The Good Lawyers of January 6

Much of the response by the community of legal ethics and professional responsibility scholars to the 2020 presidential election has been focused on the wrongs committed by lawyers like John Eastman, Jeffrey Clark, and Kenneth Chesebro, who created the alternate elector scheme to throw the decision regarding the election to the House of Representatives. Yet there was a group of lawyers, that I will refer to as “the good lawyers of January 6,” who forcefully and unequivocally opposed this plan,… Read More

Defending U.S. Citizenship-Based Taxation in Theory and in Practice: An Essay on Fiscal Citizenship in a FATCA World

For some Americans, a surprising aspect of the saga of Meghan Markle, also known as the Duchess of Sussex, was learning that, as a U.S. citizen living in the United Kingdom, the Duchess was obligated to pay U.S. income taxes on her worldwide income.[1] President Donald Trump has echoed concerns raised in this controversy about the United States’ worldwide income taxation of its citizens living abroad. In particular, during his 2024 presidential campaign, President Trump called for “ending the double… Read More

The Collision Course Between Outdated State Laws and Automated Vehicles

America stands at the precipice of a vehicular revolution. Myriads of self-driving vehicles—often referred to as “automated vehicles” or “AVs”—are already rolling out across the nation, and innovators assert that AVs will make our roads safer, less congested, and more economically productive. However, reaching these dreams of self-driving utopias will require more than just technological progress. The uses of traditional vehicles are heavily regulated by hundreds of thousands of state laws that ensure public safety, health, and order. Will these… Read More

Necessary Justice: “Political” Trials and Modern Political Philosophy

Donald Trump’s election to President of the United States for the second time in November 2024 marked the beginning of the end of a sustained effort to hold him accountable in court for conduct that many Americans viewed as criminal.[1] Trump received not only the majority of Electoral College votes but a decisive plurality of the popular vote as well.[2] At the time of the election, he had already been convicted of thirty-four felonies surrounding a complex fraud to hide… Read More

Digital Danger for People with Visual Disabilities: Online Adhesion Contracts and the Lack of Web Accessibility Standards

Since Title III of the American with Disabilities Act was enacted, the landscape of where people with disabilities may experience discrimination has grown even larger. With the digital world expanding rapidly, people with visual disabilities face unique dangers presented by inaccessible websites and the lack of federal web accessibility standards. While courts across the nation scatter to find balance in protecting the rights of people with disabilities without overburdening businesses, Congress’s failure to legislate web accessibility standards, and the Department… Read More

Resolving the Class Action Paradox

A paradox exists at the core of class actions. They were designed to perform a valuable function, protecting and compensating individuals who would not otherwise have legal recourse, yet in practice they have effectively silenced and disenfranchised class members, leaving them unaware and uninformed of litigation commenced on their behalf, the nature of their potential claims, and the damages they may seek. In this Article, we take three significant steps toward resolving the class action paradox. First, we unpack recent… Read More

Burying the Burden: A Sovereign’s Duty of Investigation Post-Republic of Turkey v. Christie’s Inc.

This Note explores the intersection of cultural heritage law and U.S. property law through the lens of Republic of Turkey v. Christie’s Inc., a significant case involving the contested ownership of the ancient Anatolian “Stargazer” figurine. The Note explores how longstanding doctrines of property and the equitable defense of laches interact with international legal frameworks and patrimony laws aimed at preserving cultural heritage material. The case underscores tensions between cultural nationalism and internationalism, sovereign ownership claims under foreign patrimony laws,… Read More

Ethics Accountability: The Next Era for Lawyers and Judges

Five decades ago, United States Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren delivered remarks that sound like they were written in the early 2020s: [O]ur profession has recently suffered greatly because a score of lawyers has been convicted or indicted for felonious conduct in the performance of their official duties in the highest reaches of our national government. . . . Their alleged criminal offenses pertain to serious violations of our system of justice and to the performance of basic functions of government. The inner… Read More

Putting Police Body-Worn Camera Footage to Work: A Civil Liberties Evaluation of Truleo’s AI Analytics Platform

This Article summarizes findings from a civil liberties evaluation of Truleo, an AI-powered analytics platform designed to automate the review of police body-worn camera (BWC) footage. It includes a summary of how Truleo’s platform works, policy choices made by the company, and our assessment of safeguards and risks of the platform from a civil liberties perspective. This Article also offers a series of recommendations for policymakers considering the adoption of Truleo or similar technologies. These include the necessity for independent… Read More

Contesting State Capture

State capture poses a distinctive challenge to democracy in the United States. As well-resourced individuals and interest groups exert ever-increasing influence over public policymaking, the American legal system loses its moorings in majority will and democratic faith. The costs of this process are borne by the poor and working classes. Unlike most public-law scholarship concerned with state capture, this Article surfaces potential remedies in the underutilized tools of state constitutional law. Drawing on state constitutional history and political-economic scholarship, it… Read More