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Volume 110 – Issue 3

The Police Power Revisited: Phantom Incorporation and the Roots of the Takings "Muddle"

By Bradley C. Karkkainen. Full text here. Lingle v. Chevron U.S.A., Inc. exposed a deep flaw in regulatory takings doctrine. Lingle rejected the Agins holding that if a regulation does not “substantially advance a legitimate state interest,” it is a compensable taking. That formulation, Lingle said, was based on substantive due process precedents and is better…

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Government Regulation of Irrationality: Moral and Cognitive Hazards

By Jonathan Klick & Gregory Mitchell. Full text here. Behavioral law and economics scholars who advance paternalistic policy proposals typically employ static models of decision-making behavior, despite the dynamic effects of paternalistic policies. This Article considers how paternalistic policies fare under a dynamic account of decision making that incorporates learning and motivation effects. This approach brings…

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The Need for Mead: Rejecting Tax Exceptionalism in Judicial Deference

By Kristin E. Hickman. Full text here. This Article takes the controversial position that Treasury regulations are entitled to judicial deference under the Chevron doctrine, as clarified by the Supreme Court in the more recent Mead case, whether those regulations promulgated pursuant to specific authority delegated in a substantive provision of the Internal Revenue Code…

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Note: Meet Me at the (West Coast) Hotel: The Lochner Era and the Demise of Roe v. Wade

By Jason A. Adkins. Full text here. Long-standing constitutional precedents can be overturned when the original holdings have become “unworkable.” This principle, first articulated in Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey and repeated by now-Chief Justice Roberts in his confirmation hearings, provides a creative means for overturning the most controversial precedent of all: Roe…

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Substantive Due Process as a Source of Constitutional Protection for Nonpolitical Speech

By Gregory P. Magarian. Full text here. Present First Amendment doctrine presumptively protects anything within the descriptive category “expression” from government regulation, subject to balancing against countervailing government interests. As government actions during the present War on Terrorism have made all too clear, that doctrine allows intolerable suppression of political debate and dissent—the expressive activity most…

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Comment: Giving Lawrence Its Due: How the Eleventh Circuit Underestimated the Due Process Implications of Lawrence v. Texas in Lofton v. Secretary of the Department of Children & Family Services

By Megan Backer. Full text here. John Doe was born an orphan.  His life changed immediately when Steven Lofton adopted him.  But John has no assurance that the State will allow him to remain with his family.  Although John calls his foster father “Dad,” that will never be Steven Lofton’s legal title.  John’s foster father is…

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The Marshall Court and the Originalist's Dilemma

By Peter J. Smith. Full text here. In response to Anti-Federalist complaints that the Constitution was dangerous because it was ambiguous, James Madison and Alexander Hamilton argued that judges would construe the Constitution in the same manner that they construed statutes, and in the process would fix the meaning of ambiguous constitutional provisions.  In other words,…

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The "Duty" To Be a Rational Shareholder

By David A. Hoffman. Full text here. How and when do courts determine that corporate disclosures are actionable under the federal securities laws?  The applicable standard is materiality: would a (mythical) reasonable investor have considered a given disclosure important.  Through empirical and statistical testing of approximately 500 cases analyzing the materiality standard, Professor Hoffman concludes…

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