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Rules of Decision, Judicial Power, and the Valid Rule Requirement
No full textSome current Supreme Court debates that concern seemingly specialized issues raise fundamental questions about the role of the Constitution in the legal system and the role of the courts when they decide constitutional issues. In recent years, Justice Thomas has suggested that the doctrines of First Amendment overbreadth, so-called third-party standing in cases involving constitutional liberty, and statutory inseverability call on federal courts to exceed their role under Article III. Justice Thomas maintains that when courts apply those doctrines, the courts decide cases not before them. Building on the work of Professor Henry Monaghan, this article argues that those concerns are misplaced. Those doctrines rest on two principles that are basic to the U.S. legal system. First, the Constitution affects the content of the law, sometimes causing putative legal rules not to be the law because those rules are inconsistent with the Constitution. Second, courts, including federal courts, have an obligation to decide according to the law and to disregard purported legal rules that are invalid. As Professor Monaghan pointed out, courts are subject to a valid rule requirement, and parties have a right to have their cases decided pursuant only to valid rules. This article explains how the doctrines it addresses result from ways in which the Constitution constrains the content of the law. The article also derives the valid rule requirement for federal courts from Article III, which unsurprisingly implies that courts apply the law, and that the parties before the courts are entitled to have their cases decided according to law
“Tap” into Clean and Safe Water: A Look into the Future of Underinvested Water Infrastructure in Region 4
No full textMixon notes that under the Biden Administration, federal funding for environmental justice communities burdened by underfunded water infrastructure became a key priority in national policy. However, accessing these resources remains a challenge in EPA Region 4. The historical and contextual foundations of environmental justice and water infrastructure issues in the United States. It examines how, and whether, funding from the Inflation Reduction Act and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law address these barriers. Two case studies in Jackson, Mississippi, and Lowndes County, Alabama are used to illustrate the real-world impact of systemic underinvestment. The Comment concludes cautiously optimistic, noting that while challenges remain, new programs offer hope for meaningful reform
A Matter of Public Concern: Eliminating the Public Concern Test to Safeguard \u3ci\u3eNew York Times Co. v. Sullivan\u3ci\u3e
Full text linkIn recent years, Justices Thomas and Gorsuch have expressed a strong interest in reconsidering, and perhaps overruling, the landmark defamation decision, New York Times Co. v. Sullivan. The Court’s defamation jurisprudence has undergone many changes since the landmark case was decided, namely, the Court has since adopted a test known as the “public concern” test. Though adopted by only a plurality of the Court, the “public concern” test has been integrated into the defamation decisions of lower federal courts and state courts. This comment encourages the Court to abandon any push toward the wholesale abandonment of Sullivan and, instead, advocates for an abandonment of the “public concern” test on the basis that such a test cannot be defined with sufficient clarity and does little to honor the underpinnings of the Court’s decision in Sullivan
Constitutional Theory at a Catholic University
No full textOn Tuesday, March 18th, 2025, CIT Director J. Joel Alicea was officially installed as the inaugural St. Robert Bellarmine Chair at the Columbus School of Law. The day began with Prof. Alicea delivering his Chair Lecture, Constitutional Theory at a Catholic University, to an audience of students, faculty, and members of the public.
In his lecture, Prof. Alicea explored three fundamental questions relating to the study of constitutional theory at a Catholic University:
In what ways does constitutional theory benefit from the intellectual disposition of a Catholic university? What might be the potential drawbacks or risks involved in studying constitutional theory at a Catholic university? How can one gain the benefits of engaging in constitutional theory at a Catholic university while avoiding any potential risks that attend that setting
Domestic Relations: Cases and Materials (10th ed.)
No full textThe Tenth Edition of this casebook continues to provide edited judicial opinions from state, federal, and international courts that illustrate the evolution—and dynamism—of domestic relations, coupled with compelling factual scenarios that illustrate common law and statutory complements. The substance of this casebook is the law among the states that affects the entire family, from assisted reproductive technology to termination of parental rights, incorporating uniform legislation and shifting judicial perspectives; this is not a niche casebook. Specifically, this Tenth Edition expands treatment of nonmarital contracting, domestic abuse, and state and federal responses to developments involving abortion, school vouchers, and gender neutrality.There are multiple problems spread throughout the chapters, drawn from actual state and federal judicial opinions, which test student understanding and illustrate the real-life consequences of the legal issues being discussed. And the casebook has been structured to provide a logical and concise progression of material, from nonmarital cohabitation to adoption of adults. This logical sequencing permits the book to be used for two, three or four credit courses, especially since there is a statutory supplement offering a more comprehensive view of the ways that statutes affect family law throughout the states.https://scholarship.law.edu/fac_books/1152/thumbnail.jp
Corporate Social Responsibility of Big Tech Conference
No full textCorporate Social Responsibility of Big Tech Companies
The Catholic University of America Columbus School of Law • November 14, 2025 8:30 a.m. – 9:00 a.m. Registration and Check-In 9:00 a.m. – 9:15 a.m. Welcoming Remarks Megan La Belle, Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, Columbus School of Law Keynote Speaker Introduction John Polanin, Director of the Corporate Responsibility and Compliance Program, Columbus School of Law 9:15 a.m. – 9:45 a.m. Keynote Speaker Taylor Black, Director, Institute for AI & Emerging Technologies, The Catholic University of America, and Director of AI & Venture Ecosystems, Microsoft Corporation 9:45 a.m. – 10:00 a.m. Break 10:00 a.m. – 11:15 a.m. Panel 1: BIG TECH AS FACILITATOR OF EXPLOITATION (cosponsored by the Libertas Council) Panelists: Danielle Bianculli Pinter, Chief Legal Officer and Director of the National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE) Law Center U.S. Ambassador John Cotton Richmond, President of Libertas Council and U.S. Ambassador-at-Large to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons (retired) Annick Febrey, Co-Founder and Principal, Better Trade Collective Moderator: Mary Graw Leary, Professor of Law, Columbus School of Law 11:15 a.m. – 11:30 a.m. Break 11:30 a.m. – 12:45 p.m. Panel 2: CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY AND ETHICS IN THE ERA OF AI Panelists: Charles Duan, Assistant Professor, American University Washington College of Law Adam Eisgrau, Senior Director - AI, Creativity & Copyright Policy, Chamber of Progress Paul Lekas, Senior Vice President, Head of Global Public Policy and Government Affairs, Software & Information Industry Association Dr. Maryann Cusimano Love, Chair, Department of Politics, The Catholic University of America Moderator: Meaghan Pedati, Senior Counsel, Mars 12:45 p.m. – 2:15 p.m. Lunch in Atrium Luncheon Speaker: Representative Brandon Guffey, South Carolina 2:15 p.m. – 2:30 p.m. Break 2:30 p.m. – 3:45 p.m. Panel 3: SUSTAINABILITY: RISK MANAGEMENT IN LIGHT OF CHANGING EXPECTATIONS Panelists: David Curran, Co-Chair of the Sustainability Advisory Practice and Executive Director of the Sustainability and Law Institute; Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison Brian Downing, Assistant Professor of Law, University of Mississippi School of Law Erica Lasdon, Program Director, Climate Change & Environmental Justice, Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility Kevin Tubbs, Vice President, Chief Ethics, Compliance and Sustainability Officer, Oshkosh Corporation (retired) Moderator: John Polanin, Director of the Corporate Responsibility and Compliance Program, Columbus School of Law 3:45 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. Closing Remarks Elizabeth Winston, Professor and Co-Director Law and Technology Institute, Columbus School of Law 4:00 p.m. Reception in Atriu
Thinking Outside the Box with AI: Adapting 20th Century Labor and Employment Law to 21st Century Algorithms that Select, Monitor, and Control Employees
Full text linkA transformative era is unfolding in the rapidly changing world of work. Increasingly, to a hitherto unimaginable degree, employers are able to deploy predictive analytics—artificial intelligence (AI)—that processes data about workers and their behaviors to identify patterns and make algorithmic predictions. There is a widely-held view among labor practitioners, scholars, and non- specialists that our current labor and employment regulatory scheme is insufficient to address many, perhaps most, of the workplace issues that workplace AI systems create. The thesis of this article is that skepticism is largely unfounded as it seriously underestimates the capacity of currently enacted federal labor and employment law to address and resolve workplace conflicts created by an employer’s deployment of AI, robotics, and other automation at the workplace