Taxation-State and Local Commons^™

Data Advantage And Merger Review: Can Entrenchment Theory Reform Antitrust Enforcement?, Shin-Ru Cheng

Seattle University Law Review

A merger involving giant digital companies is likely to dampen competition, as it allows those companies to combine and control data access, enabling them to entrench their dominant positions in relevant markets and extend those positions into related markets. While competition law in many jurisdictions aims to prohibit mergers that may substantially lessen competition or create a monopoly, arguably the review of digital mergers is failing because antitrust agencies lack an effective approach to identify data-generated anticompetitive harms. This Article demonstrates that entrenchment theory, recently reintroduced in the 2023 U.S. Merger Guidelines, would help reform the process of antitrust enforcement. …

Table Of Contents, Seattle University Law Review

Seattle University Law Review

Table of Contents

Caution: Potholes In E-Scooter Data Collection, Dakota Rakestraw

Seattle University Law Review

Lime scooters keep ending up in major waterways in Washington state metro areas, a testament to the ubiquity of e-scooters in the metropolitan landscape. How they get there is unclear. Why they get there is even murkier. Perhaps the answer lies in the implications of modern geolocation data collection through e-scooters and gaps in current data collection regulation curbing individual liberties.

Since September 2020, electric scooters have run Seattle’s streets and have dramatically overtaken ridesharing bike trips. For example, from September 2020 to September 2021, there were about 1.4 million scooter and bike trips with September 2021 seeing 300,000 scooter …

Machinists Preemption In The New Administrative Law, Andrew J. Ziaja

Seattle University Law Review

This Article assesses Machinists preemption—a labor-specific form of implied field preemption—while freshly considering implications both for and of new developments in administrative law. The radical transformation of administrative law in the Supreme Court, particularly its newfound emphasis on clear-statement rules, provides opportunities to reconsider the Machinists rationale. Aligning with scholars who have called to question the doctrine’s “ossifying” influence on labor and employment policy, it argues that the modern-day version of Machinists preemption clashes with the Supreme Court’s newly constrained view of delegated power and its differing conceptions of the major questions doctrine.

On the other hand, Machinists preemption might …

Federal Tax Immunity And The Legal Incidence Of The Maine Sales Tax: Gamage V. Halperin, Maine Law Review

Maine Law Review

Established constitutional doctrine grants the federal government immunity from state taxation. Application of this doctrine ordinarily depends upon the "legal incidence" of the state tax. A state tax imposed directly on the United States or on one of its instrumentalities violates the immunity of the federal government. Gamage v. Halperin raised the issue of whether a sale partly subsidized by the federal government is entitled to constitutional immunity from a state sales tax, at least to the extent of the government's share of the tax. Taxation of a federally subsidized sale presents difficult problems of federal tax immunity. The threshold …

Texas' Ev Tax: Right Or Wrong?, Andrew Ponce

Posters - 2025

This poster was created for the 5th annual Research Showcase. From the poster:

Texas passed SB505 in, May 2023.

Enacted in September 2023.

SB505 → $200 annual fee (bundled with the $50.75 auto registration). Additional $400 fee for initial EV purchase. This would mean the EV owners pay for their two years of ownership upfront.

Critics say SB505 targets EV’s and disincentivizes a greener societal approach.

Does this law unfairly target EV’s and/or does it make owning an EV more expensive than gas-powered?

The Hidden Cost Of State Income Tax Repeal: A Case Study Of The West Virginia Neighborhood Investment Program Credit, Elaine Waterhouse Wilson

West Virginia Law Review

In March 2023, West Virginia significantly cut its personal income tax rates and paved a path toward the full repeal of the personal income tax. This repeal would directly impact West Virginia’s nonprofit sector and reduce charitable giving because it would render West Virginia’s Neighborhood Investment Program (“NIP”) tax credit ineffective. NIP tax credits have been the primary charitable tax incentive in the state’s income tax code and have been widely supported by nonprofits. This Article argues that if the NIP credit program incentivizes charitable giving, then state income tax repeal comes with a hidden cost—the cost of lost revenues …

Revving Up Or Stalling Out? Examining The Effectiveness Of Electric Vehicles In Combating Climate Change, Meghan E. Miller Termat

Villanova Environmental Law Journal (1991 - )

No abstract provided.

Table Of Contents, Seattle University Law Review

Seattle University Law Review

Table of Contents

Re-Imagining Tomorrow: A Technology, Innovation Law, And Ethics Symposium On Addictive Technology And Children, Margaret Chon

Seattle University Law Review

In this Foreword, Professor Margaret Chon introduces Seattle University's Technology, Innovation Law, and Ethics (TILE) program, the 2024 TILE Symposium, and Dr. Gaia Bernstein’s Unwired: Gaining Control Over Addictive Technologies.

Keynote Address: The Movement To Protect Kids From Addictive Technologies, Gaia Bernstein

Seattle University Law Review

In this keynote address, I describe my personal journey starting with a school outreach program I created in 2017 to address technology overuse among kids. While I initially advocated for self-help methods, I grew to recognize that the tech industry bore responsibility. This realization led me to write Unwired: Gaining Control over Addictive Technologies, which focused on collective action to pressure the tech industry to redesign its addictive products.

I then describe the movement to control addictive technologies and protect kids, which has gained momentum since the end of the pandemic. This movement combines grassroots parent activism with legal-political action. …

Moral Panic Or Public Health Crisis? Lessons From Drugs And Gambling For “Addictive” Design, Matthew B. Lawrence, Haomin (Kevin) Yan

Seattle University Law Review

Alcohol, automobiles, guns, lottery, loot boxes, meat, music, opioid painkillers, processed foods, prop bets, slot machines, television, tobacco, violent video games. Over the last century each of these has been subject to concerns—some might even say “moral panics”—from parents and policymakers about avoidable harms to kids and adults. In some cases we look back with the benefit of hindsight and dismiss those concerns as naïve or moralistic. In others we look back at them as justified or as having come too late to check an expanding industry before it did unfathomable harm while growing so powerful that it became all …

Responding To Digital Addiction, Ned Snow

Seattle University Law Review

In Unwired: Gaining Control over Addictive Technologies, Professor Gaia Bernstein calls our attention to the growing problem of digital addiction. Digital addiction may sound like something out of a science-fiction novel or something that does not raise the same sort of real-life practical concerns as are present in a physical health crisis or an economic decline. But as Bernstein presents the evidence, we learn that the consequences of digital addiction can be just as harmful as a serious disease or a financial depression. Cognitive development disorders, anxiety, emotional depression, social isolation, and other mental health ills can be debilitating—as much …

The Ai Doppelgänger Dilemma: Cloned Voices In The Music Industry, Elizabeth Shields

Seattle University Law Review

With the rise of generative artificial intelligence (AI), there has been an influx of “voice clones”—deep-learning algorithms that create synthetic speech to realistically mimic human voices. Celebrities and, in particular, music artists, have been subjected to the proliferation of AI voice clones on social media platforms like TikTok and streaming platforms such as Spotify. Despite music utilizing AI voice clones having amassed much popularity, this technology can be harmful and highly invasive to musicians whose livelihoods often depend on their distinct voices. While legal scholars have attempted to articulate various rights that could protect a person’s voice, individuals are largely …

Let The Sunshine In: Crafting Constitutional Transparency Regulations For Content Moderation, Caitlin Ring Carlson

Seattle University Law Review

In response to public concern about the impact of social media, legislators in some U.S. states have developed laws to regulate the process of content moderation. Many include mandatory transparency and disclosure requirements, some of which courts have already deemed an unconstitutional infringement on social media platforms’ right to free expression. This article explores the parameters for crafting constitutional social media transparency regulations using existing U.S. media policy and insights from recent legal challenges. The resulting analysis identifies content neutral transparency requirements that mandate the disclosure of purely factual, non-controversial information as those most likely to withstand judicial scrutiny. Specifically, …

This Is Not A Game: The Addictive Allure Of Digital Companions, Nizan Geslevich Packin, Karni Chagal-Feferkorn

Seattle University Law Review

Artificial Intelligence (AI) agents have become an inescapable part of modern childhood, reshaping education, leisure activities, entertainment, and social interaction. From AI-powered tutors that adapt to individual learning styles to emotionally responsive chatbots that simulate human companionship, these systems promise unprecedented personalization, cognitive stimulation, and social support. However, these benefits mask significant risks that remain unregulated and inadequately addressed.

Although adults are also susceptible to forming deep emotional bonds with AI companions—often trusting them as if they possessed genuine understanding and empathy—children are particularly vulnerable. Their misplaced trust can more severely distort social development, weaken critical thinking, and foster unhealthy …

Beyond Blinders And Boomerangs: Assessing State Business Taxation, David Gamage

Faculty Publications

Karl A. Frieden’s article, “Wearing Blinders in the Debate Over Business’s ‘Fair Share’ of State Taxes” and his subsequent article, “The Boomerang Effect of the Business ‘Fair Share’ Tax Debate,” jointly contend that progressive calls to strengthen state corporate income taxes (CITs) are misguided because businesses allegedly overpay certain other state and local taxes. This essay argues that, while Frieden does raise some valid points about the efficiency of specific tax design choices, his core argument fundamentally misconstrues the central issues: the ultimate incidence of business taxes, the pursuit of equity and efficiency, and the importance of combating harmful tax …

The Samuel & Ronnie Heyman Center On Corporate Governance Invites You To: Taxes Vs Tariffs, Heyman Center On Corporate Governance, Cardozo Business Law Society, Luís Calderón Gómez, Harlan Grant Cohen, Scott Maberry, Maria Celis, Gregory Spak

2025 Event Invitations

Market participants are preparing for the tax and trade policies pursued by the second Trump administration. Regarding taxes, proposals include making expiring Tax Cuts and Jobs Act provisions permanent, ending green energy subsidies from the Inflation Reduction Act, and exempting certain income from taxation. Proposed tariffs range from retaliatory measures-in-kind to targeting Chinese market participation to a universal 20% import tariff. On the campaign trail, the President often presented these proposals as part of a shift of financial burdens from domestic taxpayers to foreign companies. In a panel discussion with tax and trade experts, we will seek to determine the …

What's Important To Write About? A Century Of Washington Law Review Topics, Hugh Spitzer

Washington Law Review

This Article examines the topics of all lead articles in Washington Law Review during its past ninety-eight years of publication. The analysis illustrates the changing interests of legal academics, student editors, and the working lawyers and judges who have read and used the articles over a century. For its first fifty years, the journal focused on general topics of interest to practitioners, Washington law matters, business and tax law, and government regulation. Other topics, such as legal and judicial system reform, constitutional law, and comparative and international law, were present in modest numbers. In its second half century, Washington Law …

Overloading The 1% “Circuit Breaker”: The Indiana Tax Court Constitutionally Expands Curtilage, Andrew W. Swain

Texas A&M Journal of Property Law

In its 2024 decision, Sawlani v. Lake County Assessor, the Indiana Tax Court reviewed the constitutionality of the Indiana General Assembly’s statutory limit of the constitutionally prescribed 1% tax cap to only one acre of land—curtilage—surrounding the taxpayer’s principal place of residence. The Tax Court held the legislature’s limitation unconstitutional, finding no verbiage in the relevant constitutional provision that justified limiting the tax cap to just one acre. This Article critically examines the Court’s decision in Sawlani, arguing that the ruling represents a significant departure from established judicial principles and legislative intent, undermining the legislature’s authority and introducing …