lawlessness and enforce critically important federal protections.

As part of the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, a broad legislative effort to protect the national economy and public health infrastructure, Congress altered mandatory procedures in eviction suits. Evictions …

A City’S Day In Court: Using Class Action Principles To Protect Cities’ Due Process Rights, David Stage

Marquette Law Review

In a recent trend in public law, municipalities are increasingly bringing “affirmative litigation,” suing large corporations to protect municipal residents and increase revenue. As affirmative litigation becomes popular among municipalities, more and more municipalities have found that their respective states (e.g., the State of Illinois for the City of Chicago) have already sued the would-be defendant for the same action. Because of the state’s prior action, the defendant can raise the common law defense of res judicata against the municipality to preclude the municipality’s lawsuit. If a defendant wants to raise the defense and preclude a subsequent lawsuit, then the …

Substituting One Judge For Another: The Lax Standard Of Review In Involuntary Commitment, Caitlin Riordan

Marquette Law Review

Wisconsin involuntarily commits individuals at a rate nearly five times the national average, stripping them of core constitutional rights—including liberty, the ability to refuse treatment, and firearm possession. Yet, when these life-altering orders are appealed, they are almost always reviewed by a single appellate judge. This Comment argues that such a limited review undermines the constitutional weight of involuntary commitments, which closely mirror criminal convictions in the scope of rights deprived. Tracing the historical development of Wisconsin’s civil commitment statutes, this Comment demonstrates how commitments implicate both substantive and procedural due process concerns. It then compares Wisconsin’s one-judge review framework …