Notes and Comments Category

A Different Standard for Different Stages: Why Parties Must Be Allowed to “Invoke the Rule” During Oral Depositions

Jan. 30, 2024—Morgan Scott | 77 Vand. L. Rev. En Banc 1 Two attorneys from the same law firm are representing plaintiffs in two whistleblower qui tam lawsuits against different pharmaceutical companies. One suit has been going on for years and is finally at the trial stage; the other will likely settle after depositions are complete. Attorney...

Road to Reform: The Case for Removing Police from Traffic Regulation

Jan. 11, 2022—Aaron Megar | 75 Vand. L. Rev. En Banc 13 (2022) | This Note advocates for the removal of police from traffic-law enforcement and the creation of unarmed Civilian Traffic Forces (“CTF”) at the municipal and state levels. Since the Supreme Court’s decision in Whren, there has been a significant amount of legal scholarship criticizing...

Deciding Not to Decide: Mahonoy Area School District v. B.L. and the Supreme Court’s Ambivalence Towards Student Speech Rights

Nov. 3, 2021—Jenny Diamond Cheng | 74 Vand. L. Rev. En Banc 511 (2021) | In June 2021, the Supreme Court issued opinions in its first school speech case in over fourteen years. In Mahanoy Area School District v. B.L., an eight-member majority held that high school officials violated a teenager’s First Amendment rights when they suspended...

Rethinking the Silent Treatment

Aug. 22, 2021—Sasha Gombar | 74 Vand. L. Rev. En Banc 289 (2021) | When the hashtag “MeToo” was popularized in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein scandal, the underlying philosophy was simple. Too many people had claimed that women’s stories about sexual assault lacked corroboration, dismissing evidence of workplace sexism as merely “anecdotal.” However, when enough women started telling...

Rationalizing a Spousal Confidential Communications Privilege Fit for the Twenty-First Century

Jul. 20, 2021—Emily Crawford Sheffield | 74 Vand. L. Rev. En Banc 187 (2021) | For the spousal confidential communications privilege to be rationalized in the twenty-first century, the privilege must first be limited to apply only to the witness-spouse’s election of invocation. By refocusing the privilege’s protections onto only the witness-spouse, the modern societal values of...

Taking an Interest in Inmate Trust Accounts

May. 27, 2020—Charlotte Elam | 73 Vand. L. Rev. En Banc 143 (2020) | The Fifth Amendment’s Takings Clause is generally unconcerned about the size of property taken. But is it more concerned about the person from whom the property is taken? When that person is a prisoner, courts have found the relevance of the Takings Clause...

Breaking the Binary: How Shifts in Eighth Amendment Jurisprudence Can Help Ensure Safe Housing and Proper Medical Care for Inmates with Gender Dysphoria

Apr. 18, 2018—Breaking-the-Binary ABSTRACT The Eighth Amendment prohibition against imposing cruel and unusual punishments requires correctional facilities to provide their inmates adequate medical care and reasonably safe housing accommodations. Those with gender dysphoria have unique needs and vulnerabilities related to housing and healthcare while incarcerated. Under the current framework for adjudicating inmates’ Eighth Amendment claims, defendants are...

Changing Lanes: The Criminalization of Refusal in DUI Laws

Apr. 25, 2017—Changing Lanes: The Criminalization of Refusal in DUI Laws AUTHOR J.D. Candidate , May 2017, Vanderbilt University Law School; B.S., 2013, Tulane University.

To “B” or not to “B”: Duties of Directors and Rights of Stakeholders in Benefit Corporations

Apr. 20, 2017—To-B-or-not-to-B-Duties-of-Directors-and-RIghts-of-Stakeholders-in-Benefit-Corporations ABSTRACT An emerging legal form for business entities is the Benefit Corporation, a variation on the traditional for-profit corporation that grants the board of directors broader discretion to consider nonshareholder constituents in corporate management decisions. Although this corporate form adequately responds to consumers’ weariness of “big business” and attracts shareholders who value social responsibility...

Pointing a Way Toward a Brighter Future for Public Education: A Comment on Lynch v. Alabama

Mar. 30, 2016—Pointing a Way Toward a Brighter Future for Public Education: A Comment on Lynch v. Alabama AUTHOR Vanderbilt University School of Law class of 2014. I would like to thank my wife Taylor for her helpful feedback and support during this long project; Dr. Randolph Horn for introducing me to the sordid history of the...

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