SCLR Print Archive
Vol. 95, No. 1 (2022)
Democracy Dies in Silicon Valley: Platform Antitrust and the Journalism Industry
Erick Franklund*
Newspapers are classic examples of platforms. They are intermediaries between, and typically require participation from, two distinct groups: on the one hand, there are patrons eager to read the latest scoop; on the other hand, there are advertisers offering their goods and services on the outer edges of the paper in hopes of soliciting sales. Life Story Rights Litigation: Negotiating for a Happy Ending
Kendall Ota*
Filmmakers, television writers, and authors alike have made millions of dollars in the entertainment industry by telling stories that have already been lived by real people. Not only do these creative works force enormous public exposure upon the real people portrayed, but they often portray these real-life inspirations in inaccurate, or even harmful ways. Furthermore, Taxing Guns
Thomas Griffith*, Nancy Staudt†
Policymakers across the nation have recently adopted new taxes on guns. As expected, these policies are controversial. Supporters believe the taxes will increase the cost of weapons, decrease sales, and provide the revenue necessary to fund the costs of gun violence across America. Critics, by contrast, argue the taxes are nothing more than poll taxes Transgender Rights & the Eighth Amendment
Jennifer L. Levi*, Kevin M. Barry†
The past decades have witnessed a dramatic shift in the visibility, acceptance, and integration of transgender people across all aspects of culture and the law. The treatment of incarcerated transgender people is no exception. Historically, transgender people have been routinely denied access to medically necessary hormone therapy, surgery, and other gender-affirming procedures; subjected to cross-gender Designing Supreme Court Term Limits
Adam Chilton*, Daniel Epps†, Kyle Rozema‡ & Maya Sen††
Since the Founding, Supreme Court Justices have enjoyed life tenure. This helps insulate the Justices from political pressures, but it also results in unpredictable deaths and strategic retirements determining the timing of Court vacancies. In order to regularize the appointments process, a number of academics and policymakers have put forward detailed term-limits proposals. However, many | Vol. 95, No. 2 (2022)
Voting and Campaign Financing: Inconsistencies in Law and Policy
Pablo Aabir Das*
October 2022
The right to vote in elections and the right to spend[1] in elections are both historicallyrevered rights that function as critical elements of American democracy.[2]These rights have earned their salience because they are two of the most commonand accessible mechanisms by which Americans can participate in the democraticprocess. In different ways, each right enables citizens to Labor’s New Localism
Andrew Elmore*
May 2022
Millions of workers in the United States, disproportionately women, immigrants, and people of color, perform low-paid, precarious work. Few of these workers can improve their workplace standards because the National Labor Relations Act (“NLRA”) does not sufficiently protect their right to form unions and collectively bargain. Lacking sufficient influence in federal and state government to Detention, Disenfranchisement, and Doctrinal Integration
Zina Makar*
May 2022
On any given day, approximately 2.3 million individuals are incarcerated, many of whom are eligible voters and are disproportionately people of color.[1] The majority of state and local governments do not affirmatively provide incarcerated voters with special accommodations to ensure that they are able to exercise their right to vote, leaving many effectively disenfranchised. What Closing International Law’s Innocence Gap
Brandon L. Garrett*, Laurence R. Helfer†, Jayne C. Huckerby‡
May 2022
Over the last decade, a growing number of countries have adopted new laws and other mechanisms to address a gap in national criminal legal systems: the absence of meaningful procedures to raise post-conviction claims of factual innocence. These legal and policy reforms have responded to a global surge of exonerations facilitated by the growth of Small Fines and Fees, Large Impacts: Ability-to-Pay Hearings
Tia Kerkhof*
May 2022
Imagine, for example, that a woman fails to have auto insurance,[1] which carries a minimum fine of $500 in Massachusetts.[2] In addition, she will be charged a $500 payment or one full year premium of compulsory insurance (whichever is larger), a $45 late fee and a $25 filing fee if she chooses to request a |
Vol. 95, No. 3 (2022)
Overturning Override: Why Executing a Person Sentenced to Death By Judicial Override Violates the Eighth Amendment
Meghann M. Lamb*
December 2022
INTRODUCTION Judicial override is a practice by which a judge overrules a sentence decided by a jury. Perhaps the most alarming, infamous, and controversial form of judicial override occurs when a judge overrules a jury’s Crack Taxes and The Dangers of Insidious Regulatory Taxes
Hayes R. Holderness*
December 2022
An unheralded weapon in the War on Drugs can be found in state tax codes: many states impose targeted taxes on individuals for the possession and sale of controlled substances. These “crack taxes” provide state The Role of State Attorneys General In Improving Prescription Drug Affordability
MICHELLE M. MELLO,* TRISH RILEY† & RACHEL E. SACHS‡
December 2022
Impact litigation initiated by state attorneys general has played an important role in advancing public health goals in contexts as diverse as tobacco control, opioids, and healthcare antitrust. State attorneys general also play a critical Provisional Assumptions
Heidi H. Liu*
December 2022
In courtrooms, the law often asks individuals to ignore information—carefully, purposely—that otherwise feels important. Juries, for example, are often asked to disregard information about a variety of facts, from prior convictions to settlement negotiations. But A Closer Look at the PTAB Operation
Ge You*
December 2022
Prior to the passage of the America Invents Act (“AIA”) in 2011,[1] allegedly low-quality patents were allowed to proliferate. Many of these low-quality patents contributed little to innovation because holders of these patents did not | Vol. 95, No. 4 (2022)
Divided Agencies
Brian D. Feinstein* & Abby K. Wood†
December 2022
Clashes between presidential appointees and civil servants are front-page news. Whether styled as a “deep state” hostile to its democratically selected political principals or as bold “resisters” countering those principals’ ultra vires proposals, accounts of The Social Context of the Law: A Critical Analysis of Reliance Interests in the Department of Homeland Security v. Regents of the University of California
Raquel Muñiz,* Maria Lewis,† Grace Cavanaugh‡ & Melissa Woolsey††
December 2022
In 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on the Department of Homeland Security v. Regents of the University of California case. The case concerned the rescission of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (“DACA”) policy, an Dimensional Disparate Treatment
Benjamin Eidelson*
December 2022
The Supreme Court’s decision in Bostock v. Clayton County was an important victory for gay and transgender workers—but the Court’s textual analysis has failed to persuade a number of thoughtful commentators, and it threatens to Say Yes to Her Redress: A Two-Step Approach to Post-Divorce Embryo Disputes
Gabrielle Lipsitz*
December 2022
INTRODUCTION I can’t believe Taylor Swift is about to turn 30 – she still looks so young! It’s strange to think that 90% of her eggs are already gone – 97% by the time she Without Exception? The Ninth Circuit’s Evolving Stance on Nondebtor Releases in Chapter 11 Reorganizations
Caleb Downs*
December 2022
INTRODUCTION Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code (or the “Code”) allows a troubled business debtor the opportunity to restructure its financial affairs so that it may successfully operate in the future.[1] To facilitate this process, |
Vol. 95, No. 5 (2022)
The Rise of Bankruptcy Directors
Jared A. Ellias, * Ehud Kamar† & Kobi Kastiel‡
February 2023
In this Article, we use hand-collected data to shed light on a troubling development in bankruptcy practice: distressed companies, especially those controlled by private equity sponsors, often now prepare for a Chapter 11 filing by appointing bankruptcy experts to their boards of directors and giving them the board’s power to make key bankruptcy decisions. These Cannon Fodder, or a Soldier’s Right to Life
Saira Mohamed*
February 2023
In recent years, hundreds of American service members have died in training exercises and routine non-combat operations, aboard American warships, tactical vehicles, and fighter planes. They have died in incidents that military investigations and congressional hearings and journalists deem preventable, incidents stemming from the U.S. government delaying maintenance of deteriorating equipment or staffing vessels with Colorblind Constitutional Torts
Osagie K. Obasogie* & Zachary Newman†
February 2023
Much of the recent conversation regarding law and police accountability has focused on eliminating or limiting qualified immunity as a defense for officers facing § 1983 lawsuits for using excessive force. Developed during Reconstruction as a way to protect formerly enslaved persons from new forms of racial terror, 42 U.S.C. § 1983 allows private individuals to bring Who’s on the Hook for Digital Piracy? Analysis of Proposed Changes to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and Secondary Copyright Infringement Claims
Erika Pang
February 2023
FBI Anti-Piracy Warning: The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of a copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to five years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000.[1] Chances are that many Americans have seen the warning above at some The Agency Problem in SPACs: A Legal Analysis of SPAC IPO Investor Protections
Tyler J. Martin
February 2023
The events that occurred in 2020 drastically altered the world’s financial markets,[1] contributing to an increase in Initial Public Offerings (“IPOs”) of Special Purpose Acquisition Companies (“SPACs”).[2] In particular, 2020 was a year marked by numerous records within the SPAC market, including the highest number of SPAC IPOs (248), the highest amount of proceeds raised |
The Rehnquist Court, Structural Due Process, and Semisubstantive Constitutional Review
Article by Dan T. Coenen
Using Legal Process to Fight Terrorism: Detentions, Military Commissions, International Tribunals, and the Rule of Law
Article by Laura A. Dickinson
A Haven for Hate: The Foreign and Domestic Implications of Protecting Internet Hate Speech Under the First Amendment
Note by Peter J. Breckheimer
Equality in the Workplace: Why Family Leave Does Not Work
Note by Erin Gielow