Note, Protecting Communities from Unwarranted Environmental Risks: A NEPA Solution for ICCTA Preemption
By Shata L. Stucky. Full text here. In 1995, Congress passed the Interstate Commerce Commission Termination Act (ICCTA) in an effort to relieve the railroad industry of burdensome regulation. The ICCTA preempts local land-use regulations that communities formerly used to protect valuable resources such as drinking water supplies. Under some circumstances, the National Environmental Policy Act…
Continue ReadingEssay, Revisiting Dreyfus: A More Complete Account of a Trial by Mathematics
By D.H. Kaye. Full text here. Legal literature and case law depict the infamous conviction of Alfred Dreyfus for treason and espionage in 1899 as a prime example of the power of even grossly fallacious mathematical demonstrations to overwhelm a legal tribunal. This Essay shows that Dreyfus is not a case of mathematics run amok, unchecked…
Continue ReadingSex Torts
By Deana A. Pollard. Full text here. America has a serious sexual problem. The sexual practices of a small percentage of Americans have created an unprecedented disease rate that is costing the American public about $20 billion per year. Lawsuits seeking damages for sexual disease transmission are on the rise, yet current sex tort law is…
Continue ReadingParental Support of Adult Children with Disabilities
By Sande L. Buhai. Full text here. It is generally agreed that parents should (morally) and must (legally) be required to support their children until they reach the age of majority. This article examines the circumstances in which parents should or must support their children thereafter. Do parents have an indefinite obligation to provide financial support…
Continue ReadingA Simple Statutory Solution to Minority Oppression in the Closely Held Business
By John H. Matheson & R. Kevin Maler. Full text here. Disputes involving closely held businesses come in primarily two varieties. When, as is often the case, the business fails, creditors regularly seek to pierce the corporate veil in an attempt to reach the assets of the business owners. When the business succeeds, on the other…
Continue ReadingCrossing the Color Line: Racial Migration and the One-Drop Rule, 1600-1860
By Daniel J. Sharfstein. Full text here. Scholars describe the one-drop rule—the idea that any African ancestry makes a person black—as the American regime of race. While accounts of when the rule emerged vary widely, ranging from the 1660s to the 1920s, most legal scholars have assumed that once established, the rule created a bright line…
Continue ReadingNote: Combating Joint Ventures in Suppression: Taking Inventory of the Legal Arsenal
By Daniel J. Iden. Full text here. Companies may decide to leave patented technologies unused for numerous reasons, a great many of them legal. The patent laws confirm a company’s right to let a patent languish, unpracticed by anyone. But companies with patents on alternative technologies may agree to enter into a joint venture: promoting and…
Continue ReadingNote: Inequitable-Conduct Doctrine Reform: Is the Death Penalty for Patents Still Appropriate?
By Nicole M. Murphy. Full text here. Over the past three years, the Federal Circuit has contributed to the rise in inequitable-conduct defenses by failing to apply the doctrine consistently. First, the court broadened the scope of the doctrine’s materiality element to include information unrelated to patentability and failed to offer guidance on how to apply…
Continue ReadingNote: Cramming Down the Housing Crisis: Amending 11 U.S.C. § 1322(b) to Protect Homeowners and Create a Sustainable Bankruptcy System
By Nina Liao. Full text here. The U.S. bankruptcy system has served as a safety net for millions of Americans for the last 110 years, but it failed to rescue homeowners in the ongoing recession. Amid fiery allegations and accusations, economists and bankruptcy judges debate the controversial modification of loans, a process called cram-down. Cram-down is…
Continue ReadingNote: Defogging the Cloud: Applying Fourth Amendment Principles to Evolving Privacy Expectations in Cloud Computing
By David A. Couillard. Full text here. It took nearly a century after the invention of the telephone for the Supreme Court to recognize that the Fourth Amendment could be applied to the content of private telephone conversations. Today, the Internet is in a similar state of limbo, with courts reluctant to grant Fourth Amendment protection…
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