Note: Plausible Defenses: Historical, Plain Meaning, and Public Policy Arguments for Applying Iqbal and Twombly to Affirmative Defenses
By Matthew J.M. Pelikan. Full text here.
Continue ReadingNote: What “Being a Watchdog” Really Means: Removing the Attorney General from the Supervision of Charitable Trusts
By Kelly McNabb. Full text here.
Continue ReadingNote: Ugly on the Inside: An Argument for a Narrow Interpretation of Employer Defenses to Appearance Discrimination
By Mila Gumin. Full text here .
Continue ReadingNote: Dissent Without Disloyalty: Expanding the Free Speech Rights of Military Members Under the “General Articles” of the UCMJ
By Jason Steck. Full text here. Under Articles 133 and 134 of the UCMJ, military members enjoy far narrower free speech protections than civilian government employees. Even as courts have placed limits on the ability of the government to limit civilian employee speech under Pickering v. Board of Education, they have refused to limit the military’s…
Continue ReadingNote: Daubert Rises: The (Re)applicability of the Daubert Factors to the Scope of Forensics Testimony
By Geoffrey M. Pipoly. Full text here. “Forensics” is a broad term used to describe many techniques utilized by law enforcement for the purpose of gathering evidence and solving crimes. Fingerprinting, firearm and toolmark analysis, and shoeprint analysis are all examples forensic techniques. Although many forensics practitioners describe their fields as “science” or as “rooted in…
Continue ReadingNote: What Have I Opted Myself Into? Resolving the Uncertain Status of Opt-In Plaintiffs Prior to Conditional Certification in Fair Labor Standards Act Litigation
By Carl Engstrom. Full text here. Nearly all wage and hour cases are brought by multiple plaintiffs. This only makes sense—generally if one worker is not getting paid overtime, the same can be said of his or her co-workers. The effective functioning of the collective action device is therefore crucial to enforcing workers’ rights to a…
Continue ReadingNote: Class Certification as a Prerequisite for CAFA Jurisdiction
By Kevin Lampone. Full text here. The Class Action Fairness Act of 2005 (CAFA) expands federal diversity jurisdiction to include many class actions asserting only state law claims; however, the statute fails to spell out if its jurisdiction continues after a court denies class certification, thereby determining that the putative class is not, in fact, a…
Continue ReadingNote: Making Pesticides Public: A Disclosure-Based Approach to Regulating Pesticide Use
By Brian Jacobson. Full text here. Many states currently classify pesticide application records as private under state data practices law, thereby shielding such information from the public. This means that families living in rural areas where agricultural chemicals are in frequent use cannot access information about where and when pesticides are applied. Though government officials generally…
Continue ReadingNote: Armchair Jury Consultants: The Legal Implications and Benefits of Online Research of Prospective Jurors in the Facebook Era
By Adam J. Hoskins. Full text here. Jury consulting is a longstanding practice in American courtrooms. The advent of the Internet and social networking, however, has moved the practice away from high-paid professionals, and has allowed practicing attorneys to become amateur jury consultants. It is now common practice for attorneys, either before or during jury selection,…
Continue ReadingNote: The Voices of Victims: Debating the Appropriate Role of Fraud Victim Allocution Under the Crime Victims' Rights Act
By Julie Kaster. Full text here. The economic collapse of 2008 witnessed the greatest explosion of financial fraud cases in recent memory. The Crime Victims’ Rights Acts (CVRA), a federal statute granting victims rights in court, gives victims of financial swindlers a day in court to recount their financial hardships—a process known as victim allocution. The…
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