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Should U.S. Tax Law Be Constitutionalized?
No full textMoore is the first Supreme Court case involving a constitutional challenge to a federal income tax law since Macomber, which was decided more than a century ago. Whatever way the Court rules, other such cases are likely to be brought and some of them may reach the Court. Moore won’t be the last case of its kind
Feedback Loops: Fortifying Feedback
No full textFeedback has an Important role to play in the fight against impostor syndrome and its many toxic by-products, including isolation, dread, depression, drops in motivation, and negative self-talk. In 2013, for example, one of the American Psychological Association’s oicial publications, gradPSYCH magazine, ran a cover story called “Feel like a Fraud?” that highlighted the stabilizing power that the right kind of feedback can provide. “he thing that made so much diference was supportive, encouraging supervision,” explained a graduate student interviewed for the story
Crypto and the Exit Tax
No full textRobert Goulder has devoted one of his excellent columns to the fascinating case of “Bitcoin Jesus.” As explained by Goulder:
Another billionaire was in the news recently for reasons that relate to taxation, although it’s doubtful he will be accused of much virtue. The man known internationally as “Bitcoin Jesus” got himself arrested in Spain on April 27. He now faces extradition to the United States, where an eight-count criminal tax indictment awaits him. Bitcoin Jesus is coming home.
This is a far cry from the Jesus born in Bethlehem who once said that it was easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. Bitcoin Jesus was born in San Jose, California, in 1979, became fabulously wealthy from his cryptocurrency holdings, and renounced his U.S. citizenship in 2014.
In case you’re not in the loop, allow me to explain. Bitcoin Jesus is the alias of noted libertarian investor Roger Keith Ver. He has resided in Japan for much of his adult life and now claims citizenship in St. Kitts and Nevis. As you might expect, the combination of global mobility and extreme wealth can lead to some interesting tax issues
Modular Bankruptcy: Toward a Consumer Scheme of Arrangement
No full textIn the world of cross-border corporate insolvency, those in the know are familiar with the increasingly popular scheme of arrangement, the British quasi-reorganization procedure that allows a company to restructure some, but not all, of its debt. The typical scheme effects a corporate balance sheet reshuffling by supermajoritarian approval (and judicial sanction ) but often leaves other debt, such as the trade, untouched. A key conceptual component of the scheme mechanism is its intentional modularity, called by some its selectivity. It does not require a comprehensive reckoning of all claims against a given debtor, only some. The scheme has proved popular-so popular, in fact, that corporate bankruptcy market share-grabber Singapore introduced scheme-like procedures in its most recent overhaul of its insolvency system. Indeed, some wags have pronounced it the Decline and Fall of Chapter 11
The Administrative Procedure Act Problem Reconsidered
No full textTax Notes contributing editor Ryan Finley’s excellent article on the 3M case1 and the Administrative Procedure Act provides an opportunity to reconsider the damage done to tax law by taxpayers constantly invoking the APA to invalidate regulations or IRS notices
COVID-19 Risk Factors and Boilerplate Disclosure
Get PDFThe SEC mandates that public companies assess new information that changes the risks that they face and disclose these if there has been a “material” change. Does that theory work in practice? Or are companies copying and repeating the same generic disclosures? Using the shock of the COVID-19 pandemic, we explore these questions. Overall, we find considerable rote copying of boilerplate disclosures. Further, the factors that correlate with deviations from the boilerplate seem related more to the resources that companies have (large companies change updated disclosures more) and litigation risks (companies vulnerable to shareholder litigation update more) rather than general economic vulnerability to the pandemic. The exception is companies facing exposure to China
Agency Use of Indirect Benefits to Justify Regulation
Get PDFExecutive agencies have long used indirect benefits—meaning benefits beyond the express purpose of a regulation—to justify their rulemakings. However, the statutes that provide agencies with regulatory authority rarely explicitly direct agencies to consider indirect benefits. Lower courts disagree over whether consideration of indirect benefits is permissible, and the Supreme Court has reserved the question for a future case. Courts and existing scholarship have largely asked whether particular statutory provisions authorize consideration of indirect benefits. This Note contends that, even without such statutory authorization, indirect benefits are presumptively permissible because they further three traditional administrative law values: rational decisionmaking, transparency, and accountability. It then argues that, even if statutory authorization was required, the Clean Air Act (CAA)—the statute at the center of the indirect benefits controversy—provides the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) with unmistakable authority to consider indirect benefits. Finally, this Note recommends two lines of judicial review to prevent agency abuses of indirect benefits
Intentional Parenthood, Contingent Fetal Personhood, and the Right to Reproductive Self-Determination
Get PDFThis Article argues that intent should govern legal parenthood, regardless of the method of conception, the person’s biological or genetic relationship to the resulting embryo/fetus, or the person’s gender. This proposition is not new. This Article adds to scholarly discourse by extending the concept: Intent should not just determine parenthood, but also fetal rights. When a pregnant person establishes their procreational intent (or lack thereof) prior to birth, then both the existence (or lack thereof) of legal protections for the embryo/fetus and the gestator’s rights and duties (or lack thereof) should flow from this intent. Non-gestating gamete contributors would do the same, to different legal effect.
Establishing intent-based parenthood would end automatic legal parenthood. It would also clearly condition most legal rights that a fetus might enjoy on its gestator’s intent, and support other rights on the intent of other gamete-contributors. The article proposes a normative framework for the conceptions of legal parenthood and legal fetal personhood under an intentional approach. It further offers some preliminary suggestions regarding how an intentional approach could solve some latent, thorny issues in bioethics, family law, and civil rights
Looking and Seeing
No full textOn November 6, 1938, Charles T. Dashiell, Jr, was driving south through Maryland. Around 5.30 or 6, Dashiell picked up two 19-year- old hitchhikers, J. Reginald Moore and Reginald Porter. Moore and Porter had been dropped off by Moore’s older brother and were now seeking to rejoin him several miles further on. The two boys got into Dashiell’s one-seat coup, with Moore sitting in the middle and Porter sitting on the right. It was a clear day, and the road was dry. Dashiell’s car lights were turned on and in good working condition
The Shadow of the Law of the Police
Get PDFA review of Shielded: How the Police Became Untouchable. By Joanna Schwartz