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Admissions Essays After SFFA
Get PDFThe Supreme Court concluded its 2023 decision barring affirmative action in university admissions with a qualification: Although they may not give weight to “race qua race,” universities may consider individual applicants’ discussion of race-related life experience that bears on their strengths and potential. This “essay carveout” provides a potential path forward for universities (and other entities to which the affirmative action ban may eventually apply). But the Court also warned against using it to enact “indirect” affirmative action, and legal advocates of colorblindness stand poised to challenge any use of essays that appears to stray over this line. So where is the line? And what other potential legal pitfalls could universities encounter in evaluating essays about race?
This Article provides the first in-depth analysis of these questions, examining how the essay carveout fits into emerging legal battles over colorblindness, the nature of racial classifications, and racial balancing. It argues that the carveout must be interpreted to allow universities to pursue racial diversity (which remains constitutionally permissible) so long as they use the kind of individualized analysis contemplated by the Court. It assesses the evidentiary hurdles plaintiffs would need to clear to establish that essays are being improperly used. It also examines possible First Amendment viewpoint discrimination challenges to diversity-related essay requirements, concluding that such challenges should fail on the law and on the facts. Finally, to inform these legal analyses, the Article provides two novel sets of empirical evidence testing widespread (but anecdotal) reports that universities are now revamping their approach to essays and that applicants have changed their writing strategies accordingly. I review the essay requirements over a four-year period at 65 top colleges and report the results of a national survey of 881 students who applied to college in the 2022–23 or 2023–24 admissions cycles. I find that diversity, identity, and adversity-focused essay prompts are prevalent and increasing in frequency, and that the large majority of students of color as well as nearly half of white students do discuss their race in their college essays; this latter pattern, though, was already established before Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President & Fellows of Harvard College
Mark Need leading IU Ventures Fellows cohort, including two Maurer students
Get PDFAn Indiana University Maurer School of Law faculty member will lead—and two of its students participate—in the fourth cohort of IU Ventures, the university’s early-stage venture and angel investment arm.
Mark Need, clinical professor and director of the Law School’s Elmore Entrepreneurship Law Clinic, will lead the 13-student cohort—the largest yet—which includes David Dillon, a second-year JD-MBA candidate, and 1L student Klaus Griesemer
Understanding Corporate Taxation (Fifth edition)
No full textThis clearly written treatise is designed to make the complex subject of corporate taxation very accessible. It uses straightforward language, charts, checklists, diagrams, and numerous examples to aid readers\u27 comprehension and retention of the material. Understanding Corporate Taxation also includes discussion of relevant cases. It is designed to supplement any corporate tax casebook or to be used on its own. This fifth edition is fully updated for the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022\u27s excise tax on stock buybacks and the new corporate alternative minimum tax (the CAMT ) contained in the Act. This edition also contains additional diagrams.
The book starts with an introductory chapter that discusses the choice of business form; details the idea that corporate profits generally are subject to double taxation (once at the corporate level and again at the shareholder level); introduces the Qualified Business Income deduction; and discusses the basics of anti-abuse rules, such as the step-transaction doctrine. Those anti-abuse rules are explored in more detail in a later chapter, as are proposals to partially or fully eliminate double taxation. In addition, a chapter addresses the taxation of S corporations, which are taxed under a single-tax paradigm. That chapter also discusses the Qualified Business Income deduction, including numerous examples.
Similar to most corporate tax casebooks, the bulk of the book is organized using a cradle-to-grave approach that traces the life cycle of a corporation, beginning with formation and capitalization and ending with liquidation of the corporation. Between those chapters, the book discusses operational issues, including the capital structure of a corporation, distributions of cash or property, stock redemptions, and stock dividends. After corporate liquidations, the book explores more advanced topics, such as taxable stock or asset acquisitions; non-taxable corporate reorganizations and divisions; the carryover of tax attributes (such as net operating losses) following certain non-recognition transactions; and the treatment of corporate tax shelters. Throughout, the book uses specific examples, diagrams of transactions, summary charts, and checklists to clarify and distill key points.https://www.repository.law.indiana.edu/facbooks/1346/thumbnail.jp
Housing as a Human Right Through Legislative Action: Comparing France and Scotland’s Enforceable Rights to Housing
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Menstruation, Menopause, and the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act
Get PDFSome workplaces are extraordinarily inhospitable to menstruators, especially those in low-wage jobs. Workers have been denied restroom breaks and then harassed or fired after menstrual blood leaked onto their clothes or their employer’s property. Employers routinely refuse to provide accommodations for menopause symptoms or time off for menstruation-related medical care. The failure to support menstruators is a significant barrier to ensuring workplace equality. This Article explains how federal laws, including the landmark Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA), can—and should—be interpreted to help address these inequities. PWFA requires employers to provide “reasonable accommodations” for “pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions.” Menstruation is a necessary precondition for pregnancy, menstrual disorders are a common cause of infertility, and menopause may be triggered by treatments for complications during pregnancy or childbirth. In its 2024 regulations implementing PWFA, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) confirms that menstruation can be within the ambit of the statutory language. This is the first federal regulation that explicitly requires accommodation of menstruation-related needs. In interpreting PWFA, and in separate guidance on harassment, the EEOC also clarifies that failure to support menstruators can violate general prohibitions on sex-based discrimination; recent guidance from the Departments of Education and Labor makes the same point. This Article provides practical advice on implementing PWFA to address menstruation-related needs, while minimizing the risk of backlash against menstruators. It also urges more effective enforcement of general workplace laws addressing employee health that could reduce the need for menstruators to ask for “special treatment”—and improve workplace conditions for all workers. However, existing legal protections leave some important gaps. Thus, this Article calls for research-informed policy changes to ensure that workers can manage menstruation and the transition to menopause with dignity
“Change is Inevitable”: How the First Amendment Safety-Valve Theory Can Expand Protections for Student Expression
No full textThis article challenges the traditional notion that the regulation and protection of student expression in public schools should be based primarily or exclusively on the marketplace theory, which often reinforces the status quo. The safety valve theory is more appropriate and should be applied, especially in the current political and social climate, to inspire an expansion of student speech and press rights that would support expressive activities seeking to change the public discourse around important issues. Students who can speak freely will be more willing to accept decisions that go against them, and a school environment in which passionate or alienated students can let off steam will be more stable and less susceptible to resorts to violence. At the heart of this analysis is the critical distinction between positively and adversely disruptive student expression
Professor Cindy Williams Joins Global Future Councils at the World Economic Forum in Dubai
No full textIndiana University Maurer School of Law Professor Cindy Williams is representing the school this week at the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Councils (GFC) Annual Meeting in Dubai.
As a member of the GFC on Climate Change and Nature Loss, Professor Williams is contributing to discussions that frame environmental challenges as key financial risks and opportunities for companies. Her work focuses on how innovative finance can be harnessed to restore nature and build economic resilience worldwide
3L Jayden Boudreau earns prestigious Skadden Fellowship
No full textThe Skadden Fellowship Foundation announced this week that 3L Jayden Boudreau is one of only 34 law students from across the country—and the only one from an Indiana law school— that has been selected as a 2026 Skadden Fellow, one of the most prestigious honors in public interest law.
The award will support Boudreau’s innovative ACLU LGBTQ & HIV Project, focused on protecting the rights of queer and transgender youth in school settings through legal advocacy and systemic policy engagement. He will spend two years in New York City, working at the national headquarters of the American Civil Liberties Union