FedSoc Forums

Environmental, Social, and Corporate Governance (ESG) investing has grown in popularity in recent years. As a result of major investment firms and individual stockholders making ethical and social considerations in their investing, firms and corporations have developed ESG rating matrices to grade publicly traded companies on their commitment to diversity and the fight against climate change. Thes...

Does New York’s “rent stabilization” law violate the federal Constitution? The law, which regulates approximately 1 million apartments in New York City, was enacted more than fifty years ago and remains in effect based on an every-three-year declaration of a housing “emergency.” The law does not merely regulate rent levels. It also limits a property owner’s right to determine who uses an apartment...

In this recorded webinar, John Malcolm and John Yoo revive their discussion of presidential power, prosecution, impeachment, and separation of powers with the prosecution of former President Donald Trump for the events surrounding the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol. They discussed the facts and law of Trump’s indictment, the developments in the Hunter Biden investigations, and the inte...

How far can states use their local economy to put economic pressure on other states to change their policies? In National Pork Producers Council v. Ross (2023), the Supreme Court considered this question, and had a very unusual split 5-4 with Justices Gorsuch, Thomas, Sotomayor, Kagan, and Barrett in the majority. The Court rejected a challenge to a California regulation that prohibited the in-sta...

In 1984, Hon. Pauline Newman became the first judge appointed directly to the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. Judge Newman has served on that court since, and serves to this day. Reports surfaced in April of this year that Federal Circuit Chief Judge Kimberly Moore had initiated a complaint against Judge Newman under the Judicial Conduct and Disability Act of 1980. On May 1...

Artificial intelligence (AI) technologies are not new, but they have made rapid advances in recent years and attracted the attention of policymakers and observers from all points on the political spectrum. These advances have intensified concerns about AI’s potential to discriminate against select groups of Americans or to import human bias against particular ideologies. AI programs like ChatGPT l...

Buettner-Hartsoe v. Baltimore Lutheran High School Association d/b/a Concordia Preparatory School poses a question of whether Title IX applies to schools that do not receive federal financial aid. Former students of Concordia Preparatory School, a private school, sued Concordia Prep. under Title IX alleging that the school had not adequately addressed complaints of sexual assault and sexual harass...

The regulatory environment in the United States is often complex. State and federal laws sometimes contradict each other. The transition of the American Presidency from one political party to another can lead to rapid and dramatic changes in the regulatory landscape. Even transfers of power between administrations of the same party or shifting priorities of one administration can cause significant...

On July 4, 2023, a preliminary injunction was issued in Missouri v. Biden (Western District of Louisiana, 3:22-CV-01213). At issue is the constitutionality of alleged collusion between various federal government agencies and social media companies. Plaintiffs allege that Defendants – including President Biden, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, Secretary Xavier Becerra, Secretary Alej...

In his newly released book We May Dominate the World: Ambition, Anxiety, and the Rise of the American Colossus, Sean A. Mirski tells the story of how the United States asserted its growing power in the Western hemisphere in the century following the Civil War. Sean Mirski joined us to discuss this chapter of America's history and to share the lessons that we can draw from it as China and other sta...

As wireless devices become critical to our daily lives, the process of allocating and managing electromagnetic spectrum rights has become more important but also more contested. Breakdowns in the federal spectrum coordination process and the inability to free up enough spectrum for commercial use threaten American leadership in wireless technology and limit the benefits Americans can get from thei...

On Friday, June 30, 2023, the Supreme Court issued its decision in Biden v. Nebraska. The case arose after President Biden enacted a plan to cancel between $10,000 and $20,000 in student loans for qualified borrowers through executive action. The Biden Administration argued that the Secretary of Education was granted the authority to forgive student loans in the Higher Education Relief Opportuniti...

On Thursday, June 22, 2023, the Supreme Court issued its decision in Arizona v. Navajo Nation. In a 5-4 decision, the Court held that the United States owes no “affirmative duty” to the Navajo Nation to secure water, reversing a decision by the US Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit. The majority held that the 1868 Treaty of Bosque Redondo did not establish a federal obligation to provide water....

On June 30, 2023 U.S. Supreme Court decided 303 Creative LLC v. Elenis. Petitioner Lorie Smith, an artist in Colorado and owner/founder of the graphic design firm 303 Creative LLC. challenged Colorado’s Anti-Discrimination Act (CADA) on the grounds it is unconstitutional, arguing, among other things, it violates her right to free speech. The Court ruled “The First Amendment prohibits Colorado from...

In Counterman v. Colorado, the Court considered a question of free speech and criminal law: whether, in order for a statement to be categorized as a "true threat" and thus not protected under a right to free speech, the speaker must subjectively know or intend the threatening nature of the statement, or whether it is enough that an objective "reasonable person" would regard the statement as a thre...

On June 22, 2023, the Supreme Court released its decision in Samia v. United States . The main question at issue in the case was whether the admission of a codefendant’s redacted out-of-court confession that incriminates the defendant due to its content violates the Confrontation Clause of the Sixth Amendment. The Court held “the Confrontation Clause was not violated by the admission of a nontesti...

On June 29, 2023 SCOTUS issued an opinion concerning Title VII, religious liberties, and employment law. In deciding Groff v. DeJoy , the Court held “ Title VII requires an employer that denies a religious accommodation to show that the burden of granting an accommodation would result in substantial increased costs in relation to the conduct of its particular business.” The case involved Gerald Gr...

On Thursday, June 29, 2023, the Supreme Court issued its decision in Students for Fair Admissions Inc. v. President and Fellows of Harvard College. The opinion jointly addressed the issues presented in SFFA v. Harvard and SFFA v. University of North Carolina. The question before the Court was whether the race-conscious admissions systems used by Harvard and UNC violate the Equal Protection Clause...

On Tuesday, June 27, 2023, the Supreme Court issued its decision in Mallory v. Norfolk Southern Railway Co. The question before the Court was whether a Pennsylvania law governing out-of-state corporations registered to do business inside the state that purports to confer general personal jurisdiction over the registrant violates the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The Court vacated...

On March 28, 2023, the Supreme Court handed down its decision in Wilkins v. United States. The case involves a suit by neighbors to quiet title over a road easement that the United States interprets as allowing for public use. The United States argued the claim was jurisdictionally barred by the the Federal Quiet Title Act’s 12-year time limit. The Court held that the Act’s statute of limitations...

The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, signed into law on November 15, 2021, requires the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), within two years, to promulgate rules to facilitate equal access to broadband internet services and to prevent "digital discrimination of access based on income level, race, ethnicity, color, religion, or national origin." Significantly, the statute also requires...

On Tuesday, June 27, 2023, the Supreme Court issued its decision in Moore v. Harper. The case concerned the Elections Clause of the U.S. Constitution and “the claim that the Clause vests state legislatures with authority to set rules governing federal elections free from restrictions imposed under state law,” 600 U.S. ___ (2023). In a 6-3 decision, the Court rejected the “independent state legisla...

Last year, the Supreme Court issued a landmark decision in West Virginia v. EPA, in which the Court reinvigorated the “Major Questions Doctrine” of administrative law. Given the Federal Trade Commission’s efforts to expand its rulemaking powers under Section 5 of the FTC Act and the likely return of the “net neutrality” fight at the Federal Communications Commission once a third Democratic commiss...

On Thursday, June 15, 2023, the Supreme Court issued its decision in Haaland v. Brackeen. The case was primarily concerned with the constitutionality of the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA), a federal law enacted in 1978 that governs state-level adoption and foster care cases involving Native American children. Among other provisions, the ICWA gives tribal governments jurisdiction over the adoption...

On June 20, Judge Amul Thapar of the Sixth Circuit published "The People's Justice," in which he explores "the human stories behind twelve illustrative cases on which Justice [Clarence] Thomas has ruled." In this video podcast, Judge Thapar joined the Federalist Society's Dean Reuter to discuss the book and Justice Thomas's legacy. Featuring: Hon. Amul R. Thapar, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixt...