The Roundtable
Welcome to the Roundtable, JLPP’s online blog featuring student commentary on current cases and legal developments!
If you are interested in becoming a Staff Writer or Contributing Writer for the Roundtable, e-mail Notes Editors Kyle Reynolds (mreynolds@jd18.law.harvard.edu) or Chadwick Harper (charper@jd19.law.harvard.edu).
The First Step Act and the Pardon Power – Dave Yost & Benjamin M. Flowers
Download PDF The First Step Act and the Pardon Power Dave Yost & Benjamin M. Flowers* Mercy is a virtue. It implies a lack of worthiness on the part of the person to whom mercy is shown—to release an innocent prisoner is not mercy, but justice. Mercy is an act that overlooks a wrong and acts humanely, with compassion and with a view toward restoration. But mercy is not the only virtue. And it can work at cross-purposes with others, especially in government. Consider prudence. Exhibiting mercy to a criminal defendant generally means...
read moreWhat Part of “In Common Use” Don’t You Understand?: How Courts Have Defied Heller in Arms-Ban Cases—Again – Mark W. Smith
Download PDF What Part of “In Common Use” Don’t You Understand?: How Courts Have Defied Heller in Arms-Ban Cases—Again Mark W. Smith[*] Introduction In the year since New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen[2] was decided, a line of argument has developed in the lower courts that effectively seeks to relitigate and nullify District of Columbia v. Heller.[3] Heller established the constitutional test to determine what arms are protected by the Second Amendment. After examining the text of the Second Amendment, as illuminated by...
read moreReview: Keeping Our Republic – Benjamin Pontz
Download PDF Review: Keeping Our Republic Benjamin Pontz* Bernhardt, David. You Report to Me: Accountability for the Failing Administrative State. New York: Encounter Books, 2023. Thapar, Amul. The People’s Justice: Clarence Thomas and the Constitutional Stories That Define Him. New York: Regnery Publishing, 2023. Wallach, Philip. Why Congress. New York: Oxford University Press, 2023. *** Americans love Benjamin Franklin. An electricity-experimenting daredevil, an independent thinker whose penchant for pithy one-liners shines...
read moreGroff v. DeJoy: Hardison is dead, long live Hardison! – Nick Reaves
Download PDF Groff v. DeJoy: Hardison is dead, long live Hardison! Nick Reaves* For decades, lower courts and litigators labored under the (mis)impression that the Supreme Court meant what it said in TWA v. Hardison: that an employer can deny a religious accommodation if it imposes anything more than a “de minimis” (or minimal) cost on the employer’s business.[1] So understood, Hardison cost countless religious minorities their jobs and allowed this country’s largest employers to deny religious accommodations by pointing to the all but...
read moreTo Vacate or Not to Vacate: Some (Still) Unanswered Questions in the APA Vacatur Debate – Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle
Download PDF To Vacate or Not to Vacate: Some (Still) Unanswered Questions in the APA Vacatur Debate Hon. Kathryn Kimball Mizelle* Introduction Section 706(2) of the Administrative Procedure Act provides that federal courts reviewing agency action “shall” “hold unlawful and set aside agency action . . . found to be . . . not in accordance with law.”[1] For decades, federal courts have understood this provision to authorize vacatur of unlawful agency rules or regulation.[2] In my own Court, the meaning of “set aside” became relevant in Health...
read moreThe Relevance of “In Common Use” After Bruen – Jamie G. McWilliam
Download PDF The Relevance of “In Common Use” After Bruen Jamie G. McWilliam* Introduction The Supreme Court in Bruen clarified many of the issues plaguing post-Heller Second Amendment doctrine, most notably that the two-step interest balancing test previously accepted by the circuit courts that combined history and means-end scrutiny was contrary to the analysis performed in Heller.[1] Instead, the Court laid forth a different two-step analysis grounded in text and history: “When the Second Amendment’s plain text covers an...
read moreBeyond Locke and Towards a More Accurate Intellectual History of American Constitutionalism – Elias Neibart
Download PDF Beyond Locke and Towards a More Accurate Intellectual History of American Constitutionalism Elias Neibart* Although he died in 1704, John Locke lives on in judicial opinions. His name and the ideas he purportedly propagated are peppered throughout reporters. Indeed, Locke and his political thought played a major role in the Indiana Supreme Court’s recent decision in Members of the Medical Licensing Board of Indiana v. Planned Parenthood Great Northwest, Hawai’i, Alaska, Indiana, Kentucky, Inc.[1] There, the state’s highest...
read moreBreaking Barriers or Breaking Bad? The FTC’s Proposed Ban on Noncompete Agreements in Employment Contracts -Alexander Raskovich, Bruce H. Kobayashi, Abbott B. Lipsky Jr., Joshua D. Wright, and John M. Yun
Download PDF Breaking Barriers or Breaking Bad? The FTC’s Proposed Ban on Noncompete Agreements in Employment Contracts Alexander Raskovich, Bruce H. Kobayashi, Abbott B. Lipsky Jr., Joshua D. Wright & John M. Yun* On January 19, 2023, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (“NPRM”) on noncompete agreements (“NCAs”) in employment contracts,[1] proposing a rule that would ban virtually all NCAs. NCAs restrict employees’ mobility to obtain other jobs upon termination of current employment. Typically, NCA...
read moreConstitutional Administration and Collective Bargaining: A Symposium
JLPP: Per Curiam is proud to present Constitutional Administration and Collective Bargaining: A Symposium on Philip Howard’s Not Accountable. The essays in this symposium, authored by renowned academics, review and critique the ideas expressed in Howard’s Not Accountable: Rethinking the Constitutionality of Public Employee Unions. The essays in this symposium can be accessed at the following links: Constitutional Administration and Collective Bargaining: A Symposium on Philip Howard’s Not Accountable – Adam J. White Not So Fast...
read moreAlternative Ways to Define Public Accountability – Paul R. Verkuil
Download PDF Alternative Ways to Define Public Accountability Paul R. Verkuil* In Not Accountable—Rethinking the Constitutionality of Public Employee Unions, Phillip Howard fires another broadside at the failures of government and its employees. Under his Common Good reform coalition,[1] Howard has rallied the public behind injustices caused by bureaucratic systems that stifle creativity and create impenetrable barriers to sensible decision-making, leading to “the rule of nobody.” Using “common sense” analysis to expose government failures,...
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