Articles, Essays, & Tributes
Major-Questions Lenity
By JOEL S. JOHNSON. Full Text. Both the historic rule of lenity and the new major questions doctrine rest on a fundamental commitment to the separation of powers for important policy questions. In light of that shared justification, the logic of the major questions doctrine in the administrative-law context has much to offer lenity in…
The Economic Structure of Trade Secret Law
By TUN-JEN CHIANG. Full Text. The standard economic account of trade secret law focuses on providing incentives for creating new inventions. The incentive-to-invent theory, however, provides little explanation for why the key doctrinal features of trade secret law are structured the way that they are. For example, providing ex ante incentives to invent does not…
Insurers as Contract Influencers
By DAVID A. HOFFMAN & RICK SWEDLOFF. Full Text. Contract boilerplate degrading consumers’ litigation options is omnipresent, but a little mysterious. And that’s not just because no one reads it. We know that terms mandating arbitration, exculpating liability, requiring individualized litigation, and shifting risk have proliferated in the last generation. But consumer contracts’ production and…
Notes
Exempt but Not Immune: Why the Section 501(c)(3) Tax Exemption Amounts to Federal Financial Assistance and Demands that Private Schools Comply with Title IX
By ELLEN BART. Full Text. Title IX of the Education Amendments Act of 1972 (Title IX) prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in education programs and activities that receive federal financial assistance and ensures that federal funds are not used to support discriminatory practices. Independent, non-public, educational institutions try to escape compliance with Title…
Pressing Charges: Criminal Fees and the Excessive Fines Clause
By ANNEMARIE FOY. Full Text. Millions of people owe money to the government as a consequence of a criminal charge. But while some of that debt is tied to fines or restitution, much of it is levied as fees, or payments owed to the government for the administration of a defendant’s criminal proceedings. Criminal fees…
Immigration, Federalism, and the Invasion Clauses: Who Has a Seat at the Table in Disputes Over the State Power to Repel “Immigrant Invaders”
By MEGAN NIEMITALO. Full Text. In Arizona v. United States, the Supreme Court famously invalidated an Arizona statute that criminalized immigration violations and empowered state officials to enforce immigration law. Arizona seemed to settle the issue of whether states can regulate immigration for the following decade. In the last year, however, questions around the division…
Headnotes
Volume 110: Fall Issue
Exceptional Cases
By EMILY CAUBLE. Full Text.
Machine Gun Funk: The Unusual Analysis of “Dangerous and Unusual”
By GREGORY S. PARKS & VIVIAN BOLEN. Full Text.
Nipping it in the Bud: The Promise and Perils of Tort Litigation in Addressing the Health Harms of High-THC Products
By REBEKAH NINAN. Full Text.
Volume 108: Symposium Supplement
A Great American Gun Myth: Race and the Naming of the “Saturday Night Special”
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
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
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
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
FOOD FOR THOUGHT: THE EMERGENCE OF RIGHT-TO-FOOD LEGISLATION IN THE UNITED STATES
By: Randa Larsen, Volume 107 Staff Member On November 2, 2021, Maine voters did something no other state in the United States has done—they approved an amendment that sets out a constitutional right to food.[1] This Amendment did not come out of thin air. Before…
THE “MAJOR QUESTIONS” SHACKLES: PREDICTING THE OUTCOME OF DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION v. BROWN AND A WARNING ON THE POTENTIAL CONSEQUENCES OF A CONSTRAINED ADMINISTRATIVE STATE
By: James Carlton, Volume 107 Staff Member On February 28th, the Supreme Court will hear arguments in two cases that will decide the constitutionality of President Biden’s student loan forgiveness program: Department of Education v. Brown and Biden v. Nebraska.[1] While the immediate ramifications of…
OBJECTIVELY REASONABLE FRAUD?: THE SUPREME COURT’S UPCOMING FCA DECISION WILL RESOLVE CIRCUIT SPLIT OVER SCIENTER ELEMENT
By: Carly Heying, Volume 107 Staff Member On January 13, 2023, after urging by the U.S. Solicitor General and Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa),[1] the Supreme Court agreed to take up a pair of consolidated False Claims Act cases addressing “whether and when a defendant’s contemporaneous…
THOMAS ON TRIAL: HOW SUPREME COURT JUSTICE CLARENCE THOMAS HAS INFLUENCED THE CURRENT AFFIRMATIVE ACTION CASES BEFORE THE COURT
By: Dahlia Wilson, Volume 107 Staff Member In the 2022–23 term, the Supreme Court is faced with two seminal cases regarding universities’ uses of “affirmative action”—a.k.a. the consideration of race—in their admissions practices. Both Students for Fair Admissions v. University of North Carolina[1] and Students…
READING TO BECOME A DIFFERENT TYPE OF “PRACTICE-READY” LAWYER: WHAT NO MORE POLICE CAN TEACH LAW STUDENTS ABOUT THEIR ROLE IN THE MOVEMENT FOR PRISON-INDUSTRIAL-COMPLEX ABOLITION
By: Lucy Chin, Volume 107 Staff Member A small minority of the 1.3 million lawyers in the country engage in work that explicitly concerns community-based advocacy and movement lawyering.[1] And yet, our profession—like most in the past few years—has been unable to avoid confronting fundamental…
NOVEL REGULATIONS AND HISTORICAL ANALOGUES: A SAN JOSÉ ORDINANCE TESTS THE BOUNDARIES OF THE SECOND AMENDMENT
By: Toph Beach, Volume 107 Staff Member On June 23, 2022, the Supreme Court decided New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, striking down a New York firearm restriction and pioneering a new test for Second Amendment cases.[1] Under Bruen, gun regulations must…
COVERED BY CANNABIS?: MINNESOTA SUPREME COURT RULES THAT WORKERS’ COMPENSATION WILL NOT COVER MEDICAL MARIJUANA
By: Chelsea M. Trudgeon, Volume 107 Staff Member I. MINNESOTA SUPREME COURT RULINGS In October 2021, the Minnesota Supreme Court issued decisions in Musta v. Mendota Heights Dental Center[1] and Bierbach v. Digger’s Polaris[2] addressing reimbursement of medical marijuana under workers’ compensation claims.[3] Under the…
THE TRY GUYS TRY RESPONDING TO A RELATIONSHIP AT WORK: THE LEGAL IMPLICATIONS OF CONSENSUAL WORKPLACE RELATIONSHIPS
By: Mollie Clark Ahsan, Volume 107 Staff Member Over the past few months, famous YouTube creators The Try Guys have navigated a worldwide scandal surrounding one of the co-owners of their media company.[1] The scandal highlights the legal ambiguity that exists when workplace relationships take…
BACK FOR SECONDS: PREDICTING THE OUTCOME OF UNITED STATES v. TEXAS BASED ON BIDEN v. TEXAS
By: Maya Wells Hermerding, Volume 107 Staff Member In its second major immigration-related case of the term, the Supreme Court will weigh the executive branch’s authority to regulate immigration policy as conservative states contend that the Biden administration’s policies put them at a disadvantage.[1] In…
HOLLOW STATEMENT OR EMPTY PROMISE: OREGON’S “RIGHT TO HEALTHCARE” AMENDMENT IS NOT EQUIPPED TO ACHIEVE ITS GOALS, WHATEVER THEY ARE
By: Patrick Ebeling, Volume 107 Staff Member In the November 8, 2022, election, Oregon voters narrowly approved Senate Joint Resolution 12 (SJR 12), the Right to Healthcare Amendment.[1] SJR 12 amends the Oregon state constitution to read: (1) It is the obligation of the state…
