Henry Valentine Wright v. Dorsey, a recent defamation case, demonstrates the limitations of anti-SLAPP (“Strategic Litigation Against Public Participation”) law and the need for supplemental speech protections. Joshua Wright, an antitrust law practitioner and former professor, sued Elyse Dorsey and Angela Landry for defamation. Dorsey and Landry had claimed that Wright used his position as Continue Reading »
Molly Pines The Supreme Court will yet again wade into highly politically charged waters this term when it decides United States v. Skrmetti, a case about gender-affirming healthcare for minors. More specifically, Skrmetti will decide whether SB1, a 2023 Tennessee law that bans gender-affirming care for individuals below age 18, violates the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Continue Reading »
Kyle Beck After All Resort Group filed for bankruptcy, David Miller, its appointed trustee, sought to claw back tax payments the company had made on behalf of two of its principals to the IRS by arguing the payments constituted fraudulent transfers. Unlike a typical clawback action, however, the trustee brought this proceeding under Section 544(b), Continue Reading »
Matthew N. Barry In 2018, Congress passed the First Step Act with overwhelming bipartisan support. One of its provisions, § 403, clarifies 18 U.S.C. § 924(c) by eliminating the “stacking” of mandatory minimum sentences for certain firearm offenses for first-time offenders. Section 403(b) makes the provision retroactive so long as “a sentence for the offense Continue Reading »
Andrew Klauber In September 2019, Purdue Pharma L.P. petitioned for bankruptcy in the Southern District of New York. Purdue, which the Sackler family had owned and operated for decades, developed and aggressively marketed addictive opioid products, contributing to the modern opioid epidemic. The tsunami of litigation arising from the opioid epidemic gave rise to claims Continue Reading »
Matthew Poliakoff After the 2020 Census, South Carolina’s Republican-controlled legislature redrew the boundaries for Congressional District 1, historically anchored in Charleston County. After thirty-thousand African American voters were moved out of District 1 and into District 6, the South Carolina State Conference of the NAACP challenged the new map as an unconstitutional racial gerrymander. A Continue Reading »
Kraz Greinetz In Penn Central Transportation Co. v. City of New York, the Supreme Court authorized the practice of historic preservation. Ruling that when a city designates a building as “historic” and therefore restricting its development, it is not a “taking” of private property that requires just compensation under the Fifth Amendment. Since that time, Continue Reading »
Margaret Kruzner For a decade, Justice Clarence Thomas has sharply criticized the Court’s treatment of affirmative action, the race-conscious university admissions processed used to pursue the educational benefits associated with diverse classrooms. Calling affirmative action a “faddish theory” that the “Constitution abhors,” Justice Thomas signaled his readiness to overrule Grutter v. Bollinger, which endorsed the practice Continue Reading »
Braden Fain Moore v. Harper tasks the Supreme Court with considering a fringe legal idea known as the Independent State Legislature Theory (ISLT). Donald Trump gave ISLT new life by invoking the theory during his attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 election. Instead of presidential elections, the litigation in Moore concerns congressional elections and partisan gerrymandering. Continue Reading »
Graham Stinnett The “crown jewel” of the Civil Rights Movement, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 has been called “one of the most effective statutes ever enacted.” However, in 2013 the Supreme Court famously gutted the Voting Rights Act in Shelby County v. Holder. Nearly a decade later, in Allen v. Milligan, the Court is now signaling Continue Reading »
