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Trump’s War on “Narco-Terrorists” Upends the Rule of Law
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Bipartisan leaders are investigating allegations that the Trump administration ordered unlawful killings following U.S. strikes in the Caribbean. As military operations there expand without congressional authorization, the controversy raises serious constitutional and international law concerns and highlights Congress’s failure to restrain executive war-making.
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Presidential Election Spectators No More
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The 2020 presidential campaign predominantly focused on swing states, leaving non-swing state voters feeling excluded. Despite a majority favoring the direct election of the president, efforts to amend the Electoral College have stalled. A potential solution is the National Popular Vote compact, but reform remains challenging due to entrenched interests in swing states.
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Generating . . . Client Confidentiality Concerns in the Use of Generative AI Technology
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Since the emergence of low- to no-cost public access to more sophisticated uses of artificial intelligence (“AI”), there has been lively discussion regarding how lawyers may ethically use various artificial intelligence software and services. The discussion has primarily focused on the duties of competence, communication, confidentiality, detecting conflicts of interest, and supervising. “The potential applications…
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Managing the Groundwater Governance Gap
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You have probably heard that we are running out of groundwater. Headline after headline tells us that the United States is running dry. Wells in the arid southwest are going deeper, chasing after an ever-decreasing amount of water. Cracks in the Earth are the scars of our obsession with groundwater, over-pumped and over-relied upon for…
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WE WERE BORN THIS WAY: THE FOURTEENTH AMENDMENT AND IMMUTABILITY
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A person can be many things: spouse, parent, attorney, teacher, sports fan, dog owner, bisexual, taxpayer, employee, employer. but few need any explanation in order for courts, lawyers, and lay people to understand their meanings. A dog owner owns a dog, while a taxpayer pays taxes; a teacher teaches, and a spouse is a married…
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Becerra: A Hint at a Post-Chevron World
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Back in 2021, one case, American Hospital Association v. Becerra, seemed to be teed up for the Supreme Court to reconsider its 1984 Chevron decision that generally allows administrative agencies leeway when interpreting ambiguous statutes. The legal world would have heard about it if that had happened, but it didn’t. When the decision came…
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THE “SAFE THIRD COUNTRY” AGREEMENT BETWEEN CANADA AND THE UNITED STATES
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You may have read in the news in recent years about people crossing the border from the United States into Canada at a section of the border without an official crossing to seek asylum once they arrive in Canada. Why not just ask for asylum at an official point of entry? Well, the answer is…
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CENSORSHIP, LEAST COST AVOIDERS, AND COMMON SENSE
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On December 8, 2023, a Massachusetts police officer entered a school with the intent to remove Maia Kobabe’s book Gender Queer: A Memoir. The officer arrived in plain clothes in response to a complaint that the book depicted obscene materials. While the book was not located, this event was merely the latest example of attempts…
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MASSACHUSETTS REAFFIRMS COMMITMENT TO SINGLE-LOOK APPROACH TO LIQUIDATED DAMAGES PROVISIONS
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Recently, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court issued an opinion that reaffirmed the jurisdiction’s single-look approach to determining the validity of liquidated damages provisions. Liquidated damages provisions are contract terms that provide a specified amount of damages to be paid in case of a breach. Such provisions are unenforceable if they operate as a penalty. How…
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A PROPOSAL TO MODIFY THE MASSACHUSETTS RAPE STATUTE
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*Thank you to Professor Aliza Hochman Bloom for her professional comments in the early stages of this essay. Special thanks also to Amanda Seijo and Brynn Morse for their outstanding work as research assistants The Massachusetts rape statute requires proof of force and lack of consent to convict a defendant of rape. Specifically, the statute…
