Weekly Roundup: Interesting Reads for GPS Members

Don’t Forget the States.” By Kathryn Watts, Feb. 5, 2020, Administrative Law Jotwell. From the Article: “Largely missing from this scholarly discourse, however, has been a focus on the important role that the states can and have played in both furthering—and counteracting—presidential administration. In her forthcoming article titled Administrative States: Beyond Presidential Administration, Professor Jessica Bulman-Pozen seeks to remedy this scholarly void. Specifically, Professor Bulman-Pozen seeks to bring the states into the modern day account of presidential administration.”

Planning Boards Inclusion Report.” By Allen Buansi, UNC Center for Civil Rights. From the Report: “There are 100 counties in North Carolina, and 92 of those counties have planning boards. The Center was able to interview with staff from 85 of the 92 counties. This report focused on the following three aspects of county planning boards: (1) powers and duties, (2) member selection procedures; and (3) racial, ethnic and gender representation.”

Rethinking Uniformity in Statutory Interpretation.” By Anita Krishnakumar, Jan. 22, 2020, Lex Jotwell. From the Article: “It is a persistent theme in statutory interpretation theory—one shared by textualists, purposivists, and internationalists alike—that a statutory term must have the same meaning from case to case and from litigant to litigant. The word “knowingly” in the same statute cannot mean one thing as applied to Sally and another as to Jim. To hold otherwise, courts and scholars have agreed, would violate fundamental principles of fairness and stability and upend the rule of law. Yet in a provocative and compelling new article, Can a Statute Have More Than One Meaning?, Ryan Doerfler makes a convincing case for rethinking this conventional view and contemplating just such variability of meaning.”

Is That All There Is? Strategies for Proving a Negative When a Person Alleges That Their Request for Records Has Not Been Fulfilled.” By Frayda Bluestein, Dec. 16, 2019, UNC School of Government. From the Article: “How can the agency prove that the records provided are really are all there is? And how can the requester prove that the agency has not provided records the agency says they don’t have? A North Carolina Court of Appeals case, Ochsner v. N.C. Dept. Revenue, addresses these questions and endorses some strategies that can help break this potential stalemate.”

Federal-State Employment Law Divide Reveals Systemic Flaw.” Hollie Reiminger, Feb. 10, 2020, Law 360. From the Article: “[R]ecently, there has been a wave of state and city laws and ordinances that have surpassed the reach of many federal laws, including those that have raised the minimum wage, created protections for LGBT workers, legalized marijuana use, and mandated paid sick and family leave, among other protections. The visible momentum behind the coordinated social movements underlying these efforts indicates that they are only gaining steam, with new state laws and local ordinances popping up every year.”

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