Online Edition
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Edwards v. M’Connel: Hiding Behind Legal Principles
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Edwards v. M’Connel[i] is cited by a Tennessee state law treatise on res judicata, the legal principle stating that a prior court’s decision is conclusive on another if it was “between the same parties or their privies.”[ii] Edwards’ importance to legal studies and slavery studies is far-reaching. Edwards is an example of how judges reinforced…
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A “Host” of Problems: Airbnbs in Cincinnati, Ohio
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Use of condos for hosting Airbnbs has become increasingly popular, not only in places like the Bay Area and Southern California, but also in Midwestern cities like Cincinnati, Ohio. As of October 2017, the Cincinnati Business Journal estimates that there are at least 580 active Airbnb hosts in the metro area.[i] Several of the most…
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Say Goodbye to Shopping Malls: America’s Shift Towards Technology and Ease
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Despite 94% of American consumers who say that they believe doing business within their local communities is important, 2017 ended with a staggering number of over 6,700 brick and mortar stores closing.[i] Famous brands such as Walgreens, Nike, and Footlocker have decided to eliminate physical locations and shift their sales to the online market. With…
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“Uber v. Drivers”: The Battle for Employee Classification
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The peer-to-peer ridesharing industry has been booming since Uber first went live in San Francisco in 2010. Presently, Uber has spread to more than 700 cities worldwide,[i] and is estimated to have more than two million active drivers.[ii] The ease and popularity of Uber’s services have inspired a remarkable amount of competition: in the United…
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What Does it Mean to Discriminate “Because of . . . Sex”?
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Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 makes it illegal for employers to discriminate against their employees “because of . . . sex.”[i] In the half-century since the passage of Title VII, the definition of “sex” discrimination has broadened significantly. Originally, under the Act, “sex” referred just to biological sex.[ii] Eventually, this was…
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Pardon Me? Reconciling The Pardon Power with Traditional Notions of Checks-and-Balances
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Article II, Section 2 of the United States Constitution confers upon the president the “power to grant reprieves and pardons for offenses against the United States, except in cases of impeachment.”[i] The pardon power is broad, allowing the president to “release[ ] the offender from any punishment for her crime.”[ii] It “vitiates moral guilt for the offense,…
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The Case for Banning Off-Label Use
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New uses for drugs that are already on the market could help treat hundreds of diseases and thousands of people; however, the current system of push-and-pull incentives in the modern American pharmaceutical regulatory system is not adequately inducing the expensive research needed to market these old drugs for new uses.[i] One commentator, Ben Roin, elegantly…
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Appellate Jurisdiction in Sanchez-Gomez: A Hard Case That Should Be Easy
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Introduction In 2013, the Southern District of California adopted a rule requiring all criminal defendants to appear in full restraints—hands cuffed and connected to a waist chain, feet shackled and chained together—for most non-jury proceedings.1 There were a few exceptions, including appearances at sentencing. And a defendant could ask the district court to…
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Free the Data! The Scramble to Access Data in Light of Schrems I & II
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Maximillian Schrems was a PhD student in Austria when he decided to participate in a study abroad program with Santa Clara University. While Schrems was at Santa Clara, Ed Palmari, Facebook’s privacy lawyer, spoke to his class. It was during this lecture that Schrems received the ammunition that he needed to challenge the…
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Appointing Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer Judges in the Trump Administration
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President Donald Trump incessantly brags that American citizens selected him to “Make the Judiciary Great Again” and constantly reminds the public that the huge number of federal jurists whom Trump has appointed will be deciding cases decades after his tenure is over. Trump has rapidly submitted many circuit and district court candidates, but…