Pregnancy, Work, and the Promise of Equal Citizenship

Joanna L. Grossman - Hofstra University School of Law

Can women capture the benefits of equal citizenship in a legal system that does not mandate accommodations for pregnant workers?  This Article argues that they cannot.  Current pregnancy discrimination law, which bases the right to work on full capacity, systematically deprives women of equal opportunity to make use of their… Read More »

  • 03 February 2010

Rights Clash: How Conflicts Between Gay Rights and Religious Freedoms Challenge the Legal System

Laura K. Klein

That some religious beliefs clash with the gay rights movement is undeniable. When these interests conflict in the form of litigation and both sides adopt the rhetoric of rights, the resulting rights clash challenges the United States legal system’s ability to come to a principled result. While the public views… Read More »

  • 13 January 2010

Fairness, Disability, and Genetic Antidiscrimination

Jeffrey S. Morrow - 2010 J.D. Candidate, Georgetown Law School

Genetic discrimination is unfair. This observation is, by all accounts, largely uncontroversial. As a result of the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2008 (GINA), which took effect in late November, genetic discrimination is also now illegal. GINA prohibits employers from using genetic information in employment decisions and prohibits health insurers from… Read More »

  • 11 January 2010

Codified Canons and the Common Law of Interpretation

Jacob Scott

Statutory construction generally involves rules of thumb that are said to allow readers to draw inferences about the meaning of a particular statute.  These “canons of construction” (also known as maxims of interpretation) guide the methods and sources used in statutory interpretation and are usually deployed according to an interpreter’s… Read More »

  • 23 November 2009

Rethinking Bivens: Legitimacy and Constitutional Adjudication

James E. Pfander & David Baltmanis

The Supreme Court’s 1971 decision in Bivens v. Six Unknown Named Agents of Federal Bureau of Narcotics plays a central role in our system of constitutional remedies. Yet critics have long questioned the Bivens Court’s decision to fashion a federal common law right of action to enforce the Fourth Amendment. While… Read More »

  • 05 October 2009

Legislative Supremacy in the United States?: Rethinking the “Enrolled Bill” Doctrine

Ittai Bar-Siman-Tov Bar-Siman-Tov - Columbia Law School

The “enrolled bill” doctrine (EBD) requires courts to accept the signatures of the Speaker of the House and President of the Senate on an “enrolled bill” as unimpeachable evidence that the bill has been constitutionally enacted. This doctrine has the powerful effect of preventing judicial review of the legislative process—that is,… Read More »

  • 17 August 2009

“Voice” in the Close Corporation

Benjamin Means - University of South Carolina School of Law

In a recent article published by the Georgetown Law Journal, I criticize the inflexibility of existing law concerning claims of minority shareholder oppression in close corporations.  A more satisfactory approach, I contend, would encourage courts to vary their level of scrutiny, requiring detailed justification from controlling shareholders when the minority… Read More »

  • 29 June 2009

Risk Governance and Deliberative Democracy in Health Care

Nan D. Hunter - Brooklyn Law School

A risk governance paradigm provides the best theoretical framework for understanding both the health care system and health law. By “risk governance,” I mean a set of practices organized around principles of risk allocation, management, and distribution. Largely through the structures of managed care, the discourse of risk and insurance… Read More »

  • 10 May 2009

Substance or Illusion? The Dangers of Imposing a Standing Threshold

Amanda C. Leiter - Catholic University Columbus School of Law

The article from which this essay is derived criticizes the D.C. Circuit’s evaluation of petitioners’ standing in so-called “increased-risk” cases—cases in which individuals or interest groups allege that an agency action places them at increased risk of future harm. The D.C. Circuit requires petitioners in such cases to establish that… Read More »

  • 19 March 2009

Systemic Risk: Revisiting Theory from the Perspective of the “Subprime” Financial Crisis

Steven L. Schwarcz - Duke University School of Law

This is a test Read More »