What’s “Controversial” About ESG? A Theory of Compelled Commercial Speech Under the First Amendment
Sean J. Griffith, T.J. Maloney Chair and Professor of Law, Fordham Law School
"This Article uses the Securities and Exchange Commission’s SEC’s recent foray into Environmental, Social, and Governance ESG to illuminate ambiguities in First Amendment doctrine. Situating mandatory disclosure regulations within the compelled commercial speech paradigm, it identifies the doctrinal hinge as 'controversy.' Rules compelling commercial speech receive deferential judicial review, provided they are purely factual and uncontroversial."
Crisis Legislation: Analyzing the Noble Quest of the Paycheck Protection Program to Save Small Businesses
Patrick D. N. Perkins, Jeff & Cynthis Harris Fellow of the Entrepreneurial Business Law Clinic, The Ohio State University
"In early 2020, the rapid global spread of the novel COVID-19 virus launched the United States, along with the rest of the world, into simultaneous health and financial crises. Emergency measures implemented to slow the spread of the virus also brought many sectors of the economy to a screeching halt. The U.S. Congress passed the CARES Act, a $2.2 trillion economic stimulus bill. As part of the bill, Congress established the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), a forgivable, low interest private loan program to specifically assist small businesses."
Subsurface Trespass: Private Remedies and Public Regulation
Joseph A. Schremmer, Judge Leon Karelitz Oil & Gas Law Professor and Associate Professor, University of New Mexico School of Law
"This Article provides a high level account of the role of, and relationship between, private remedies and public regulation in a formal system of subsurface property rights. It aims to provide a foundation and framework for future in-depth scholarhsip on remedies and regulation for subsurface trespass. While important, the topics of remedies and regulation are logically posterior to liability. They can be adequately addressed only after developing a principled understanding of when and why subsurface invasions ought to be actionable."
Party First, Ask Questions Later: Interrogating the Privacy Implications of First-Party Data Collection
Conor Kane, Georgetown Law 2023
"This Article examines Google’s stated and potentially unstated justifications for ending support for the third-party cookie and the ripple effects this move creates for data collection across the digital advertising ecosystem. It argues that Google’s allegedly pro-privacy move and marketers’ allegedly pro-privacy switch to first-party data ignore and create privacy harms. The only way to protect privacy in the era of first-party data (and protect against future shifts in collection techniques) is to reconceive the corporation-consumer data relationship."
A Sky Full of Stars: Should Viasat, Inc. v. FCC Change the Agency’s Treatment of Satellites as a Categorical Exclusion Under the National Environmental Policy Act?
Morgan Armstrong, J.D. 2023, University of Nebraska College of Law
"This Article reviews the history of Viasat, Inc. v. FCC. Ultimately, Viasat lost the appeal due to a lack of standing. However, this Article will focus on why the FCC should consider adopting a NEPA review for satellites into its regulatory scheme because both Viasat and the FCC still concede that satellites 'may' pose a significant effect on the environment. Thus, to avoid future litigation from a party with standing, the FCC should expand its satellite orbital debris mitigation guidelines to include a preemptive NEPA review."
Upfront Complicity
Charles F. Capps, Deputy Soliciter General, State of Missouri
"In most American jurisdictions, accomplice liability requires a mens rea of intention with respect to the conduct that constitutes the principal’s commission of the crime. Scholars have criticized the intention requirement on the ground that some accomplices, such as those who were paid upfront for their assistance, do not care whether the principal’s criminal conduct occurs and therefore do not intend to bring it about that the principal’s criminal conduct occurs. This Article defends the intention requirement against this criticism."
Expanding State Parent Registry Laws
Jeffrey A. Parness, Professor Emeritus, Northern Illinois University College of Law
"State laws should be reformed so that asserted parental rights and interests in PRs can be employed in more settings. PR opportunities should also be expanded to reflect the evolving legal changes recognizing increased parenthood opportunities for those with no biological or formal adoptive ties, including both women and men."
The Wrong, the Wronged, and the Wrongfully Dead: Deodand Law as a Practice of Absolution
Trayce Hockstad, Attorney, University of Alabama
"We call legal regimes of the world 'justice systems' because they aim to provide us with just that—justice. As it turns out, a significant part of achieving justice involves finding someone or something to blame for the wrongs we endure. How successful the law is in ascertaining perpetrators and doling out just desserts is a complicated question. "
Reinterpreting the Ministerial Exception in Our Lady of Guadalupe School v. Morrissey-Berru
Robert Drust, III, J.D. Student at the University of Nebraska College of Law and Member of the Nebraska Law Review
"The purpose of the ministerial exception is to bar any claim whose resolution would limit a religious institution’s right to select who will perform particular spiritual functions. However, judicial definitions of a minister have become cloudy. The Supreme Court’s decision in Our Lady of Guadalupe School v. Morrissey-Berru further muddied this definition. Rather than use factors introduced in a previous case with similar facts, the Court created a new, extremely broad test."
PHYSICIAN AID IN DYING: Physician-Assisted Suicide as a Constitutionally Protected Liberty Interest Under the Nebraska Constitution
Emily Newcomb, J.D. 2022, University of Nebraska College of Law
"Death is not what it used to be-it is no longer normally a common, family communal, or even religious event. Modern dying takes place in a hospital while attached to machines that attempt to prolong life but seem to simultaneously take patients further and further away from dying with dignity. As these technologies that prolong life evolve, so do those that seek to ease one’s transition to death."
Fifty Years of the UNL College of Law Multicultural Legal Society
Anna Williams Shavers, Associate Dean for Diversity and Inclusion and Cline Williams Professor of Citizenship Law, University of Nebraska College of Law
"MCLS and its supporters were actively involved in the pursuit of the goals of providing opportunities for students of color, hiring a diverse faculty, and enriching the experiences of all students. This Article discusses the early years of MCLS, describes its cooperative efforts with the Law College and other supporters, and finally celebrates the accomplishments of the organization and its individual members. This Article also demonstrates that the concerns of fifty years ago remain."
Picturing Anna Williams Shavers
Steven L. Willborn, Judge Harry A. Spencer Professor of Law, University of Nebraska College of Law
"Anna Shavers was the College’s first African-American professor, and she shepherded the College, as Professor, Associate Dean, and Acting Dean, into a new era of awareness and inclusion. She has had the single greatest effect on the culture of the Law College of anyone during my four decades here. It may well be that the 'Larry Berger era' was followed immediately by the 'Anna Shavers era.'"