What will Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission mean for labor unions? There are at least two ways to answer that question: first, in terms of its effect on election spending by labor unions; and second, in terms of its precedential value in future cases regarding the scope of labor unions’ First Amendment rights. Although labor unions have little cause for optimism regarding the first answer, the second contains some promise—a potential silver lining—for labor unions. That is to say, it is doubtful that Citizens United will do anything except widen the gulf between corporate and union spending in elections. However, the decision’s robust articulation of corporate and union First Amendment rights has the potential to undermine other limitations on what unions may say, how they may say it, and how they may fund their political speech.
Oddly, Citizens United hardly mentions unions. It dealt with a small, conservative nonprofit… Read More »
- William and Mary Law Review
- 06 April 2012
- Law Review Article
Citizens, United and Citizens United: The Future of Labor Speech Rights?
Charlotte Garden
- Cornell Law Review
- 04 April 2012
- Law Review Essay
Foreign Citizens in Transnational Class Actions
Linda Sandstrom Simard & Jay Tidmarsh
When, if ever, should foreign citizens be included as members of American class actions? The question is not a new one. Judge Friendly first raised it thirty-five years ago in Bersch v. Drexel Firestone, Inc. Since Bersch, courts have tied the answer to res judicata and the recognition of judgments:… Read More »
- Duke Law Journal
- 30 March 2012
- Law Review Article
When Money Grew on Trees: Lucy v. Zehmer and Contracting in a Boom Market
Barak Richman & Dennis Schmelzer
As generations of law students have learned, Lucy v. Zehmer is a tale of two “doggoned drunks” drinking liquor and bantering over the sale of a farm the weekend before Christmas in 1952. Adrian Hardy Zehmer, allegedly drunk and joking, scribbled a contract for the sale of his farm on… Read More »
- Yale Law Journal
- 19 March 2012
- Law Review Article
Outcasting: Enforcement in Domestic and International Law
Oona A. Hathaway & Scott J. Shapiro
Is international law law? Though leading scholars have said that it is “futile” whether international law is law in fact matters a great deal. Most fundamentally, it matters from the moral point of view. Law’s moral import follows from a basic truth accepted by… Read More »
- Cornell Law Review
- 12 March 2012
- Law Review Article
Judicial Ghostwriting: Authorship on the Supreme Court
Albert Yoon & Jeffrey Rosenthal
Justice Louis Brandeis once wrote, “The reason the public thinks so much of the Justices of the Supreme Court is that they are almost the only people in Washington who do their own work.” It is remarkable to think that each year, each justice is responsible for evaluating over seven… Read More »
- Cornell Law Review
- 22 February 2012
- Law Review Article
The Use of Legal Scholarship by the Federal Courts of Appeals: An Empirical Study
David Schwartz & Lee Petherbridge
Legal scholarship has been under sharp attack, particularly when it comes to the role some believe it should play in support of the legal profession. In recent remarks, Chief Justice John Roberts explained that he does not pay much attention to it, reportedly stating that legal scholarship is not “particularly… Read More »
- Yale Law Journal
- 20 February 2012
- Law Review Note
The Solicitor General of the United States: Tenth Justice or Zealous Advocate?
Adam D. Chandler
The federal government loses hundreds of cases in the federal courts of appeals each year, but the Solicitor General selects only a handful of those cases—just fifteen or so—to petition the Supreme Court to review. Acting as the final “decider” on the overwhelming majority of federal appeals, the Solicitor General… Read More »
- Duke Law Journal
- 15 February 2012
Truth, Lies, and Stolen Valor: A Case for Protecting False Statements of Fact Under the First Amendment
Julia Wood
Recent high-profile prosecutions under the Stolen Valor Act of 2005 (the Act) have raised important questions about the First Amendment’s protection of false speech. The Act makes it a crime for an individual to “falsely represent[] himself or herself, verbally or in writing, to have been awarded any decoration or… Read More »
- Northwestern Law Review
- 13 February 2012
- Law Review Note
Who Will Watch the Watchmen?: Citizens Recording Police Conduct
Michael Potere
“Get off the motorcycle! Get off the motorcycle! Get off the motorcycle! State Police . . . put your hands up!” off-duty Maryland State Trooper J.D. Uhler yelled as he jumped out of his car, pulled out his gun, and ran towards motorcyclist Anthony Graber. Trooper Uhler exited his personal vehicle wearing street clothes… Read More »
- Yale Law Journal
- 06 February 2012
- Law Review Article
The Incidental Unconstitutionality of the Individual Mandate
Gary S. Lawson & David B. Kopel
The Solicitor General’s recent brief to the Supreme Court arguing for the constitutionality of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) confidently concludes that the Constitution’s Necessary and Proper Clause confers broad authority upon Congress to enact the so-called “individual mandate” (or “minimum coverage provision”). According to the Solicitor… Read More »