The Legal Workshop

This Editorial summarizes my forthcoming Note, 85 N.Y.U. L. REV. (forthcoming June 2010), in which I assert that our current regulatory structure is suboptimal in its regulation of the systemic risk created by the failure of large, interconnected “nonbank” financial institutions (in general, a nonbank financial institution is any institution that… Read More »

Judges have the often unenviable task of having to answer very difficult legal questions. Some apprehension toward this task is understandable, so how might a judge duck the task of writing a new doctrinal test to resolve the hard question and similar claims in the future? Aside from using familiar… Read More »

Congress enacted the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (PSLRA) to reduce plaintiffs’ lawyers’ influence in securities class actions. The PSLRA’s presumption that the class member with the largest financial interest would be named lead plaintiff was meant to ensure that the class, not a law firm, would be… Read More »

Whether patients should be able to contract out of the malpractice system has been a hotly debated subject in law and economics and health law literature.  Advocates of patient choice argue that if the cost of having the option to bring a malpractice suit truly outweighs the benefit to a… Read More »

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 »

In 1986, Congress enacted “a comprehensive scheme prohibiting the employment of illegal aliens in the United States.” Recently, many municipalities have taken matters into their own hands because of dissatisfaction over federal enforcement of these employment regulations.  Municipalities across the country have enacted, or considered enacting, ordinances that penalize employers of… Read More »

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 »

Under the Articles of Confederation, state legislatures often formally instructed their federal representatives on particular votes, continuing a practice common in England and the American colonies.  This occurred, to some later scholars’ dismay, even after James Madison argued that the Senate was designed to provide “a due sense of national… Read More »

By allowing the condemnation of private homes to make way for a “more attractive” private development, the U.S. Supreme Court in Kelo v. City of New London roused the fury of the libertarian legal academy and much of the public.  In Kelo, the Court held that a plan for private economic… Read More »

In 2008 in United States v. Santos, the Supreme Court addressed the meaning of the term “proceeds” as used in 18 U.S.C. § 1956, part of the Money Laundering Control Act.  Efrain Santos and a co-defendant were charged with operating an illegal lottery, which involved payments to runners, collectors, and… Read More »