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Climate Change and Constitutional Overreach
No full textThe failure of the political process to produce meaningful climate mitigation policies has encouraged activists to pursues aggressive and innovative litigation strategies. An increasing number of climate-related lawsuits seek to control greenhouse gas emissions, impose liability on fossil fuel producers, or otherwise force greater action on climate change. In many of these cases, litigants have made aggressive constitutional claims that stretch the bounds of existing constitutional doctrine and threaten to entrench climate policies outside of the traditional political process. This Article critically assesses some of the constitutional arguments made in climate cases, including Massachusetts v. EPA and Juliana v. U.S., as well as some of the constitutional claims made by states opposing efforts to limit greenhouse gas emissions
The Executive Branch: Powers of the President & Inaugurations
No full textOn display in the Wolf Law Library January - July 2025.https://scholarship.law.wm.edu/libdisplays/1010/thumbnail.jp
An Interview with Bryant L. Sugg (part one)
No full textRather than thinking of it, of any of this starting with me, it always, to me, goes back to my father... When he said he wanted to go to law school, they told him he was crazy. Because he is in the 50s. Before even the civil rights movement and all that, when I was a baby... [T]hrough my father, myself, and my nephew, we\u27re the only three generations of African American legacy judges, period, the end. It just hasn\u27t happened in the history of the country, from what I\u27ve been told... I always, like I said, I look to my father as the one who started that, based on his dream and him not accepting that he wasn\u27t going to be able to make it. And he did. -- Bryant Sugg
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In this oral history, dated March 19, 2025, the Honorable Judge Bryant L. Sugg gives us an overview of his life, time at William & Mary Law School, and decades-long career as a Virginia judge. We begin with a discussion about his upbringing and how his father, the late Honorable Irvin Douglas Sugg, Sr., influenced his career path. From the law school, Judge Sugg shares stories about playing flag football with professors, memories of getting cold-called in class, and his reputation as a “lobby lizard.” From there, he discusses his “friendly rivalry” with his nephew, the Honorable David J. Whitted, and the legacy Judge Sugg started at the law school, with three generations of his family attending.https://scholarship.law.wm.edu/oralhist_all/1020/thumbnail.jp
Using Markets to Decarbonize
No full textTraditional environmental regulation is not powerful enough for problems on the scale of climate change
Carceral Bonds
No full textOver the past 50 years, the U.S. financed a massive physical and fiscal expansion of prisons via the municipal bond market—with devastating results. This project is the first to shine a light on the role of municipal debt in state-level carceral decision making, spotlighting the ways that the municipal bond market affects states’ capacities to incarcerate.
This Article argues that the two primary controls of states’ use of the carceral bond market—(1) market discipline and (2) states’ fiscal constitutions—are particularly ineffective at limiting states’ spending on prisons. This failure to restrain states’ spending through the carceral bond market enables private markets and the ultrawealthy to profit from public incarceration, while simultaneously foreclosing the possibility of decarceral futures. Drawing on surveys of municipal securities, filings, and state constitutions; case law; and media coverage of financial markets, this Article catalogs how the municipal debt market distorts accountability in states’ carceral decision making.
Because of this distortion, this Article also argues that issuing carceral debt demands additional process. States issue these carceral bonds, agreeing to pay them back over 30-year terms with little public input. Once a state issues this debt, it becomes incredibly difficult to walk back the carceral clock. Scholars and activists have long looked for levers of power to hold the carceral state accountable, and this Article further argues that they should look to the carceral state’s creditors
Comisión Provincial por la Memoria in Buenos Aires, Argentina
No full textEllie Bailey [1L] will work with the Provincial Memory Commission, an independent public organization that promotes and implements public policies of preserving historical memory and ensuring human rights. The Commission\u27s objectives and work express the commitment to preserving the memory of State terrorism and promoting the defense and advancement of human rights in democracy. The President of CPM, Adolfo Perez Esquivel, is the recipient of a Nobel Peace Prize
International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance Constitution Building Processes Programme in The Hague, Netherlands
No full textAurora Garrison [1L] will conduct research in support of national constitution building and amendment processes. International IDEA’s CBP program provides assistance to countries undergoing constitutional transitions as they seek to strengthen political institutions, improve electoral processes and promote democracy