In 2011, Congress created a new administrative pathway through which a party can challenge the validity of a granted patent: inter partes review (IPR). Like preexisting reexamination procedures, IPR is a mechanism through which a private party may ask the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) to invalidate or narrow patents that fail to meet the standards of patent eligibility, thus returning subject matter to the public domain and protecting...
Note
This Note analyzes the difficulty that courts have in determining whether nonmarital fathers of Native American children are “parents” within the meaning of the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978 (ICWA). Part I recounts the history leading to the enactment of ICWA and provides an overview of the subsequent interpretation of ICWA by the Supreme Court, state courts, and the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA). Part II presents the difficulties that...
Section 3(c) of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 provides a seldom-used path to federal preclearance of changes to state and local voting practices. It allows a federal judge, upon finding that a jurisdiction violated the Fourteenth or Fifteenth Amendment, to require that jurisdiction to submit for preapproval any “voting qualification or prerequisite to voting or standard, practice, or procedure with respect to voting.” Originally intended...
The rhetoric surrounding the benefits of local governments has changed: In response to many cities passing progressive local regulations, state and federal legislators have shifted from emphasizing local control to promoting broad state preemption statutes designed to reduce local power. Additionally, as a result of the work of national interest groups, much of this state-level legislation has become increasingly homogenized. Although not an exclusively...
This Note examines the constitutionality of age-based handgun-purchase restrictions in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision in District of Columbia v. Heller (Heller I). Part I explores Second Amendment jurisprudence since the Founding and provides an overview of current federal and state firearms restrictions. It also reviews current challenges in the courts to federal prohibitions on firearms purchases and possession by classes...
In the past decade, robo-advisors—online platforms providing investment advice driven by algorithms—have emerged as a low-cost alternative to traditional, human investment advisers. This presents a regulatory wrinkle for the Investment Advisers Act, the primary federal statute governing investment advice. Enacted in 1940, the Advisers Act was devised with human behavior in mind. Regulators now must determine how an automated...
The number of refugees worldwide has expanded dramatically in the first decades of the twenty-first century, with tens of millions of people forced to seek shelter outside their countries of origin. Currently, the most critical form of protection that people in this vulnerable position are guaranteed is the duty of non-refoulement. This duty ensures that countries to which refugees flee cannot return them to places where their lives may be endangered....
Almost every state has experimented with charter schools to improve education outcomes for high-needs students. Charter schools operate with more autonomy and flexibility than traditional public schools, but at the expense of democratic accountability mechanisms. While this model has produced positive results, some charter schools deny access to or underenroll students with disabilities. The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act entitles...
While vaccination is a hot political topic, it is largely settled as a matter of law. Ever since the Supreme Court’s 1905 decision in Jacobson v. Massachusetts, state governments have possessed the authority to enforce mandatory vaccination laws. Furthermore, courts have long recognized that States are not required to provide religious exemptions to these vaccination mandates, though most do. The Supreme Court recently denied certiorari in a...
Colleges and universities are facing mounting pressure to tackle the pervasive problem of student-perpetrated sexual misconduct. Whether these institutions lack the expertise or, less optimistically, the willpower, colleges and universities have struggled to sift through a morass of Department of Education regulations, conflicting case law, and institutional incentives in order to design disciplinary procedures that protect the rights of both complainant...