Note: Challenging the Plausibility Standard Under the Rules Enabling Act
By Edwin W. Stockmeyer. Full text here. One consequence of the Supreme Court’s landmark decisions in Twombly and Iqbal is the reassessment of pleading standards occurring in state appellate courts. Most of these courts have rejected the new plausibility standard in favor of rules designed to allow more claims to proceed to discovery. Thus, although pleading…
Continue ReadingNote: If It’s in the Game, Is It in the Game?: Examining League-Wide Licensing Agreements After American Needle
By Talon Powers. Full text here. After the Supreme Court’s decision in American Needle, Inc. v. National Football League in 2010, the National Football League’s (NFL) ability to license league intellectual property as a collective whole has been called into question. If the caselaw that emerges from American Needle completely precludes the League from being treated…
Continue ReadingNote: Ensuring Equal Access: Rethinking Enforcement of Medicaid’s Equal Access Provision
By Anne M. Dwyer. Full text here. Challenged by explosive growth in Medicaid enrollment and devastating budget shortfalls, Medicaid provider payments have become a primary target of many state budget-cutting measures. This has left many of the sixty million Americans who rely on Medicaid without access to needed care. Traditionally, Medicaid beneficiaries and providers have relied…
Continue ReadingNote: New Solutions to the Age-Old Problem of Private-Sector Bribery
By Sarah Clark. Full text here. In its wake, commercial bribery leaves increased costs of business, decreased governmental standards and honesty, and a culture of corruption. To combat, and hopefully correct, the evils of corporate bribery, governments have enacted laws to prosecute those willing to pay bribes to garner unfair competitive advantages. Since 1977, the Foreign…
Continue ReadingIt’s the Reply, Not the Comment: Observations About the Bierschbach and Bibas Proposal
By Ronald F. Wright. Full text here. In this response piece, Ronald F. Wright considers Notice-and-Comment Sentencing by Richard A. Bierschbach and Stephanos Bibas, 97 Minn. L. Rev. 1 (2012).
Continue ReadingRage Against the Machine: A Reply to Professors Bierschbach and Bibas
By Erik Luna. Full text here. In this response piece, Erik Luna considers Notice-and-Comment Sentencing by Richard A. Bierschbach and Stephanos Bibas, 97 Minn. L. Rev. 1 (2012).
Continue ReadingProtecting Property Through Politics: State Legislative Checks and Judicial Takings
By Stephanie Stern. Full text here.
Continue ReadingMind, Body, and the Criminal Law
By Francis X. Shen. Full text here. Because we hold individuals criminally liable for infliction of “bodily” injury, but impose no criminal sanctions for infliction of purely “mental” injury, the criminal law rests in large part on a distinction between mind and body. Yet the criminal law is virtually silent on what, exactly, constitutes “bodily injury.”…
Continue ReadingHealth Law as Disability Rights Law
By Jessica L. Roberts. Full text here. When asked to name the most substantial civil rights victory for people with disabilities in recent years, many would choose the Americans with Disabilities Act Amendments Act of 2008. However, this Article contends that the Affordable Care Act (ACA) also represents a significant—albeit unconventional—advance for disability rights. Historically, health…
Continue ReadingReligion’s Footnote Four: Church Autonomy as Arbitration
By Michael A. Helfand. Full text here. While the Supreme Court’s decision in Hosanna-Tabor v. EEOC has been hailed as an unequivocal victory for religious liberty, the Court’s holding in footnote four––that the ministerial exception is an affirmative defense and not a jurisdictional bar––undermines decades of conventional thinking about the relationship between church and state. For…
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