This Commentary examines when, consistent with First Amendment principles of free expression, speakers can be held tortiously responsible for the actions of others with whom they have no contractual or employer-employee relationship. It argues that recent lawsuits against Daily Stormer publisher Andrew Anglin for sparking “troll storms” provide a timely analytical springboard into the issue…
Category: 97:4
Politics and the Courtroom: A Battle Between Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 24 and Amicus Curiae Briefs
Intervention under Rule 24 has been judicially construed in light of the 1966 Amendment to a loose burden far and away from its real-property-based origins. Recently, Rule 24 has been used in socially conscious ways to advance politico-ideological views about immigration and other important public interest issues. Following the Court’s decision in Town of Chester,…
United States Law’s Failure to Appreciate Art: How Public Art Has Been Left Out In The Cold
VARA does not sufficiently protect public artists’ moral rights. A better understanding of public art from an artistic, rather than legal, point of view can help lawmakers and courts identify and implement more sufficient protections. An artistic perspective is necessary when considering VARA reform because it encourages a deeper appreciation of the value of many…
Illegitimate Citizenship Rules
In 2017, the Supreme Court decided Sessions v. Morales-Santana, a challenge to 8 U.S.C. § 1409, the law governing the conferral of U.S. citizenship to children born abroad to parents who are U.S. citizens. As the Court noted in a forceful opinion, § 1409 imposed different and more onerous physical presence requirements on unwed fathers…
The Law of Emerging Adults
Law tends to divide people into two groups based on age: children and adults. The age of majority provides a bright line between two quite different legal regimes. Minority is characterized by dependency, parental control, incapacity, and diminished responsibility. Adulthood is characterized by autonomy, capacity, and financial and legal responsibility. Over the course of the…
How Do Judges Decide School Finance Cases?
There is an old riddle that asks, what do constitutional school funding lawsuits and birds have in common? The answer: every state has its own. Yet while almost every state has experienced hotly-contested school funding litigation, the results of these suits have been nearly impossible to predict. Scholars and advocates have struggled for decades to…
Fiduciary Blind Spot: The Failure of Institutional Investors to Prevent the Illegitimate Use of Working Americans’ Savings for Corporate Political Spending
For decades, American workers have been subjected to increasing pressure to become forced capitalists, in the sense that to provide for retirement for themselves, and to pay for college for their children, they must turn part of their income every month over to mutual funds who participate in 401(k) and 529 programs. These “Worker Investors”…
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