Nexus: Chapman's Journal of Law and Public Policy

Since the start of the recent financial crisis questions have loomed large about Goldman Sachs’ role and involvement in the financial collapse. Perhaps the most scathing characterization of “Main Street” sentiment towards the firm was summed up by Rolling Stone editor, Matt Taibbi, when he stated “[t]he world's most powerful investment bank is a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money.” Goldman has earned this reputation in part because of the shroud of secrecy that surrounds the firm. Only adding fuel to the fire, has ...

For most of us, borrowing to buy a home is another hard reality of life. The typical consumer will not be knowledgeable in technical matters concerning your average home mortgage, nor is he able to find and compare different products in the marketplace, much less assemble and complete a loan application package. This is where a mortgage broker comes in. Supposedly on your side, a broker will help search for the best possible loan and help you to both apply and qualify for that loan. The broker can be compensated either directly by fees paid at closing by the buyer ...

This blog attempts to explain the context within which Citizens United v. FEC was decided, starting with broad concepts of law and quickly narrowing them to the case at hand.

The text of the First Amendment is straight forward: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” I hate to break it to you, but Congress has made laws abridging the freedom of ...

Millions of dollars are poured into campaigns each election every year. Members of Congress look to wealthy individuals and businesses to fund their campaigns. For years it has been debated whether or not the government should limit contributions to campaigns or campaign spending to prevent corruption of politicians. In 2010, the Supreme Court decided in Citizens United that there are no limits on corporate spending on political campaigns.

After Citizens United, there has been a renewed drive for major campaign finance reform. For example, the League of Women Voters “strongly supports legislation that will enhance disclosure, fix the public financing ...

American consumers have finally come out of hiding. New figures suggest that consumers are no longer restricting their budgets to necessities. Consumers have started to buy clothes, jewelry, and every cars again. After the financial crisis hit in 2008, consumers stopped spending heavily on anything but necessities. However, it seems as though the mood has gone from cautious to almost "a bit giddy" as Mark Zandi, chief economist for Moody's Economy.com put it.

Consumers have now eased off on their savings, freeing up cash for them to spend. Major retailing chains have posted higher earning than expected. Industry ...

The new numbers for the unemployment rate came out last Friday and it shows that our employment crisis remains unchanged. While there is the appearance is that our economy has gotten better, the fact of the matter is that our economy is not as bad as most analysts have predicted.

The Labor Department said the economy lost 36,000 jobs in the month, fewer than the 68,000 jobs economists were expecting, according to a survey conducted by Briefing.com. The results were still worse than the previous month, as just 26,000 jobs were lost in January, according to ...

A recent blog entry for the New York Times Opinion Section entitled “Greeks, Romans, and Financial Reform” by Paul Krugman draws an interesting parallel between the Frank bill, which has been passed by the House, and the Dodd bill, and the different military responses of the Romans and Hellenistic regimes to the successes of Alexander the Great.1

Krugman explains that the Hellenistic armies were “collections of specialists,” so there were the heavy infantry, cavalry, and so on, and that, when used optimally, they had a strong advantage because they had a longer range against many opponents because of their ...

There is an old saying that worrying is a lot like a rocking chair, it gives you something to do but it doesn't get you anywhere. I have come to the conclusion that the same may be true of the ping-pong rhetoric regarding health care reform. The newest health care reform bill was recently signed into law by President Obama. As the news shows have turned from debate to analysis regarding the impact of the bill, there is one thing that everyone can agree upon: we have no idea what is going to happen. David Axelrod recently opined regarding ...

As the nation has become increasingly polarized over the last decade there has been a major divide amongst Americans as to the role the State should play in the economy and in our personal lives. Obviously this is not a new debate, but I believe that now more than ever the lines are clearly drawn.

A friend of mine who works in the health insurance industry recently posted an article about the record profits of several major health insurance companies. Now don’t get me wrong, I am for capitalism and the right of a person or a company to ...

With the current Collective Bargaining Agreement expiring in 2012, the NFL is facing a potential player lockout in the 2011 season. The head of the players' association has already stated that there will be a player holdout if a deal is not reached by the beginning of the 2011 season, and with talks between teams and players going they way they have recently, the thought of a lockout is becoming increasingly more probable. The NFL is already facing an uncapped salary year in 2010, meaning that the teams can spend as much as they want on player salaries. This has ...

As secretary of state, Jefferson ran our first American patent office. For him, its purpose was to promulgate inventions, not to protect them. He hated monopoly and was determined that the patent process shouldn't serve it. The peculiar character of an idea, said Jefferson, is that

"... no one possesses the less because everyone possesses the whole of it. He who receives an idea from me receives [it] without lessening [me], as he who lights his [candle] at mine receives light without darkening me."

The candle is a great analogy, and I have huge respect for President Jefferson. As a ...

With immigration policy reform on the minds of local and national politicians alike, it seems hardly surprising that amidst a burgeoning and increasingly violent illegal drug trade rooted in Mexican cartels, that U.S. policy makers are looking for new and innovative ways to keep Americans safe from illegal immigrants and drug traffickers. This week, discussion has emerged about one of the newest ways the Border Patrol is keeping us safe—Predator B, the unmanned aircraft (or drone plane) that looms at 19,000 feet overhead, using highly powerful cameras to record the actions of those on the ground with ...

While eating poolside in a marine animal park, at a tourist event called “Dining with Shamu,” a ten-year-old girl looks up from her meal in horror. Between the locked jaws of a killer whale is a woman trainer being thrashed about until she is dead. Park officials had known that the killer whale was connected to two previous deaths.

No, law students. This isn’t an exercise in issue-spotting. It is not a fact-pattern presenting the opportunity to IRAC strict liability for the owner of a wild animal in Torts, or negligent infliction of emotional distress, or abandoned and malignant ...

“No Child Left Behind” was last updated in 2002, and many people think that it is time for a slight change, but will the revisions pass with flying colors come the midterm elections?

Under the current 2002 law, which was initiated by George W. Bush, all public schools have a rating system in which they are graded out of a possible 100 percent proficiency, and the goal is to reach this in reading and math by 2014 for all schools. The schools are compared to the “Adequate Yearly Progress,” and those that do not meet the numbers for two years ...

The New York Times recently reported that Federal Safety regulators are considering requiring event data recorders, or “black boxes,” on vehicles. A few years ago, these regulators allowed auto companies to voluntarily install these devises.

These recorders, or black boxes, are like those on airplanes and record events from five to 30 seconds before and after a crash. These devices are generally lined to air bags, and generally note information like the speed of the vehicle, whether the driver was applying the brakes, and other facts that can be analyzed. Some safety advocates have even called for this information to ...

I originally set out to write this blog about the recent legalization of same-sex marriage in Washington D.C. (Congratulations! Equality comes to the nation’s capital!) and the impact of that decision on the rest of the nation. However, after reading several news articles and comments by users that followed, I became frustrated by the clear failure to construct a proper sentence or communicate an idea effectively, as demonstrated by users on several of the sites.

I enjoy good grammar and spelling. Do I make mistakes? Absolutely, we all do. However, in a world where technology and convenience reign ...

How Far is Too Far and Where Does It Stop: The First Amendment Debate as to Whether the Government Has the Authority to Order a Blanket Ban on the US Citizen’s Peaceful Communication with Designated Foreign Terrorists

For the first time since its enactment, the US Supreme Court is considering the constitutionality of the anti-terror statute that has been in place since 1996, revamped after the 9/11 attack, and had been modified a number of times since then. This statute, what the federal government calls a ”vital weapon” in the US fight against terror, is a part of ...

A week ago, on February 24, 2010, the Supreme Court unanimously held that a crime suspect who invokes his right to remain silent, can be questioned again after 14 days.

The Fifth Amendment, which applies to the States by the Fourteenth Amendment, provides that no person shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself.

In the Supreme Court’s well-known Miranda v. Arizona decision, the Court adopted measures to protect a suspect's Fifth Amendment right from the “inherently compelling pressures of custodial interrogation.” Miranda v. Ariz., 384 U.S. 436 (1966). To counteract compelling ...

With the thoughts that the inflation is over, prices have begun to go up. Analysts are predicting inflation for the coming year. However, inflation may already be here. With the increase in stock value, businesses have begun to adjust their prices to almost double what they were in 2009. Prices are going up, but the value of the stock market and oil have not. The price does not definitively represent the value of these items.

The trouble with this is that many Americans still do not have jobs. According to February 5, 2010's job report via MSNBC, "First, the ...

The Credit Card Act of 2009 ("the Act") grants to consumers an entire host of new statutory rights with respect to their unsecured revolving credit accounts. Among those new rights include protection from misleading terminology, arbitrary interest rate increases, and freedom from excessive fees. While a boon to many consumers, it is well known that nothing in life is free.

It hardly needs to be said that Credit Card Companies are not charities. Lenders will adapt to the provisions of the act and find their profit in other ways, and if they cannot they will tighten lending standards in order ...

President Obama came into office in the worst economic/financial crisis since the 1930's. Thanks to steps the Obama Administration has taken, the economy is now growing by 6%. The Obama administration broke the recession and reduced the sense of panic that had grown by advocating for a thriving "even playing field for businesses to raise capital and for consumers to buy products with confidence."

Not all new legislation has been praised. Controversial legislation includes proposals to change tax laws that apply to multinational businesses. Currently if one owns a business in the U.S., invests in the U ...

Recent news has shown that our economy is going in the right direction. While our economy has been taking a plunge for the worst since the Great Depression, it seems as though the overall percentage in jobs have steadily gone back up and our labor market has stabilized. We have gone a long way since last year, where it was reported that more than 750,000 jobs were lost within the first month of January. Along with the stabilization of our labor market, the housing market is slowly stabilizing as well. It might be too soon to speak- but the ...

On January 27, 2010, the cameras caught Justice Samuel Alito’s apparent utterance of the phrase “not true,” in response to allegations that the Court had overturned nearly 100 years of precedent. The public exchange between President Barack Obama and Justice Alito during the President’s State of the Union address has stirred a flurry of debate regarding such issues as the separation of powers, the politicization of the Supreme Court, and the merits of the Court’s decision in Citizens United v. FEC.

I am interested today in the third controversy – the merits of the holding in Citizens United ...

Derivative suits enable shareholders to stand in the shoes of the corporation and sue on its behalf. One purpose of the derivative suit is to empower shareholders to sue the board of directors for their wrongful actions (such as breach of fiduciary duty) since it is unlikely that board members will initiate litigation against themselves. For example, if management is falsifying accounting records and board members are involved, it may be doubtful that the remaining board members will confront the wrongdoers because there are incentives to ignore the problem. These include receiving higher salaries due to the appearance of economic ...

Energy is the lifeblood of any industrialized economy, and maintaining an adequate supply in the United States is going to become increasingly costly in the coming decades. In the United States alone, energy demand is expected to be 35 percent higher in 2030 than 2005. The good news is that the situation is not going unnoticed. In his 2010 State of the Union Address, President Obama acknowledged the need for innovations and improvements in the nation’s energy production and efficiency. But the question remains – how likely will the rhetoric turn into reality?

To meet the energy demands of the ...

One of the early steps taken in the creation of the federal government was to consolidate the separate debts of the individual states into a single national debt. In 1790 Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton presented Congress with the First Report on Public Credit where he argued for the federal government to assume the war debts accumulated by the states during the Revolutionary War. Representatives from those states who had to be responsible when borrowing and paying back their war loans opposed this measure because they felt that they were being punished for their fiscal discipline while those states that ran ...

The U.S. economy is out of its year-long recession. This was confirmed after better-than-expected figures were released from the U.S. Commerce Department showing that the economy grew at a rate of 5.7% in the last quarter. Economists had been forecasting a 4.7% growth. The last three months of 2009 showed the fastest growth that the U.S. economy has experienced since 2003.

Essentially, both consumers and businesses have increased spending. Businesses have invested in new equipment and software, which has resulted in increased sales. These investments grew by 13.3% in the last quarter. Consumer spending ...

Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are an important aspect of today’s international governance. The United Nations defines NGO as a non-profit entity. NGO legitimacy in international governance is largely derived from claims of representation of under-served, disenfranchised, or otherwise disempowered populations. Many NGOs serve as legal entities, advocating rights and remedies for their beneficiaries. Advocacy NGOs act more like a political “interest group.” There are less accountability concerns and issues for such NGOs since they must obey the laws of the country in which they operate in regardless of their base. See Ronald Dworkin, Is Democracy Possible here? Principles for a ...

I am not sure why but I’ve always been intrigued by rankings. Deep down inside all of us know that rankings are barely worth their salt. With that said, let’s begin!

Recently, the California State Bar released the 2009 bar exam results: http://calbar.ca.gov/calbar/pdfs/admissions/Statistics/JULY2009STATS.pdf

Here are the 2008 results: http://www.calbar.ca.gov/calbar/pdfs/admissions/Statistics/JULY2008STATS.pdf

If we compare the results from 2008 and 2009 there are several interesting changes worth bringing to your attention:

In 2008 the average pass rate of all California ABA-Approved schools ...