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Guns, Vices and Freedom, Oh My: A Preliminary Empirical Investigation
Get PDFThis Essay estimates factors within States that are associated with per capita firearms ownership and the extent of legal restrictions concerning firearms. The metrics are: for the former, a proxy consisting of the fraction of suicides with a firearm; for the latter, Giffords Law Center’s ratings of the restrictiveness of a State’s regulation of firearms. For each, the Essay estimates the relationship between it and each of the levels of vices and freedom
Diversity On Trial: Navigating Employer Diversity Programs Amidst Shifting Legal Landscapes
Get PDFIn the Summer of 2023, in a pivotal move, the Supreme Court nullified the application of affirmative action policies in both private and public universities nationwide. The Supreme Court’s holding stripped the use of any race-conscious guidelines for admission aimed at enhancing diversity on college campuses. Although the Supreme Court’s holding is grounded in Title VI and does not directly implicate employers and businesses, its aftereffects are poised to reshape how organizations approach their diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives. The legal landscape in this area is quickly evolving and employers need to be prepared to evaluate and potentially revise their DEI policies to mitigate legal exposure. This article extends its focus to the implications of the Supreme Court’s decision within the employer context and delineates strategies and actions that employers can implement to limit their risk. In the face of legal uncertainties, this article serves as a guidepost, encouraging employers and businesses to not only adapt but to persevere in their pursuit of diversity, equity, and inclusion
Getting Serious About Stakeholders
Get PDFStakeholder enthusiasm grips public companies and asset managers. Sustainability reports abound, reflecting an appetite for detailed data on company efforts to reduce carbon emissions and water usage and to protect and diversify workforces—while investors still seek returns to finance college tuition and fund retirement. But commentators and those who control public companies fail to engage on fundamental questions: Which stakeholders count? To what degree will companies sacrifice shareholder return to benefit those stakeholders? What happens when the interests of differing sets of non-shareholder stakeholders differ? Is all the commotion really necessary, given the many laws and regulations protecting such stakeholders? Whose priorities will, as a practical matter, govern the application of stakeholder theory, and will those in control of the priorities use this corporate theory to further their personal purposes? Exposition of these questions suggests serious changes in disclosures that director nominees and asset management firms must make, as well as the need for a hard look at whether stakeholder capitalism can be practiced with normative consistency
Undermining Confidence in The Judgment: The Supreme Court of Missouri’s Flawed Application of Missouri’s Wrongful Conviction Statute
Get PDFIn recent decades, the problem of wrongful convictions has garnered much attention from both legal scholars and the public at large. However, one element of wrongful convictions that deserves more attention is the fact that it is remarkably difficult for a wrongfully convicted person to gain his or her freedom. The appeals and post-conviction process for freeing an innocent person is a tangled web of procedural complexities and technicalities. For wrongfully convicted capital defendants, the stress of the complex process compounds the cloud of impending execution hanging over the defendant’s head
The Original Meaning of the Sixteenth Amendment
Get PDFThe Sixteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution enshrines Congress’s “power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived.” Challenges to the exercise of that power have typically turned on whether the thing being taxed is “income” or not. In the most recent example, the 2024 Supreme Court case of Moore v. United States, taxpayers argued that the Sixteenth Amendment only authorizes taxation of realized income—that is, that gain from appreciated property can only be taxed as “income” when there has been a sale or conversion of that property.
In this Article we argue—based on the original meaning of the Sixteenth Amendment—that this approach to constitutional tax questions is wrong. The focus of the Sixteenth Amendment and of the congressional income tax power is not “income” per se, but rather “taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived.” Thus, the question should not be whether the thing being taxed satisfies some isolated definition of “income,” but rather whether that tax in question comports with the original meaning of “taxes on incomes.” This is because, as we show here, the explicit and well-understood original meaning of the Sixteenth Amendment was to overrule the Supreme Court case of Pollock v. Farmers’ Loan & Trust Co. and restore the “complete and plenary power of income taxation” as it was understood at the time. The Amendment did not create Congress’s power to tax income, a power which it had been exercising since the Civil War; rather, it merely removed the impediment Pollock had introduced. This original meaning of the Amendment was communicated clearly at that time both in Congress and in the press.
Thus, to understand the power the Sixteenth Amendment authorized, we should look at the practice and experience of income taxation at that time. Our examination shows that federal (and state) income taxes explicitly included many items of “unrealized” income, such as shareholders’ shares of undistributed corporate earnings (the issue in Moore). We also show— for the first time in the modern literature—that the federal corporate income tax law at the time of the Sixteenth Amendment’s ratification incorporated elements of “mark-to-market” taxation—treating unrealized gain from the appreciation of assets as gross income for tax purposes. This historical review thus reveals that Congress’s power to tax income is broad and should not be limited by appeals to constrained definitions of “income” isolated from the historical context
Spatiotemporal Patterns for Agroforestry Tree Crops in the U.S. Corn Belt for USDA Census of Agriculture Periods 2012–2022
Get PDFWithin the U.S., there is a growing need to integrate environmentally friendly practices into conventional agriculture. Agroforestry enhances environmental and resource stewardship in agricultural landscapes while offering potential economic benefits to farmers. Despite rising interest, limited information on its application in the U.S. hinders development efforts. A spatiotemporal analysis of current farm operations can provide crucial insights. This study examined patterns of agroforestry and tree crop adoption in the U.S. Corn Belt using USDA Census data (2012, 2017, and 2022) and spatial tools (Global Moran’s I, Local Moran’s I, and Moran scatterplots). The tree crops included in the analysis were chestnut (Castanea spp.), hazelnut (Corylus spp.), improved northern pecan (Carya illinoinensis), elderberry (Sambucus spp.), and pawpaw (Asimina triloba). The results showed increasing farm operations with agroforestry and tree crops over time for all census periods. Agroforestry had the strongest spatial cluster patterns, with Local Moran’s I revealing R2 values rising from 0.30 to 0.35 between 2017 and 2022. Chestnut, hazelnut, and improved pecan had clustered spatial patterns, but had decreasing spatial autocorrelations from 2012 to 2022, while elderberry clustered in 2017 but not 2022. This study reveals an upward trend in agroforestry adoption and the spatial expansion of certain tree crops in the U.S. Corn Belt, highlighting potential for region-specific agroforestry development. The findings offer insights to guide strategies and programs supporting sustainable agricultural practices
