Recent Articles

Limiting the Rule of Lenity

Ha, 12 Wake Forest L. Rev. Online 46 (2022)
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Limiting the Rule of Lenity

THE SCARLET LETTER: NORTH CAROLINA, GIGLIO, AND THE INJURY IN SEARCH OF A REMEDY

Jeffrey Warren, 12 Wake Forest L. Rev. Online 24 (2022)
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THE SCARLET LETTER: NORTH CAROLINA, GIGLIO, AND THE INJURY IN SEARCH OF A REMEDY
Mandatory Reassignment Under the Americans With Disabilities Act: The Fourth Circuit Weighs In

Belen Wilson, 12 Wake Forest L. Rev. Online 1 (2022)
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Mandatory Reassignment Under the Americans With Disabilities Act: The Fourth Circuit Weighs In

14Nov

Don’t fall for the CON: A Challenge to North Carolina’s Certificate of Needs

Categories: Current Issues Blog

By: Spencer Lewis History and Purpose In 1977, North Carolina legislature presented the North Carolina Health Planning and Resource Development Act of 1978, a bill that would introduce a Certificate of Need (“CON”) requirement to the state’s healthcare system in response to federal incentives.[1] This CON law would require state approval for health care providers […]

Tags: Health Law

13Nov

Palmer v. Amazon: A Case Study In Textualism And The Fixed-Meaning Canon

Categories: Law Review Online Uncategorized

14 Wake Forest L. Rev. Online 112 Michael Showalter[1] Introduction A recent Second Circuit panel failed to heed the fixed-meaning rule of statutory interpretation, and its flawed opinion highlights the rule’s importance to the rule of law. In Palmer v. Amazon, the Second Circuit held that New York’s workers-compensation exclusivity does not reach suits for […]

Tags: Civil Litigation fixed-meaning canon New York statutory interpretation textualism Third Circuit Worker's Compensation

31Oct

Thou Shall Not: Would today’s Supreme Court uphold precedent that displays of the Ten Commandments in classrooms are unconstitutional?

Categories: Current Issues Blog

Chris Whipple Background Earlier this month, a local school board in North Carolina failed to pass a policy requiring public school classrooms to display posters of the Ten Commandments.[1] The Iredell-Statesville School Board of Education (“I-SS Board”) voted against the proposal by one of its board members for a “Founding Documents” poster, featuring the Ten […]

Tags: Constitutional Law Supreme Court

10Oct

Social Media Companies Beware: Government Officials Call for Warnings to be Placed on Social Media Platforms

Categories: Current Issues Blog

Benjamin Riley Social Media’s Rise to the Forefront Over the last few decades, social media platforms have gained immense popularity with Americans,[1] and statistics point to the average American having accounts on multiple platforms.[2] Yet, as is the case with many trends, this growth has not come without its fair share of controversy. These platforms […]

Tags: Constitutional Law social media

2Oct

How Lawmakers Are Grappling with Prosecuting the Parents of School Shooters

Categories: Current Issues Blog

Emily Race The First Charges Gun ownership and gun reform are central points of contention in today’s political landscape. The number of gun-violence related incidents in K-12 schools has been steadily rising since 2021, peaking at 349 last year.[1] So far in 2024, there have been 237 shootings at K-12 schools.[2] Amid the immediate sorrow […]

Tags: Criminal Law

24Sep

A Safer Bet: Proposed Bill Aims to Crack Down on Predatory Sportsbooks

Categories: Current Issues Blog

Jack Bryant Background: On March 11, 2024, the Governor of North Carolina, Roy Cooper (“Cooper”), placed a wager on the Carolina Hurricanes to win the Stanley Cup.[1] Cooper made the bet on Raleigh’s beloved hockey team[2] to commemorate sports betting companies, also known as “sportsbooks,”[3] accepting wagers in North Carolina for the first time in […]

Tags: sports law Supreme Court

17Sep

Election Lawsuits: Voter Registration Data at the Heart of Political Filings

Categories: Current Issues Blog

Sydney Basden The 2024 Presidential election is mere weeks away, and North Carolinians on both sides of the political aisle are being reminded to vote.[1] With North Carolina expected to be a key swing state in the Electoral College,[2] the political advertisements seem to be never-ending, via television commercials, internet ads, phone calls, texts, and […]

Tags: election law Voting Rights

11Sep

Fumbling in Court: Exploring the Florida State-ACC Lawsuit

Categories: Current Issues Blog

Jay Ramesh Background On Saturday, August 31, fans across North Carolina rejoiced as the University of North Carolina (UNC) took down the University of Minnesota in the inaugural week of college football. The Tar Heel faithfully looks to this season with optimism as the gates to the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) championship have been thrown […]

Tags: Civil Litigation Sports

12Aug

Against “the Huddleston Test”

Categories: Law Review Online

14 Wake Forest L. Rev. Online 99 Dora W. Klein[1] “To determine whether evidence is admissible under Rule 404(b), the Huddleston test applies . . . .”[2] Introduction Many courts—mostly federal, but also some state courts—are misapplying the United States Supreme Court’s decision in the 1988 case United States v. Huddleston.[3] These courts have used a single paragraph of […]

Tags: Evidence federal rules Supreme Court

27May

“Reverse Divisibility” and “Subsequent Modification”: Expanding the Scope of Justified Non-Performance in Multiple Contract Situations

Categories: Online

14 Wake Forest L. Rev. Online 92 Gregory Scott Crespi[1] Introduction Parties to a contract sometimes invoke divisibility arguments in an attempt to recharacterize the contract as being two or more separate contracts. This is often done in order to limit the justified non-performance consequences of a breach of contract on their part. This short […]

Tags: contract law

20May

NIFLA and the Argument Against “Professional Speech”

Categories: Uncategorized

14 Wake Forest L. Rev. Online 69 Introduction Since its founding, our nation has highly valued the freedom of speech. The Founders sought to ensure robust free speech protection, recognizing “an inalienable natural right to express one’s thoughts.” [1] In writing the founding documents, the Drafters emphasized the rights to write, speak, and publish as […]

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25Apr

The Major Questions Doctrine Pollutes the Future of the Biden Administration’s Vehicle Tailpipes Regulations

Categories: Current Issues Blog

Ryan Valerio The ambiguity surrounding the Supreme Court’s application of the major questions doctrine and the doubtful future of Chevron is continuing to sow uncertainty in regulations across all industries. The Biden Administration recently announced a finalized rule from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that would be the country’s strictest-ever limits on greenhouse gas auto […]

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18Apr

Humanitarian Parole: Demystifying President Biden’s CHNV Parole Program

Categories: Current Issues Blog

Meredith Gillespie Introduction On March 8, 2024, Judge Drew B. Tipton of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas dismissed a lawsuit brought by twenty-one states[1] arguing that the CHNV Parole Program (“CHNV Program”) should be repealed.[2] The CHNV Program, established in January 2023, allows individuals from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and […]

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11Apr

Too Many Cooks in the Kitchen: Home Chef Challenges the Circuit Split on the Trademark Infringement Likelihood-of-Confusion Analysis

Categories: Current Issues Blog

Hannah Doherty In 2014, the prominent meal-kit company, Home Chef, merged with supermarket chain, Kroger, Co., and adopted a new trademark, the “HC Home Mark.”[1] The mark, which is protected by five federal trademark registrations, features the silhouette of a fork and knife, contained within the outline of a house.[2] By 2021, Home Chef had […]

Tags: Civil Litigation trademark infringement

9Apr

Will Florida Become the Next State to Protect Abortion Access Through Constitutional Amendment?

Categories: Current Issues Blog

Katie Palmer Introduction In 2023, the Florida legislature passed a bill that restricted access to abortion after the gestational age of 6 weeks.[1] While the legislation provided exceptions for certain circumstances, including those in which a pregnancy may endanger the life or physical health of a pregnant woman,[2] it greatly restricted access to abortion for […]

Tags: abortion Constitutional Rights Dobbs Florida voting

4Apr

The Whole Truth About Rule 10b-5 Half-Truths: Macquarie Infrastructure Corp. v. Moab Partners, L.P.

Categories: Current Issues Blog

Ryan Kainz “No comment.” Corporate spokespersons commonly use these two words in an effort to avoid misleading investors and incurring liability. But does this silence actually protect companies from potential lawsuits? On January 16, 2024,[1] the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral argument in Macquarie Infrastructure Corp. v. Moab Partners, L.P.,[2] to address a similar question: […]

Tags:

1Apr

The Memorandum Heard Around the College Athletics World: Why Student-Athletes in Non-Revenue-Generating Sports Should not Enjoy the Status of “Employee” Under the NLRA

Categories: Online

14 Wake Forest L. Rev. Online 47 Nick Tremps Introduction Over the past few decades, one particular legal issue has permeated throughout collegiate athletics. At the forefront of every collegiate student-athlete’s mind in recent years is the question: “should I be getting paid for this?” Or, at the very least, should they be receiving more […]

Tags: Employment Law NLRB sports law

28Mar

Saving Face: The Problem with Deepfakes and How to Solve It

Categories: Current Issues Blog

Daria Brown The ever-growing prevalence of deepfake technology presents significant concerns surrounding privacy, democracy, and the ability of public figures to safeguard their reputations.[1] To complicate matters further, deepfake content creators are easily able to cloak themselves in anonymity.[2] This renders victims who seek to have deepfake content removed from social media unable to do […]

Tags: Artificial intelligence deepfakes First Amendment

16Mar

Exclusion On My Mind: The Admissibility of Rap Lyrics as Evidence in Criminal Proceedings

Categories: Current Issues Blog

Mae Zeitouni The State of Florida v. Jamell Demons is an ongoing criminal case in Florida concerning popular rap artist Jamell Demons, more commonly known by his stage name YNW Melly.[1] Demons faces two first degree murder charges related to the 2018 deaths of Anthony Williams and Christopher Thomas.[2] This case has garnered a great […]

Tags: criminal Evidence

7Mar

Elon Musk Departs Delaware: Catalyst for a Mass Exodus? Unlikely

Categories: Current Issues Blog

Ted Orr On February 14, 2024, Elon Musk announced via X that his space exploration company, SpaceX, transferred their incorporation from Delaware to Texas.[1] This move comes on the heels of a decision in the Delaware Court of Chancery that denied Musk’s $56 billion Tesla compensation package.[2] In the 201 page opinion, Judge Kathaleen McCormick […]

Tags: Business Incorporation Deleware Elon Musk

2Mar

Will Trump be in jail on election day? Examining the former President’s criminal indictments

Categories: Current Issues Blog

Jasmine Jaffe Former President Donald Trump faces a total of 91 felony charges across four separate criminal indictments.[1] Pleading not guilty to all charges against him, all four jurisdictions are gearing up for trial, and the timeline of these legal proceedings carries significant implications for the 2024 Presidential Election.[2] As the very likely Republican nominee, […]

Tags: Constitutional Law Criminal Law Donald Trump

22Feb

Published Fanfiction: The Fair Use Doctrine Should Not Save You

Categories: Current Issues Blog

by Sheridan Ecker Recently, online author SenLinYu entered into a book deal with Del Ray at Penguin House to publish her debut novel, Alchemised.[1] This is not an ordinary book deal, though, as Alchemised is a reimagined version of her incredibly successful fanfiction called Manacled,[2] following Hermione Granger and Draco Malfoy from the world of […]

Tags: copyright law Harry Potter

20Feb

Department of Homeland Security v. Texas: Setting Boundaries on State Power

Categories: Current Issues Blog

By Jordan Carlson Eagle Pass, Texas has become the latest battleground in the perennial struggle between the federal government and the states.[1] In a January 22, 2024 order, the Supreme Court vacated an injunction that had prevented federal agents from cutting wire placed on the Texas-Mexico border by Texas.[2] The case is one of several […]

Tags: Borders Immigration Sovereign Immunity Texas

17Feb

STOLEN LULLABIES: HOW COPYRIGHT LAW ALLOWED TAYLOR SWIFT TO RECLAIM HER MASTERS

Categories: Current Issues Blog

Marin Bennerotte As Taylor Swift fans watched the Grammys in early February, many expected an announcement of the re-release of her “Reputation” album, originally released in 2017.[1] While Swift did not announce this re-release at the Grammys, when “Reputation” does become available to the public, it will be Swift’s fifth re-recorded album since 2021.[2] The […]

Tags: Copyright Taylor Swift

13Feb

Take Names, Ask Questions…Never? Reviewing the Fifth Circuit’s Troubling Decision in Villarreal v. City of Laredo

Categories: Current Issues Blog

By Michael VerMeulen In a legal battle between qualified immunity and freedom of the press, which one will come out on top? In the eyes of the Fifth Circuit, the First Amendment bows down to qualified immunity for police officers. [1] This fight has come to the legal forefront in Villarreal v. City of […]

Tags: Constitutional Law First Amendment Journalism Qualified Immunity

9Feb

What Comes After Death? The Impending Impact of Connelly v. United States

Categories: Current Issues Blog

Thomas H. Ward “Pity me not, but lend thy serious hearing to what I shall unfold.”[i] With its grant of certiorari late last December, the Supreme Court crossed the river Styx and resurrected a question that estate planners had thought was laid to rest long ago: whether the proceeds of a life insurance policy held […]

Tags: Connelly v. United States life insurance Supreme Court

6Feb

A Dream of Snakes and Copyright: Another Benzene Question

Categories: Current Issues Blog

Tamara Allen “I turned my chair toward the fireplace and sank into half-sleep. Again the atoms fluttered before my eyes. . . . Long lines, often combined more densely; everything in motion, twisting and turning like snakes. But look, what was that? One of the snakes had seized its own tail, and the figure whirled […]

Tags: August Kekule Benzene Structure Copyright Act copyright law Useful Articles Doctrine

30Jan

FTC Changes to Children’s Online Privacy Rule Will Make it Harder for Companies to Store Kids’ Personal Information

Categories: Current Issues Blog

Madelyn Strohm On December 20, 2023, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) announced proposed changes to its Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act Rule (“Rule” or “COPPA Rule”).[1] The proposed changes aim to keep up with changes in technology and how businesses are using children’s information collected online.[2] The updated Rule aims to further enhance children’s privacy […]

Tags: Administrative Law Children's Online Privacy Protection Act Federal Register Federal Trade Commission Online Privacy

29Jan

A Private-Public Forum: The Oxymoron of Free Speech on Social Media

Categories: Current Issues Blog

Will Coltzer The Supreme Court is set to determine whether the government can regulate the way social media platforms (“Platforms”) like X,[1] Facebook, and YouTube moderate third-party content.[2] Although social media has become ubiquitous and has been described as the modern “public forum,”[3] there remain serious questions about the authority of the government to require […]

Tags: Free Speech social media Supreme Court

27Nov

Constitutional Rights Violation or Earnest Democratic Debate? Scrutinizing L.W. ex rel. Williams v. Skrmetti

Categories: Current Issues Blog

Nick Rader This September, in L.W. ex rel. Williams v. Skrmetti,[1] the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit reversed two preliminary injunctions that had prevented state gender affirming care restrictions from taking effect.[2] Now, statutes in both Tennessee and Kentucky prohibit minors in most circumstances from obtaining certain medical procedures offered to […]

Tags:

26Nov

SEC v. SPAC: Enhancing Disclosure Requirements for Companies Going Public Through Special Purpose Acquisition Companies

Categories: Current Issues Blog

Nicholas Walters On March 30, 2022, the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) announced its proposed rule to enhance disclosure and investor protection in initial public offerings (“IPO”) by special purpose acquisition companies (“SPAC”) for business combinations involving shell companies and private operating companies.[1] This rule came in response to an unprecedented spike in private […]

Tags: SEC

7Nov

Antisocial Media(?): Meta Faces Suit for Harm to Youth Mental Health

Categories: Current Issues Blog

Trinity Chapman On October 24, 2023, thirty-three states filed suit against Meta[1], alleging that its social media content harms and exploits young users.[2] The plaintiffs go on to allege that Meta’s services are intentionally addictive, promoting compulsive use and leading to severe mental health problems in younger users.[3] The lawsuit points to specific aspects of […]

Tags: Communications Decency Act Meta Product Liability social media

31Oct

Is the International Shoe on the Other Foot? Analyzing Mallory v. Norfolk Southern Railway Company

Categories: Current Issues Blog

Mark Lee This June, in Mallory v. Norfolk Southern Railway Company,[1] the Supreme Court held that a Pennsylvania statutory scheme which requires out-of-state corporations to “consent” to general personal jurisdiction to do business in the state was consistent with Due Process.[2] This decision allows Robert Mallory, a Virginia resident, to bring a lawsuit in Pennsylvania […]

Tags: Due Process Mallory v. Norfolk Southern Railway Personal Jurisdiction Supreme Court

24Oct

The Social Cost of Greenhouse Gases: New Uses, Same Figures.

Categories: Current Issues Blog Uncategorized

Caitlin Maguire Imagine if you could transform greenhouse gases into money. The Social Cost of Greenhouse Gases (“SC-GHG”) does just that, but unfortunately, you cannot spend it. The SC-GHG is a metric created by the Interagency Working Group on the Social Cost of Greenhouse Gases (“IWG”).[1] The metric provides a monetary estimate that represents both […]

Tags: greenhouse gases

12Oct

The Demise of Deference? Chevron Doctrine Faces its Toughest Test Yet

Categories: Current Issues Blog

Noah McDuff I. An Introduction to Chevron Deference The Supreme Court’s landmark decision in Chevron v. National Resources Defense Council[1] has served as a pillar in the administrative law community for almost forty years[2] and remains one of the most cited high court decisions in history.[3] In Chevron, […]

Tags: Administrative Law Chevron Doctrine Supreme Court

3Oct

Musk’s Attempt to Undo Twitter’s Payment of Wachtell’s Fee

Categories: Current Issues Blog

J. Stillman Hanson, Jr. Last year was dramatic for Elon Musk (“Musk”), even by his standards, largely due to his highly publicized acquisition of Twitter, Inc. (“Twitter”).[1] In April 2022, Twitter’s board of directors accepted Musk’s offer to buy Twitter at a price of $54.20 per share, and the parties entered into a binding merger […]

Tags: Arbitration Elon Musk Twitter Wachtell X. Corp

29Sep

ESPN Bets Big with Sportsbook Agreement

Categories: Current Issues Blog

John C. Fresco On August 8, 2023, ESPN announced a ten-year, $2 billion agreement with PENN Entertainment[1] to launch ESPN BET, an ESPN-branded sportsbook that will grant access to online sports betting in the sixteen legalized betting states where PENN Entertainment is licensed.[2] ESPN is the world’s leading sports platform with eight US television networks, […]

Tags: Antitrust Law Corporate Purpose Ethics Sports Betting

21Sep

Murray v. UBS Securities, LLC: Blowing the Whistle on the Second Circuit’s Textual Analysis

Categories: Current Issues Blog

Miriam Draper This October, the Supreme Court will review Murray v. UBS Securities, LLC—a case that created a circuit split involving the Sarbanes-Oxley Act’s (“SOX”) whistleblower anti-retaliation provision.[1] Section 1514A of SOX prohibits employers of publicly traded companies from adversely affecting the employment conditions of employees who report fraudulent business activities.[2] Congress enacted this provision to […]

Tags: Circuit Split Sarbanes-Oxely Act statutory interpretation Supreme Court Whistleblower Protections

15Aug

Bruen One Year Later: The State of the Second Amendment and Implications on the Rights of Felons

Categories: Current Issues Blog Uncategorized

Kaylee Tillett Prior to 2008, gun-rights advocates referred to the Second Amendment as a “second-class right” with courts relying on a militia-centric interpretation articulated by the Supreme Court of the United States in United States v. Miller.[1] Nearly seventy years after Miller, the Supreme Court radically changed its interpretation of the Second Amendment in District […]

Tags: Constitutional Law Second Amendment Supreme Court

7Aug

Trust, but Verify

Categories: Current Issues Blog

Maya Pillai Trust, but verify. This is a common methodology in the audit world and was even mentioned by the SEC Acting Chief Accountant Paul Munter in his statement on “The Auditor’s Responsibility for Fraud Detection.” [1] He commented, “[T]he mindset of ‘trust but verify’ may represent potential bias if it is anchored in the […]

Tags: audit finance Regulation Securities Exchange Act Securities Exchange Commission

4Aug

Safeguarding the System: How State Banking Officials Can Strengthen the Integrity of the U.S. Banking System

Categories: Current Issues Blog Uncategorized

Professor Brock Kannan State banking officials can leverage lessons from the 2023 bank failures to become more aware of their pivotal role in protecting the integrity of the U.S. banking system. Bank regulation ensures the financial system’s stability by protecting consumers and preventing the actions of bad actors. We trust the system because numerous state […]

Tags: Bank Regulation Banking Law Regulatory Law State and Federal Law

21Jul

The Trial Penalty: A Punishment for Exercising Your 6th Amendment Rights?

Categories: Current Issues Blog Trial Penalty

Antony Robreno The Sixth Amendment states that, “In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed.”[1] The right to a jury trial is one of the more important protections that our founding […]

Tags: Criminal Law Plea Bargains Trial Penalty

28May

“High” Expectations for the Veterans Medical Marijuana Safe Harbor Act, But Not High Enough

Categories: Online

13 Wake Forest L. Rev. Online 14 I. Introduction Though the use of marijuana has been a very fiercely debated and divisive issue in the United States for nearly a century, the evolution of culture and developments in science have led to rapid shifts in public opinion about the use of marijuana for both recreational […]

Tags: Civil Rights Department of Veterans Affairs Health Care marijuana

21Mar

Decades of Uncertainty: The Time Has Come for the Supreme Court to Resolve the Ambiguity Surrounding Section 524(e) of the Bankruptcy Code

Categories: Current Issues Blog

Nick Tremps For corporate debtors that submit to the bankruptcy process, the Bankruptcy Code (the “Code”) provides significant benefits to the “honest, but unfortunate debtor” that cannot fully perform its debt obligations.[1] In a case filed under Chapter 11 of the Code, a corporate debtor may file a plan of reorganization with the bankruptcy […]

Tags: Bankruptcy Circuit Split Litigation Restructuring Supreme Court

20Mar

**Supreme Court to Review Rogers Test for Parody-of-Trademarks Case, Involving Squeaky “Bad Spaniels” Dog Toy and Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Whiskey**

Categories: Current Issues Blog

Comparison of Jack Daniels bottle and Bad Spaniels dog toy

By Cameron Bray On March 22, 2023, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments[1] in the case of Jack Daniel’s Properties, Inc. v. VIP Products LLC,[2] which will determine the fate of the controversial “Bad Spaniels”[3] rubber dog toy.[4] The Bad Spaniels dog toy was created in 2013 by the Respondent, an Arizona limited liability […]

Tags: Copyright copyright law First Amendment Lanham Act

18Mar

Elon Musk’s Firing Fiasco: Should We Provide Better Protection for Those Affected?

Categories: Current Issues Blog

By Matthew Goldstein In the five months since Elon Musk purchased a 44 billion dollar 100% ownership stake in Twitter,[1] he has committed a series of firings that have had significant negative impacts on the lives of thousands of people.[2] Specifically, Musk has terminated around 5500 of Twitter’s 7500 employees since he became the owner […]

Tags: Elon Musk Employment Law Twitter Working Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act

9Mar

Competitive Grant Applications for Allocating State Revolving Funds Need to be Reconsidered to Curb Ongoing Disparate Impact on Marginalized Communities

Categories: Current Issues Blog

Grace Kinley The Clean Water State Revolving Funds (CWSRF) and Drinking Water State Revolving Funds (DWSRF) are the largest sources of federal funding for water infrastructure.[1] The CWSRF provides low-cost financing for water quality infrastructure projects and the DWSRF provides financial assistance to help water systems achieve the objectives of the Safe Drinking Water Act.[2] […]

Tags: Clean Water State Revolving Funds Funding legislation state law Water rights

3Mar

The IP Battle Between the United States and China Heats Up as the Line Between Military and Civilian Tech Continues to Blur

Categories: Current Issues Blog

By Luke Brzozowski In 2015, the Chinese Communist Party (“CCP”) released a “state-led industrial policy that [sought] to make China dominant in global high-tech manufacturing.”[1] The program, referred to as “Made in China 2025” (“MIC”), attempted to “mobilize state-owned enterprises and pursue intellectual property acquisition to catch up with—and surpass—Western technological prowess in advanced industries.”[2] […]

Tags: foreign relations Intellectual Property International Law

23Feb

Water is Life, We Just Might Not Let You Have It: Supreme Court Set to Hear Arizona v. Navajo Nation

Categories: Current Issues Blog

By Madelyn Happ On the Navajo Nation reservation, the largest reservation in the United States with a size near that of West Virginia, an estimated 30% of the population does not have access to clean, reliable drinking water.[1] Many drive long distances to gather their drinking water from unregulated sources like springs and livestock wells.[2] […]

Tags: Native American Law Water rights

16Feb

I Spy: Chinese Spy Balloon Violates International Law

Categories: Current Issues Blog

By Kristen Tieman On Saturday, January 28, 2023, a two-hundred-foot-tall balloon[1] covertly entered US airspace over Alaska.[2] Five days later, on February 2, news of the balloon made national headlines as it was spotted over the continental United States.[3] Immediately, questions began to arise: What were China’s intentions with the balloon? Why would China use […]

Tags: foreign relations International Law

9Feb

Google and the Ad Tech Stack: Monopolizing the Industry Doesn’t Just Make You Rich; It Also Makes You a Criminal

Categories: Current Issues Blog

By Jenna White As we all know, online advertising is almost impossible to escape. In fact, the average consumer in the United States sees about five thousand advertisements each day.[1] Even more frustrating to consumers is website publishers’ ever-increasing use of paywalls and subscriptions.[2] But publishers are not to blame. Google is. By monopolizing the […]

Tags: Advertising Antitrust Criminal Law Google Litigation

8Feb

Addicted to Advertising: Should the U.S. Continue to Allow Direct-to-Consumer Drug Advertising?

Categories: Current Issues Blog

Grace Genereaux Whether you are watching television, scrolling on TikTok, or browsing the internet, you are likely to see one particular type of advertisement: prescription drugs. Only the United States and New Zealand allow for drug companies to directly advertise prescription drugs to consumers.[1] Other countries have banned the advertising of prescription drugs over a […]

Tags: Advertising Direct-to-Consumer Pharmaceutical Regulation

2Feb

FTX Arena – Miami-Dade County Feeling the Heat

Categories: Current Issues Blog Uncategorized

By Sam Kiehl Anytime you are stuck in a relationship that you want out of, it’s tough. But that’s especially so when you’re only five hundred twenty-six days into a nineteen-year contract with an embattled cryptocurrency exchange that allegedly used customer funds to make risky trades and reportedly owes creditors more than $3 billion.[1] Fortunately […]

Tags: Bankruptcy contract law cryptocurrency naming rights sports law

1Feb

In Mississippi, When It Rains, It Pours: Jackson Residents File Class-Action Lawsuit over 2022 Water Crisis

Categories: Current Issues Blog

Mollie Pinion It is indisputable that “[a]ccess to clean, poison-free water is a fundamental human right.”[1] Nevertheless, the water infrastructure in Jackson, Mississippi has been plagued for decades by underinvestment, “neglect, mismanagement, and maintenance failures.”[2] Even though Jackson is the state’s capital and largest city, its residents are all too familiar with the daily struggles […]

Tags: Complaint Environmental Protection Agency Safe Drinking Water Act

25Jan

PUMP Act Passed – Thanks, But What About Paid Leave?

Categories: Current Issues Blog

Amanda Hull The federal omnibus spending bill passed by Congress and signed by President Biden in late December 2022 included breastfeeding protections for working parents.[1] These protections were initially introduced as the Providing Urgent Maternal Protections for Nursing Mothers (“PUMP”) Act in 2021.[2] The PUMP Act expands existing hourly employee protections to salaried employees, requiring […]

Tags: Child Care Paid Leave Parental Leave PUMP Act

19Jan

President Biden’s Executive Order 14006: A Positive but Likely Fleeting Attempt to Address the Injustice of Private Prisons

Categories: Current Issues Blog

By Gabby Korb President Biden signed Executive Order 14006 banning the renewal of private prison contracts, stating that “[t]his is the first step to stop corporations from profiting off of the incarcerated—incarceration that is less humane and less safe, as the studies show.”[1] Although this can be seen as a positive step in the fight […]

Tags: Civil Rights Constitutional Law Criminal Law Prison Reform

8Dec

Keep “Tiny Home” Owners from Becoming Homeless: Remove Unnecessary Barriers to Nontraditional Housing

Categories: Current Issues Blog

By Caroline Willcox The cost of housing has risen to such an extent in the past few years that, for some, it has become prohibitive to home ownership or housing generally.[1] This problem is especially prevalent in Idaho, where houses in Boise are almost 70 percent overvalued.[2] A woman in Idaho, Chasidy Decker, found a […]

Tags: local regulations property law Real Property state law Zoning

22Nov

Misplacement, Mistreatment and Abuse of Transgender Women in our City’s Jails

Categories: Current Issues Blog

Julia Guarneri In 2018, Alyssa Rodriguez was brought to Rikers Island (“Rikers”), New York City’s main jail complex, to be “held for pretrial detention”.[1] Although a transgender woman, she was placed in the all-male Anna M. Kross Center and housed in an open sleeping area with male detainees.[2] Corrections employees expressed confusion as to why […]

Tags: Federal Receivership Prison Prison Reform

22Nov

The Sixth Circuit Joins the Split: Higher Education Freedom of Speech and the Breadth of Academic Freedom Remain in Limbo

Categories: Online

12 Wake Forest L. Rev. Online 111 INTRODUCTION No one wonders about the strength of the First Amendment’s speech protections with the same level of intensity as someone who has just uttered an unpopular opinion or statement. Growing up, school children often defend their words by alleging that in the United States, we can say […]

Tags: Constitutional Law First Amendment

17Nov

Death Knell for Death Penalty After the Parkland Shooter Verdict?

Categories: Current Issues Blog

By Kendall Carter Florida has executed more people than just about any other state.[1] However, Florida also gets it wrong more than anyone else. Florida has had thirty exonerations from death row, more than any other state, and it’s not even close.[2] On October 13, 2022, after months of proceedings, a Broward County jury recommended […]

Tags: capital punishment Constitutional Law Criminal Law Death Penalty Eighth Amendment

16Nov

The Ongoing Debate Between Boaters Freedom of Navigation and NOAA’s Conservation Efforts to Protect The North Atlantic Right Whale

Categories: Current Issues Blog

By Alexander Van Zijl The Origins of NOAA’s North Atlantic Right Whale Regulatory Scheme On August 1, 2022, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (“NOAA”) sent shockwaves through the boating community when the agency decided to further protect the endangered North Atlantic right whale by proposing an amendment to 50 C.F.R. § 224.105.[1] In 2008, […]

Tags: Administrative Law

16Nov

Mild, Medium, or Hot? “Texas Pete” Under Fire in False Advertising Claim

Categories: Current Issues Blog

Luke Shapiro Wake Forest University students who take a short drive North of campus might notice a familiar logo on the side of an otherwise nondescript brick building. The red, lassoing cowboy of “Texas Pete” hot sauce greets visitors to the T.W. Garner Foods (“Garner Foods”) facility in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Locals are proud to […]

Tags: False Advertising Fraud Litigation Unfair Competition

10Nov

Overbroad Definitions in SEC’s Clawback Rule May Undercut Its Goals

Categories: Current Issues Blog

By Ben Woessner The last few decades have seen significant debate surrounding the generous compensation of the top executives of publicly-held corporations. While some view the current system of pay as functional and driven by market forces like scarce executive talent,[1] many watch the upward trajectory of an increasingly disproportionate gap between executive pay and […]

Tags: Corporate Law Executive Compensation SEC Securities Exchange Commission Securities Law

4Nov

The Fifth Circuit Finds the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Unconstitutional

Categories: Current Issues Blog

By Dylan Ellis The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has been one of the most divisive government agencies since its inception in 2010. The CFPB was installed with far greater protections than most government agencies are afforded, including protections against both presidential[1] and congressional[2] influences on the agency’s decision making. As a result, the CFPB […]

Tags: Administrative Law consumer finance Financial unconstitutional

3Nov

Can Prisoners Challenge the Conditions of their Confinement Through a Writ of Habeas Corpus?

Categories: Current Issues Blog

By Max Anthony On September 26, 2022, thousands of prisoners across the state of Alabama launched a labor strike in response to the “deteriorating conditions” and “pervasive violence” inside state prisons.[1] In fact, conditions have deteriorated to the point that multiple homicides and drug overdoses occur on a weekly basis resulting in a “new normal.”[2] […]

Tags: Civil Rights Department of Justice habeas corpus Prisoner Civil Rights

2Nov

Should FIFA Be Held Accountable for Human Rights Violations in Qatar?

Categories: Current Issues Blog

Clare Magee Qatar was awarded the 2022 FIFA World Cup in 2010 amid allegations of corruption that eventually led to several indictments in United States courts.[1] Immediately after the announcement, World Cup fans and human rights activists alike raised concerns about the impact of Qatari law on the tournament. Qatar is the latest in a […]

Tags: Human Rights United Nations World Cup

1Nov

Diplomatic Immunity: A Carte Blanche for Misconduct?

Categories: Current Issues Blog

Diplomatic Immunity over Globe

Diplomatic Immunity: A Carte Blanche for Misconduct? By William McEwan Do “Get Out of Jail Free Cards” exist outside the realm of Monopoly? For Anne Sacoolas—the wife of U.S government employee, Jonathan Sacoolas—one might argue they do.[1] In August of 2019, Mrs. Sacoolas struck and killed Harry Dunn, a nineteen-year-old British citizen, when she was […]

Tags: Criminal Law International Law

27Oct

Vans, Inc. v. MSCHF: Are Shoes Entitled to First Amendment Protection?

Categories: Current Issues Blog

By Luul Lampkins Earlier this year, Vans, Inc. (“Vans”) brought a trademark infringement lawsuit against MSCHF Product Studio Inc. (“MSCHF”) seeking a preliminary injunction related to its Wavy Baby sneakers.[1] In response, a federal judge ordered MSCHF to stop shipping the shoes and to cancel any outstanding orders.[2] Vans argued that the Wavy Baby sneakers […]

Tags: Intellectual Property Litigation parody satire trademark

25Oct

A defense of the equitable defense: Vice Chancellor Laster makes the argument against dodging equity through contractually specified incurable voidness

Categories: Current Issues Blog

Keegan Hicks As “part of an ongoing dialogue between the Delaware Supreme Court and the trial courts,”[1] Delaware Vice Chancellor Laster recently made a direct proposal that the Delaware Supreme Court “retreat from the concept of contractually specified incurable voidness.”[2] This blog post aims to explore the facts that motivated Vice Chancellor Laster’s suggestion, consider […]

Tags: contract law Defenses Delaware Supreme Court Void

18Oct

College Sports More than One Year After NCAA v. Alston: Implications for College Athletes Under Federal Tax and Securities Laws

Categories: Current Issues Blog

Molly Mitchell More than one year after the Supreme Court’s 9-0 decision in National Collegiate Athletic Association v. Alston that the NCAA is not exempt from the Sherman Act with respect to certain compensation rules, the floodgates have opened for student-athletes to profit from their name, image, and likeness (“NIL”).[1] However, the Court’s majority opinion […]

Tags: Antitrust Federal Tax Image Likeness Name NCAA Securities Law

13Oct

Taking on Big Tech: California’s Attorney General Files Antitrust Suit Against Amazon

Categories: Current Issues Blog

By Stephanie Flynn California Attorney General Rob Bonta (A.G. Bonta) filed a Complaint against Amazon.Com, Inc. (Amazon) in San Francisco Superior Court claiming the tech company violated California’s Cartwright Act and California’s Unfair Competition Law.[1] A.G. Bonta believes the lawsuit has a good chance of success despite the dismissal of a nearly identical claim brought […]

Tags: Antitrust big tech online shopping Technology

11Oct

Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and he sues you for failing to protect his constitutional rights: North Carolina Court of Appeals holds the State has a duty to protect your right to fish

Categories: Current Issues Blog

Trent Turk In 2018, the North Carolina General Assembly passed a slate of amendments to the State Constitution.[1] Among these amendments was the creation of a State Constitutional right to hunt, fish, and harvest wildlife.[2] The amendment was ratified in 2018 by 57% of North Carolina voters.[3] Now codified as N.C. CONST. Art. I. § […]

Tags: amendment Constitutional Right North Carolina Public Trust Doctrine

8Oct

Librarians: The New Scourge of the Seven Seas?

Categories: Current Issues Blog

By Summer Allen An unlikely character may soon join the ranks of Blackbeard, Captain Hook, and the Dread Pirate Roberts. In a current lawsuit, librarians are being accused of “digital piracy,” but their treasure chests are filled with books instead of Spanish Doubloons.[1] A group of publishers, including Hachette and Penguin Random House, brought this […]

Tags: Copyright digital piracy Intellectual Property publishing

5Oct

How Twitter’s Whistleblower Helps Musk

Categories: Current Issues Blog

Isaac Hopkin Elon Musk (“Musk”) has a taste for the dramatic.[1] His most recent example was a hostile takeover bid to purchase the social media app Twitter, only to torpedo the deal three months later,[2] just to opt back into the deal.[3] When Musk backed out, Twitter sued for specific performance of the agreement.[4] Nearly […]

Tags: Acquisition Litigation Specific Performance Whistleblower

27Sep

Fashion Dos and Don’ts: Unicolors v. H&M, Mistakes of Law, and the Copyright Act’s Safe-Harbor Provision

Categories: Current Issues Blog

Banks Griffin Should corporations be held to the same standard of legal knowledge as independent creators during copyright registration? As of now, the Supreme Court says yes. United States copyright law is the means by which artists and creators receive property rights for their work.[1] Accordingly, all creators should have equitable access to the copyright […]

Tags: Copyright Mistakes of Law Safe-Harbor Provision Supreme Court

20Sep

All Dressed Up With No One to Sue: Naked Nirvana Baby’s Case Dismissed With Prejudice

Categories: Current Issues Blog

Haley Hurst All Dressed Up With No One to Sue: Naked Nirvana Baby’s Case Dismissed With Prejudice On September 24, 1991, grunge rock band Nirvana “gave voice” to Generation X with its debut album, Nevermind.[1] Nevermind was the “first full expression of punk concerns to achieve mass-market success in the United States.”[2] However, the album’s […]

Tags: Civil Litigation statute of limitations

7Sep

Burdens of Production as Unproductive

Categories: Uncategorized

Burdens of Production As Unproductive R. George Wright[1]* Introduction The placement of a legal burden of proof can be decisive as to the outcome of a case.[2] Considerations of cost, fairness, and pragmatism normally play a role in allocating burdens of proof.[3] Often, burdens of proof—particularly burdens of producing evidence on specific issues—are shifted between […]

Tags: Civil Procedure Criminal Law

1May

Choosing to Go Out with a Bang: Examining Executions by Firing Squad

Categories: Current Issues Blog

By Grace Koppenheffer As morbid as it is, most of us have probably thought about the way we would want to die, and the ways we definitely would not. We instinctively recoil against those deaths that seem the most painful, the most inhumane. Richard Bernard Moore, a death row inmate in South Carolina, was the […]

Tags: capital punishment Constitutional Law Death Penalty death sentence Eight Amendment

28Apr

Miranda Warnings: A Constitutional Right or Supreme Court “Prophylactic”?

Categories: Current Issues Blog

By Cameron Bray On April 20, 2022, attorneys and Justices of the United States Supreme Court sparred over whether Miranda warnings[1] are a constitutional right or a “judicially crafted prophylactic rule,”[2] as lawyer Roman Martinez argued in open court. In the case of Vega v. Tekoh, the Court granted certiorari[3] of “whether a plaintiff may […]

Tags: Civil Litigation Constitutional Law Criminal Law Due Process Police

26Apr

If at First Congress Can’t Succeed, Try to Push the Agenda Through Independent Regulatory Agencies

Categories: Current Issues Blog

Taylor Jones Overhauling United States environmental and labor policies has been a priority of the Biden Administration since the 2020 presidential election.[1] In fact, the Biden-Harris campaign’s website still displays Biden’s promise to “sign a series of new executive orders with unprecedented reach that go well beyond the Obama-Biden Administration platform”[2] concerning environmental issues. Likewise, […]

Tags: Administrative Law Agencies Executive Order Reform Regulation Regulatory Agencies

21Apr

Congressional Insider Trading: How the COVID-19 Pandemic Shed New Light on a Decades-Old Form of Corruption

Categories: Current Issues Blog

By Jacob Winton In 2004, the Wall Street Journal published an article titled U.S. Senators’ Stock Picks Outperform the Pros, reporting on an academic study that detailed the uncanny success of stock portfolios owned by United States Senators.[1] “Politicians may have done a poor job improving the government’s bottom line,” the opening line quipped, “but […]

Tags: Congress COVID-19 finance Insider Trading

19Apr

Racial Discrimination in Tenant Screening Services

Categories: Current Issues Blog

Maggie Martin In 2019, Carmen Arroyo (“Arroyo”) and the Connecticut Fair Housing Center filed suit against CoreLogic Rental Property Solutions, LLC (“CoreLogic”) on the basis that CoreLogic violated the Fair Housing Act (“FHA”).[1] Arroyo sued on behalf of her son Mikhail, who was previously “injured in an accident . . . which left him unable […]

Tags: algorithm Fair Housing Act Housing Discrimination Housing Law Tenants

14Apr

LLC: Least Likely to Care?

Categories: Current Issues Blog

By Kyle Brantley The time-tested principle of having “skin in the game” rings true in many aspects of life. When individuals have something on the line to lose, they are more likely to be invested in the ultimate success of the venture at hand. For example, a company may want to utilize an Employee Stock […]

Tags: Business Law Business Organizations

12Apr

The Nondelegation and Major Questions Doctrines: OSHA’s Stayed Mandate and a Closer Look at the Growing Debate over Chevron Deference

Categories: Current Issues Blog

By Jonathon Beatty In National Federation of Independent Business v. OSHA,[1] the Supreme Court reversed the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals and stayed the Occupational Health and Safety Administration’s (“OSHA”) rule imposing a vaccine-or-test mandate on essentially every employer with at least 100 employees.[2] The rule and subsequent stay affected some eighty-four million private-sector workers […]

Tags: Administrative Law Chevron Deference Constitutional Law Major Questions Doctrine Nondelegation Doctrine

7Apr

A New Kind of Academic Dishonestly: How the Rise of Online University Examinations Has Led to Copyright Issues

Categories: Current Issues Blog

By Morgan Kleinhandler The rise in technology and the COVID-19 pandemic have caused an increase in interconnectedness through the internet.[1] The pandemic specifically has led to an increase in higher education utilizing remote learning and online test-taking options.[2] Most colleges and universities were forced during the beginning and peak of the pandemic to move classes […]

Tags: academic integrity Copyright federal law Property

5Apr

Immigration Reforms Address Asylum Backlog but Do Little for the Most Vulnerable

Categories: Current Issues Blog

Madison Boyer A proposed reform is coming to the U.S. immigration system concerning asylum seekers. The reform would allow asylum claims to be heard by lower raking administrators to ease the backlog of cases in the immigration courts.[1] A Notice of Proposed Rulemaking was issued jointly by the Executive Office for Immigration Review (part of […]

Tags: asylum Backlog Executive Office of Immigration Review Immigration Notice of Proposed Rulemaking U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services

31Mar

Twelve Miles Through the Last Frontier: Litigation Surrounding Land-Swap Deal in Izembek National Wildlife Refuge

Categories: Current Issues Blog

By Carli Berasi Of the 2,428,213,158 acres that make up the land area of the United States,[1] a mere twelve percent is protected land that “has been conserved as national parks, wilderness areas, permanent conservation easements, state parks, national wildlife refuges, national monuments, or other protected areas.”[2] Protected lands, which comprise twenty-four percent of the […]

Tags: conservation infrastructure Litigation National Parks

29Mar

Unconstitutional and Ongoing: Property Taxes Funding Ohio’s Public Schools

Categories: Current Issues Blog

Danny Cundiff The Constitution of Ohio states, “[t]he general assembly shall make such provisions, by taxation, or otherwise, as, with the income arising from the school trust fund, will secure a thorough and efficient system of common schools throughout the state . . . . ”[1] Under a “thorough and efficient system,” it is “the […]

Tags: Education Funding Litigation Ohio Constitution Public Education School Districts

24Mar

North Carolina’s Redistricting Saga

Categories: Current Issues Blog

By Tanner Henson Before diving into the legal challenges that surrounded North Carolina’s 2022 congressional redistricting, it is important to understand the recent history of redistricting in the state. In 2010, a wave election year for North Carolina Republicans, the GOP stunned those who follow state politics by securing majorities in both houses of the […]

Tags: Constitutional Law election law Elections gerrymandering redistricting Supreme Court vote

22Mar

Ut Justitia Sit – How Church and Secular Law Can Fight Abuse in the Catholic Church

Categories: Current Issues Blog

Chandler J. Reece[1] If you ask someone to tell you a Catholic joke, it could be about a priest acting inappropriately with a child. That situation reflects the significant impact that the abuse crisis continues to have on the Catholic church. [2] Given the seriousness of this ongoing topic, this Blog provides a history of […]

Tags: Abuse Church Secular Law tort law

17Mar

Not So Equitable Distribution: Divorcing Spouses Are Using Cryptocurrency to Conceal Assets

Categories: Current Issues Blog

By: Christian Schweitzer Cryptocurrency (“Crypto”) is a decentralized digital currency stabilized by the blockchain, a digital ledger accessible and verifiable by millions of computers worldwide, that records every crypto transaction.[1] Crypto is no longer a fringe venture reserved for only the savviest players in the digital marketplace.[2] Recent estimates suggest that over twenty-seven million Americans […]

Tags: asset distribution cryptocurrency divorce Family Law fiance

15Mar

Military Mulligan: Thousands of Less-Than-Honorably Discharged Veterans Now Eligible for a Redo Thanks to Recent Court Settlements

Categories: Current Issues Blog

Joshua Plummer The United States’ (“U.S.”) chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021 may have marked the end of the longest war in American history,[1] but it did not end the battle for thousands of veterans[2] who fought in the two conflicts that defined the post-9/11 generation.[3] Though the final shots of both conflicts […]

Tags: Army Department of Veterans Affairs Discharge Navy V.A. Benefits Veteran

10Mar

Bankrupting Review: Equitable Mootness and the Increasing Unreviewability of Confirmed Chapter 11 Plans for Reorganization

Categories: Current Issues Blog

By Cameron Bray Equitable mootness is a common-law doctrine that prevents a Chapter 11 plan from being reviewed when an appellant has “failed and neglected diligently to pursue their available remedies to obtain a stay” and changes in circumstances “render it inequitable to consider the merits of the appeal.”[1] Judges and practitioners alike tend to […]

Tags: Appellate Review Bankruptcy chapter 11 equitable mootness

3Mar

The “Valid-When-Made” Doctrine Survives its First Significant Legal Challenge

Categories: Current Issues Blog

By Michael J. Riedl Consumer lenders across America breathed an initial sigh of relief on February 8, as the Northern District of California sided with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (the “OCC”) and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (the “FDIC”) in upholding the “valid-when-made” rule pertaining to high-interest consumer loans.[1] By upholding […]

Tags: banking credit card debt finance interest

1Mar

A (Social Media) Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words . . . or $1.2 Million: The Right of Publicity and Social Media Copyright Infringement

Categories: Current Issues Blog

By Carli Berasi Lurking behind bushes,[1] skulking behind trash,[2] and prowling under cars,[3] paparazzi spend their days behind the camera, seeking optimal, exclusive angles of their incredibly photogenic subjects: celebrities.[4] Celebrities, who are often fiercely protective of their privacy, lose more than just their solitude, anonymity, and secrecy by their public figure status being subject […]

Tags: Celebrity Copyright Fair Use Paparazzi Right of Publicity

24Feb

Now Leaving Oklahoma: Castro-Huerta and its Potential to Change State Criminal Jurisdiction on Native Lands

Categories: Current Issues Blog

By: Mathias A. Young In 2020, the Supreme Court declared that a large part of Oklahoma was still Indian country[1] because Congress had never formally disestablished a reservation. While the McGirt v. Oklahoma[2] decision certainly had a large impact on the state of Oklahoma and was celebrated as a recognition of Native American treaty rights, […]

Tags: criminal prosecution general crimes act Jurisdiction major crimes act Oklahoma state jurisdiction Supreme Court

22Feb

When the Free Speech, Free Exercise, and Establishment Clauses Collide: Setting the Stage for Kennedy v. Bremerton School District and Its Potential Impact on Public Employees’ First Amendment Rights

Categories: Current Issues Blog

By Jonathon Beatty What happens when a public-school employee’s free speech and free exercise rights run contrary to the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment?[1] The Supreme Court will answer that question in Kennedy v. Bremerton School District[2] and shed light on the intersection of the Free Speech, Free Exercise, and Establishment Clauses.[3] Specifically, the […]

Tags: Constitutional Law establishment clause Free Speech Freedom of Religion

17Feb

Will the Peace on the Korean Peninsula Act Really Bring Peace?

Categories: Current Issues Blog

By: Inyoung Park Why is America involved in the Peace Treaty between South and North Korea? On June 25, 1950, the Korean War broke out when approximately 135,000 North Koreans, backed with support from China and the Soviet Union, stormed past the 38th parallel line that was dividing the Democratic South and the Communist-controlled North […]

Tags: legislation North Korea Peace treaty South Korea

15Feb

Ghislaine Maxwell’s Last Resort – Moves for a New Trial Based on Juror Misconduct

Categories: Current Issues Blog

By Hanna Diamond On December 29, 2021, Ghislaine Maxwell, a British socialite, was convicted on five counts of sex trafficking and “other charges for recruiting and grooming teenage girls” for Jeffrey Epstein.[1] Maxwell is facing sixty-five years in prison,[2] and her sentencing date is June 28, 2022.[3] Maxwell may be awarded a second chance in […]

Tags: Juror Misconduct Jury Trial Jury Verdict

10Feb

Judicial Non-Recusal: An Opportunity for Reform

Categories: Current Issues Blog

By: Chandler Reece Since ancient times, people have recognized the need for judges to be impartial.[1] On a related topic, Alexander Hamilton wrote that the “complete independence of the courts of justice is peculiarly essential in a limited constitution.”[2] Two recent North Carolina cases have revealed areas for reform to further ensure impartiality in the […]

Tags: Ethics Impartiality Judge judicial conduct North Carolina

8Feb

How North Carolina Is Moving Towards LGBTQ+ Equality, Yet Falling Behind

Categories: Current Issues Blog

By Maggie Martin 2016 brought with it a bleak reality for LGBTQ+ individuals living in North Carolina as the North Carolina General Assembly proposed House Bill 2 (“HB 2”), better known as the “Bathroom Bill.”[1] HB 2 allowed local boards of education to establish multiple occupancy, single-sex bathrooms based on biological sex, as stated on […]

Tags: Discrimination LGBTQ North Carolina

3Feb

How a Federal Cannabis Pardon Could Rectify the Injustices Waged by the War on Drugs

Categories: Current Issues Blog

By: Emily Wilmink In 1971, President Richard Nixon launched the “War on Drugs” that drastically increased the role of the federal government in controlling illegal drug use.[1] However, this measure led to the mass incarceration of nonviolent drug offenders, and today, continues to shape a federal system that disproportionately convicts communities of color.[2] Within this […]

Tags: cannabis controlled substances Drugs marijuana pardon

1Feb

Bankrupting Hate: The Charlottesville Civil Suit

Categories: Current Issues Blog

By Laura Merriman On November 23, 2021, after four years of waiting, a jury in Sines v. Kessler found that fourteen individuals and ten white supremacist organizations conspired to commit racially motivated violence in Charlottesville, Virginia during the “Unite the Right” rally on August 12, 2017.[1] The rally, organized to protest the removal of a […]

Tags: Civil Litigation Litigation

27Jan

The Pandemic is Not Over, but the Child Tax Credit Expansion Is.

Categories: Current Issues Blog

By: Joseph C. Johnson The child tax credit, found in § 24 of the Internal Revenue Code, normally provides taxpayers with a credit that reduces their overall tax liability for a given taxable year.[1] This credit is applied per qualified child.[2] The amount of credit to be applied to the taxpayer’s tax liability is subject […]

Tags: COVID-19 legislation poverty tax law

25Jan

Fake It Till You Make It: When Silicon Valley’s Culture Turns Criminal

Categories: Current Issues Blog

By Maryclaire M. Farrington It’s a tale as old as time: the Ivy League dropout turned tech icon.[1] Media’s maître d’ of tech, Elizabeth Holmes, was fawned by Forbes, Fortune, Time, and the New Yorker, to name a few.[2] Nearly twenty years after founding Theranos Inc.,[3] her name flashes through the media again.[4] However, this […]

Tags: Conspiracy Fraud Technology Wire Fraud

20Jan

Is Osha Overstepping? The Vaccine Mandate That Perplexed the Circuit Courts Offered the Supreme Court a Rare Opportunity to Clarify OSHA’s Emergency Rulemaking Authority

Categories: Current Issues Blog

By: Tanner Henson In 1970, Congress enacted the Occupational Safety and Health Act (“OSH Act” or “the Act”), a sweeping piece of legislation, aimed at “assur[ing] so far as possible every working man and woman in the Nation safe and healthful working conditions[.]”[1] To enforce the new legislation, Congress created a new government agency, the […]

Tags: Constitutional Law legislation OSHA Rulemaking vaccine vaccine mandate

18Jan

Michelle Carter and Inyoung You: Massachusetts Paving the Way for Criminal Liability in Encouraging Suicide

Categories: Current Issues Blog

By Morgan Kleinhandler There is no doubt that the advance of modern technology has allowed for an increase in the interconnected nature of American society.[1] Specifically, the popularity of smartphones has allowed for a new level of immediate interconnectedness that was previously impossible. [2] With this rise in technology has come a new form of […]

Tags: Criminal Law First Amendment Free Speech Technology

19Nov

The Legal Implications of Travis Scott’s Astroworld

Categories: Current Issues Blog

By: Nick Christopherson Travis Scott’s recent Astroworld music festival drew an estimated 50,000 fans to NRG Park in Houston on Friday, November 5.[1] Beginning in 2018, with the release of Scott’s new album, Astroworld, the annual music festival was an immediate hit and solidified Scott as an A-list celebrity for years to come.[2] The concert […]

Tags: music festival Negligence tort law Torts Travis Scott

16Nov

Are “Deliberate” Steps Still Required for Today’s Tech-Savvy Children?

Categories: Current Issues Blog

By Kyle Brantley It’s that time of day. Your child is positioning the antenna just right in order to catch their favorite broadcast TV show. No, that doesn’t sound quite right. They are actually dialing up the old FM radio for their favorite weekly jamboree! No, that’s definitely not happening. Instead, kids today consume their […]

Tags: Content-based restrictions Federal Communications Commission First Amendment

11Nov

Keep it in the family: the problems facing small family farms and how the Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act can help owners hold on to generational homesteads

Categories: Current Issues Blog

By: Mathias A. Young Small family farms are in dire straits. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service found that in 2019, between sixty-two and eighty-one percent of small family farms were operating at a “high risk level.”[1] This problem is worse for farmers of color, who for decades have faced discrimination in applying […]

Tags: agriculture farms partitions property law

9Nov

Broken Promises: The Afghan Special Immigrant Visa Program and Refugee Crisis

Categories: Current Issues Blog Uncategorized

By Laura Merriman Over the twenty-year war in Afghanistan, tens of thousands of Afghan nationals risked their lives to assist the US.[1] In exchange, the US offered them a humanitarian visa known as a Special Immigrant Visa (“SIV”), to safely resettle in the US as lawful permanent residents.[2] However, as the US began withdrawing from […]

Tags: Afghan Allies Petition Act immigration law Special Immigrant Visa

4Nov

Selective Service Registration: Stumbling Over the Final Hurdle to Gender Equality in the U.S. Military

Categories: Current Issues Blog

By: Joshua Plummer On September 22, 2021, the Senate Armed Services Committee introduced S. 2792, the “National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2022” (“2022 NDAA”), to the first session of the 117th Congress.[1] Buried in the 998 pages of the extensive $768 billion bill, which includes everything from the acquisition of combat aircraft to […]

Tags: gender equality Military military service selective service

2Nov

Checkmate? Gaprindashvili Sues Netflix Over a False Statement in the Queen’s Gambit Series

Categories: Current Issues Blog Uncategorized

By Hanna Diamond I. Introduction Nona Gaprindashvili, “a pioneer of women’s chess,” is making the first move and suing Netflix over a false statement made in the Netflix series, The Queen’s Gambit (the “Series”). [1] The Series was based on a fictional novel, The Queen’s Gambit (the “Novel”),[2] about an “American chess prodigy Beth Harmon,” […]

Tags: actual malice Defamation False Light INvasion of Privacy False statement Tort

29Oct

Viral for the Wrong Reasons: Credit or Copyright for Short Choreographic Works?

Categories: Current Issues Blog

By: Maryclaire M. Farrington Credit or copyright? That is the question. On September 25, 2019, fourteen-year-old Jalaiah Harmon created a short, twenty-second dance, dubbed “the Renegade,” and posted it on Instagram.[1] In the weeks after, the video racked up about 13,000 views, inspiring other Instagrammers to recreate the dance and post it themselves.[2] By October, […]

Tags: choreography Copyright copyright law dance TikTok

26Oct

Same Hit, Different Day—Google Fails to Learn from Microsoft’s Antitrust Blunder

Categories: Current Issues Blog

By Madison Boyer Since 2017, Google has racked up over $8 billion in fines from the European Union (“EU”) for antitrust violations.[1] The heftiest is a $5 billion (€4.34 billion) fine—the largest fine ever imposed by the European Commission (“EC”) for an antitrust violation.[2] The EC is the primary enforcer of EU competition laws.[3] In […]

Tags: Antitrust Sherman Act TFEU

21Oct

What’s Mine is Yours: Income Sharing Agreements in Higher Education

Categories: Current Issues Blog

By: Christian Schweitzer The runaway freight train that is the American student debt crisis continues to accelerate, as borrowers now owe a collective $1.73 trillion in debt.[1] As President Biden and Congress press forward with retroactive reforms to cancel debt for certain limited classes of borrowers,[2] it seems worthwhile to return to conversations about forward-looking […]

Tags: debt finance Higher Education income sharing agreements student debt

20Oct

The Entirely New Landscape of College Athletics: An Overview

Categories: Current Issues Blog

By Daniel Cundiff College athletics has undergone a seismic shift. For decades, athletes participating in Division I college athletics were unable to receive compensation for the use of their name, image, and likeness (“NIL”), and they risked becoming ineligible to participate in their sport for doing so.[1] Today, National Collegiate Athletic Association (“NCAA”) guidelines allow […]

Tags: college sports NCAA Supreme Court

14Oct

Constitutional Cussing

Categories: Current Issues Blog

By: Joseph C. Johnson On May 5, 2019, Dillon Webb was pulled over by a sheriff’s deputy in Columbia County, Florida, for a sticker that read “I EAT A*S” on the rear window of his truck.[1] Webb was arrested under a Florida obscenity statute after refusing to alter the sticker, and the officers that made […]

Tags: Constitutional Law First Amendment Free Speech obscenity law Qualified Immunity

7Oct

The Overregulation of Syringe Service Programs: How West Virginia Legislators Are Exacerbating the Opioid Crisis on the Battleground of the Epidemic

Categories: Current Issues Blog

By Emily Wilmink While the COVID-19 pandemic has consumed the field of public health since its onset in 2020, substance use disorder and the opioid crisis have continually plagued the United States for many years. Substance use disorder is a disease that “leads to an inability to control the use of a legal or illegal […]

Tags: opioid crisis opioid epidemic opioids Syringe Service Programs West Virginia

5Oct

Current Effort to Combat Potential Danger of Quantum Computing

Categories: Current Issues Blog

By: Inyoung Park Many companies, large or start-up, are recognizing the potential of quantum technology.[1] Quantum technology is based on quantum mechanics that study the movements of subatomic particles.[2] Unlike other particles that follow Newtonian physics, the quantum system differs in that the particles can be in superposition and exhibit entanglement, for example.[3] Superposition means […]

Tags: cybersecurity encryption legislation quantum computing Technology

30Sep

The National Security Powers Act of 2021 and the Erosion of Congressional War Powers

Categories: Current Issues Blog Uncategorized

By Jacob Winton On July 20, 2021, Senators Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), and Mike Lee (R-Utah) introduced the National Security Powers Act of 2021[1] (“NSPA”), a bipartisan bid to reign in the war powers of the Executive Branch. The bill, which would impose substantial limitations on presidential power,[2] would allow “Congress [] to […]

Tags: Congress Constitutional Law National security National Security Powers Act of 2021

28Sep

Shining a Light into the Shadows of the Supreme Court’s Shadow Docket

Categories: Current Issues Blog

By Grace Koppenheffer When systems work as expected, people generally are content to let such systems work in the background—the shadows—without needing to know the details. When those same systems start producing different and unexpected results, however, people want to shine a light into the shadows to understand, diagnose, and if needed, fix the system. […]

Tags: Constitutional Law emergency relief First Amendment shadow docket Supreme Court

21Sep

Community Caretaking Function: A Doctrinal Overview

Categories: Current Issues Blog

By: Nick Christopherson On August 30, 2019, twenty-three year old Elijah McClain died[1] from injuries sustained during a police welfare check.[2] On the night of the encounter, police responded to a report of a man (McClain) who “look[ed] sketchy,” and after perceiving McClain to be resisting arrest, the officers quickly initiated a takedown.[3] An independent […]

Tags: community caretaking Criminal Law Fourth Amendment Police welfare checks

16Sep

SPAC ATTACK: The Boom (and Bust?) of the Capital Vehicle Du Jour

Categories: Current Issues Blog

By Michael J. Riedl Shaquille O’Neal. Patrick Mahomes. Serena Williams. Alex Rodriguez. No, this is not a reading of the guest list at the 2021 ESPY Awards,[1] but rather a list of athletes on the management or advisory boards of various Special Purpose Acquisition Companies (“SPACs”).[2] SPACs, far from a novel financial vehicle,[3] grew […]

Tags: Business Law Investment Company Act of 1940 Securities Exchange Commission

28May

What Both Hart and Fuller Got Wrong

Categories: Online

Oren Gross* 11 Wake Forest L. Rev. Online 54 I. Introduction The debate between H.L.A. Hart and Lon Fuller, waged in 1958 over eighty pages of the Harvard Law Review, is one of the best known and most important jurisprudential debates of our time[1] Pitting the leading proponent of legal positivism against one of the […]

Tags:

27May

Niz-Chavez v. Garland: Pereira Groundhog Day

Categories: Current Issues Blog Uncategorized

By: Ashley Oldfield (Wake Forest School of Law alumnus) In Niz-Chavez v. Garland,[1] the Supreme Court of the United States addressed, for the second time, what constitutes a notice to appear under 8 U.S.C. § 1229(a)(1).[2] In doing so, the Court may have also resurrected challenges to an immigration court’s jurisdiction which first arose following […]

Tags: Immigration immigration law Supreme Court

6Apr

Second Chance at the Second Amendment: N.C. Senate Bill 562 Expands Opportunity for Firearm Ownership

Categories: Current Issues Blog

By: Charlie Ellis Forgiveness seems to be an obsolete virtue in modern American society. With the rise of cancel-culture on social media[1] and a country with polarization metrics higher than any point in the last twenty years,[2] “forgiveness” and “civility” are merely buzzwords for two sides who only wish to point out flaws in their […]

Tags: expungement Lawful concealed carry North Carolina Second Amendment

1Apr

The Gullah/Geechee Struggle to Preserve Ancestral Lands: Why Heirs’ Property Ownership Is Displacing Local Communities Along the Southeastern Shores

Categories: Current Issues Blog

By Belén Wilson The United States southeastern coast is known for its beautiful barrier islands and unique marshlands. Though some of these islands have been preserved, many are now home to luxury resorts, hotels, and even modern retirement communities.[1] While boom in development brings tourism to the islands, it comes at a painful cost to […]

Tags: heirs' property partition Property Real Property UPHPA

31Mar

The Inner Logic of Bostock

Categories: Online

Doron M. Kalir* 11 Wake Forest L. Rev. Online 42 In the short time since its release, Bostock v. Clayton County[1] has well-earned its self-praise as “simple and momentous.”[2] The opinion, which holds that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 applies to homosexuals and transgender persons in the workplace, instructs employers nationwide […]

Tags: Bostock Gay Rights Gorsuch LGBTQ Logic Model Supreme Court Trans Rights

30Mar

Chanel, Inc. v. The RealReal, Inc.: The Firsthand Problems of the Secondhand Market

Categories: Current Issues Blog

By: Carson Easterling The developing nature of the modern fashion industry, including the recent emphasis on sustainable fashion, has created a need for new legal issues to be addressed. As awareness of the waste and environmental harm caused by the fashion industry has come under fire in recent years, many consumers have turned to purchasing […]

Tags: Antitrust fashion marketing trademark infringement

25Mar

Sofia Vergara: In Vitro Fertilization and the Right Not to Procreate

Categories: Current Issues Blog

By Megan E. Cobb After six years, Sofia Vergara has been granted a permanent injunction preventing her ex-partner, Nick Loeb, from using the frozen embryos they created together without her explicit written permission.[1] This decision is just one step in a long court battle between the two which dates back to 2014, when Loeb filed […]

Tags: abortion rights Fourteenth Amendment In vitro fertilization Personhood

23Mar

Not Your Typical Student Union: National Labor Relations Board Withdraws Pending Rule that Would Have Blocked Student Assistants from Unionizing

Categories: Current Issues Blog

By: Andrew Abreu The National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB”) recently announced it will withdraw a near-final rule that was intended to prevent student assistants[1] from forming unions at private universities.[2] In announcing its withdrawal of the rule, the NLRB stated it decided to “withdraw this rulemaking proceeding based on its judgment respecting the most effective […]

Tags: Employment Labor Rulemaking Student union

18Mar

When the Private Becomes Sovereign: ERCOT’s Sovereign Immunity May Leave Millions of Texans Vulnerable

Categories: Current Issues Blog

By Wiley Hughes Earlier this year, from February 10 to February 20, a series of devastating winter storms ran their devastating course through the state of Texas.[1] The storms brought record low temperatures and an unprecedented amount of snow and ice to the state’s largest cities.[2] This overwhelmed the state’s power grid which triggered rolling […]

Tags: Sovereign Immunity Texas Torts

16Mar

Bird Safeguards Take Flight Again: Biden’s Quick Recall of the Trump-Era Bird Protection Rollbacks

Categories: Current Issues Blog

By: Jaclyn Bragano In an area of law that had been unchanged for nearly fifty years, a 2017 federal memorandum[1] rocked the migratory bird boat, prompting years of contradictory opinions and controversial rulemaking. The last few years have brought inconsistency and confusion in the context of migratory bird protections as opposing administrations batted back and […]

Tags: Donald Trump Joe Biden migratory bird treaty act Rulemaking

11Mar

Is Workplace Privacy Dead?: The Effects of “Bring Your Own Device” Policies on Employee Privacy

Categories: Current Issues Blog

By Lauren E. Douglas The year 2021 marks the forty-eighth anniversary of the mobile phone[1] and the eighty-third anniversary of the programmable computer.[2] It is no secret that mobile devices are significantly more powerful than their inventors could have ever predicted.[3] What started as clunky, cumbersome machinery has transformed into the backbone of society as […]

Tags: Computer Fraud and Abuse Act Electronic Communications Privacy Act Employee Employers Privacy Stored Communications Act

9Mar

Seinfeld Awarded Attorney’s Fees After Fending Off “Opportunistic” Copyright Suit

Categories: Current Issues Blog

By: Meghan Falk In sharp contrast to Jerry Seinfeld’s fictional trip to the courthouse, where he ended up in prison for “criminal indifference” in the series finale of Seinfeld, a judge ruled on February 26, 2021 that Seinfeld be reimbursed for legal fees after arguing against an “opportunistic” copyright lawsuit.[1] In early 2018, Seinfeld’s one-time […]

Tags: attorney's fees Copyright statute of limitations

5Mar

The Blurry Limits of the Equal Pay Act’s “Factor Other Than Sex”: An Argument For Limiting The Use of Salary History and the Benefit to Employers

Categories: Online

11 Wake Forest L. Rev. Online 21 (Opens PDF in New Tab) I. Introduction President John F. Kennedy signed the Equal Pay Act into law on June 10, 1963, remarking that such legislation constituted a “significant leap forward.”[1] Advocates of the bill heralded the legislation as “a matter of simple justice” ensuring that “there is […]

Tags: Employers Employment Law Equal Pay Act Factor Other Than Sex gender Pay Gap Salary History

4Mar

The Britney Spears Conservatorship: Is It “Toxic”?

Categories: Current Issues Blog

By Catherine A. Sims Pop icon Britney Spears, now 39 years old, has been under a legal conservatorship for 13 years.[1] The singer, known for hits such as “Toxic,” “Womanizer,” “Oops!…I Did It Again,” and “…Baby One More Time,”[2] lost all control over her personal finances, career, and estate in 2008, when a California state […]

Tags: California Conservatorship Guardianship

2Mar

EA Sports: It’s in the Licensing

Categories: Current Issues Blog

By: Natalie Galdos College football is coming back to EA Sports.[1] Daryl Holt, EA Sports vice president and general manager, announced Feb. 2, 2021 that EA Sports will revive its college football video game series.[2] While Holt declined to share any timeline for the arrival of the next installment of the college football series, fans […]

Tags: Antitrust college sports licensing Sports sports law

25Feb

Dunn v. Smith: Religious Liberties Do Not Cease at the Death Chamber Door

Categories: Current Issues Blog

By Sutton Travis In a decision that expanded religious liberties for prisoners on the verge of execution, the Supreme Court held in the late evening hours of Feb. 11 that Alabama prisoner Willie Smith could not be executed unless Alabama permitted Smith’s chaplain to accompany him into the execution chamber.[1] Smith filed a complaint in […]

Tags: Death Penalty Prisoner Religion religious freedom shadow docket Supreme Court

23Feb

Power to the Traders? A Look at the Reddit-Driven Surge of GameStop and Robinhood’s Subsequent Suspension of Meme Stocks

Categories: Current Issues Blog

By Elizabeth A. Napps The end of January 2021 brought a few trending headlines. We all expected to see stories of President Joe Biden’s inauguration, if not breakout star poet Amanda Gorman. The unexpected story, however, came the following week when Americans were reminded of the existence of GameStop and learned all about “stonks.” To […]

Tags: finance Litigation Finance Securities Exchange Act securities litigation stock

18Feb

Testing for an Antitrust Investigation: Why the Decision to Remove College Admissions Requirements Raises Anticompetitive Questions

Categories: Current Issues Blog

By Sarah Keller Antitrust laws ensure that companies are not artificially impacting or controlling demand for products.[1] Higher education institutions are uniquely situated multibillion-dollar businesses whose product is not simply degrees—but also scholarship, athletics, and the arts.[2] Although these institutions have qualities that differentiate them from traditional businesses, they remain subject to the Sherman Act’s […]

Tags: Antitrust Education Higher Education Sherman Act

16Feb

Online Harassment of Journalists and Uncertain Paths to Recourse Under the Law

Categories: Current Issues Blog

By Mary Catherine Young Last month, an Azerbaijani journalist was forced to deactivate her social media accounts after receiving sexually explicit and violent threats in response to a piece she wrote about Azerbaijan’s cease-fire with Armenia.[1] Some online users called for the Azerbaijan government to revoke columnist Arzu Geybulla’s citizenship—others called for her death.[2] Days […]

Tags: Harassment Internet Invasion of Privacy Journalism Journalists Privacy social media Stalking

12Feb

New ABA Program Helps Immigrants Navigate Daunting Government System

Categories: Current Issues Blog

By Alexandra N. Meyer A new American Bar Association program aims to better prepare immigrants navigating one of America’s most time-consuming and expensive government systems. Unlike most government agencies, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, (“USCIS”), is fee-funded and relies almost exclusively on fees to operate.[1] In fact, service fees account for approximately 97 percent […]

Tags: ABA Administrative Law American Bar Association Immigration immigration law USCIS

11Feb

FAA Rescinds Order Grounding Jets, 737 MAX Aircraft Return to Flight

Categories: Current Issues Blog

By Steven P. Bradford Following crashes of Lion Air Flight 610 and Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302, the Federal Aviation Administration (“FAA”) issued an Emergency Order grounding Boeing 737-8 and -9 (“Boeing MAX”) aircraft.[1] The order was rescinded on November 18, 2020, allowing Boeing MAX aircraft to resume flight operations once airlines complete prescribed corrective actions […]

Tags: Administrative Law Air Travel Airlines Boeing FAA Federal Aviation Administration

9Feb

New Benefit Program Attempts to Bridge Digital Divide

Categories: Current Issues Blog

By Rachel L. Golden To mitigate the spread of COVID-19, millions of students have been forced to move from in-person to distance learning. The success of distance learning hinges on a student’s ability to access the virtual classroom.[1] For two girls in East Salinas, California, distance learning meant having to sit in a Taco Bell […]

Tags: Administrative Law Congress COVID-19 Education law Internet

4Feb

The Guelph Treasure and the Hunt for Jurisdiction

Categories: Current Issues Blog

By Sarah E. Page Pop culture is filled with references to hidden Nazi treasure. Monuments Men tells the story of the real hunt for stolen Nazi art[1] Television channels are rife with shows focusing on the search for hidden Nazi gold around the world.[2] However, one hoard is hidden in plain sight, and is now […]

Tags: International Law Jurisdiction Property Supreme Court Treasure

2Feb

The Big (Trademark) Game: The NFL’s Battle to Protect Its “Super Bowl” Trademark

Categories: Current Issues Blog

By Blake Witty This Sunday, nearly one in three Americans[1] will turn to their televisions to watch Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs take on Tom Brady and the Tampa Buccaneers in Super Bowl LV.[2] The Super Bowl has become a mainstay in American culture and is arguably the most followed and prestigious event […]

Tags: Intellectual Property sports law trademark trademark infringement

1Feb

A Realistic Analysis of the DOT’s Decision to Ban Emotional Support Animals from Flights

Categories: Current Issues Blog

Jess Harrell In recent years, there has been a rise in emotional support animals (“ESAs”) throughout the United States.[1] Unlike service animals, which are trained to perform specific tasks for disabled individuals,[2] ESAs provide companionship, relieve loneliness, and help with mental disabilities such as depression, anxiety, and phobias.[3] However, they are not individually trained to […]

Tags:

30Jan

The Spoils of War: Arguments in Favor of Independent Claims for Spoliation Against Third Parties

Categories: Online

11 Wake Forest L. Rev. Online 1 (Opens PDF in new tab) Andrea A. Anderson* I. Introduction Kenneth was a coal miner.[1] One day, while cooling a welding area, a hose burst and severely injured his neck and face.[2] Despite sustaining major injuries that would prevent him from working in the future, Kenneth had limited […]

Tags: Evidence tort law Torts

28Jan

Collaboration for LGBTQ+ Equality and Religious Freedom

Categories: Current Issues Blog

Jordan Peterson It is no secret that federal policymakers usually propose a bill with no expectation that it will pass into law. In some cases, they do this because they want to start a conversation about an important topic.[1] One such topic that has been at the forefront of the American political thought for some […]

Tags: Conservative First Amendment LGBTQ Liberal religious freedom

23Jan

Pandemic Relief Bill Increases Business Meal Tax Deduction

Categories: Current Issues Blog

Emily Solley On December 27, 2020, President Donald J. Trump signed a $900 billion pandemic relief bill into law.[1] The bill resulted from eight months of tense negotiations, earlier failures at passage, and, most recently, an intense debate over the bill’s proposed $600 direct payment to Americans.[2] President Trump called the payments a “disgrace” and […]

Tags:

20Jan

Sharing is Caring: H-2B Visa Portability as the Lasting Solution to Temporary Problems

Categories: Current Issues Blog

Makenzie Taylor Each year, 66,000 H-2B visa guest workers enter the United States to perform nonagricultural temporary and seasonal jobs[1] in industries such as forestry, landscaping, hospitality, seafood processing, and construction.[2] The workers typically perform “relatively low-skilled” jobs and often work in “geographic areas where the number of available U.S. workers is limited.”[3] They comprise […]

Tags: Employee Employment Law H-2B Visa Immigration immigration law seasonal workers visa portability

16Jan

The “Hack Back” Bill: A Necessary Defense Mechanism, or a Precipitous Disaster?

Categories: Current Issues Blog

Kristin J. Rempe The Active Cyber Defense Certainty Act—colloquially known as the “Hack Back” bill— was first introduced in 2017[1] and reintroduced in 2019.[2] The bipartisan bill seeks to amend the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (“CFAA”).[3] Under the CFAA, it is illegal to knowingly or intentionally access another computer without authorization or to exceed […]

Tags: cyber attack Cyber Law dara security hack back bill hacking privacy law

14Jan

Religion in a Pandemic: The Supreme Court’s Free Exercise Jurisprudence in the COVID-19 Era

Categories: Current Issues Blog

Blake Davis The COVID-19 pandemic has upended the way Americans engage in their weekly religious practices.[1] As with every other area of American life, religious organizations have become accustomed to providing socially distanced services and complying with both federal and state guidelines for safe worship experiences.[2] As churches, synagogues, and mosques have transitioned to servicing […]

Tags: Constitutional Law COVID-19 free exercise clause pandemic Religion religious freedom

15Dec

To Pack or Not to Pack The Court? A Closer Look at Both Arguments

Categories: Current Issues Blog

On November 25, the United States Supreme Court issued a five to four opinion enjoining New York Governor, Andrew Cuomo, from implementing a COVID-19 restriction which would limit religious services to gatherings of no more than ten people.[1] The deciding vote? Newly appointed Justice Amy Coney Barrett.[2] Joining Justice Barrett in the unsigned opinion were […]

Tags: Amy Coney Barrett Congress court packing Democrat Republican Supreme Court

11Dec

Shots for All? The Legal Background and Implications of Mandating Flu Vaccines on College Campuses

Categories: Current Issues Blog

Shannon Porterfield Due to the recent outbreak of SARS-CoV-2 (“COVID-19”), colleges and universities across the United States (“U.S.”) are requiring students to get vaccinated against the flu and submit documentation of such immunization to return to campus for the coming spring semester.[1] As the rates of flu immunizations among Americans are typically low without mandates, […]

Tags: constitution COVID-19 flu vaccine vaccine mandate

7Dec

Don’t Frack with Our Water: The Colorado Water Crisis

Categories: Current Issues Blog

Tim Maguire Water is imported, exported, bought and sold, and transported intrastate, interstate, and internationally.[1] It has powered the transportation industry and empowered manufacturing. Disagreements over its use and misuse have led to armed conflicts and even war.[2] With respect to its vitalness, it is equally as precious to other natural resources such as oil, […]

Tags: Colorado Colorado River conservation conservation law Environmental Law natural resource law potable water rebate programs water water conservation water crisis watershed

4Dec

Georgia Runoff Election and the Debate Over Voter Fraud

Categories: Current Issues Blog

Rebecca Paulus “The management of Georgia elections has become an embarrassment for our state. Georgians are outraged, and rightly so.”[1] This scathing condemnation originates from a joint statement issued by Senators David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, demanding that Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger resign because he “has failed to deliver honest and transparent elections.”[2] […]

Tags: election Georgia runoff election voter fraud voting

16Nov

COVID-19 AND THE CONTINUING ASIAN AMERICAN MOMENT: NARRATIVES FROM THE MIDWEST

Categories: Online

10 Wake Forest L. Rev. Online 149 (Opens PDF in new tab) Ilhyung Lee* The COVID-19 pandemic drastically affected the operations and daily routines of the university and college town that have been my home for the past twenty-two years. In mid-March 2020, the University of Missouri (“MU”),[1] in Columbia, Missouri, suspended all in-person classes […]

Tags: Asian Americans COVID-19 Race Discrimination

31Oct

CAUSAL PROOF IN THE PANDEMIC

Categories: Online

10 Wake Forest L. Rev. Online 124 Betsy J. Grey* I. Introduction Business owners and politicians have raised the specter of a flood of civil lawsuits arising out of the pandemic.[1] Most of these suits will likely be commercial in nature, and very few personal injury lawsuits have been filed against businesses since the pandemic […]

Tags: Causation Civil Litigation COVID-19 Tort Worker's Compensation

29Oct

Back Against the Wall: Are Section 230’s Days Numbered?

Categories: Current Issues Blog

By Alexander F. Magee The internet has long been championed as a marketplace of ideas that fosters unprecedented access to different viewpoints and mass amounts of information and media. At least in the eyes of some, Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (“CDA”)[1] is largely responsible for the internet gaining that reputation, and the […]

Tags: Executive Order First Amendment Internet statutory interpretation

27Oct

Love Is Not Tourism: The Safe Reunion of Unmarried Partners and Families in the Face of International Travel Bans

Categories: Current Issues Blog

By Adrian E. Simioni The continued closure of international borders in response to the COVID-19 pandemic has had devasting economic effects on trade, tourism, and service industries across the globe.[1] However, one overlooked, entirely human effect has been the profound impact of border closures on unmarried couples and families residing in different countries. Their designation […]

Tags: Borders COVID-19 International Law United Nations

22Oct

Sleeping While Black: Breonna Taylor, No-Knock Warrants, and the Need for Reform

Categories: Current Issues Blog

By Itané O. Coleman On November 21, 2006, Kathryn Johnston was ninety-two. Police entered her home. They shot her six times. Killing her.[1] On May 16, 2010, Aiyana Jones was seven. Police entered her grandmother’s home. They shot the child while sleeping. Killing her.[2] Though Black men are often the face of police violence for […]

Tags: Breonna Taylor Constitutional Law Police Race Discrimination search warrant Women

20Oct

Chasing Equality: Is Caster Semenya’s Battle Against the IAAF Really Over?

Categories: Current Issues Blog

By Kelsey E. Rector South African runner Caster Semenya is a two-time Olympic gold medalist and has dominated track events like the 800 meter and other mid-distance races over the last decade.[1] All her life, Semenya has been questioned about her sex, especially with respect to competing as an elite female track athlete.[2] Her performance […]

Tags: gender International Law Sports sports law Women

15Oct

TikTok, Inc. v. Trump: Can TikTok’s U.S. Operations Last?

Categories: Current Issues Blog

By Christopher R. Taylor On August 6th, President Trump issued Executive Order 13,942 (“TikTok Prohibition Order”) prohibiting transactions with ByteDance Ltd. (“ByteDance”), TikTok’s parent company, because of the company’s data collection practices regarding U.S. users and its close relationship with the Peoples Republic of China (“PRC”).[1] Eight days later President Trump issued a subsequent order […]

Tags: Administrative Law Donald Trump social media Social Networking TikTok

13Oct

How Losing Football Coaches Stand to Gain from the NCAA’s Decision to Waive Bowl Eligibility Requirements

Categories: Current Issues Blog

By Jonathan Carter The 2020–21 NCAA football season is shaping up to be much different than seasons past,[1] and a recent rule change recommended by the NCAA Division I Football Oversight Committee (“Oversight Committee”) could result in coaches with losing records benefiting from the disarray.[2] Due to COVID-19, currently only 112 of the 130 total […]

Tags: college sports Contracts sports law

8Oct

Knight Institute v. Trump: The Battle for the Block Button Continues

Categories: Current Issues Blog

By Gabriel L. Marx Donald Trump is once again at the center of a legal dispute. The Forty-Fifth President of the United States has been no stranger to legal controversies during and before his presidency,[1] but the latest update in Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University v. Trump[2] has President Trump petitioning for a […]

Tags: Donald Trump First Amendment social media Social Networking Supreme Court

6Oct

Doubling the Draft: The Beginning of the End for the All-Male Selective Service System

Categories: Current Issues Blog

By Ashley Willard As it stands, the Military Selective Service Act (“MSSA”) only impacts males.[1] The MSSA gives the President authority to issue a proclamation requiring all male citizens and most male noncitizen residents between the ages of eighteen and twenty-six to register with the Selective Service.[2] The current registration period began when President Carter […]

Tags: Constitutional Law Military Women

1Oct

Bush v. Gore 2.0? Why the November Election Could Turn on a 6-3 Court

Categories: Current Issues Blog

By Jacqueline K. Winters On Sept. 26, less than two months before the election, President Donald Trump announced Amy Coney Barrett as his nominee for the Supreme Court.[1] Considering Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s plans to swiftly move forward with the confirmation process and begin hearings on Oct. 12, it is likely that the Senate […]

Tags: Donald Trump Elections Joe Biden Supreme Court

29Sep

Repairing our National Parks and the Implications of the Great American Outdoors Act

Categories: Current Issues Blog

By Davis LaBarre In the midst of a global pandemic, the one bright spot for many has been spending time outdoors. Increased travel restrictions and cancelled overseas trips have led to packing up the car to visit the beautiful parks our own country has to offer.[1] This summer, Congress passed the Great American Outdoors Act, […]

Tags: fund Legislature National Parks Natural Resources

26Sep

The Fault in In Pari Delicto: How Illegality Bars and Moral Culpability Collide with Tort Law

Categories: Online

10 Wake Forest L. Rev. Online 107 James W. Sprague I. Introduction In the summer of 2002, a Union Pacific Railroad conductor, Arnulfo Flores, agreed to transport ten Mexican nationals across the Mexican-American border undetected.[1] When the nationals arrived on the railroad’s property, Flores ushered them into a large metal railway car and sealed them […]

Tags: apportionment of liability comparative fault fault apportionment in pari delicto opioid Torts wrongful acts doctrine wrongful conduct rule

24Sep

Bostock’s Aftermath: Textual Similarity in Federal Statutes Provides Opportunity for Huge Step Forward in LGBTQ+ Rights

Categories: Current Issues Blog

By Zeliang Mike Liu On June 15, 2020, the Supreme Court issued a landmark 6-3 decision stating that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (“Title VII”) prohibits an employer from firing an individual for being homosexual or transgender.[1] The question came to the court through three different cases: Bostock v. Clayton County, […]

Tags: Affordable Care Act Civil Rights Fair Housing Act LGBTQ Supreme Court Title IX Title VII

22Sep

Fake Cures and Real Law: Analyzing the Legal Implications of ‘DIY’ COVID Vaccines

Categories: Current Issues Blog

By Megan M. Neal As the public tracks the development of a viable SARS-CoV-2 (“COVID-19”) vaccine, there has been rampant proliferation of fake COVID-19 cures. Indeed, the Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”) has identified a host of products fraudulently marketed to diagnose, treat, or cure COVID-19.[1] Many of these products are faulty, but relatively harmless: […]

Tags: COVID-19 Drugs Medical Malpractice

17Sep

The Catch-22 of the COVID-19 Remote Workforce: A Payroll, Income, and Unemployment Tax Nightmare

Categories: Current Issues Blog

By Alex Lewis Working remotely has become the new normal, and it may stay that way after COVID-19.[1] Although many professionals enjoy the safety, freedom, and flexibility that comes with remote work, a potential tax nightmare may be around the corner for some in 2021. If employees did not switch over their withholding once […]

Tags: coronavirus Employment Law tax code tax law

19Aug

Raising the Age and Raising the Budget: Why North Carolina’s Juvenile Justice Reinvestment Act Requires Full Funding

Categories: Online

Since 1919, North Carolina had treated its sixteen- and seventeen-year-old offenders as adults. On December 1, 2019, after one-hundred years of this misguided system, North Carolina finally raised its age of juvenile jurisdiction to eighteen.

Tags: Criminal Law Juveniles North Carolina

24Apr

U.S. Jails & Prisons Poorly Positioned to Prevent COVID-19 Spread

Categories: Current Issues Blog

By Amanda Manzano The rapid spread of COVID-19 has disrupted business as usual across the globe and created a “new normal” for human social behavior; a normal that U.S. prisons and jails as we know them do not have the luxury, or ability, to implement. Physical distancing in public, self-isolation, and the use of face […]

Tags: COVID-19 Criminal Law Criminal Procedure Prisoner Civil Rights

21Apr

“Life, uh, Finds A Way”: Is the Political “Horse Race” the Next Great American Sport?

Categories: Current Issues Blog Uncategorized

By Alexander S. Boros So far, 2020 has felt like an eternity and yet we are just four months in. The spread of COVID-19 has turned the entire world upside down and has transformed the economy in a way we have never seen before. One of the more interesting twists of fate in the midst […]

Tags: COVID-19 Elections Gambling Politics Sports

17Apr

Can He Do That? President’s Executive Order Encourages Mining on Moon, Asteroids

Categories: Current Issues Blog

By Chris Flurry President Donald Trump issued an Executive Order on Apr. 6, 2020, with potentially out-of-this-world implications.[1] The order encourages the U.S. and international communities – public and private – to support the exploration, recovery, and use of extraterrestrial resources.[2] While the order may seem to come at a surprising time,[3] it has reportedly […]

Tags: Donald Trump Executive Order Mining Moon Space Law

8Apr

COVID-19: N.C. Governor’s Order Enables Remote Shareholder Meetings During Pandemic

Categories: Current Issues Blog

By Matthew Hooker For the duration of the COVID-19 emergency, North Carolina corporations may conduct shareholders’ meetings completely via remote communication technology, pursuant to an executive order by Governor Roy Cooper.[1] This order temporarily resolves an ambiguity in the North Carolina Business Corporation Act pertaining to remote participation in shareholders’ meetings, allowing North Carolina corporations […]

Tags: Business Law Business Organizations Corporate Governance COVID-19 North Carolina

5Apr

COVID-19 Stimulus Package: What CARES Act Rebates Mean for Immigrants

Categories: Current Issues Blog

By Agustin Martinez Across the globe, the COVID-19 pandemic has devastated many lives,[1] including those of immigrants living in the United States.[2] U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (“USCIS”) recently announced that it “will neither consider testing, treatment, nor preventative care (including vaccines, if a vaccine becomes available) related to COVID-19 as part of a public […]

Tags: COVID-19 Federal Regulation Immigrant Immigration tax code tax law

15Nov

Changing the Language, Not the Law: North Carolina’s Citizens-Only Amendment

Categories: Current Issues Blog Uncategorized

By Emily Gordon When North Carolina residents voted in the 2024 election, they might have been surprised to see a ballot measure regarding a proposed amendment to the state constitution.[1] Prior to the election, the North Carolina State Constitution allowed “every person born in the United States and every person who has been naturalized” […]

Tags: Citizenship Status election election law Immigration North Carolina Voter Rights

8Nov

North Carolina’s Regulatory Sandbox: Proposed Permanent Rules

Categories: Current Issues Blog

By Alexis Furgal A regulatory sandbox is a “controlled environment” in which companies reward innovative contributions regulatory freedom with.[1] Essentially, companies enjoy (temporarily) fewer regulatory hurdles to overcome during the sprint to bring novel technologies and services to market.[2] On one hand, regulatory sandboxes foster innovation and promote advancement because companies are free to “trial […]

Tags: Banking Law Insurance North Carolina Regulation Technology

24Oct

Striking Out of Federal Court: Heck Dismissals are now PLRA Strikes in the Fourth Circuit

Categories: Current Issues Blog

By Alex Gracia As of September 16, 2024, indigent prisoner-plaintiffs in North Carolina must be weary when their civil rights claims are dismissed.[1] The failure to do so could result in the loss of important financial protections afforded to them.[2] Background The Federal Reserve reports that 37% of all adults would not be able […]

Tags: North Carolina Prison Prisoner Prisoner Civil Rights

8Oct

Pets are Part of Your Family: Could North Carolina be the Next State to Recognize the Best Interests of the Pet When Determining Pet Custody?

Categories: Current Issues Blog

By Vivian Bolen Most dog owners in the United States view their dogs as a part of their family, yet legally, dogs are still property.[1] The law has not kept up with the emotional value we attach to companion pets like cats and dogs, and when pet-owning spouses divorce, they are forced to reckon with […]

Tags: Animal Rights Animals divorce North Carolina

26Sep

Navigating the NIL Playbook: The Current State of NIL Laws for North Carolina High School Athletes and Potential Changes Downfield

Categories: Current Issues Blog

By Mary Grace Hutzler In recent years, Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) regulations have been a source of dramatic change in the landscape of high school athletics.[1] These regulations, which are a much-needed change from the burdensome rules of the past, enable student-athletes to profit from their personal brands.[2] The NIL debate erupted when collegiate […]

Tags: NCAA North Carolina Sports sports law Student

19Sep

Taking Stock of the Comstock Act: Legal Relic or Courtroom Crusade?

Categories: Current Issues Blog

Anna Duong-Harrison History In 1873, Congress passed the Act for the Suppression of Trade in, and Circulation of, Obscene Articles of Immoral Use––the colloquial Comstock Act.[1] This Act criminalized the circulation of contraceptives and birth control-related information through the mail, including medical textbooks and magazines.[2] Even instruments that could be used to perform […]

Tags: abortion abortion rights Constitutional Law Constitutional Right Supreme Court

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