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Headnote

Defining Common and Individual Issues in Class Actions: What a Reasonable Jury Could Do

By Aaron D. Van Oort and John L. Rockenbach | October 30, 2024

Defining Common and Individual Issues in Class Actions: What a Reasonable Jury Could Do By Aaron D. Van Oort and John L. Rockenbach Full essay here. The distinction between common and individual issues is the single most important concept in the modern class action, and it is the one that most bedevils courts in practice.…

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Headnote

The Supreme Court’s Opinion in SEC v. Jarkesy Has the Potential To Be Extremely Destructive

By Richard J. Pierce, Jr. | October 30, 2024

The Supreme Court’s Opinion in SEC v. Jarkesy Has the Potential To Be Extremely Destructive By Richard J. Pierce, Jr. Full essay here. In this essay, Professor Pierce describes the legal framework within which the Supreme Court decided whether an agency could adjudicate a class of disputes prior to its 2024 opinion in SEC. v…

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Article

Substance over Symbolism: Do We Need Benefit Corporation Laws?

By Author Name | October 31, 2024

BY CHENG-CHI (KIRIN) CHANG. Full essay here. Benefit corporation laws have gained traction as mechanisms to integrate societal and environmental objectives into business operations, yet they are arguably superfluous within the existing legal framework. The prevailing belief that corporations must prioritize shareholder wealth above all is not a legal imperative, as evidenced by the flexibility…

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Article

Diversity Messaging After Affirmative Action

By Nancy Leong | February 13, 2025

By NANCY LEONG. Full Text. Appendix here. Many colleges and universities communicate publicly that they value racial diversity—a practice this Article will call diversity messaging. Yet growing hostility to race-consciousness by courts, legislators, and other public figures has made diversity messaging increasingly fraught. This Article examines empirically whether law schools changed their diversity messaging following…

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Article

Investor Justice

By Nicole Iannarone | February 13, 2025

By NICOLE IANNARONE. Full Text. There is a systemic flaw in the investor protection landscape. Unrepresented investors face off against well-resourced repeat- player firms that almost always have lawyers. While consumers face similar challenges in civil courts, in forced securities arbitration, the decisionmaker may not have a law degree, is prohibited from conducting any outside…

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Article

Unpunishment Purposes

By Meredith Esser | February 13, 2025

By MEREDITH ESSER. Full Text. Sentencing scholarship often begins by exploring the traditional purposes of punishment: deterrence, retribution, incapacitation, and rehabilitation. However, little scholarship exists addressing how these four punishment purposes apply in the post- sentencing or second-look contexts. Further, abstract theories of sentencing can often seem sterile and disconnected from the realities of how…

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Article

Debt, Work, and the State

By Kate Elengold | February 13, 2025

By KATE ELENGOLD. Full Text. In every state and the District of Columbia, an individual who owes a debt to the state can lose their license to work. Without the ability to make a living, it is much harder to pay off debt. Although using occupational license restrictions as a debt collection tool appears nonsensical,…

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Article

Law for the Rich

By Alex Raskolnikov | February 13, 2025

By ALEX RASKOLNIKOV. Full Text. With top incomes and wealth reaching historic highs, scholars and politicians have proposed new taxes and novel legal rules aimed at reversing the emergence of the new Gilded Age. Yet while new taxes target the rich directly by imposing greater burdens only on those with incomes or wealth above multi-million-dollar…

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Note

150 Years of Detox: How Inadequate Dietary Supplement Regulation Undermines Consumer Safety in the Weight Loss Industry

By Chloe Chambers | February 13, 2025

By CHLOE CHAMBERS. Full Text. Prior to the passage of the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906, the American food and drug market was a proverbial “wild west,” fraught with charlatans, snake oil salesmen, and manufacturers cutting costs at the expense of consumers. The Pure Food and Drug Act, along with the Food, Drug,…

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Articles, Essays, & Tributes

Diversity Messaging After Affirmative Action

February 13, 2025

By NANCY LEONG. Full Text. Appendix here. Many colleges and universities communicate publicly that they value racial diversity—a practice this Article will call diversity messaging. Yet growing hostility to race-consciousness by courts, legislators, and other public figures has made diversity messaging increasingly fraught. This Article examines empirically whether law schools changed their diversity messaging following…

Investor Justice

February 13, 2025

By NICOLE IANNARONE. Full Text. There is a systemic flaw in the investor protection landscape. Unrepresented investors face off against well-resourced repeat- player firms that almost always have lawyers. While consumers face similar challenges in civil courts, in forced securities arbitration, the decisionmaker may not have a law degree, is prohibited from conducting any outside…

Unpunishment Purposes

February 13, 2025

By MEREDITH ESSER. Full Text. Sentencing scholarship often begins by exploring the traditional purposes of punishment: deterrence, retribution, incapacitation, and rehabilitation. However, little scholarship exists addressing how these four punishment purposes apply in the post- sentencing or second-look contexts. Further, abstract theories of sentencing can often seem sterile and disconnected from the realities of how…

Debt, Work, and the State

February 13, 2025

By KATE ELENGOLD. Full Text. In every state and the District of Columbia, an individual who owes a debt to the state can lose their license to work. Without the ability to make a living, it is much harder to pay off debt. Although using occupational license restrictions as a debt collection tool appears nonsensical,…

Law for the Rich

February 13, 2025

By ALEX RASKOLNIKOV. Full Text. With top incomes and wealth reaching historic highs, scholars and politicians have proposed new taxes and novel legal rules aimed at reversing the emergence of the new Gilded Age. Yet while new taxes target the rich directly by imposing greater burdens only on those with incomes or wealth above multi-million-dollar…

Notes

Definite Convictions: United States v. Alt and the Seventh Circuit’s Prohibition on Defining “Beyond a Reasonable Doubt”

November 30, 2024

By SAMUEL BUISMAN. Full Text. The Seventh Circuit prohibits judges and attorneys from defining “beyond a reasonable doubt” to jurors. While United States v. Alt crystalized this prohibition in early 2023, the circuit has effectively banned definition of the phrase for much longer. Yet, a growing consensus of psychological research into the standard reveals that…

As Punishment for Arrests: Involuntary Servitude Under the Housekeeping Exception to the Thirteenth Amendment

November 30, 2024

By ELISSA BOWLING. Full Text. The Thirteenth Amendment reads: “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.” Yet, in contemporary American jails and prisons, pretrial detainees have been forced to perform…

May Contain Peanuts, Eggs, and a “Natural” Solution: How to Challenge Food Manufacturers’ Harmful Use of Precautionary Allergen Labels

November 30, 2024

By JJ MARK. Full Text. Food allergies are one of the most pressing health issues of our time. Around thirty-three million Americans currently have food allergies, thirteen million of which are severe or life-threatening. These numbers continue to increase at alarming rates, with an estimated one in thirteen children being diagnosed with food allergies every…

Headnotes

Defining Common and Individual Issues in Class Actions: What a Reasonable Jury Could Do

October 30, 2024

Defining Common and Individual Issues in Class Actions: What a Reasonable Jury Could Do By Aaron D. Van Oort and John L. Rockenbach Full essay here. The distinction between common and individual issues is the single most important concept in the modern class action, and…

The Supreme Court’s Opinion in SEC v. Jarkesy Has the Potential To Be Extremely Destructive

October 30, 2024

The Supreme Court’s Opinion in SEC v. Jarkesy Has the Potential To Be Extremely Destructive By Richard J. Pierce, Jr. Full essay here. In this essay, Professor Pierce describes the legal framework within which the Supreme Court decided whether an agency could adjudicate a class…

Substance over Symbolism: Do We Need Benefit Corporation Laws?

October 31, 2024

BY CHENG-CHI (KIRIN) CHANG. Full essay here. Benefit corporation laws have gained traction as mechanisms to integrate societal and environmental objectives into business operations, yet they are arguably superfluous within the existing legal framework. The prevailing belief that corporations must prioritize shareholder wealth above all…

A Great American Gun Myth: Race and the Naming of the “Saturday Night Special”

May 29, 2024

By Jennifer L. Behrens and Joseph Blocher. Full Text. At a time when Second Amendment doctrine has taken a strongly historical turn and gun rights advocates have increasingly argued that gun regulation itself is historically racist, it is especially important that historical claims about race…

Refining the Dangerousness Standard in Felon Disarmament

June 10, 2024

By Jamie G. McWilliam. Full Text. To some, 18 U.S.C. 922(g) is a necessary safeguard that keeps guns out of the hands of dangerous persons. To others, it strips classes of non-violent people of their natural and constitutional rights. This statute makes it a crime…

“Proven” Safety Regulations: Massachusetts 1805 Proving Law As Historical Analogue for Modern Gun Safety Laws

June 10, 2024

By Billy Clark. Full Text. Concerned by the public health threats posed by certain firearms, the Massachusetts legislature enacts a law to set safety standards for firearms in the Commonwealth. Firearm dealers across the State, including some of the leading manufacturers of the day, not…

Curbing Gun Violence Under PLCAA and Bruen: State Attorney General–Driven Solutions to the Surging Epidemic

June 10, 2024

By David Lamb. Full Text. At the same time that the deadly toll of gun violence continues to grow in the U.S., now taking nearly 50,000 lives per year, federal lawmakers and courts have increasingly constrained government authorities’ tools for fighting the epidemic. Pursuant to…

De Novo Blog

An Illusory Sanctuary

February 14, 2018

AN ILLUSORY SANCTUARY: HOW IMMIGRATION LAW AND POLICY FAIL TO PROTECT IMMIGRANTS FROM DEPORTATION By: Kayla Hoel, Volume 102 Staff Member At two in the morning on October 24, 2017, an ambulance carrying a ten-year-old child to an emergency surgery in Corpus Christi, Texas, was…

The Final Court to the Split

February 14, 2018

THE FINAL COURT TO THE SPLIT: COULD IN RE ARCHDIOCESE GIVE THE EIGHTH CIRCUIT A CHANCE TO WEIGH IN ON NONCONSENSUAL THIRD-PARTY RELEASES IN CHAPTER 11 BANKRUPTCY PROCEEDINGS? By: Emily Muirhead McAdam, Volume 102 Staff Member The United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of…

(In)definite Detention

February 12, 2018

(IN)DEFINITE DETENTION: JENNINGS AND THE BACKWARDS DETENTION SYSTEM FOR NON-CITIZENS SEEKING RELIEF By: Nathaniel Gier, Volume 102 Staff Member In the current fiscal year, there are 667,839 immigration cases pending,[1] and the average wait time for cases pending in immigration court was 691 days in…

Jesner v. Arab Bank

February 12, 2018

JESNER v. ARAB BANK: CORPORATE LIABILITY AND THE “TOUCH AND CONCERN” TEST By: Anthony Ufkin, Volume 102 Staff Member In Jesner v. Arab Bank,[1] the Supreme Court will likely answer the question of whether corporations may be held liable for alleged human rights violations under…

Cruz-Guzman and the Rise of Charter Schools

February 11, 2018

Cruz-Guzman and the Rise of Charter Schools: How Will the Minnesota Supreme Court Respond to the Resegregation of Schools in the Twin Cities? By: Charles W. Niemann, Volume 102 Staff Member A recent analysis by the Associated Press showed that charter schools are playing a…

Is Simple Better?

February 5, 2018

IS SIMPLE BETTER?: THE ANSWER TO PARTISAN GERRYMANDERING MAY LIE WITH BENISEK V. LAMONE RATHER THAN GILL V. WHITFORD By: Torie Abbott Watkins, Volume 102 Staff Member In today’s political discourse it is an all but impossible challenge to get Democrats and Republicans to agree…

Let’s Talk About Sex[ual Harassment]

January 24, 2018

LET’S TALK ABOUT SEX[UAL HARASSMENT]: THE INADEQUACY OF LEGAL PROTECTIONS FOR WORKPLACE SEXUAL HARASSMENT By: Sarah DeWitt, Volume 102 Staff Member Sexual harassment is not a new phenomenon.[1] Sexual harassment affects not only young woman in subservient positions,[2] but also in professional careers.[3] Sexual harassment…

After Marriage Equality

January 22, 2018

AFTER MARRIAGE EQUALITY: LGBT NONDISCRIMINATION LAWS IN MASTERPIECE CAKESHOP By: Joshua Preston, Volume 102 Staff Member Obergefell v. Hodges (2015) was a watershed moment in extending the full benefits of society to members of the LGBT community.[1] Though the freedom to marry was won, Obergefell…

Armstrong v. Exceptional Child Center

December 22, 2017

ARMSTRONG V. EXCEPTIONAL CHILD CENTER: WHO SHOULD ENFORCE MEDICAID EQUAL ACCESS? By: Jessica Wheeler, Volume 102 Staff Member Deamonte Driver, a twelve-year-old Medicaid beneficiary, died from an untreated tooth abscess when the infection spread to his brain.[1] His death could have been prevented had his…

What the Tax Bill Means for Students

December 7, 2017

WHAT THE “TAX CUTS AND JOBS ACT” MEANS FOR STUDENTS: DO WE WANT INCENTIVES OR SIMPLIFICATION? By: Melanie Pulles Benson, Volume 102 Staff Member The new House tax reform bill, the “Tax Cuts and Jobs Act” (“Act”), significantly departs from the current tax code.[1] The…