Weekly SSRN Tax Article Review And Roundup: Roberts Reviews Taxation, Aristocracy, And The Constitution

This week, Tracey Roberts (Cumberland; Google Scholar) reviews new works by:

• Jeremy Bearer-Friend (George Washington; Google Scholar) & Vanessa Williamson (Brookings; Google Scholar), Thomas Paine and Taxation as Freedom from Aristocracy, 26 Fla. Tax Rev. __ (2022)
• John R. Brooks (Fordham; Google Scholar) and David Gamage (Indiana; Google Scholar), Taxation and the Constitution, Reconsidered, 74 Tax L. Rev. __(2022)

Recently, ProPublica uncovered troves of tax information for the wealthiest people in the United States, revealing numerous pathways by which the wealthiest Americans avoid taxes. Last year the Department of the Treasury estimated that the tax gap, the difference between taxes that are owed and the taxes that have been paid, has increased to approximately $600 billion per year. Over the next ten years, this comes to $7 trillion in lost tax revenue, important resources that might be used to reduce the federal debt, for those concerned about such matters. Using tax data Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman have estimated that the top one percent of taxpayers are responsible for one third of that tax gap. These recent reports demonstrate that the federal income tax and the estate and gift taxes are inadequate to the task of ensuring that the ultrawealthy in the United States pay their fair share. Two recent papers delve into historical resources, constitutional caselaw, and constitutional history to underscore that concerns about adequate taxation of the wealthy are not new, but are instead central to our nation’s founding, to the periods in which our country has faced its greatest challenges, and to democracy.

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Weekly Legal Education Roundup

• AALS, The American Law School Dean Study
• Call for Proposals, The COVID Care Crisis Symposium, Part II: Imagining Solutions and Taking Action (June 16, 2022)
• Harvard Crimson, Federal Judge Reinstates Harvard Law Students' COVID-19 Tuition Refund Class Action
• Roundup, Legal Ed News
• Symposium, The COVID Care Crisis and its Implications for Legal Academia (Bloomington, IN), 16 FIU L. Rev. 1-185 (2021)
• U.S. News, 2023 Constitutional Law Rankings
• U.S. News, 2023 Contracts/Commercial Law Rankings
• U.S. News, 2023 Criminal Law Rankings
• U.S. News, 2023 Dispute Resolution Rankings
• U.S. News, 2023 Environmental Law Rankings
• U.S. News, 2023 Health Care Law Rankings

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Tax Policy In The Biden Administration

• Axios, Biden Targets Crypto Wealth For $11 Billion in New Tax Revenue
• Bloomberg, EU Push for Global Minimum Tax Falters Again as Poland Blocks
• Bloomberg, How Advisers to America’s Ultra-Rich Plan to Win on Taxes, Again
• Bloomberg, Merck Pressed on Overseas Profits in Senate Tax Inquiry
• Bloomberg, Oligarchs, Corporations Would Lose Tax Perks in Bipartisan Bill

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2023 U.S. News Health Care Law Rankings

The new 2023 U.S. News Health Care Law Rankings include the health care law programs at 184 law schools (the faculty survey had a 56% response rate). Here are the Top 50:

Rank	Score	School
1	4.2	St. Louis
2	4.1	Harvard
3	4.0	Georgia State
3	4.0	Loyola-Chicago
5	3.9	Boston Univ.
6	3.8	Maryland
7	3.7	Georgetown
7	3.7	Houston
7	3.7	Northeastern
7	3.7	Stanford
11	3.6	Yale
12	3.5	UC-Hastings
13	3.4	Arizona State
13	3.4	Case Western
13	3.4	Seton Hall
16	3.3	American
17	3.2	Indiana (McKinney)
17	3.2	Michigan
17	3.2	Ohio State
20	3.1	Penn
21	3.0	Duke
21	3.0	Wake Forest
23	2.9	Emory
23	2.9	George Washington
23	2.9	Minnesota
23	2.9	North Carolina
23	2.9	Temple
23	2.9	UCLA
29	2.8	DePaul
29	2.8	UC-Irvine
29	2.8	Virginia
29	2.8	Washington Univ.
33	2.7	Drexel
33	2.7	Mitchell | Hamline
33	2.7	Texas
33	2.7	UC-Berkeley
33	2.7	Vanderbilt
38	2.6	Columbia
38	2.6	Pittsburgh
40	2.5	Arizona
40	2.5	Georgia
40	2.5	Univ. of Washington
40	2.5	UNLV
44	2.4	Chicago
44	2.4	Northwestern
44	2.4	NYU
44	2.4	Utah
48	2.3	Boston College
48	2.3	Loyola-L.A.
48	2.3	Nova SE
48	2.3	Quinnipiac
48	2.3	Rutgers
48	2.3	Washington & Lee
48	2.3	Wisconsin

2022 U.S. News Health Care Law Rankings

2023 U.S. News Specialty Rankings:

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Polsky Presents Fixing The Qualified Small Business Stock Exclusion Today At Florida

Gregg Polsky (Georgia; Google Scholar) presents Fixing The Qualified Small Business Stock Exclusion (with Ethan Yale (Virginia; Google Scholar)) at Florida today as part of its Tax Policy Colloquium hosted by David Hasen:

In 1993, Congress enacted a new tax break, the qualified small business stock (QSBS) exclusion, intended to benefit small businesses.  As originally enacted, the QSBS exclusion allowed shareholders of C corporations that operated small businesses to exempt up to 50 percent of their gains when they sell their shares.  For roughly the first fifteen years of its existence, however, the QSBS exclusion was of relatively modest benefit, at best, to investors.  From 2009 to 2015, the exclusion percentage was repeatedly temporarily increased to 100 percent but because the increases were scheduled to quickly expire, the QSBS exclusion was unlikely to have significantly altered investment decisions.  Eventually, on December 19, 2015, Congress permanently increased the exclusion percentage to 100 percent.

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Federal Judge Reinstates Harvard Law Students' COVID-19 Tuition Refund Class Action

Following up on my previous post:  Harvard Crimson, Class Action Lawsuit Demanding Tuition Reimbursement Moves Forward After Judge Reverses Dismissal:

In June 2021, Massachusetts District Court Judge Indira Talwani dismissed a class action lawsuit against Harvard University asking for partial tuition reimbursement for semesters with virtual classes. Nearly a year later, a new judge assigned to the case has revived it.

Judge Angel Kelley reversed Talwani’s dismissal of the lawsuit in March, but ruled that the case could only extend to students enrolled at the Law School, the Graduate School of Education, and the School of Public Health during the spring 2020 semester. ...

Abraham Barkhordar, one of the plaintiffs named in the lawsuit and a current third-year student at the Law School, described the stark differences between his experience with in-person and online semesters. “The remote semesters lacked so much of the peer-to-peer interaction — just meeting people in the laundry room or as you’re walking around the dorms,” he said. “That doesn’t happen online.”

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Barry Presents Tax And The Boundaries Of The Firm Today At Duke

Jordan Barry (USC) presents Tax and the Boundaries of the Firm (with Victor Fleischer (UC-Irvine; Google Scholar)) at Duke today as part of its Tax Policy Workshop hosted by Lawrence Zelenak:

We analyze how income taxes distort firms’ decisions regarding what to produce themselves ("make") or purchase from others ("buy") along a number of dimensions. Many of these provisions expand the boundary of the firm; others contract it. Importantly, the expansions and contractions generally operate on different points, and thus do not offset each other, making each distortion problematic.

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NY Times: UCLA Help Wanted: Adjunct Professor, Must Have Doctorate. Salary: $0

New York Times, Help Wanted: Adjunct Professor, Must Have Doctorate. Salary: $0.

The job posting for an assistant adjunct professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, set high expectations for candidates: A Ph.D. in chemistry or biochemistry, a strong teaching record at the college level, and three to five letters of recommendation.

But there was a catch: The job would be on a “without salary basis,” as the posting phrased it. Just to be clear, it hammered home the point: “Applicants must understand there will be no compensation for this position.”

The posting last month caused an immediate uproar among academics across the country, who accused the university of exploiting already undervalued adjunct professors, and suggested this would never happen in other occupations. Under pressure, U.C.L.A. apologized and withdrew the posting.

But the unspoken secret had been fleetingly exposed: Free labor is a fact of academic life.

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Fineman Presents Cracking The Foundational Myths: Independence, Autonomy, And Self-Sufficiency Today At The Oxford-Virginia Legal Dialogs

Martha Fineman (Emory; Google Scholar) presents Cracking the Foundational Myths: Independence, Autonomy, and Self-Sufficiency in Feminism Confronts Homo Economicus: Gender, Law, and Society (Cornell 2005) today at the Oxford-Virginia Legal Dialogs hosted by Tsilly Dagan and Ruth Mason. 

Feminist legal theorists can legitimately complain that most mainstream work fails to take into account institutions of intimacy, such as the family. Discussions that focus on the market typically treat the family as separate, governed by an independent set of expectations and rules. When theoretical focus is turned to the nature of actions of the state, the family (if it is considered at all) is cast as a separate autonomous institutions. Theorists who focus on the individual seem to deny the family any potential relevance or theoretical significance.

This reliance on the 'assumed family' distorts analysis and policy. In economic and other important public policy discussions, we focus on the appropriate relationship between the market and state, with the family relegated to the 'private' sphere. Discussions proceed as though the policies that are designed to affect these institutions in the public sphere have only few implications for the unexamined private family.

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2023 U.S. News Environmental Law Rankings

The new 2023 U.S. News Environmental Law Rankings include the environmental law programs at 180 law schools (the faculty survey had a 61% response rate). Here are the Top 50:

Rank	Score	School
1	4.4	Pace
1	4.4	UC-Berkeley
1	4.4	UCLA
4	4.3	Lewis & Clark
5	4.1	NYU
5	4.1	Vermont
7	4.0	Columbia
7	4.0	Georgetown
7	4.0	Harvard
7	4.0	Oregon
7	4.0	Vanderbilt
12	3.9	Colorado
13	3.8	George Washington
13	3.8	Maryland
13	3.8	Stanford
16	3.7	Utah
17	3.6	Arizona State
17	3.6	Duke
17	3.6	Tulane
17	3.6	UC-Davis
21	3.5	Denver
21	3.5	Florida
21	3.5	Florida State
21	3.5	Houston
21	3.5	UC-Hastings
26	3.4	Hawaii
26	3.4	Minnesota
26	3.4	Yale
29	3.3	New Mexico
29	3.3	Virginia
31	3.2	Arizona
31	3.2	Texas
31	3.2	Univ. of Washington
34	3.1	Boston College
34	3.1	Indiana (Maurer)
34	3.1	Montana
34	3.1	UC-Irvine
38	3.0	Northwestern
38	3.0	Texas A&M
38	3.0	USC
41	2.9	Michigan
41	2.9	North Carolina
41	2.9	Widener (DE)
44	2.8	American
44	2.8	Case Western
44	2.8	CUNY
44	2.8	Loyola-New Orleans
44	2.8	Maine
44	2.8	Miami
44	2.8	Penn
44	2.8	Penn State-University Park
44	2.8	San Diego
44	2.8	Wake Forest
44	2.8	Wisconsin
44	2.8	Wyoming

2022 U.S. News Environmental Law Rankings

2023 U.S. News Specialty Rankings:

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Escajeda Presents Technology Law: Taxation of Our Collective and Cumulative Cognitive Inheritance Today At Boston College

Hilary Escajeda (Mississippi College; Google Scholar) presents Technology Justice: Taxation of Our Collective and Cumulative Cognitive Inheritance at Boston College today as part of its Tax Policy Workshop hosted by Hugh Ault, Ray Madoff, Shuyi Oei, Diane Ring, Steve Shay, and James Repetti. 

As artificial intelligence and robotic technologies accelerate economic transformation, outdated property and tax laws will increasingly fail American workers with ordinary skills that perform routine job functions. Because technology may render millions of workers redundant, U.S. policymakers must make significant social, economic, and legal structural changes to (1) improve the lives of average workers, (2) support the economy, and (3) maintain political stability.

Inspired by Thomas Paine’s Agrarian Justice, this twenty-first century Pamphlet argues that “Technology Justice” requires that humans benefit from the cognitive endowment naturally created by our ancestors’ minds. Specifically, this Pamphlet asserts that our collective and cumulative cognitive inheritance constitutes valuable property—an asset class—that should be taxed for the benefit of all.

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Jacob Goldin Leaves Stanford For Chicago

Jacob Goldin (Stanford; Google Scholar) has accepted a lateral offer from Chicago:

Trained as a lawyer and economist, his research focuses on the taxation of low income households and the application of behavioral economics to the design of policy. Prior to joining the Stanford faculty in 2016, Professor Goldin worked in the Office of Tax Policy at the U.S. Treasury Department and clerked for Judge Richard Posner of the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals. He holds a J.D. from Yale Law School and a Ph.D. in economics from Princeton University.

His recent publications include:

• Whose Child is this? Improving Child-Claiming Rules in Safety Net Programs, 131 Yale L. J. ___ (2022) (with Ariel Jurow Kleiman (Loyola-L.A.))
• The Claiming of Children on U.S. Tax Returns, 2017-2019 (with Geoffrey Gee (U.S. Treasury Department, Office of Tax Analysis), Joseph Hancuch (U.S. Treasury Department, Office of Tax Analysis), Ithai Lurie (U.S. Treasury Department, Office of Tax Analysis) & Vedant Vohra (Stanford))
• Health Insurance and Mortality: Experimental Evidence from Taxpayer Outreach, 136 Q. J. Econ. (2021) (with Ithai Z Lurie (U.S. Treasury Department, Office of Tax Analysis) & Janet McCubbin (U.S. Treasury Department, Office of Tax Analysis))

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Dagan Presents Unbundled Tax Sovereignty: Refining The Challenges Today At Toronto

Tsilly Dagan (Oxford; Google Scholar) presents Unbundled Tax Sovereignty: Refining the Challenges at Toronto today as part of its James Hausman Tax Law and Policy Workshop Series:

Tax sovereignty under globalization is at risk of unraveling. This is not only–as is often argued—because international organizations or other states exert external power on sovereign states. It is also the very process of fragmentation of state sovereignty that undermines its own foundations. The main claim of this lecture is that globalization is increasingly altering the interaction between states and their constituents. The choices and flexibility it offers (some) taxpayers threaten to transform taxpayers from equal members of a political community entitled to a bundle of public goods and services into consumers of public goods and services offered à-la-carte. Such a transition, this lecture contends, undermines the basis for states’ sovereignty. It is therefore argued that, in order to ensure the continued legitimacy of their sovereignty, states should reconfigure their social contracts with their constituents.

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Call for Proposals: The COVID Care Crisis In The Legal Academia, Part II

Call for Proposals: The COVID Care Crisis Symposium, Part II: Imagining Solutions and Taking Action (June 16, 2022):

The COVID Care Crisis Symposium held in January 2021 convened dozens of scholars to theorize about what the organizers labeled as the unfolding “COVID Care Crisis” and its effects on legal academia. During that two-day event, scholars, teachers, students, and practitioners shared the difficulties of managing the demands of work and the constantly shifting changes to care infrastructures. The Symposium amplified the voices of caregivers and sounded the alarm on how disparities, if left unaddressed, could alter the landscape of academia long into the future and further marginalize women and scholars of color as well as other primary caregiving faculty and staff. Many speakers published their Symposium papers in a just-released volume in FIU Law Review as well as in other venues.

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Deeks & Hayashi: Tax Law As Foreign Policy

Ashley Deeks (Virginia; Google Scholar) & Andrew Hayashi (Virginia; Google Scholar), Tax Law as Foreign Policy, 170 U. Pa. L. Rev. 275 (2022):

The use of economic statecraft is at a high-water mark. The United States uses sanctions, tariffs, and import and export controls more than ever before. These tools have problems, though. They impose financial costs on domestic interests. They can induce retaliation by target states. And overuse of these tools could drive the United States from its central position in the global financial and economic system, undermining the effectiveness of U.S. economic statecraft in the long run. But there is an underappreciated tool that could perform valuable foreign policy work: tax law. We argue that tax law holds promise to advance U.S. foreign policy interests and that it is especially important to deploy tax tools now.

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2023 U.S. News Dispute Resolution Rankings

The new 2023 U.S. News Dispute Resolution Rankings include the dispute resolution programs at 109 law schools (the faculty survey had a 56% response rate). Here are the Top 50:

Rank	Score	School
1	4.5	Pepperdine Caruso
1	4.5	Ohio State
3	4.4	Harvard
4	4.0	Cardozo
4	4.0	Missouri (Columbia)
4	4.0	Northwestern
4	4.0	Texas A&M
8	3.9	UNLV
9	3.8	Mitchell | Hamline
9	3.8	Oregon
9	3.8	UC-Hastings
12	3.7	Maryland
13	3.6	Arizona State
13	3.6	Fordham
15	3.5	Marquette
15	3.5	Quinnipiac
15	3.5	South Texas
15	3.5	Stanford
15	3.5	UCLA
20	3.4	Georgetown
20	3.4	NYU
22	3.3	Columbia
22	3.3	Cornell
22	3.3	Denver
22	3.3	Penn
22	3.3	Seattle
22	3.3	Stetson
22	3.3	Suffolk
22	3.3	Texas
22	3.3	UC-Irvine
22	3.3	Virginia
32	3.2	Creighton
32	3.2	Pace
32	3.2	St. John's
32	3.2	UC-Davis
32	3.2	USC
32	3.2	Vanderbilt
38	3.1	Florida
38	3.1	Lewis & Clark
38	3.1	Loyola-Chicago
38	3.1	Washington Univ.
38	3.1	William & Mary
43	3.0	American
43	3.0	BYU
43	3.0	UC-Berkeley
43	3.0	Washington & Lee
47	2.9	Baylor
47	2.9	George Washington
47	2.9	Georgia
47	2.9	Houston
47	2.9	Indiana (Maurer)
47	2.9	Kansas
47	2.9	SMU
47	2.9	Wake Forest
47	2.9	Univ. of Washington

2022 U.S. News Dispute Resolution Rankings

2023 U.S. News Specialty Rankings:

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Avi-Yonah, Kim & Sam: A New Framework For Digital Taxation

Reuven S. Avi-Yonah (Michigan; Google Scholar), Christine Kim (Utah; Google Scholar) & Karen Sam (Michigan), A New Framework for Digital Taxation, 63 Harv. Int'l L.J. __ (2022):

The international tax regime has wide implications for business, trade, and the international political economy. Under current law, multinational enterprises do not pay their fair share of taxes to market countries where profits are generated because market countries are only allowed to tax companies with a physical presence there. Digital companies, like Google and Amazon, can operate entirely online, thereby avoiding market country taxes. Multinationals can also exploit existing tax rules by shifting their profits to low-tax jurisdictions, thereby avoiding taxes in the residence country where their headquarters are located.

Recently, a global tax deal was reached to tackle these issues. Proposed by the OECD/G20 Inclusive Framework and endorsed by nearly 140 countries, this global tax deal sets forth two Pillars that reform the outdated international tax regimes. Pillar One addresses digital taxation while Pillar Two addresses a global minimum tax. However, it is doubtful that the global tax deal will be successfully implemented, especially with respect to Pillar One. As the details of Pillar One have become increasingly complex and degraded by political compromises and carve-outs, it risks being a framework without substance. Also, countries are unlikely to repeal an established tax instrument, Digital Services Taxes (“DSTs”), which is an adamant requirement of the United States in adopting Pillar One.

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AALS: The American Law School Dean Study

AALS, The American Law School Dean Study:

As legal education reaches another watershed moment, understanding the American law school deanship has become more important than ever.

The American Law School Dean Study is based primarily on a survey of the 197 sitting and 222 former law deans who served between 2010 and 2020.

The Study was designed to answer three principal research questions:

1. What are the career paths for law school deans before they are selected and after they finish their deanship?
2. What are the processes by which individuals are recruited and selected to be deans at American law schools?
3. What are the most pressing challenges facing law school deans at American law schools, and what solutions have they adopted?

The survey was conducted for AALS by NORC at the University of Chicago. In addition to the survey, individual interviews were conducted with a diverse group of twelve deans at a mix of law schools around the nation, representing law schools that are public and private, large and small.

The capstone report is the first of its kind on law school deans, and reveals important findings of interest to a wide variety of legal education stakeholders.

Highlights from the American Law School Dean Study

During the pandemic, deans focused more on crisis management; diversity, equity, and inclusion; and student life issues.

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NY Times: Thomas Piketty Thinks America Is Primed For Wealth Redistribution

New York Times, Thomas Piketty Thinks America Is Primed for Wealth Redistribution:

In 2013, the French economist Thomas Piketty, in his best seller Capital in the Twenty-First Century, a book eagerly received in the wake of the 2008 economic collapse, put forth the notion that returns on capital historically outstrip economic growth (his famous r>g formula). The upshot? The rich get richer, while the rest of us stay stuck in the mud. Now, nearly a decade later, Piketty is set to publish A Brief History of Equality, in which he argues that we’re on a trajectory of greater, not less, equality and lays out his prescriptions for remedying our current corrosive wealth disparities. (In short: Tax the rich.) If the line from one book to the other looks slightly askew given the state of the world, then, Piketty suggests, you’re looking from the wrong vantage point. “I am relatively optimistic,” says Piketty, who is 50, “about the fact that there is a long-run movement toward more equality, which goes beyond the little details of what happens within a specific decade.” ...

What did you think of the billionaire tax that Biden just proposed?
It would have been better before his election. If you had told the American public before the elections that he wanted a wealth tax — which again is something that is very high in opinion polls — this would have been much easier. This could have forced the Democratic Congress to take a stand. It’s more complicated now. But if it works, it’s better than nothing. ...

You know, I do find it hard to wrap my head around the idea that after 40 years of worsening inequality, you — the inequality guy, Mr. r>g — are publishing a book saying we’re on the right track historically. It’s sort of cold comfort to know we’re more equal today than we were 100 or 200 years ago. Really give me a reason to feel as optimistic as you do. 

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WSJ Op-Ed: When Judge Jackson Sided With A Pro-Israel Nonprofit In Tax Exemption Battle Against The IRS

Wall Street Journal Op-Ed:  When Judge Jackson Ruled Against the IRS, by Leslie Lenkowsky (Indiana):

It’s safe to assume that Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson—who was appointed to the federal bench by President Obama and has been lauded by progressives—wasn’t personally a fan of the tea-party movement. But while on the bench, she defended a pro-Israel group that was seeking tax exemption against the sort of extra scrutiny the Internal Revenue Service brought to bear on many organizations associated with the tea party during the Obama administration.

The case involved Z Street, which provides information to the public on issues related to Zionism, Israel and the Middle East. At the end of 2009, it applied for tax exemption as a public charity under Section 501(c)(3) of the tax code. Six months later, an IRS representative allegedly told Z Street a decision would be delayed because the agency had a special unit to examine requests from groups dealing with Israel to determine whether their views contradicted the Obama administration’s policies.

Z Street sued, and the case was assigned to Judge Jackson. In a 2014 ruling, Judge Jackson dismissed the IRS’s argument that its judgments about tax exemptions had immunity from judicial review. She accused the IRS of using procedural claims to block litigation of a constitutional issue.

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Oren-Kolbinger: The Error Cost Of Marriage

Orli Oren-Kolbinger (Villanova; Google Scholar), The Error Cost of Marriage, 23 N.Y.U. J. Legis. & Pub. Pol'y 643 (2021):

Since its inception in 1918, the joint filing election has been one of the U.S. tax system’s most controversial concepts. This tax election allows married taxpayers to file a joint tax return or file two separate returns. Some err, either because they do not know they have a choice or simply because they choose unwisely and elect the less beneficial filing status.

The writers of the Code acknowledged taxpayers may need to correct a filing status error. Married taxpayers filing separately can retroactively amend their filing status for a previous year to joint filing under certain circumstances at no cost. Surprisingly, joint filers do not enjoy this opportunity to amend prior returns to filing separately in any circumstance. Scholars have extensively argued for and against treating married taxpayers as a single economic unit rather than on an individual basis. But they have yet to notice this asymmetric amendment rule. This Article is the first to examine the overlooked problem of the asymmetric treatment of married taxpayers who wish to amend their initial filing status election.

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D.C. Circuit Judge Suggests Trump Could Be Treated As Sitting President In Fight With Congress Over His Tax Returns

National Law Journal, Judge Suggests Trump Could be Treated as Sitting President in Fight With Congress Over Tax Documents:

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit on Thursday wrestled with whether former President Donald Trump should be treated like a sitting president or a private citizen in his bid to shield his tax records from a House committee.

Judge Karen LeCraft Henderson repeatedly noted that Trump was in office when the House Ways and Means Committee initially requested his tax returns in 2019 as part of an investigation into how the IRS audits presidents. She said the House’s ability to use document requests to gain “an institutional advantage” over the executive branch is still in play, even though Trump is no longer in office.

“We have been all wound up in who the president is at the time, who is the chairman, who is in the executive branch, including Treasury and the IRS,” she said. “We’ve got to look at this case as the executive branch vs. legislative branch as institutions.”

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2023 U.S. News Criminal Law Rankings

The new 2023 U.S. News Criminal Law Rankings include the criminal law programs at 187 law schools (the faculty survey had a 51% response rate). Here are the Top 50:

Rank	Score	School
1	4.6	NYU
2	4.4	UC-Berkeley
3	4.3	Georgetown
3	4.3	Harvard
3	4.3	Penn
3	4.3	Stanford
7	4.2	Virginia
8	4.1	Chicago
8	4.1	Columbia
8	4.1	UCLA
8	4.1	Yale
12	4.0	Michigan
12	4.0	Ohio State
14	3.9	Duke
14	3.9	Texas
14	3.9	Vanderbilt
17	3.8	Northwestern
18	3.7	Fordham
18	3.7	North Carolina
18	3.7	William & Mary
21	3.6	Cornell
21	3.6	Minnesota
21	3.6	UC-Davis
24	3.5	American
24	3.5	Brooklyn
24	3.5	UC-Irvine
24	3.5	Wake Forest
28	3.4	Arizona State
28	3.4	Boston Univ.
28	3.4	Cardozo
28	3.4	George Washington
32	3.3	Colorado
32	3.3	Indiana (Maurer)
32	3.3	Loyola-L.A.
32	3.3	UC-Hastings
32	3.3	Univ. of Washington
32	3.3	Washington Univ.
32	3.3	Wisconsin
39	3.2	Emory
39	3.2	Illinois
39	3.2	Iowa
39	3.2	Maryland
39	3.2	Rutgers
39	3.2	Utah
39	3.2	Washington & Lee
46	3.1	Boston College
46	3.1	Denver
46	3.1	Florida
46	3.1	Florida State
46	3.1	Notre Dame
46	3.1	Tulane
46	3.1	USC

2022 U.S. News Criminal Law Rankings

2023 U.S. News Specialty Rankings:

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Blue J Predicts With 65%-94% Confidence Federal Circuit's Step Transaction Decision In GSS Holdings

Benjamin Alarie (Osler Chair in Business Law, University of Toronto; CEO, Blue J Legal) & Stefanie Di Giandomenico (Senior Legal Research Associate, Blue J Legal), Timing Is Everything: The Step Transaction Doctrine in GSS Holdings, 174 Tax Notes Fed. 1849 (Mar. 28, 2021):

In this article, In this article, Alarie and Di Giandomenico examine the recent decision in GSS Holdings [v. United States, No. 19-728T (Fed. Cl. July 26, 2021),] and use machine learning to evaluate the effect of the selected analytical time frame on the outcome of this step transaction doctrine case. ...

In this article, we explore how tax experts can use machine learning tools to safely test and assess potential litigation strategies before deploying them at trial or on appeal. This can be especially useful for cases involving questions of law that turn on interrelated factors, such as the step transaction doctrine. By way of illustration, we put the recent GSS Holdings Court of Federal Claims decision under our machine learning microscope to see what we can see.

The case is being appealed by the taxpayer, GSS Holdings, to the Federal Circuit. The trial court reached its decision on cross-motions for summary judgment, favoring the government. It applied the step transaction doctrine to step together two transactions, finding them to constitute one asset sale for tax purposes. The court concentrated its analysis on a two-day period leading up to and including the sale, rejecting the taxpayer’s argument that the analysis should begin many years earlier, when the relevant agreements were first negotiated. When following the trial court’s characterization of the relevant time period, Blue J predicts a government win with 65 percent confidence.

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Indiana Symposium: The COVID Care Crisis And Its Implications For Legal Academia

Symposium, The COVID Care Crisis and its Implications for Legal Academia (Bloomington, IN), 16 FIU L. Rev. 1-185 (2021):

• Cyra A. Choudhury (Florida Int'l; Google Scholar), The COVID Care Crisis and its Implications for Legal Academia, 16 FIU L. Rev. 1 (2021)
• Nadia B. Ahmad (Barry; Google Scholar), "Blood, Sweat, Tears:" A Muslim Woman Law Professor's View on Degenerative Racism, Misogyny, and (Internal) Islamophobia from Preeclampsia and Presumed Incompetent to Pandemic Tenure, 16 FIU L. Rev. 13 (2021)
• Hadar Aviram (UC-Hastings; Google Scholar), The Center Cannot Hold: Zoom as a Potemkin Village, 16 FIU L. Rev. 75 (2021)
• Teneille R. Brown, (Utah; Google Scholar), Stereotypes, Sexism, and Superhuman Faculty, 16 FIU L. Rev. 83 (2021)
• Stephanie M. H. Moore (Indiana-Kelley), The Foundational Care Crisis, 16 FIU L. Rev. 101 (2021)
• Michele Okoh (Duke) & Inès Ndonko Nnoko (Duke Center on Law & Technology), The Need for Social Support from Law Schools during the Era of Social Distancing, 16 FIU L. Rev. 117 (2021)
• Shruti Rana (Indiana-Bloom.) & Hamid R. Ekbia (Indiana-Bloom.; Google Scholar), Crisis, Rupture and Structural Change: Re-imagining Global Learning and Engagement While Staying in Place During the Covid-19 Pandemic, 16 FIU L. Rev. 133 (2021)

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Galle, Gamage & Shanske: Solving The Valuation Challenge — A Feasible Method For Taxing Extreme Wealth

Brian Galle (Georgetown; Google Scholar), David Gamage (Indiana-Maurer; Google Scholar) & Darien Shanske (UC-Davis; Google Scholar), Solving the Valuation Challenge: A Feasible Method for Taxing Extreme Wealth, 72 Duke L.J. ___ (2022):

Recent reporting based on leaked tax returns of the ultra-rich confirms what experts have long suspected: for the wealthiest Americans, paying taxes is optional. Some of the country's richest have reported annual incomes that would be modest for a school teacher, even as the hare of wealth held by the top .1% is at its highest in nearly a century.

Experts have long understood that one problem sits at the root cause of many of the tax system's failures to reach the very rich: valuation. Because it is difficult to appraise complex or unique assets, modern tax systems instead wait until an asset is sold to impose tax. In combination with an American rule that wipes away income tax on inherited profits, and a highly porous estate tax system, this "realization" approach has deeply undermined U.S. efforts to tax extreme wealth.

This Article proposes a new approach: governments should take payments from the wealthy in the form of notional equity interests, which we call "ULTRAs," for unliquidated tax reserve accounts. Simply put, the ULTRA is economically equivalent to a government claim on a portion of the stock of a business, but because it is "notional" it does not provide the tax authority with any governance rights or minority shareholders protections. Because the ULTRA represents a set share of an asset, whatever that asset's worth, it does not require valuation.

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Unlike Dean Gerken, Professor Stith Says Law Students' Disruption Of Speaker At FedSoc Event Violated Yale’s Free Expression Policy

Following up on my previous post, A Message From Dean Gerken On The March 10 Protest:  Yale Daily News, Moderator Denounces Law School Protesters in Faculty-Wide Memo:

Law professor Kate Stith, who moderated the March 10 panel that was disrupted by student protesters, sent tenured law faculty a blistering memorandum on Thursday arguing that the students had violated Yale’s free speech policy and should be educated and potentially sanctioned. ...

The March 10 panel, hosted by the Yale chapter of the Federalist Society, featured two speakers on opposite ends of the political spectrum who spoke of their support for freedom of speech. Monica Miller, senior counsel for the progressive American Humanist Association, and Kristen Waggoner, general counsel for the Alliance Defending Freedom, both supported a recent civil liberties case which Waggoner had argued and won before the Supreme Court.

But about 120 student protesters took issue with Waggoner’s presence on the panel, arguing that the organization she works for aims to limit LGBTQ rights in the name of religious liberty. At the event, Miller said that her organization views ADF as a “hate group,” but emphasized the importance of proper discourse and noted that the job of a lawyer is to represent their client, and she argued a case that hinged on the results of Waggoner’s.

But audio of the panel shows that protests drowned out much of Miller’s statement. At the event, protesters stood and challenged Stith as she introduced the panelists. They left the room after Stith read aloud the University’s free speech policy, but continued to loudly make noise in the hallway. Throughout the event, students can be heard chanting, cheering, stomping and yelling outside the lecture hall, muffling, if not all but drowning out, the sounds of the speakers. At times, Stith wrote, the speakers ceased talking or listening due to the disruption.

“Any formal determination that the March protest at Yale Law School did not violate Yale’s policy on Free Expression would set a terrible precedent at Yale and elsewhere,” Stith wrote. “There is no doubt that the event in Room 127 was significantly disrupted.” ...

More than two weeks later, Dean of the Yale Law School Heather Gerken sent a strongly worded letter claiming the protesters engaged in “unacceptable” behavior, but that they did not violate Yale’s free speech policy. Three days later, Stith sent her memo outlining how the protesters had violated Yale’s free speech policy. The policy not only prohibits shutting down an event, but also “disrupting” one, including interfering with a speaker’s ability to be heard and the audience’s ability to listen.

But the protesters have continued to question the Law School’s focus on the students’ disruption rather than the decision to invite Waggoner to speak.

Aaron Sibarium (Washington Free Beacon), Yale Law Professor Takes on Dean, Calls Disruption of Free Speech Event a ‘Blatant Violation’ of School Policy:

The Yale Law School professor who attempted to keep order as protesters disrupted a panel on free speech urged her colleagues in a Thursday letter to recognize the disruption as a "blatant violation of Yale’s Free Expression policy," a statement that contradicts conclusions reached by the law school's dean. ...

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Legal Ed News Roundup

• ABA Journal, Here's What Could Have Been Behind the Shake-Ups in US News Rankings, Say Some Deans
• ABA Journal, Lateral Hiring Rebounded at an Unprecedented Rate of Nearly 111% in 2021, NALP Says
• ABA Journal, Law Schools' Impact on Justice: U.S. Legal Education Advances Rule of Law Around the World
• ABA Journal, Richard Posner's Lawyer Says the Retired Judge Has Alzheimer’s, Didn’t Have Capacity to Contract
• Above the Law, Davis Polk Loves This Law School
• Above the Law, The Law School Racing Up The Rankings
• Above the Law, ‘Woke Curriculum’ Based On Actual Supreme Court Cases Terrifies Conservatives
• Austin American-Statesman, Former UT Law School Official Accused of Stealing $1.2 Million Pleads Guilty, Sentenced to Probation

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2023 U.S. News Contracts/Commercial Law Rankings

The new 2023 U.S. News Contracts/Commercial Law Rankings include the contracts/commercial law programs at 187 law schools (the faculty survey had a 45% response rate). Here are the Top 50:

Rank	Score	School
1	4.6	Columbia
2	4.5	Chicago
2	4.5	Harvard
4	4.4	NYU
4	4.4	Stanford
4	4.4	Yale
7	4.3	Michigan
7	4.3	Penn
7	4.3	UC-Berkeley
7	4.3	Virginia
11	4.2	Georgetown
12	4.1	Cornell
12	4.1	Northwestern
12	4.1	Texas
15	4.0	UCLA
16	3.9	Duke
16	3.9	Minnesota
16	3.9	Vanderbilt
16	3.9	Washington Univ.
20	3.7	Fordham
20	3.7	Illinois
20	3.7	North Carolina
23	3.6	Emory
23	3.6	USC
23	3.6	William & Mary
23	3.6	Wisconsin
27	3.5	Boston College
27	3.5	Boston Univ.
27	3.5	Iowa
27	3.5	Ohio State
27	3.5	UC-Davis
27	3.5	UC-Hastings
27	3.5	UC-Irvine
34	3.4	Florida
34	3.4	Florida State
34	3.4	George Washington
37	3.3	BYU
37	3.3	George Mason
37	3.3	Indiana (Maurer)
37	3.3	Washington & Lee
41	3.2	Brooklyn
41	3.2	Tulane
41	3.2	Wake Forest
41	3.2	Univ. of Washington
45	3.1	American
45	3.1	Arizona State
45	3.1	Georgia
45	3.1	Notre Dame
45	3.1	San Diego
45	3.1	Temple
45	3.1	Tennessee
45	3.1	UNLV

2022 U.S. News Contracts/Commercial Law Rankings

2023 U.S. News Specialty Rankings:

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Lesson From The Tax Court: Penalty Approval In Conservation Easement Cases

The §6751(b) supervisory approval requirement for penalties has been a thorn in the side of both the IRS and the Tax Court.  Today’s lesson shows us how the IRS penalty approval process in conservation easement audits has forced taxpayers to reach for wilder and less credible attacks in their attempts to avoid penalties by finding IRS procedural foot-faults.

First, in Pickens Decorative Stone LLC v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 2022-22 (Mar. 17) (Judge Lauber), the taxpayer argued that when the IRS had publicly committed in a general Notice to seeking penalties against the types of syndicated conservation easement scheme it had engaged in, the IRS was disabled from complying with §6751(b) because the supervisor in the audit had not signed off on that public Notice.  Yeah, pull your eyebrows down; the argument lost.

Second, in Oxbow Bend, LLC v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 2022-23 (Mar. 21, 2022) (also Judge Lauber), the taxpayer similarly argued the IRS failed to comply with §6751(b) when the Revenue Agent (RA) had failed to secure supervisory approval before telling the taxpayer during a status conference that penalties were “under consideration” when in fact the RA was completing an internal document recommending penalties that very day.  That was a loser as well.  Details below the fold.

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TaxProf Blog Weekend Roundup

Saturday:

• This Week's Ten Most Popular TaxProf Blog Posts
• 2023 U.S. News Constitutional Law Rankings
• Next Week’s Tax Workshops

Sunday: 

• NY Times Op-Ed: Three Habits To Keep After The Pandemic Ends
• Vischer: Christian Nationalism And The Rule Of Law
• WSJ Book Review: The Flag And The Cross — Defining Christian Nationalism
• The Top Five New Tax Papers

NY Times Op-Ed: Three Habits To Keep After The Pandemic Ends

New York Times Op-Ed:  Three Habits My Family Started in the Pandemic That We Want to Keep, by Tish Harrison Warren (Priest, Anglican Church; Author, Prayer in the Night: For Those Who Work or Watch or Weep (2021) (Christianity Today's 2022 Book of the Year)):

As I reflect on the past two years, I think of (at least) three practices that my family and I have taken up that I hope we continue.

First, in the early days of the pandemic, when my family of five abruptly found ourselves crammed into a small house, we developed a practice of having tea around 4:30 each weekday afternoon. With cookies, Earl Grey, juice for the kids and sometimes a shot of bourbon for the adults, we talked about what worked and didn’t work that day. We would ask one another, “Who do you need to apologize to or reconcile with today?”

There were days we felt like sardines — crabby, stressed out, Zoom-depressed sardines. There were days when every single person in the family (except for the 5-month-old) had to say “I’m sorry for …” or “I forgive you” to every other person in the family. ...

As Covid precautions have changed, we have been less intentional about our reconciliation teas. But I hope to carry this practice and intentionality (intentionaliTEA?) with me even into this next normal. We don’t make purposeful time for reconciliation every day now, but I’d like to make it, at least, a weekly rhythm.

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Vischer: Christian Nationalism And The Rule Of Law

Robert K. Vischer (Interim President & Former Dean, St. Thomas; Google Scholar), Christian Nationalism and the Rule of Law:

Current threats to the rule of law in the United States emerge, at least in part, from a nationalism shaped by a distinctly American vision of Christianity. Defenders of the rule of law must therefore respond in terms that confront the religious dimension of the threat directly. Religiously affiliated law schools should be key contributors to this conversation, modeling a faith-shaped discourse that avoids invoking Christianity as a conversation-stopper, as a signal of self-righteousness, or as a means to stir up hatred of “the other.” How might the public witness of our faith support, rather than impede, the rule of law?

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WSJ Book Review: The Flag And The Cross — Defining Christian Nationalism

Wall Street Journal Book Review:  D.G. Hart (Hilldale College), Defining Christian Nationalism (reviewing The Flag and the Cross: White Christian Nationalism and the Threat to American Democracy (Apr. 1, 2022)):

How pervasive is Christian nationalism in the United States? Before answering, a more pressing question is: What is it? Here the people paid to define our terms are all over the place. Christian nationalism can involve a national church like the Church of Scotland. It can be a form of civil religion, as in “one nation under God.” It can also dissolve into American exceptionalism: “a city set on a hill.” Whatever the definition, attaching national or civic meaning to divine purpose is as old as recorded history.

It is also everywhere in America. When Franklin D. Roosevelt explained his administration’s reasons for entering World War II, the president did not hesitate to invoke God or quote the Bible. “The world is too small to provide adequate ‘living room’ for both Hitler and God,” he told Americans. “We are inspired by a faith that goes back through all the years to the first chapter of the Book of Genesis: ‘God created man in His own image.’ ”

Seventy years later when filmmaker Aaron Sorkin wrote the lines delivered by a news anchor in the first episode of HBO’s The Newsroom, the religious component of Christian nationalism may have been invisible but the appeal to moral purpose was pronounced. After lamenting America’s decline, the news anchor explained what made America great: “We stood up for what was right. We fought for moral reasons. We passed laws, struck down laws for moral reasons. We waged wars on poverty, not poor people. We sacrificed. We cared about our neighbors.” He might well have asked: What did Jesus do?

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The Top Five New Tax Papers

There is a bit of movement in this week's list of the Top 5 Recent Tax Paper Downloads, with a new paper debuting on the list at #3. The #1 paper is #170 among 16,701 tax papers in all-time downloads:

1. [1,840 Downloads]  Pillar 2: Rule Order, Incentives, and Tax Competition, by Michael Devereux (Oxford), John Vella (Oxford) & Heydon Wardell-Burrus (Oxford)
2. [724 Downloads]  Amazon and the State Aid Tax Saga, by Leopoldo Parada (Leeds; Google Scholar)
3. [306 Downloads]  How Treasury and the IRS Have Allowed High-Net-Worth Taxpayers to Exploit Stepped-Up Basis on Intergenerational Wealth Transfers, and How They Can Stop It: Answers to Question for the Record, by Daniel Hemel (Chicago; Google Scholar)
4. [274 Downloads]  Concentrix: A Critical Review of the Delhi High Court's Ruling On the Interpretation of the India-Netherlands Tax Treaty, by Dhruv Janssen-Sanghavi (Maastricht)
5. [255 Downloads]  Revitalizing The Generation-Skipping Transfer Tax, by Daniel Hemel (Chicago; Google Scholar) & Robert Lord (Americans for Tax Fairness)

Stunning News About Tonight's Duke-UNC Final Four Basketball Game

This Week's Ten Most Popular TaxProf Blog Posts

1. U.S. News, 2023 Law School Peer Reputation Rankings (And Overall Rankings)
2. 2023 U.S. News Specialty Rankins, Business/Corporate Law, Clinical Training, Tax Law
3. Paul Caron (Dean, Pepperdine), Preview Of The 2023 U.S. News Law School Rankings: Admissions
4. Bryan Camp (Texas Tech), Lesson From The Tax Court: Take The Administrative Appeal
5. Kristen Waggoner (General Counsel, Alliance Defending Freedom), “Keep the Faith”: How a Hostile Encounter With Yale Law Students Emboldened Me to Speak the Truth With Kindness
6. Yale Law School News, A Message From Dean Gerken On The March 10 Protest
7. Erwin Chemerinsky (Dean, UC-Berkeley) & Howard Gillman (Chancellor, UC-Irvine), Free Speech Doesn’t Mean Hecklers Get to Shut Down Campus Debate
8. Amanda Runyon (Pennsylvania), Leslie Street (William & Mary), & Amanda Watson (Houston), U.S. News Rankings Get it Right on Law Libraries
9. Paul Caron (Dean, Pepperdine), Pepperdine’s Place In The 2023 U.S. News Law School Rankings
10. Treasury Department, Greenbook On Tax Proposals In President Biden's FY23 Budget

2023 U.S. News Constitutional Law Rankings

The new 2023 U.S. News Constitutional Law Rankings include the constitutional law programs at 187 law schools (the faculty survey had a 47% response rate). Here are the Top 50:

Rank	Score	School
1	4.8	Harvard
1	4.8	Yale
3	4.7	Chicago
3	4.7	Columbia
5	4.6	NYU
5	4.6	Stanford
5	4.6	Virginia
8	4.5	UC-Berkeley
9	4.4	Michigan
10	4.3	Georgetown
11	4.2	Duke
11	4.2	Texas
11	4.2	UCLA
14	4.1	Cornell
14	4.1	Northwestern
14	4.1	Penn
17	3.8	Vanderbilt
18	3.7	UC-Irvine
19	3.6	Washington Univ.
19	3.6	William & Mary
21	3.5	Boston Univ.
21	3.5	George Washington
21	3.5	North Carolina
21	3.5	Ohio State
21	3.5	UC-Davis
26	3.4	Emory
26	3.4	Minnesota
26	3.4	Notre Dame
26	3.4	USC
30	3.3	Alabama
30	3.3	Fordham
30	3.3	San Diego
33	3.2	Boston College
33	3.2	UC-Hastings
35	3.1	Florida State
35	3.1	Georgia
35	3.1	Illinois
35	3.1	Indiana (Maurer)
35	3.1	Wisconsin
40	3.0	American
40	3.0	Arizona
40	3.0	Arizona State
40	3.0	Cardozo
40	3.0	Colorado
40	3.0	George Mason
40	3.0	Maryland
40	3.0	Richmond
48	2.9	Brooklyn
48	2.9	BYU
48	2.9	Florida
48	2.9	Iowa
48	2.9	Utah
48	2.9	Washington & Lee

2022 U.S. News Constitutional Law Rankings

2023 U.S. News Specialty Rankings:

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Next Week’s Tax Workshops

Wednesday, April 6: Tsilly Dagan (Oxford; Google Scholar) will present Unbundled Tax Sovereignty: Refining the Challenges as part of the Toronto James Hausman Tax Law and Policy Workshop. If you would like to attend, please contact Robert Lines.

Thursday, April 7:  Martha Fineman (Emory; Google Scholar) will present Cracking the Foundational Myths: Independence, Autonomy, and Self-Sufficiency in Feminism Confronts Homo Economicus: Gender, Law, and Society (Cornell 2005) as part of the Oxford-Virginia Legal Dialogs. If you would like to attend, please contact Tsilly Dagan and Ruth Mason.

Thursday, April 7: Jordan Barry (USC) will present Tax and the Boundaries of the Firm (with Victor Fleischer (UC-Irvine; Google Scholar)) as part of the Duke Tax Policy Seminar. If you would like to attend, please contact Lawrence Zelenak.

Thursday, April 7: Hilary Escajeda (Mississippi College; Google Scholar) will present Technology Law: Taxation of Our Collective and Cumulative Cognitive Inheritance as part of the Boston College Tax Policy Workshop. If you would like to attend, please contact James Repetti.

Friday, April 8: Gregg Polsky (Georgia; Google Scholar) will present Fixing The Qualified Small Business Stock Exclusion (with Ethan Yale (Virginia; Google Scholar)) as part of the Florida Tax Policy Colloquium. If you would like to attend, please contact David Hasen.

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Weekly SSRN Tax Article Review And Roundup: Kim Reviews Sanchirico's A Game-theoretic Analysis of Global Minimum Tax Design

This week, Young Ran (Christine) Kim (Utah, moving to Cardozo; Google Scholar) reviews a new work by Chris William Sanchirico (Penn; Google Scholar), A Game-theoretic Analysis of Global Minimum Tax Design (March 2022).

In the globalized, open economy, multinational enterprises (MNEs) can easily shift their profits from high tax jurisdictions to low tax jurisdictions. Many countries, especially developing countries, were increasingly squeezed by MNEs to provide lower corporate tax rates and tax holidays as conditions for receiving foreign direct investment. Furthermore, those countries had to compete with peer countries vying to attract foreign capital to their economy. The epitome of such rivalry is “tax competition.” As tax competition has grown, global effective corporate tax rates have continued to be cut, creating a “race-to-the-bottom.” In order to curb harmful tax competition, the OECD/Inclusive Framework has proposed a global minimum tax at 15% rate and to impose a top-up tax to the extent that the effective tax rate paid by the MNE falls short of the said minimum tax rate.

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Weekly Legal Education Roundup

• ABA Journal, Here's what could have been behind the shake-ups in US News rankings, say some deans
• Paul Caron (Dean, Pepperdine), Pepperdine’s Place In The 2023 U.S. News Law School Rankings
• Erwin Chemerinsky (Dean, UC-Berkeley) & Howard Gillman (Chancellor, UC-Irvine), Free Speech Doesn’t Mean Hecklers Get to Shut Down Campus Debate
• David Frakt, 2021 Admissions and Bar Pass Update
• David Frakt, Why Law Schools Fail
• David Lat (Original Jurisdiction), Yale Law Dean Heather Gerken Speaks Out About The March 10 Protest
• Law.com, Every Black Law Dean in the US Signs Letter to Senate Supporting Jackson's SCOTUS Nomination
• Law.com, NCBE Seeks Public Comment on Proposed Bar Exam Changes
• Press Release, Pepperdine to Launch Center for Faith and the Common Good on April 1

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Tax Policy In The Biden Administration

• American Progress, Debunking Sen. Rick Scott’s Claims About Taxpaying Americans
• Bloomberg, Biden’s Billionaire Tax Would Punish Long-Term Investors
• Bloomberg, Billionaire-Tied Fund Seeks Bankruptcy Amid IRS Levy Notices
• Bloomberg, Billionaires and Private Equity Would See Tax Hikes in Biden’s Plan
• Bloomberg, How Biden’s Billionaire Minimum Income Tax Would Hit the Wealthy
• Bloomberg, IRS Scores Win on Appeal Over Law on Approving Penalties
• Bloomberg, Rediscovering Joy in the Tax Profession

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2023 U.S. News Clinical Training Rankings

The new 2023 U.S. News Clinical Training Rankings include the clinical training law programs at 173 law schools (the faculty survey had a 60% response rate). Here are the Top 50:

Rank	Score	School
1	4.6	CUNY
1	4.6	Georgetown
3	4.4	American
3	4.4	NYU
5	4.2	District of Columbia
5	4.2	UC-Irvine
5	4.2	Yale
8	4.1	Baltimore
8	4.1	Denver
8	4.1	Maryland
8	4.1	Michigan
8	4.1	New Mexico
8	4.1	Rutgers
8	4.1	UC-Berkeley
15	4.0	Stanford
15	4.0	Suffolk
17	3.9	Fordham
17	3.9	Northwestern
17	3.9	Washington Univ.
20	3.8	Northeastern
20	3.8	Tennessee
20	3.8	UC-Hastings
23	3.7	Brooklyn
23	3.7	George Washington
23	3.7	Texas A&M
26	3.6	Boston College
26	3.6	Boston Univ.
26	3.6	Columbia
26	3.6	Harvard
26	3.6	Miami
26	3.6	North Carolina
26	3.6	Penn
26	3.6	Seattle
26	3.6	UCLA
35	3.5	Cardozo
35	3.5	Duke
35	3.5	Georgia State
35	3.5	Howard
35	3.5	South Carolina
35	3.5	Texas
35	3.5	Tulane
35	3.5	Univ. of Washington
35	3.5	UNLV
35	3.5	Vanderbilt
35	3.5	Wayne State
46	3.4	Chicago
46	3.4	Cornell
46	3.4	Georgia
46	3.4	Loyola-New Orleans
46	3.4	Memphis
46	3.4	Mitchell | Hamline
46	3.4	Pepperdine Caruso
46	3.4	St. Thomas (MN)
46	3.4	Villanova
46	3.4	Washington & Lee
46	3.4	Wisconsin

2022 U.S. News Clinical Law Rankings 

2023 U.S. News Specialty Rankings:

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25th Annual Critical Tax Conference At Villanova

Villanova hosts the 25th Annual Critical Tax Conference (program) today and tomorrow:

The Critical Tax Theory Conference has a long history of fostering the work of both established and emerging scholars whose research challenges and enriches the tax law and policy literature. Critical tax scholars question assumptions of objectivity in tax, as their work explores how tax law and policy impact historically marginalized groups. At a time when tax policy is once again at the forefront of politics and public discourse, the work of these and other critical tax scholars supports a more robust discussion of the role for tax law in current and future social and economic policy.

Friday

9:15 AM: Welcome & Opening Remarks

• Joy Mullane (Villanova)
• Mark Alexander (Dean, Villanova)

9:30 AM: Connecting Scholarship to Policymakers and Stakeholders: A Discussion with Nina Olson (Center for Taxpayer Rights)

10:00 AM: Panel Presentation #1

• David Elkins (Netanya, visiting NYU; Google Scholar), A Red Herring that Shaped Tax Jurisprudence
• Jay Soled (Rutgers; Google Scholar), AI, Taxation, and Valuation
• Samantha Prince (Penn State-Dickinson; Google Scholar), Megacompany Employee Churn Meets 401(K) Vesting Schedules: A Sabotage on Workers’ Retirement Wealth

11:30 AM: Incubator Session #1

• Joshua Blank (UC-Irvine; Google Scholar), Automated Agencies
• Keith Fogg (Harvard), Delaware the Pirate State
• Alice Abreu (Temple), Taxpayer Bill of Rights - Moving Beyond the Procedural

12:15 PM: Keynote Address

• Leslie Book (Villanova; Google Scholar)
• William G. Gale (Brookings Institution; Google Scholar), Public Finance and Racism

1:30 PM: Panel Presentation #2

• Henry Ordower (St. Louis; Google Scholar), Block Rewards, Carried Interests, and Other Valuation Quandaries in Taxing Compensation
• Clint Wallace (Souther Carolina; Google Scholar), Democracy as Criteria for Taxation
• Goldburn Maynard Jr. (Indiana-Kelley; Google Scholar), Wage Enslavement: How the Tax System Holds Back Historically Disadvantaged Groups of Americans (with David Gamage (Indiana-Maurer; Google Scholar))

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Faulhaber Presents Pillar Two's Substance-Based Income Exclusion Today At Florida

Lilian Faulhaber (Georgetown; Google Scholar) presents Pillar Two's Substance-Based Income Exclusion: The Culmination of Years of International Tax Developments at Florida today as part of its Tax Policy Colloquium hosted by David Hasen:

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Gamage Presents Taxation And The Constitution, Reconsidered Today At San Diego

David Gamage (Indiana-Maurer; Google Scholar) presents Taxation and the Constitution, Reconsidered (with John R. Brooks (Georgetown; Google Scholar)) at San Diego today as part of its Tax Law Speaker Series hosted by Miranda Fleischer:

Our current income tax is unable to address growing concentrations of financial wealth and resulting economic inequality. But reforms to address these problems—such as a wealth tax or an income tax on unrealized capital gains—are stymied by fears of unconstitutionality. The basic claim is that wealth taxes and similar reforms are “direct taxes” under the Apportionment Clauses of the Constitution, and since apportionment is not feasible, these taxes are impossible. But this claim is wrong.

This Article shows that there is in fact a long history of federal taxes similar to wealth taxes—both apportioned and uniform—and a well-developed constitutional tax jurisprudence to go along with that history. This jurisprudence has laid mostly dormant during the past century-plus of the income tax era, but a reconsideration of taxation and the Constitution shows that we now have multiple viable paths for taxing extreme concentrations of wealth.

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Diane Lourdes Dick Leaves Seattle For Iowa

Diane Lourdes Dick, William C. Oltman Professor of Teaching Excellence and Professor of Law at Seattle, has accepted a position at Iowa:

Professor Diane Lourdes Dick focuses her teaching and scholarship on business and tax law, with particular emphasis on commercial finance, business bankruptcy and out-of-court restructuring, mergers and acquisitions, and business entity taxation.

A prolific author, Diane has published or forthcoming articles in law reviews, peer-reviewed journals, practitioner-oriented publications, and on prominent commercial law blogs. Diane's work has been selected via blind review for highly competitive conferences, including the 16th Annual Yale/Stanford/Harvard Junior Faculty Forum, the Emerging Scholars in Commercial and Consumer Law panel of the American Association of Law Schools Annual Meeting, and the George Washington University Center for Law, Economics & Finance Junior Faculty Business and Financial Law Workshop. She has been invited to deliver lectures at the Harvard Kennedy School, The Brookings Institution, and at professional association meetings, law schools, and graduate tax programs around the country. Her scholarship has been showcased by The New York Times and Reuters Breaking Views, and has been cited and discussed by courts and litigants.

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Sugin Presents Reinventing Law School, Financial Structure: Public Benefit, Private Finance Today At Duke

Linda Sugin (Fordham; Google Scholar) presents Reinventing Law School, Financial Structure: Public Benefit, Private Finance at Duke today as part of its Tax Policy Seminar hosted by Lawrence Zelenak:

Chapters 1 and 2 argued that the world needs compassionate and committed lawyers, and presented a vision for law schools that would prepare students to become leaders in a just, equal, and sustainable world. Chapter 3 focused inward and argued that law schools have not adjusted their methods or goals to accommodate today’s students and the challenges they face in the profession. This chapter continues with an introspective look at the financing of legal education. It argues that the current system for financing legal education is wholly unsuited to the institutional role that law schools must fulfill.

2023 U.S. News Business/Corporate Law Rankings

The new 2023 U.S. News Business/Corporate Law Rankings include the business/corporate law programs at 187 law schools (the faculty survey had a 52% response rate). Here are the Top 50:

Rank	Score	School
1	4.6	Columbia
1	4.6	Harvard
1	4.6	NYU
1	4.6	UC-Berkeley
5	4.5	Penn
6	4.4	Stanford
7	4.3	Chicago
7	4.3	UCLA
9	4.2	Michigan
10	4.1	Georgetown
10	4.1	Virginia
12	4.0	Vanderbilt
12	4.0	Yale
14	3.9	Cornell
14	3.9	Duke
14	3.9	Northwestern
17	3.8	Texas
18	3.7	Fordham
18	3.7	USC
20	3.6	Boston Univ.
20	3.6	Washington Univ.
22	3.5	BYU
23	3.4	Emory
23	3.4	Minnesota
23	3.4	North Carolina
23	3.4	UC-Davis
27	3.3	Boston College
27	3.3	Brooklyn
27	3.3	Florida
27	3.3	George Washington
27	3.3	William & Mary
32	3.2	Georgia
32	3.2	Illinois
32	3.2	Iowa
32	3.2	Notre Dame
32	3.2	Tulane
32	3.2	UC-Hastings
32	3.2	Washington & Lee
39	3.1	Ohio State
39	3.1	Tennessee
41	3.0	George Mason
41	3.0	Utah
41	3.0	Wisconsin
44	2.9	Alabama
44	2.9	Arizona
44	2.9	Colorado
44	2.9	Houston
44	2.9	Indiana (Maurer)
44	2.9	San Diego
44	2.9	SMU
44	2.9	Temple
44	2.9	UC-Irvine
44	2.9	Univ. of Washington
44	2.9	Wake Forest
44	2.9	Widener (DE)

2022 U.S. News Business/Corporate Law Rankings 

2023 U.S. News Specialty Rankings:

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Georgetown Seeks To Hire Full-Time Tax Prof For Graduate Tax Program

Professor, Georgetown Law School Graduate Tax Program:

Georgetown University Law Center invites applications for a full-time, non-tenure track position in its Graduate Tax Program. The Graduate Tax Program has over 250 full and part-time students enrolled in both on-campus and online courses. It offers a Master of Laws (LL.M.) in Taxation, a Master of Studies in Law (M.S.L.) in Taxation for non-lawyers, and certificate programs in four specialized areas (international tax, state and local tax, employee benefits, and estate planning).

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