Rachel L. Blau 92 Geo. Wash. L. Rev. 516 The COVID-19 pandemic taught us that homes can double as offices. But when a teleworker opens her laptop across state lines from her employer, may she claim the statutory worker protections provided in the employer’s state? Too often, courts misunderstand this recurring problem and refuse to extend an employer’s state protections to an out-of-state teleworker, granting a defendant’s motion to dismiss. Because each statute is analyzed in isolation, a teleworker may be relegated to lawless nowhere land, unable to recover under any state statutory sch ..read more

Sydney Fay 92 Geo. Wash. L. Rev. 485 As tensions rise between the right to religious freedom and the rights of LGBTQ persons, a recent challenge to a preventive health service threatens the people’s ability to protect their health. The United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas recently held the mandated insurance coverage of pre-exposure prophylaxis (“PrEP”) violated the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (“RFRA”) after plaintiffs claimed providing coverage for PrEP facilitated homosexual and other purported morally objectionable behaviors that violated their religiou ..read more

Adam J. Levitin 92 Geo. Wash. L. Rev. 425 American consumer credit regulation is in the midst of a doctrinal revolution. Usury laws, for centuries the mainstay of consumer credit regulation, have been repealed, preempted, or otherwise undermined. At the same time, changes in the structure of the consumer credit marketplace have weakened the traditional alignment of lender and borrower interests. As a result, lenders cannot be relied upon to avoid making excessively risky loans out of their own self-interest. Two new doctrinal approaches have emerged piecemeal to fill the regulatory gap cr ..read more

Eloise Pasachoff 92 Geo. Wash. L. Rev. 359 Two foundational statutes limit the executive branch’s important and necessary work in executing the budget against the backdrop of congressional control: the Antideficiency Act, dating back to the post-Civil War era, and the Impoundment Control Act, which emerged from the Nixon years. This Article, originally written as an invited contribution to The George Washington Law Review’s annual issue on administrative law, calls these the Power of the Purse statutes. While these statutes have been generally successful in responding to the problems that ..read more

Ayelet Gordon-Tapiero & Yotam Kaplan 92 Geo. Wash. L. Rev. 305 Social media platforms have become enormously powerful, accumulating wealth at an alarming rate and influencing public opinion with unprecedented efficiency. Platforms use algorithms that promote discriminatory, divisive, extreme, and false content. In recent years, content promoted by social media platforms fueled a series of calamities: the spread of disinformation during the COVID-19 pandemic, the January 6th insurrection, and the establishment of dangerous trends among adolescents and children. The platform crisis is here a ..read more

April 21, 2024 United States v. Texas, 601 U.S. ___, No. 23A814 (Mar. 19, 2024) (Alito, J., denying application to vacate stay)Response by Cori Alonso-Yoder & Tania N. Valdez Geo. Wash. L. Rev. On the Docket (Oct. Term 2023) Slip Opinion | SCOTUSblog The Court Sidesteps Immigration Federalism Feud, For Now On March 19, 2024, the Supreme Court had an opportunity to weigh in on the ongoing dispute between the state of Texas and the Biden Administration regarding Texas’s new law criminalizing immigration violations.1 The controversial law, known as SB4, was found likely to be unconstitutional ..read more

Aeryka Fausett 92 Geo. Wash. L. Rev. 273 Collective actions provide employees with an important opportunity to challenge their employers’ alleged violations of workplace wage and hour laws under the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”). Unfortunately, unlike Rule 23 Class Actions, collective actions lack formal guidelines. Therefore, parties disagree on many of the important procedural hurdles that must be resolved before a court examines a claim on its merits. The addition of arbitration agreements has further complicated FLSA procedures, particularly at the notice stage, where plaintiffs and d ..read more

Hannah Burdette 92 Geo. Wash. L. Rev. 248 American antitrust law has remained focused on one goal since the first antitrust statute—the Sherman Act—was passed: promoting competition. In striving toward this foundational goal, the Court has refined and expanded the contours of antitrust jurisprudence and the analytical tools it applies to alleged violations of competition law. As the consequences of climate crises grow ever-more ubiquitous, the Court must employ its historic willingness to add nuance to antitrust analysis by expanding the rule of reason to allow firms to engage in private coll ..read more

Alex Zhang 92 Geo. Wash. L. Rev. 179 In June 2023, the Supreme Court granted the petition for a writ of certiorari in Moore v. United States, ostensibly a challenge to an obscure provision of the 2017 tax legislation. Moore’s real target is the constitutionality of federal wealth and accrual taxation, which policymakers have proposed to combat record inequality and raise revenue for social-welfare reform. At the center of the doctrinal dispute in Moore is a century-old case, Eisner v. Macomber, on which the Moore petitioners and other commentators have relied to argue that Congress has no pow ..read more

Benjamin L. Cavataro 92 Geo. Wash. L. Rev. 87 Toy guns are subject to federal product safety regulation. Real guns are not. If a defect in an air rifle causes it to discharge without warning, the manufacturer would be required to promptly notify a safety regulator, the Consumer Product Safety Commission (“Commission”); to recall the air rifle; and to provide a repair, replacement, or refund to consumers. Yet when such defects occur in real guns, the firearms industry has no such obligation. This unique immunity from product safety regulation allows gun defects to go unremedied for far too lon ..read more