Banks and credit unions sometimes complain that the examination process regulators use to police banking practices is oppressive. These financial institutions complain that regulators reach unduly negative examination conclusions known as “material supervisory determinations.” Institutions are wary because negative determinations can subject an institution to further regulatory scrutiny or enforcement actions. To guard against erroneous determinations, Congress, in 1994, enacted a statute requiring federal financial institution regulators to provide an…
The Supreme Court’s 2008 ruling in District of Columbia v. Heller, 554 U.S. 570 (2008), reshaped decades of Second Amendment precedent and jurisprudence. Using a strictly originalist methodology, the Court in Heller appeared to embrace a largely unqualified right of every person to possess and carry any firearm in common civilian use. Heller seemed to promise the dawn of Second Amendment originalism unencumbered by the nonoriginalist balancing tests and standards…
Liability under section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act is one of the primary mechanisms for enforcing the federal securities laws. Section 10(b), however, prohibits only intentional or reckless deception, and there has never been consensus as to how to determine whether an organization, rather than a natural person, harbors the relevant mens rea. Traditionally, organizational liability under federal law is determined according to agency principles, and most courts pay…
Autonomous vehicles, or self-driving cars, have the potential to revolutionize modern transportation through increased productivity and safety. Today, industry leaders in both automotive manufacturing and technology development are engaged in the design and production of these vehicles. Representatives from these companies have already successfully lobbied a number of state legislatures to permit the testing and use of autonomous vehicles. While the prospect of a mass market in autonomous vehicles is…
For any American who has ever watched television on one of the traditional broadcast networks, seven particular dirty words have always been conspicuously absent. Confusingly, on cable, these seven words may all occur in quick succession on one show. When one of them does make it to air on a broadcast network, it often becomes the source of a fine from the Federal Communications Commission and years of litigation. A…
In June 2012, the United States Supreme Court decided Miller v. Alabama, marking significant progress in the Court’s Eighth Amendment jurisprudence regarding juvenile offenders. In Miller, the Court held mandatory life without parole for juvenile offenders to be unconstitutional. Following its reasoning set forth in previous cases, the Court found that “children are different” in a fundamental way: offenders under the age of eighteen are incapable of being criminally liable…