Simple legal jobs (such as document coding) are prime candidates for legal automation. More complex tasks cannot be routinized. So far, the debate on the likely scope and intensity of legal automation has focused on the degree to which legal tasks are simple or complex. Just as important to the legal profession, how-ever, is the degree of regulation or deregulation likely in the future...
National Security’s Broken Windows
This Article examines the federal government’s community engagement efforts with American Muslim communities as part of a larger infrastructure for policing radicalization and countering violent extremism (CVE). While the federal government presents community engagement as a softer alternative to policing, community engagement is integrated into a larger policing apparatus, making the reality far...
Blind Spot: The Inadequacy of Neutral Partisanship
The U.S. Supreme Court recently denied a petition for certiorari in Martin v. Blessing, a case challenging a district court judge’s consideration of race and gender in determining adequacy of class counsel. In denying Martin’s petition, Justice Alito issued a relatively rare written opinion stating that judges can and should evaluate lawyering as distinct from personal identity—reaffirming a...
A Preferable Way to Treat Preferential Treatment
This Comment advocates for a particular definition of “preferential treatment.” On April 22, 2014, the U.S. Supreme Court held that the State of Michigan’s constitutional amendment forbidding preferential treatment based on race or gender was consistent with the U.S. Constitution. The case was Schuette v. Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action. The amendment, known as Proposal 2, has effectively...
Interstitial Federalism
Spillover commons are common-pool resources that cross jurisdictional boundaries. Governing spillover commons poses unique and significant challenges. If jurisdictional boundaries are drawn too narrowly, jurisdictions can externalize costs to neighbors. If the jurisdictional boundaries are drawn too broadly, too many remote stakeholders unnecessarily increase transaction costs. The jurisdictional...
No Legs to Stand On: Article III Injury and Official Proponents of State Voter Initiatives
The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Hollingsworth v. Perry—which held that the official proponents of California’s Proposition 8 did not have standing to appeal an adverse district court judgment—deals a heavy blow to voter-enacted legislation in the twenty-four states that make use of voter initiative processes. Challenges to voter-enacted legislation are increasingly being brought in federal...
Bankruptcy Survival
Of the large, public companies that seek to remain in business through bankruptcy reorganization, only 70 percent succeed. The assets of the other 30 percent are absorbed into other businesses. Success is important both because it is efficient and because it preserves jobs, communities, supplier and customer relationships, and tax revenues. This Article reports the findings of the first...
King v. Burwell and the Rule of Law
On March 4, 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral argument in King v. Burwell, a tremendously important case involving the administration of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. At issue in King is whether the president can lawfully provide subsidies for health insurance plans purchased through federally established exchanges when the text of Obamacare...