Latest Case: Schires v. Carlat (Constitutional Law)

Virginia Delivers a Rebuke to Trump’s Execution Spree and Points to the End of America’s Death Penalty

AUSTIN SARAT

Austin Sarat—Associate Provost and Associate Dean of the Faculty and Professor of Jurisprudence & Political Science at Amherst College—comments on the news that both houses of the Virginia General Assembly passed legislation abolishing the death penalty in that state. Professor Sarat explains why Virginia’s change in policy is so significant: it has executed more people than any other state and is the first state south of the Mason-Dixon line to abolish capital punishment.

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The Post-Pandemic Workplace

SAMUEL ESTREICHER, ELENA J. VOSS

NYU law professor Samuel Estreicher and Elena J. Voss, associate general counsel for the Metropolitan Museum of Art, provide a roadmap of how employers can ready their workplaces for post-pandemic life. Professor Estreicher and Ms. Voss describe the importance of employers determining their workplace vision, communicating that vision to employees, defining what a “flexible” workplace means, setting clear policies with definitive maximums and minimums.

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Would Senate Republicans Abandon Their Baseless Arguments if There Were a Secret Ballot?

NEIL H. BUCHANAN

UF Levin College of Law professor and economist Neil H. Buchanan considers whether a secret ballot is a good idea, or even permissible, in former President Trump’s impeachment trial. Professor Buchanan ultimately takes no position on the question of a secret ballot, suggesting that it might simply be an easy way out for Senate Republicans; he argues that what matters most is that the trial go forward, revealing an open-and-shut case against Donald Trump.

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Schires v. Carlat

Docket: CV-20-0027-PR

Opinion Date: February 8, 2021

Judge: Ann Timmer

Areas of Law: Constitutional Law, Education Law

The Supreme Court held that the City of Peoria violated Ariz. Const. art. IX, section 7, the Gift Clause, by spending public funds to induce a private university to open a branch campus in Peoria. In 2015, Huntington University, Inc. (HU), an accredited private institution based in Indiana, and the City entered into an agreement for HU to open a campus in Peoria. In return, the City promised to pay HU almost $2 million for developing the campus and programs. Plaintiffs, Peoria taxpayers, brought this lawsuit asserting that the City's payments to HU violated the Gift Clause. The trial court granted summary judgment for the City, and the court of appeals affirmed. The Supreme Court reversed and remanded with directions to enter summary judgment in favor of Plaintiffs, holding that the City's payments to HU violated the Gift Clause.