“[T]he biggest threat to US democracy since January 6.” “[A] theory that could upend elections.” “It’s Hard to Overstate the Danger of the Voting Case the Supreme Court Just Agreed to Hear.” These headlines highlight that…
The chilling effect doctrine is “a major substantive component of first amendment adjudication,” but courts’ understanding of chilling effects is limited and narrow. In theory, a chilling effect occurs when prohibitions on activities that are unprotected…
In Pennsylvania Coal Co. v. Mahon, Justice Holmes observed that “while property may be regulated to a certain extent, if a regulation goes too far it will be recognized as a taking.” And so articulated was…
The Sixth Amendment Confrontation Clause promotes “the protection of innocence,” due process, and fair trials by extending to criminal defendants the right to cross-examine witnesses that bear testimony against them. To preserve this right in the…
In an increasingly interconnected national economy, the myriad political leanings and morals of political actors result in equally varied — and sometimes diametrically opposed — state laws. Thus, tensions abound, leading to high-profile disagreements among politicians, between politicians and corporations,…
When an administrative agency initiates an enforcement action, a regulated entity has an array of defenses at its disposal. It might contend it is factually not liable. It might attempt to show that the agency has…
Executive discretion in federal enforcement proceedings is, perhaps, a distinctly American legal tradition. In the eighteenth century, while private litigants dominated criminal actions in England, American fidelity to separation of powers created an executive monopoly over…
The “springboard for our modern personal jurisdiction jurisprudence,” International Shoe Co. v. Washington was “‘canonical,’ ‘seminal,’ ‘pathmarking,’ and even ‘momentous’” — not to mention “transformative.” International Shoe held that a state court’s assertion of personal jurisdiction comports with…
Given the complexity of habeas corpus law, one can understand why “fairminded jurists” have disagreed over the circumstances under which a person in government custody may challenge his sentence or conviction. But amid these debates, Americans…
When states receive funds from the federal government, strings are often attached. For instance, if states wish to receive Medicaid and Medicare funds, the Federal Nursing Home Reform Act (FNHRA) requires states to respect the rights…
The Clean Water Act is the principal federal water pollution statute. It prohibits unpermitted discharges of pollution into “navigable waters,” which the statute defines to mean “the waters of the United States.” The meaning of that…
Quantum physicists recognize that the very act of observing causes an inevitable “disturbance of the object observed.” The Supreme Court can sometimes resemble a physicist observing particles when it grants review of a hot legal question:…
Art is imitation (at least according to Plato and Justice Kagan). Last Term, in Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. v. Goldsmith, the Supreme Court held that the licensing of Andy Warhol’s “Orange Prince”…
Under international law, the principle of foreign sovereign immunity is derived from the proposition that “one country cannot exercise jurisdiction over another without violating the core principle par in parem no[n] habet imperium (‘an equal has…
Polselli v. IRS is a tax case. Fear not, keep reading. In fulfilling its duty to collect federal taxes, the IRS has historically received disfavor from many in American society. Labeled “legalized larceny” in President Coolidge’s…
Brands — and the names, slogans, and logos they use to promote themselves — are “ubiquitous, embedded in every aspect of our lives and relationships.” Given their omnipresence, it is no surprise that others use their trademarks for “lighthearted humor,…
Under the long-standing doctrine of primary jurisdiction, courts temporarily abstain from resolving certain issues that an agency, entrusted by Congress to decide the question in the first instance, has yet to address. In San Diego Building…
Puerto Rico is in a state of crisis. The island bears a debt burden of more than seventy-two billion dollars, retains lasting damage from natural disasters whilst being subject to discriminatory restrictions on federal aid, and…
Religious practice and disability are two of the only three statuses for which federal law protects the right to workplace accommodations. For both, the law requires that employers provide reasonable accommodations to qualifying workers unless such…
America was founded on ideals of democracy, freedom, and political equality. It was also founded with racialized slavery, and for most of its history was devoted to a caste system that kept minorities from their rights…
Each year, the Harvard Law Review publishes a series of tables summarizing numerical trends from the Court’s most recent Term. This year’s Statistics can be found in PDF form and as an interactive visualization.
