FedSoc Forums

Last year, Thomas Jefferson High School (TJ), ranked #1 in the nation for academic excellence, changed its admission policy discarding a merit-based entrance exam in favor of a “holistic evaluation” to determine admission. The school stated the change was made in the name of making the student body more demographically representative. Many concerned parents disagreed, contendin...

On February 28, 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear West Virginia v. EPA, one of the most anticipated environmental law cases on the Court’s docket in recent years. By way of background, in 2015, EPA issued the “Clean Power Plan.” Using the Agency’s authority under Clean Air Act Section 111(d), and styled as a rule to control greenhouse gas emissions from existing coal-...

Join us virtually to hear a discussion on the Supreme Court's recent decision in Unicolors, Inc v. H&M Hennes & Mauritz, LP. Featuring: Zvi Rosen, Assistant Professor at SIU Law, and was a Visiting Scholar and Professorial Lecturer in Law at George Washington University School of Law. He has previously taught at University of New Hampshire School of Law as an adjunct professor and New York...

Is open discussion and debate essential to the function of the university? Many universities, including Georgetown, have adopted strong policies on academic freedom, affirming that deliberation or debate may not be suppressed because ideas put forth might be offensive, unwise, immoral or ill conceived. But when controversy arises on campus, concrete complaints about offensive speech can displace t...

On February 7, 2022, the Supreme Court noted probable jurisdiction and granted certiorari before judgment in a case involving Alabama's new congressional district map. It also granted a stay allowing the map to go into effect for Alabama's upcoming primary elections. The Alabama State Conference of the NAACP and others had challenged the map adopted by the Alabama State legislature before a three-...

An exciting petition for certiorari pending before the U.S. Supreme Court, United States v. Tuggle presents the question "Whether long-term, continuous, and surreptitious video surveillance of a home and its curtilage constitutes a search under the Fourth Amendment." The central question deals with the meaning of the word "search." Under Katz v. U.S., the reasonable expectation of privacy test def...

Each month, a panel of constitutional experts convenes to discuss the Court’s upcoming docket sitting by sitting. Issues presented in the next sitting include the regulatory authority of the Environmental Protection Agency, the Controlled Substances Act, states rights, and Indian law. Ysleta del Sur Pueblo v. Texas (Feb. 22) Indian tribes and state law Denezpi v. United States (Feb. 22)...

The Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act and its lesser-known sibling, the International Organizations Immunities Act, enacted in 1945, codify the immunities afforded to foreign states and certain international organizations in U.S. courts. Sovereign and international organization immunity stand at the nexus of international affairs, policy, and the law. This program will concentrate on developments i...

Rising homicide rates, challenges in fully staffing police departments, and a shortfall in trust between some communities and law enforcement agencies have focused attention on whether and how the federal government should respond. This session will examine the Biden administration’s record on policing during its first year in office and, most importantly, the path forward. In light of stall...

The propriety of anti-suit injunctions—that is, orders issued in one jurisdiction prohibiting a party from initiating or continuing litigation in another jurisdiction—has recently become a hot topic in international IP disputes. Chinese courts involved in these disputes are a primary reason why: the Shenzhen People’s Court has recently blocked litigants from enforcing their patent rights in other...

The FDIC board of directors has been convulsed by the widely publicized dispute over who controls the agenda for FDIC board meetings -- the Board chair or a majority of its members. Currently, the FDIC Board has four members -- Chairperson Jelena McWilliams, Director (and former Chairman) Martin Gruenberg, and serving as ex-officio members, Michael Hsu (Acting Comptroller of the Currency) and Rohi...

In Cochran v. SEC the Fifth Circuit court of appeals sitting en banc opened the doors of federal district courts in Texas, Mississippi and Louisiana to constitutional challenges to agency administrative law judges (ALJs) who enjoy multiple layers of protection from removal. This means that persons administratively charged by the SEC will no longer have to first endure years of pointless administra...

Breaking news: The Supreme Court granted certiorari in two petitions pending before the Supreme Court which have gained national attention. Students for Fair Admission Inc. v. President and Fellows of Harvard College and Students for Fair Admission, Inc. v. University of North Carolina both ask the Court to overrule Grutter v. Bollinger, a nearly twenty-year-old Supreme Court decision that allowed...

Free speech champion and icon Nadine Strossen joins Erik Jaffe for a virtual “fireside” chat spanning a variety of free speech topics, including: the perpetual and inevitable conflict between process- and outcome-oriented approaches to free speech cases (i.e., whether to defend the speech or speaker you hate); how does a lawyer or public interest group decide whether to take a case rai...

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 propert...

On January 19, 2022, the United States Supreme Court will hear an appeal by the Federal Elections Commission (FEC) from a successful challenge to campaign finance restrictions brought by Sen. Ted Cruz. The action centers on a provision of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (BCRA) of 2002, otherwise known as McCain-Feingold, that restricts candidates’ ability to use campaign donations receive...

In recent years, many companies have required consumers and employees to agree to individually arbitrate any disputes that might arise, eliminating aggregate dispute resolution devices like class actions. In response, plaintiffs’ lawyers have begun filing masses of individual arbitration demands on behalf of employees and consumers against companies like Intuit, Uber, and American Express. T...

Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 supplemented Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to include, in addition to barring discrimination on the ground of race, color, or national origin, sex as a protected class in federally funded education programs or activities. The purpose of enacting Title IX was to ensure that everyone, regardless of sex, would enjoy a discrimination-free educati...

The Great Dissenter: The Story of John Marshall Harlan, America's Judicial Hero is a new book exploring the life and legacy of a towering but sometimes forgotten jurist. Harlan, who served over 30 years on America's highest court, earned a reputation for being a champion of civil liberties -- notably, he was the lone dissenter in the Civil Rights Cases and Plessy v. Ferguson. Author Peter Canellos...

The Federalist Society's Criminal Law and Procedure and Environmental Law and Property Rights Practice Groups bring you a roundtable discussion with leading Fourth Amendment scholars and litigators reviewing the major Fourth Amendment decisions from the 2020-2021 term and previewing the future of the Fourth Amendment at the High Court. What is the fate of Katz, the third-party doctrine, and the ex...

The Supreme Court recently issued its decisions in two federal vaccine mandate cases. Several states and interest groups sought emergency relief on regulations issued by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration as well as the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The OSHA rule required large employers to require vaccination or regular testing of their employees. CMS required vaccina...

Join us for the fourth episode of the Federalist Society's Supreme Court Show: A Seat at the Sitting. Each month, a panel of constitutional experts convenes to discuss the Court’s upcoming docket sitting by sitting. During the first two weeks of January, the Justices will hear eight oral arguments on cases including the First Amendment – both the speech and religion clauses, immigration, tax law,...

The Clean Water Act authorizes the Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Army to regulate discharges to “navigable waters,” defined in the statute as “waters of the United States, including the territorial seas.” The agency regulations further defining these terms have engendered controversy and litigation for decades. Since 2015, the agencies have modifi...

This webinar will host a debate over the pending amendments to Federal Rule of Evidence 702, which governs the admissibility of expert testimony. In August 2021, the federal judiciary’s Advisory Committee on Evidence Rules published proposed amendments to Rule 702 to include within the text of the rule language directly stating that the proponent of expert testimony must establish each of Ru...

Late in 2020, several pharmaceutical companies developed vaccines for Covid-19 that received FDA approval, first for emergency use and then for general use. Next came the question of whether the federal or state governments should mandate vaccination or leave that decision to individuals. The states have generally deferred to the federal government, and Congress punted punted the question to Presi...