State and Local Government Law Commons^™

No Contact Parole Restrictions: Unconstitutional And Counterproductive, Sharon Brett

Michigan Journal of Gender & Law

Although what Jesse Timmendequas did was abhorrent, the legislation enacted in the wake of his crime went far beyond making sure we know the pedophiles or pedophile-murderers living in our neighborhoods. Megan's name now lends itself to a host of state laws requiring the state to notify neighbors when a sex offender moves into the neighborhood. The term "sex offender" is intentionally broad, covering everyone from voyeurs and exhibitionists to rapists and child molesters. Yet, Megan's Laws treat them the same way, ignoring some crucial questions: Are all sex offenders alike? Are they all monsters? In reality, the majority of …

Virginia's War On Women: How Forcing Women To Have An Ultrasound Before Abortion Is Unconstitutional, Alison B. Linas

Richmond Journal of Law and the Public Interest

This comment will discuss how the ultrasound bill, like similar ones in other states, is unconstitutional for two reasons. First, requiring a woman to undergo a medically unnecessary procedure at her own expense is an undue burden under Planned Parenthood v. Casey. Second, the Supreme Court has held that competent people have the right to refuse medical care. By requiring a woman to have an ultrasound, the State is depriving her of her constitutional right to refuse care. Part 11 of this comment will focus on the Supreme Court's role in shaping abortion policy. Part II(A) concerns the history of …

The Mystery Of Life In The Laboratory Of Democracy: Personal Autonomy In State Law, Adam J. Macleod

Scholarly Articles

Recent controversies, such as enactment of an individual mandate to purchase health insurance and the legalization of assisted suicide in Washington and Montana, have renewed the war over personal autonomy. Debates about the value and limits of personal autonomy also play major roles in the controversies over abortion, same-sex intimacy, and same-sex marriage. On one side of the autonomy war, advocates of unfettered individual freedom assert that by her un-coerced and autonomous choice the individual person determines the value of human goods such as life, health, and marriage. On the other side, proponents of strong government restrictions on personal choice …

Qualified Immunity: Protecting All But The Plainly Incompetent (And Maybe Some Of Them, Too), Susan Bendlin

Faculty Scholarship

Public officials can be more certain than ever before that qualified immunity will shield them from suits for money damages even if their actions violate the constitutional rights of another. In the October 2011 Term the Supreme Court granted qualified immunity to government officials in four significant cases and denied it to none. Troublesome aspects of the Supreme Court’s current approach include (1) the failure to clarify important Constitutional questions; and (2) the blurring of the distinction between absolute and qualified immunity for all practical purposes by assuring state officials that they can be certain of the shield from liability. …

The Making Of Modern Libel Law: A Glimpse Behind The Scenes, Stephen Wermiel, Lee Levine

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

No abstract provided.

The Delaware Series Llc: Sophisticated And Flexible Business Planning, Ann E. Conaway, Peter I. Tsoflias

Michigan Business & Entrepreneurial Law Review

The authors conclude that the Delaware series supplies a beneficial, efficient use of a combined contractual Delaware entity form when pooled with sensible, informed planning by sophisticated business attorneys. Such benefits are particularly noticeable in investment vehicles where managers embark to minimize risk by diversifying the fund’s assets or receive funding with specific covenants attached that limit the acceptable uses of the funds. The series is not, however, for general practitioners who have the occasional client wishing for the latest benefit Delaware has to offer its investors. To provide context, Parts II-IV of this article provide a brief overview of …

No Cause Of Action: Video Surveillance In New York City, Olivia J. Greer

Michigan Telecommunications & Technology Law Review

In 2010, New York City Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly announced a new network of video surveillance in the City. The new network would be able to prevent future terrorist attacks by identifying suspicious behavior before catastrophic events could take place. Kelly told reporters, "If we're looking for a person in a red jacket, we can call up all the red jackets filmed in the last 30 days," and "[w]e're beginning to use software that can identify suspicious objects or behaviors." Gothamist later made a witticism of Kelly's statement, remarking, "Note to terrorists: red jackets are not a good look for …

The Use And Abuse Of Special-Purpose Entities In Public Finance, Steven L. Schwarcz

Faculty Scholarship

States increasingly are raising financing indirectly through special-purpose entities (SPEs), variously referred to as authorities, special authorities, or public authorities. Notwithstanding their long history and increasingly widespread use, relatively little is known or has been written about these entities. This article examines state SPEs and their functions, comparing them to SPEs used in corporate finance. States, even more than corporations, use these entities to reduce financial transparency and avoid public scrutiny, seriously threatening the integrity of public finance. The article analyzes how regulation could be designed in order to control that threat while maintaining the legitimate financing benefits provided by …

The Need To Prevent Employers From Accessing Private Social Network Profiles, Brett Novick

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform Caveat

In March 2012, social network privacy became a conversation topic after news reports of the story of Justin Bassett, a job applicant who withdrew his application in the middle of an interview when the interviewer asked him for the username and password of his private Facebook account. Although the issue has received much attention from the public and media, the Department of Justice (DOJ) has stated that it has no interest in prosecuting employers for asking for social networking account information. Fortunately, legislation that would make it illegal for employers to ask for the username and passwords for social networking …

New Law, Old Cases, Fair Outcomes: Why The Illinois Supreme Court Must Overrule People V Flowers, 43 Loy. U. Chi. L.J. 727 (2012), Timothy P. O'Neill

UIC Law Open Access Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Chevron Two-Step In Georgia's Administrative Law, David E. Shipley

Georgia Law Review

Like federal and state administrative agencies
throughout the nation, Georgia's many boards,
commissions and authorities make policy when they apply
their governing statutes in promulgating regulations and
in ruling on specific matters like granting or denying an
application for a permit or determining the residency of a
candidate for public office. Sometimes governing statutes
are clear, but sometimes there is ambiguity. When there is
ambiguity in the governing statute, an agency must
interpret that legislation when it promulgates regulations
or decides a particular contested matter. This Article asks
and answers the fundamental question of what deference,
if any, must a …

Location, Location, Location: A "Private" Place And Other Ailments Of Georgia Surveillance Law Curable Through Alignment With The Federal System, Mary B. Martinez

Georgia Law Review

Georgia visual surveillance law prohibits any person
from observing, photographing, or recording any other
person in a private place and out of public view without
the consent of all persons observed. The rigidity of this
all-party consent requirement and the ambiguity of the
private/public place distinction leave investigators and
prosecutors in Georgia guessing as to the admissibility of
visually recorded evidence much of the time. On the other
hand, federal visual surveillance law encompasses a one-
party consent exception and is couched in terms of a
reasonable expectation of privacy under the Fourth

Amendment. Moreover, several federal courts have stated …

Oklahoma And Beyond: Understanding The Wave Of State Anti-Transnational Law Initiatives, Martha F. Davis, Johanna Kalb

Indiana Law Journal

In the past year, initiatives to block judicial consideration of foreign or international law have been introduced in over half of the states. The proposals vary, ranging from the “softer” versions, which codify existing common law principles governing judicial decision making to the more extreme versions, which aggressively bar all consideration of foreign and international law, virtually eliminating judicial discretion regarding the relevance of such law in a particular case. This Essay contends that in all their variations, these anti-transnational law measures pose serious and fundamental challenges to the American judicial system. They undermine our federalist system by ignoring federal …

State Constitutional Prohibitions On Special Laws , Justin R. Long

Cleveland State Law Review

Since the nineteenth century, most states have had constitutional clauses prohibiting “special laws.” These clauses were ratified to protect the people of each state from domination by narrow economic elites, who would use their economic power to win grants of privilege from the state legislatures. To fight the corrupt favors garnered by private interests in this way, state constitutional drafters wrote clauses requiring their legislatures to pass only “general laws” that would apply equally to all members of the regulated class. For a brief period, these clauses were enforced in the courts—but more to protect economic elites than the democratic …

The Ohio Supreme Court's Perverse Stance On Development Impact Fees And What To Do About It, Alan C. Weinstein

Cleveland State Law Review

Ohio is among the twenty-two states that have no enabling legislation for development impact fees. But in a 2000 ruling, Homebuilders Association of Dayton and the Miami Valley v. City of Beavercreek, a divided Ohio Supreme Court ruled that municipalities could lawfully enact impact fees under their police and “home rule” powers, provided that the fees could pass constitutional muster under a “dual rational nexus test.” On May 31, 2012, however, the court ruled in Drees Company v. Hamilton Township, that a development impact fee enacted by an Ohio township with “limited home rule” powers was an unconstitutional tax. The …

Georgia's New Evidence Code - An Overview, Paul S. Milich

Faculty Publications By Year

No abstract provided.

Order In The Court!: Ethical Conduct In A Criminal Trial Under The Texas Disciplinary Rules., Edward L. Wilkinson

St. Mary's Journal on Legal Malpractice & Ethics

In a criminal trial, the most common ethical duties implicated are the duty of candor to the tribunal, maintaining the impartiality and integrity of the tribunal, and the fairness of the proceeding as a whole. Under the Texas Disciplinary Rules of Professional Conduct, these duties are broken down in Rules 3.03, 3.04, 3.05, and 3.06. Attorneys are charged with the responsibility of fully understanding each of these duties in order to interact accordingly with the tribunal. This Article will examine, in detail, each of these rules individually. Additionally, the Article will analyze how each of the rules overlap and coincide …

Evading Emergency: Strengthening Emergency Response Through Integrated Pluralistic Governance, Lance A. Gable

Law Faculty Research Publications

This Article examines the significant governance challenges that arise during responses to public health emergencies and proposes a new multifaceted strategy-integrated pluralistic governance-to address these challenges. Emergency preparedness is an inherently complex problem that entails the integration ofscientific and medical expertise, good logistical planning, and clear laws and policies. The governance function has particular import for public health emergencies because pandemics, hurricanes, and other disasters can have profoundly divisive social and political consequences. Moreover, recent disasters like Hurricane Katrina and the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill revealed an emergency preparedness and response infrastructure in the United States that was broken: …

Child Welfare Cases Involving Mental Illness: Reflections On The Role And Responsibilities Of The Lawyer-Guardian Ad Litem, Frank E. Vandervort

Articles

Child welfare cases involving mental illness suffered either by a child or his parent can be among the most difficult and perplexing that a child’s lawyerguardian ad litem (L-GAL) will handle. They may present daunting problems of accessing necessary and appropriate services as well as questions about whether and when such mental health problems can be resolved or how best to manage them. They also require the L-GAL to carefully consider crucially important questions—rarely with all the information one would like to have and too often with information that comes late in the case, is fragmented or glaringly incomplete. This …

Drinking Water And Exclusion: A Case Study From California’S Central Valley, Camille Pannu

Faculty Scholarship

The American West is notorious for its water wars, and California’s complex water allocation and governance challenges serve as a bellwether for contemporary water governance across western states. Policy makers and environmental advocates typically represent California’s water woes as a regulatory problem — a failure to balance the needs of growing urban populations with ecological preservation and agricultural irrigation. These debates, however, often elide the issue of water deprivation, and they do not adequately address the concerns of an important constituency: low-income, rural communities.

This Comment argues that a focus on regulation misses a fundamental feature of water inequality: the …