Marian: The Taxation Of Block Rewards

Omri Marian (UC-Irvine; Google Scholar), Law, Policy, and the Taxation of Block Rewards, 175 Tax Notes Fed. 1493 (June 6, 2022):

This report addresses the taxation of block rewards — the rewards offered to validators of blockchain transactions in exchange for maintaining the public blockchain ledger. The main question the report seeks to answer is whether newly minted cryptocurrencies (a component of block rewards) are taxable upon receipt. Some commentators have suggested that there is legal ambiguity about whether block rewards are taxable upon receipt because of the novelty of the blockchain technology. There is no such ambiguity. Block rewards are clearly taxable upon receipt under current law.

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Pichhadze: Rethinking Tax Pedagogy At Oxford

The Oxford Blue Op-Ed:  Rethinking Tax Pedagogy at Oxford, by Amir Pichhadze (Oxford; Google Scholar):

Here at Oxford, there are gaps in the university’s approach to tax pedagogy. Clearly, the university attempts to provide students with opportunities for comprehensive tax education, both at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels. This is evident from the wide array of taxation courses offered at the university’s Faculty of Law and the Saïd Business School. Yet, as I recently pointed out in my presentation at the STORIES conference (STudents’ Ongoing Research In Educational Studies), which was hosted by Oxford’s Department of Education, thus far the University has not been providing students with opportunities for experiential tax education. In my presentation, I called on the University of Oxford to rethink its approach to pedagogy by providing students with opportunities for experiential learning of taxation, such as the establishment of a university-based Tax Clinic as well as Tax Mooting. I explained that experiential learning of taxation could benefit students by providing them with valuable, feasible, and necessary additional opportunities for developing industry specific skills as well as transferable employability skills, while also giving them the opportunity to gain work experience. It could also benefit other stakeholders such as the university itself as well as members of the public.

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Marian: Taxing Data

Omri Marian (UC-Irvine; Google Scholar), Taxing Data, 47 BYU L. Rev. 511 (2022): 

The Article offers a new theory of tax on data collection and transmission as a primary source of government revenue. This tax does not depend on the monetary value of data. This "data tax" can supplement, and in some instances replace, income taxes. The data tax can (1) mitigate some of the failures of income taxes in a globalized data based economy, and (2) serve to alleviate some of the externalities of a data based economy.

The Article advances the following four arguments. First, current challenges to tax systems stem largely from the fact that traditional models of taxation were designed for an economy in which the location of labor, the ownership of capital, and the monetary value of income were identifiable. These assumptions no longer stand in the modern economic environment: the data economy. Today, one the most significant sources of value creation is the analysis, manipulation, and utilization of large quantities of dispersed data. In so called "data-rich markets," source, ownership, and value are not only hard to identify — they are not always economically meaningful concepts. 

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Legal Ed News Roundup

• ABA Journal, Bar Examinees Have Little Success with Accommodation Requests and Say the Process is Stressful
• Above the Law, Former Students Of 4 Law Schools Will Have Their Loans Forgiven Under The Borrower's Defense Program (And There Is Still Time To Apply)
• Above the Law, Pre-Law Students Plan To Boycott Law Schools In States Where Abortion Has Been Banned
• Above the Law, State Denies Admission For NY Licensed Lawyer To Strike A Blow For... What Exactly?
• Above the Law, T14 Law School To Remove Name Of SCOTUS Justice Associated With Slavery From Building
• Above the Law, Trayveon Williams To Co-Teach Law School Course On NIL
• Cook County Record, Appeals Panel: University of Illinois Bought John Marshall Law School, So Man Can't Sue Over His Expulsion From Marshall Before the Sale Due to Sovereign Immunity

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Illinois Seeks To Hire An Entry Level Or Lateral Tax Prof

Illinois Human Resources, Job Details:

The University of Illinois College of Law invites applications for positions on the tenured/tenure-track faculty to begin in August 2023. The College has particular interests in hiring in the areas of constitutional and tax law but welcomes applications from scholars in all subject areas of the law.

The University of Illinois offers a distinguished and collegial law school community in the setting of a premier research university, affording opportunities for cutting-edge legal scholarship and innovative interdisciplinary work. Champaign-Urbana is a vibrant college town with an exceptional quality of life. ...

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Killing The LSAT In The Name Of Diversity Won’t Cure The Problem

Following up on my previous posts (links below):  Vivia Chen (Bloomberg Law), Killing the LSAT in the Name of Diversity Won’t Cure the Problem:

You have to wonder if the cure is worse than the disease.

This spring, the American Bar Association made an eye-popping proposal. In April, its strategic review committee, which accredits law schools, issued a memo directing “the elimination of the requirement that law schools use a valid and reliable admission test though law schools of course remain free to require a test if they wish.”

Oh, the proverbial slippery slope. In 2021, after years of resistance, the ABA finally gave the green light for law schools to substitute the LSAT with the GRE. And now it’s axing all testing requirements for law school admission.

Has the ABA gone wild? And for what purpose?

Although not explicitly stated, the proposal is aimed at fixing the dearth of diversity in the profession. ...

[W]hat concerns me about eliminating the LSAT is that it suggests that minority students might lack the chops for entry into the profession. Though anti-testers will likely argue that the LSAT and other standardized tests are freighted with social/economic baggage—and that’s undoubtedly true—isn’t it also possible to read it as throwing in the towel that students of color can master the art of the test?

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Lesson From The Tax Court: No §163 Deduction From Foreclosure Proceeds

It’s not just Death and Taxes that are certainties in life.  Having lived through the economic downturns in 1973, 1981, 2001, and 2008, I now believe we can add Recessions to the list.  And another one seems to be coming.  So this may be a good time to pay attention to Ronald W. Howland, Jr. and Marilee R. Howland v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 2022-60 (June 13, 2022) (Judge Weiler), where we learn some of the obstacles taxpayers face in taking a §163 interest deduction when foreclosure proceeds only partially pay off a loan balance that includes principal and accrued interest.

In Howland, the Court did not permit any §163 deduction.  This week and next I'm going to try something new and compare the Tax Court case with a recent Circuit Court case.  I think the comparison is instructive.  This week, we compare Howland to the recent 9th Circuit opinion in Milkovich v. U.S. 24 F.4th 1 (9th Cir. 2022), where the 9th Circuit did permit a §163 deduction from foreclosure proceeds.  Both Howland and Milkovich arose from the Great Recession.  Looking at the similarities and difference of the two cases gives us the lesson, which is in part a cautionary tale on how at least some of the obstacles to deduction may be self-created.

Details below the fold

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NALP: 82% Of Attorneys Are Satisfied With Their Legal Careers Three Years After Graduating From Law School

The NALP Foundation and NALP Release Joint Study of U.S. Law School Alumni Employment and Satisfaction for the Class of 2018:

The NALP Foundation and NALP today released their ninth joint study, Law School Alumni Employment and Satisfaction, for the Class of 2018. The new data shows intriguing shifts within graduates three years after graduation, including: 

• Mobility: Overall alumni professional mobility remained consistent with 2017 levels, with over two thirds of alumni reporting having already held two or more sequential positions since graduating; however, alumni of color reported both changing positions and intending to do so at higher rates than their majority peers.
• Educational Debt: Alumni reported high levels of outstanding total educational debt, with the vast majority of this debt – 83% – attributable to law school alone. Overall educational debt levels for alumni of color at $123,336 were significantly higher than for their white peers ($85,397).
• Work Location and Satisfaction: In a reversal from last year’s results for the Class of 2017, graduates working solely from home reported lower overall job satisfaction than those working either full-time in the office or in a hybrid schedule.
• Law School Engagement: Alumni articulated distinct preferences about postgraduate engagement with their law schools, ranking networking events and mentoring programs as their top choices, while service in alumni associations and financial donations were of least interest. 
• Mental Health: Female alumni reported that the pandemic and economic crisis impacted their mental health at much higher rates than did their male counterparts – 46% vs. 31%.

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TaxProf Blog Holiday Weekend Roundup

Saturday:

• This Week's Ten Most Popular TaxProf Blog Posts
• More On The Impact Of Dobbs On Law Schools
• Avi-Yonah Posts International Tax Papers On SSRN
• Students, Alumni Push Back Against George Washington's Refusal To Cancel Justice Thomas's Con Law Seminar

Sunday:

• How Religious Colleges View The Dobbs Abortion Decision: Celebration (Liberty), Neutrality (Notre Dame), Condemnation (Emory)
• NY Times Op-Ed: How Churches Can Do Better At Responding To Sexual Abuse
• After The SCOTUS School Prayer Decision, What Comes Next For American Jews?
• The Top Five New Tax Papers

July 4th:

• A 4th Of July Reminder: 'This Land Was Made For You And Me'
• Horwitz: Should Undergraduate Degrees In Law Lead To Shortening Law School To Two Years By Separating Academic Study Of Law From Practical Training To Be Lawyers?
• NY Times: The IRS Is The Gatekeeper For Charities, But Approves 99.96% Of All Applications; Form 1023EZ = EZ Fraud
• NALP: Entry-Level Public Service Attorney Salaries Soar In Four Years By 20% (Civil Legal Services) And 25% (Public Interest Organizations), But Stagnate For Public Defenders (2.4%)

A 4th Of July Reminder: 'This Land Was Made For You And Me'

This land is your land, this land is my land
From California to the New York island,
From the redwood forest to the Gulf Stream waters;
This land was made for you and me.

As I was walking that ribbon of highway
I saw above me that endless skyway;
I saw below me that golden valley;
This land was made for you and me.

I've roamed and rambled and I followed my footsteps
To the sparkling sands of her diamond deserts;
And all around me a voice was sounding;
This land was made for you and me.

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Horwitz: Should Undergraduate Degrees In Law Lead To Shortening Law School To Two Years By Separating Academic Study Of Law From Practical Training To Be Lawyers?

Paul Horwitz (Alabama), An Important Step ... Sideways ... in Legal Education:

Again via Paul Caron, I note this post about USC becoming the sixth law school to offer an undergraduate degree in law. The Reuters story that Caron links to asserts that this is a trend that is "catching on" in American universities, which are "seek[ing] new ways to give students a head start on legal careers and help them better understand the role of law in society." (The Reuters story identifies three law schools doing so, but Caron points to other sources that add another three to the list.) The story offers the expected quotes about the general value of learning the law. One passage notes the value of such degrees in allowing graduates to pursue "law-adjacent careers in compliance and human resources." This is of some interest, since it connects the undergraduate degree "trend," if trend it is, to the unquestionable American law-school trend of offering one- or two-year degrees or certificates in "compliance."

Without questioning the value of such programs or the sincerity of those advocating them, one is of course entitled to ask the standard "cui bono" question. ...

But it seems to me that the rise—if six schools can be considered a rise, and if more schools take this step—in undergraduate law school programs raises the obvious next question, one that was asked occasionally during the initial period of writing about the state of law schools: Why not go whole hog? Offering undergraduate programs in law, while maintaining the general structure of American legal education, strikes me as a step sideways.

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NY Times: The IRS Is The Gatekeeper For Charities, But Approves 99.96% Of All Applications; Form 1023EZ = EZ Fraud

New York Times, 76 Fake Charities Shared a Mailbox. The I.R.S. Kept Approving More.:

The tax agency is the gatekeeper for America’s charity system, but reduced vetting has opened the door to scams.

The “American Cancer Society of Michigan,” state authorities say, was a fake charity. And not even a good fake.

It was not in Michigan, for one thing. When the group applied to the Internal Revenue Service to become a tax-exempt nonprofit in 2020, it listed its address as a rented mailbox on Staten Island. It was not the American Cancer Society, either: In fact, the real American Cancer Society had already warned the I.R.S. that the leader of the sound-alike group, Ian Hosang, was running a fraud.

The I.R.S. approved the group anyway. Soon after, it also approved another operation run by Mr. Hosang: “the United Way of Ohio,” which was also registered to the Staten Island address.

Mr. Hosang, 63, is now accused by prosecutors in New York of operating a long-running charity fraud that has astounded nonprofit regulators and watchdogs — and raised concerns about the I.R.S.’s ability to serve as gatekeeper for the American charity system.

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NALP: Entry-Level Public Service Attorney Salaries Soar In Four Years By 20% (Civil Legal Services) And 25% (Public Interest Organizations), But Stagnate For Public Defenders (2.4%)

NALP, New Public Service Attorney Salary Figures Show Growth Since 2018, But Remain Considerably Below Private Sector Salaries:

According to new research from NALP, salaries for public service attorneys have risen since 2018, particularly for attorneys working in civil legal services and public interest organizations. The results from the NALP/PSJD 2022 Public Service Attorney Salary Survey show that the median entry-level salaries for civil legal services and public interest organizations increased by $9,500 and $12,700, respectively, since the last survey was conducted in 2018. As shown in Table 1 below, that compares to increases of about $1,000 per year over the 2004-2018 period, although that growth was sometimes stagnant in the period from 2008-2014, depending on the kind of organization. Increases in median public defender salaries were more modest, with entry-level salaries only growing by $1,400 since 2018. However, the most experienced public defenders with 11 or more years of experience still earn the highest salaries across the 3 organization types.  ...

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How Religious Colleges View The Dobbs Abortion Decision: Celebration (Liberty), Neutrality (Notre Dame), Condemnation (Emory)

Inside Higher Ed, How Religious Colleges View the Dobbs Decision:

The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday issued a 6-to-3 ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization to reverse the long-standing federally protected right to obtain an abortion. ... [A]mong religious colleges, the response has not been uniform. While conservative institutions are celebrating, more moderate or liberal religious colleges have issued neutral statements, and some have even condemned the ruling.

The Victory Lap
Liberty University, the evangelical university in Virginia founded by televangelist Jerry Falwell in 1971—shortly before Roe v. Wade was decided in 1973—is among the religious universities noting their long-standing opposition to abortion.

“Today, on behalf of Liberty University, I want to express our gratitude to Almighty God for the landmark decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization handed down by the Supreme Court of the United States. While this does not effectively end abortion in America, it is a monumental step in the direction of protecting life and placing that decision squarely in the hands of the American people,” Liberty University president Jerry Prevo said in a statement released Friday. “For nearly 50 years, Liberty University students, faculty, and staff have prayed, volunteered, and advocated for the life of mothers and their unborn babies. The Liberty student body has led the way and marched year after year, prayed on the steps of the Supreme Court, and committed their lives to pro-life causes. As Liberty University president, I am proud that we are now officially training the first Post Roe-v-Wade generation of leaders who will be Champions for Christ to continue to advocate for the life of mothers and their unborn babies.” ...

The Catholic University of America likewise celebrated the ruling [President John Garvey, On Dobbs: Let's Build a Civilization of Love]. ...

Treading Lightly
Other religious institutions were less direct. The Reverend John Jenkins, president of the University of Notre Dame, offered a seemingly neutral statement.

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NY Times Op-Ed: How Churches Can Do Better At Responding To Sexual Abuse

New York Times Op-Ed:  How Churches Can Do Better at Responding to Sexual Abuse, 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)):

HIn May, a third-party investigation into the Southern Baptist Convention, the largest Protestant denomination in the United States, concluded that some former members of its top leadership committee, along with outside counsel, “closely guarded information about abuse allegations and lawsuits” and “were singularly focused on avoiding liability.”

As a result, the report said, “survivors and others who reported abuse were ignored, disbelieved, or met with the constant refrain that the SBC could take no action” because of its organizational structure “even if it meant that convicted molesters continued in ministry.” The report also showed that hundreds of people associated with the denomination had been accused of abuse, and that a list containing their names had long been kept secret.

Rachael Denhollander is a lawyer and a former gymnast who was the first woman to publicly accuse Larry Nassar, the former doctor for U.S.A. Gymnastics, of sexual abuse. In addition, she has worked with survivors and Southern Baptist leaders over the past several years to urge action and accountability, to call for a third-party investigation and to demand that the denomination surrender confidential documents to investigators. She also served as an adviser for the Southern Baptist Convention’s Sexual Abuse Task Force, which was formed last year to respond to widespread allegations of abuse.

August Boto, the former general counsel for the Southern Baptist leadership branch that was investigated, called the work of advocates and survivors “a satanic scheme to completely distract us from evangelism.” He criticized Denhollander and another abuse survivor, saying that their “outcries” were evidence of the devil’s success.

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After The SCOTUS School Prayer Decision, What Comes Next For American Jews?

Following up on my previous post, New Pepperdine Religious Liberty Clinic Asks Supreme Court To Rule For High School Coach Fired For Praying On Football Field After Games:

Forward Op-Ed:  After the SCOTUS School Prayer Decision, What Comes Next For American Jews?, by Michael Helfand (Pepperdine):

The Supreme Court issued yet another landmark church-state decision on Monday, finding in favor of Coach Joseph Kennedy — a public high school football coach — who had been terminated for praying at the 50-yard line after games.

The case presented not only a convoluted record of when and with whom these prayers took place, but also hinged upon issues of religious liberty, church-state separation and free speech—and has therefore become somewhat of a Rorschach test. To some, the case was all about a coach losing his job for a personal prayer; to others, the case was all about a school district preventing a school employee from indoctrinating students.

Many in the American Jewish community had expressed concern that the decision in favor of the coach might allow public school employees to foist prayers on their students, while others had worried that a decision in favor of the district might prohibit school employees from engaging in religious practices.

Ultimately, the Court’s decision has the potential to protect individual religious liberty while still protecting public school students from religious coercion. Only time will tell whether lower courts will successfully walk that line.

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The Top Five New Tax Papers

There is quite a bit of movement in this week's list of the Top 5 Recent Tax Paper Downloads, with a new #1 paper and new papers joining the list at #4 and #5:

1. [535 Downloads]  Tax Administration and Technology: From Enhanced to No-Cooperation?, by João Félix Pinto Nogueira (Catholic University Portugal & IBFD; Google Scholar)
2. [452 Downloads]  Tax Neutrality Regimes and GloBE, by Leopoldo Parada (Leeds; Google Scholar)
3. [311 Downloads]  Tax Harmony: The Promise and Pitfalls of the Global Minimum Tax, by Reuven Avi-Yonah (Michigan; Google Scholar) & Young Ran (Christine) Kim (Utah; Google Scholar; moving to Cardozo)
4. [255 Downloads]  Congress Takes Its War On Cash To Digital Assets: Understanding Tax Code Section 6050I, by Abraham Sutherland (Virginia; Google Scholar)
5. [251 Downloads]  The Treatment of Tax Incentives under Pillar Two, by Belisa Ferreira Liotti (Google Scholar), Joy Waruguru Ndubai, Ruth Wamuyu, Ivan Lazarov (Google Scholar) & Jeffrey Owens (all of Vienna University of Economics and Business)

This Week's Ten Most Popular TaxProf Blog Posts

1. Tish Harrison Warren (New York Times Op-Ed), I Married The Wrong Person, And I’m So Glad I Did
2. Chronicle of Higher Education, American Launches Title IX Investigation Of 8 Law Students Who Criticized A Student's Pro-Dobbs Views In Group Chat
3. Abraham Sutherland (Virginia), Congress Takes Its War On Cash To Digital Assets: Understanding Tax Code Section 6050I
4. David Lat (Original Jurisdiction), Free Speech And Cancel Culture: A Tale Of Two Law Schools
5. Renee Nicole Allen (St. John's), Get Out: Structural Racism In The Legal Academy And Academic Terror
6. Law.com, Supreme Court Refuses To Consider Race, Sex Bias Claims Against NYU Law Review
7. Wall Street Journal, Columbia Will Not Submit Data To U.S. News This Year After Math Professor Questioned Its #2 Ranking
8. Bryan Camp (Texas Tech), Lesson From The Tax Court: A Reasonable Basis For Deducting Scrubs?
9. Law.com, Seventeen New Law School Deans Begin Their Terms Today
10. ProPublica, Ten Ways Billionaires Avoid Taxes On An Epic Scale

More On The Impact Of Dobbs On Law Schools

Following up on my previous posts (links below):

Law.com, 'This Is a Life Decision': Will Abortion Bans Affect Law School Applications?:

The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade has prospective law school students questioning whether applications might decrease at schools located in states with abortion bans.

Over the weekend, Reddit user Successful_End7981 posed the question: “Do you think law schools applications to southern law schools will drop due to the recent decision regarding Roe v. Wade?”

Many who replied said they now plan to avoid law schools in states where abortion is illegal or soon to be banned.

Law.com, Reflections on the US Supreme Court's Ruling Overturning 'Roe v. Wade':

This week, we’re exploring legal academia’s reaction to Friday’s U.S. Supreme Court opinion overturning two landmark precedents protecting abortion as a constitutional right. ...

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Avi-Yonah Posts International Tax Papers On SSRN

Reuven S. Avi-Yonah (Michigan; Google Scholar) has posted these international tax papers on SSRN:

• Why the United States Needs the Global Minimum Tax (June 21, 2022)
• The Benefits Principle (June 2, 2022)
• Preface to Andrea Musselli, Tax Transfer Pricing under the Arm’s Length and the Sale Country Principles (June 2, 2022)
• The Single Tax Principle (June 1, 2022)

Students, Alumni Push Back Against George Washington's Refusal To Cancel Justice Thomas's Con Law Seminar

Following up on my previous posts:

• George Washington Refuses To Fire Justice Thomas, Who Has Co-Taught A Course For A Decade; His Views 'Do Not Represent Those Of The University Or Its Law School' (June 29, 2022)
• Free Speech And Cancel Culture: A Tale Of Two Law Schools (June 30, 2022)

Washington Post, GW Defends Thomas Appointment Amid Calls For Removal From Law School:

George Washington University rejected calls to remove Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas from its law school faculty by students and others frustrated over the judge’s vote to overturn Roe v. Wade and his urging to reconsider other landmark civil rights cases. ...

The school’s stance, however, has left many students unsatisfied, said Jon Kay, a rising junior who started a petition demanding Thomas’s termination. The petition amassed nearly 9,000 signatures, including from people not from GW, in less than a week, and organizers are considering other ways to pressure administrators into changing course. ...

Jordan Michel, a recent law school graduate and former president of the GW Law Student Bar Association, said he took Thomas’s constitutional law seminar last fall. ... Now he backs calls to remove Thomas from the faculty.

“There’s agreement among law students that having diverse perspectives is important,” said Michel, 36. “But when somebody who’s supposed to be educating us fails to subscribe to or uphold the ethical, legal, moral obligations that we are here trying to abide by, it becomes problematic for us.”

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Weekly SSRN Tax Article Review And Roundup: Elkins Reviews Hemel's The Passthrough Entity Tax Scandal

This week, David Elkins (Netanya, visiting NYU 2021-2023; Google Scholar) reviews a new paper by Daniel J. Hemel (NYU; Google Scholar), The Passthrough Entity Tax Scandal (2022).

One of the more fascinating aspects of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act concerns the limitation on deducting state and local income taxes. Prior to the enactment of the TCJA, state and local income taxes were fully deductible when computing federal tax liability. The TCJA capped that deduction for individuals at $10,000. In itself the cap was not particularly remarkable. There are innumerable sections in the Code that cap deductions at some arbitrary amount. What was fascinating about the SALT cap was the politics involved. The TCJA cap primarily strikes at the wealthiest taxpayers: the vast majority of individuals pay much less than $10,000 in state and local income taxes. One might therefore expect that, were there to be any political bickering on the issue, it would be the Democrats who would fully support the cap and the Republicans who would resist. It did not play out that way. The highly contentious measure was proposed by the Republicans and fiercely denounced by the Democrats. The reason for this seeming reversal of the usual political positions was pure partisan politics: blue states tend to have higher income taxes than red states (the only states with top marginal rates higher than 10% are California, New York, and New Jersey).

In this week’s feature article, Professor Daniel Hemel describes how states have attempted to bypass the SALT cap by enacting pass-through entity taxes (PETs).

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Weekly Legal Education Roundup

• Renee Nicole Allen (St. John's), Get Out: Structural Racism and Academic Terror
• Students and Faculty for Equality at CUNY, Group Files ABA Complaint Over Law School Faculty's Unanimous Adoption Of BDS Resolution Against Israel
• Chronicle of Higher Education, A University Is Investigating 8 Law-School Students Who Criticized a Peer After ‘Roe’ Leak
• Alyson Drake (Fordham) & Christine Park (NYU),  Hard-Wired for Distractions: Increasing Attention in Legal Research Classrooms
• GW Hatchet, Supreme Court Justice to Remain at GW Law After Thousands Call For His Removal
• Paul Horwitz (Alabama),  An Important Step...Sideways...in Legal Education
• David Lat, Free Speech And Cancel Culture: A Tale Of Two Law Schools

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Tax Policy In The Biden Administration

• Bloomberg, Billionaire Robert Brockman Faces February 2023 Trial in Record Tax-Evasion Case
• Bloomberg, Crypto Tax Cheats Likely to Get Relief as US Crackdown Hits Snag
• Bloomberg, Democrats Weigh Paring Biden Tax Hike to Win Over Manchin
• Bloomberg, Microsoft Investors File Resolution Targeting Tax Practices
• Bloomberg, Tax Liens Cost Generations of Black Americans Their Land

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Seventeen New Law School Deans Begin Their Terms Today

Law.com, Next Week Will See Influx of New Law Deans Across the Country:

• John Anderson — Interim Dean, Mississippi College
  From Faculty, Mississippi College
  Succeeds Patricia Bennett, Dean since December 1, 2016
• Lonnie Brown, Jr. — Dean, Tennessee
  From Associate Dean and Faculty, Georgia
  Succeeds Douglas Blaze, Interim Dean since July 1, 2020
• Camille Carey — Dean, New Mexico
  From Vice Dean and Faculty, New Mexico
  Succeeds Sergio Pareja, Dean since August 1, 2015
• Robert Chesney — Dean, Texas
  From Associate Dean and Faculty, Texas
  Succeeds Ward Farnsworth, Dean since June 1, 2012
• Beth Cohen — Interim Dean, Western New England
  From Faculty and Director, LRW Program
  Succeeds Sudha Setty, Dean since July 1, 2018
• Leah Chan Grinvald — Dean, UNLV
  From Associate Dean and Faculty, Suffolk
  Succeeds Sara Gordon, Interim Dean since July 1, 2021
• Blake Hudson — Dean, Cumberland
  From Faculty, Florida
  Succeeds Henry Strickland, Dean since July 1, 2014
• Melanie Jacobs — Dean, Louisville
  From Interim Dean and Faculty, Michigan State
  Succeeds Lars Smith, Interim Dean since April 30, 2021
• Thoma Mayo — Interim Dean, SMU
  From Senior Associate Dean and Faculty, SMU
  Succeeds Jennifer Collins, Dean since July 1, 2014
• Christiana Ochoa — Interim Dean, Indiana-Bloomington
  From Associate Dean and Faculty, Indiana-Bloomington
  Succeeds Austen Parrish, Dean since January 1, 2014
• Cynthia Nance — Dean, Arkansas-Fayetteville
  From Faculty (and Former Dean), Arkansas-Fayetteville
  Succeeds Alena Allen, Interim Dean since January 1, 2012
• Brian Pappas — Dean, North Dakota
  From Associate Provost, Eastern Michigan
  Succeeds Michael McGinniss, Dean since July 1, 2019
• Sudha Setty — Dean, CUNY
  From Dean, Western New England
  Succeeds Eduardo Capulong, Interim Dean since April 1, 2021
• Rodney Smolla — Dean, Vermont
  From Dean, Widener-Delaware
  Succeeds Beth McCormack, Interim Dean since January 23, 2021
• Anthony Varona — Dean, Seattle
  From Dean and Faculty, Miami
  Succeeds Annette Clark, Dean since July 1, 2013

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The International Law Association's Project On International Tax Law—Phase 1

Juliane Kokott (Court of Justice, European Union), Pasquale Pistone (Vienna) & Robin Miller (Court of Justice, European Union), Public International Law and Tax Law: Taxpayers' Rights: The International Law Association's Project on International Tax Law—Phase 1, 52 Geo. J. Int'l L. 381 (2021): 

Public international law recognizes rights to non-state actors. In tax matters, these include taxpayers and other private persons involved in the levying of tax. Their fundamental rights are human rights, which must be effectively protected even when there is a general interest of the community to the collection of tax. This Article contains a comprehensive worldwide analysis of such rights and addresses the different issues that arise—in national and cross-border situations—in connection with tax procedures and sanctions. 

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Columbia Will Not Submit Data To U.S. News This Year After Math Professor Questioned Its #2 Ranking

Following up on my previous posts:

• Michael Thaddeus (Professor of Mathematics, Columbia), An Investigation of the Facts Behind Columbia’s U.S. News Ranking (Mar. 8, 2022)
• New York Times, U.S. News Ranked Columbia No. 2, But A Math Professor Has His Doubts (Mar. 21, 2022)

Columbia University Provost Mary Boyce, Statement Regarding U.S. News and World Report’s Undergraduate Survey:

A few months ago, a member of our faculty, Professor Michael Thaddeus, raised questions regarding the accuracy of some of the data the University submitted to U.S. News and World Report for its annual ranking of undergraduate universities. Columbia leaders take these questions seriously, and we immediately embarked on a review of our data collection and submissions process.

In light of the work underway, we will refrain from submitting to U.S. News and World Report this year. The deadline for that submission is July 1. Given the extensive analysis required to review the data and ensure it complies with U.S. News methodologies, we cannot complete our work with the appropriate care within that timeframe.

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Insider Giving

Sureyya Burcu Avci (Sabanci University; Google Scholar), Cindy A. Schipani (Michigan; Google Scholar), H. Nejat Seyhun (Michigan; Google Scholar) & Andrew Verstein (UCLA; Google Scholar), Insider Giving, 71 Duke L.J. 619 (2021):

Corporate insiders can avoid losses if they dispose of their stock while in possession of material nonpublic information. One means of disposal, selling the stock, is illegal and subject to prompt mandatory reporting. A second strategy is almost as effective, yet it faces lax reporting requirements and enforcement. That second method is to donate the stock to a charity and take a charitable tax deduction at the inflated stock price. This “insider giving” is a potent substitute for insider trading. We show that insider giving is far more widespread than previously believed. In particular, we show that insider giving is not limited to officers and directors. Large investors appear to regularly receive material nonpublic information and use it to avoid losses.

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Get Out: Structural Racism In The Legal Academy And Academic Terror

Renee Nicole Allen (St. John's; Google Scholar), Get Out: Structural Racism and Academic Terror, 29 Wm. & Mary J. Women & L. __ (2023):

Released in 2017, Jordan Peele’s critically acclaimed film Get Out explores the horrors of racism. The film’s plot involves the murder and appropriation of Black bodies for the benefit of wealthy, white people. After luring Black people to their country home, a white family uses hypnosis to paralyze victims and send them to the Sunken Place where screams go unheard. Black bodies are auctioned off to the highest bidder; the winner’s brain is transplanted into the prized Black body. Black victims are rendered passengers in their own bodies so that white inhabitants can obtain physical advantages and immortality.

Like Get Out, this article reveals academic horrors that are far too familiar to people of color. In the legal academy, structural racism is the monster, and under the guise of academic freedom, faculty members inflict terror on marginalized people. Black bodies are objectified and colonized in the name of diversity and antiracism. No matter how loud we scream, it remains a Sunken Place. Only time will tell if the antiracism proclamations of 2020 are a beginning or a killer ending.

This article explores the relationship between structural racism and academic terror in the legal academy and articulates an effective framework for analyzing academic terrorism.

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Haneman: Tax Incentives For Green Burial

Victoria J. Haneman (Creighton; Google Scholar), Tax Incentives for Green Burial, 21 Nev. L.J. 491 (2021):

Every living being is doomed to decay and die and decay some more. Death is inevitable, and the disposal of our dead is a fundamental global activity with the potential to have significant environmental impact. In the United States, the environmental toxicity of “traditional” modern burial is stark. A cosmeticized body is pumped with three gallons of embalming fluid (containing chemicals such as formaldehyde) that eventually leaches through metal and wood and into the ground. An estimated 5.3 million gallons of embalming chemicals are buried annually in what are essentially luxury landfill-slash-golf-courses, with landscaping and grass to maintain and mow, in coffins that are typically constructed of nonbiodegradable chipboard. And while cremation is a more environmentally friendly alternative, incineration cremation falls short of being labeled “green.” Fire-based cremation utilizes significant resources and energy, attributable to the substantial quantity of fossil fuel required to burn human remains at 1,562° F (850° C) to reduce a corpse to ash. Pollutants are generated in doing so, including an average of 250,000 tons per year of carbon emissions and an estimated 320 to 6,000 pounds of mercury (from incineration of dental fillings) per year.

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Free Speech And Cancel Culture: A Tale Of Two Law Schools

Following up on my previous posts:

• American Launches Title IX Investigation Of 8 Law Students Who Criticized A Student's Pro-Dobbs Views In Group Chat (June 27, 2022)
• George Washington Refuses To Fire Justice Thomas, Who Has Co-Taught A Course For A Decade; His Views 'Do Not Represent Those Of The University Or Its Law School' (June 29, 2022)

David Lat, Free Speech And Cancel Culture: A Tale Of Two Law Schools:

In the wake of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, last Friday’s big abortion ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court, Washington has become a leading battlefield in the culture wars. ... The nation’s capital is also the latest front in the law-school culture wars. Two law schools in D.C., American University Washington College of Law and the George Washington University Law School, have experienced free speech and cancel culture controversies in the past week. ...

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Blockchain And Tax Administration: A Critical Assessment

Eliza Mik (Chinese University of Hong Kong; Google Scholar) & Noam Noked (Chinese University of Hong Kong; Google Scholar), Blockchain and Tax Administration: A Critical Assessment, 50 Australian L. Rev. 180 (2021):

Recent publications argue that blockchains could substantially improve tax administration. This article critically evaluates these claims and examines several proposed use cases. It argues that many of the problems that blockchains purportedly solve exist off-chain, in the real world, and cannot be addressed by a blockchain. Blockchains can facilitate the storage and sharing of tax information. They cannot, however, streamline reporting requirements or enhance cooperation between tax authorities. This article also claims that the main benefit from several use cases derives from digitalization in general, not from the deployment of any specific type of database. It remains to be determined whether blockchains are in fact superior to other digitalized systems that perform comparable functions in tax administration.

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Gender Pay Disparities In The Legal Academy

Christopher J. Ryan (Louisville; Google Scholar) & Meghan Dawe (American Bar Foundation; Google Scholar), Mind the Gap: Gender Pay Disparities in the Legal Academy, 34 Geo. J. Legal Ethics 567 (2021):

Differences in pay between women and men in the same jobs have captured the public's attention in recent years. However, public interest in and press coverage of salary differences on the basis of gender—or any other ascriptive class—in the learned professions are wanting. Moreover, few studies have spoken directly on the gender pay disparities in the legal academy, despite emerging evidence of its existence at multiple law schools. In this Article, we use a unique dataset, drawn from the only nationally representative survey to date of tenured law professors in the United States, to track how gender and race are tied to salary outcomes. But we look beyond the raw differences in salary, probing the mechanisms that undergird gendered pay inequities.

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A Fresh Perspective On The Valuation Of Conservation Easements

Alan Feld (Boston University), Jacob Nielsen (J.D. 2021, Boston University) & Theodore S. Sims (Boston University), Green, or Greed? A Fresh Perspective on the Valuation of Conservation Easements, 76 Tax L. Rev. __ (2022):

Charitable contributions of "conservation easements" have since 1980 allowed high-income taxpayers to shelter income from taxation through overvalued deductions. Overvaluation has increased dramatically in the past 20 years: a 2016 study of all easement decisions since 1980 reported that while overvaluation had averaged by a factor of two before 1994, it averaged by a factor of ten for decisions between 1994 and 2016. SOI data disclose that aggregate easement contributions deducted on Schedule A grew from $2.26 billion in 2015 to $6.5 billion in 2018 (the most recent year available). A recent report by supporters of conservation easements acknowledges that "neither the [IRS] nor the courts have sufficient resources to effectively police valuation abuse."

Most of the concern has been with "syndicated conservation easements" ("SCEs"), and most proposed remedies to easement overvaluation focus on SCEs. We show, however, that exactly the same traits that produce overvalued SCEs — allowing charitable deductions based on "fair market" value, which sanctions deducting unrealized appreciation without taxing the corresponding gain, combined with the unavoidable need to value contributed easements through as manipulable a process as appraisal -— have facilitated abusive overvaluation of non-syndicated easements too.

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Ohio State Festschrift In Honor Of Deborah Jones Merritt

Festschrift in Honor of Deborah Jones Merritt, 82 Ohio St. L.J. 879-951 (2021):

• Gregory M. Travalio (Isaac Wiles, Columbus; former Associate Dean & Director of Clinical Programs, Ohio State), Festschrift in Honor of Deborah Jones Merritt: An Introduction, 82 Ohio St. L.J. 879 (2021)
• Jessica Kim (DOJ), Dave Twombly (USAO), Christopher Gawronski (Ohio Attorney General's Office), David Roper (Taft, Stettinius & Hollister, Kaela King (Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit), Praise from Past Editors in Chief, 82 Ohio St. L.J. 881 (2021)
• Carol L. Chomsky (Minnesota), Andrea A. Curcio (Georgia State) & Eileen Kaufman (Touro), A Merritt-orious Path for Lawyer Licensing, 82 Ohio St. L.J. 883 (2021)
• Claudia Angelos (NYU), Mary Lu Bilek (Former Dean, CUNY, Massachusetts) & Joan W. Howarth (UNLV; Dean Emerita, Michigan State; Google Scholar), The Deborah Jones Merritt Center for the Advancement of Justice, 82 Ohio St. L.J. 911 (2021)

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Congress Takes Its War On Cash To Digital Assets: Understanding Tax Code Section 6050I

Abraham Sutherland (Virginia; Google Scholar), Congress Takes Its War on Cash to Digital Assets: Understanding Tax Code Section 6050I:

The United States government really does not like Americans to make large cash transactions. Now, due to a new law, it really, really does not want Americans to use “digital assets,” either. My goal is to convince you that the first claim is true. The second claim will then be self-evident.

Of course, no one cares about cash anymore, except criminals. We’ve always known something better: bank accounts, paper checks, and wire transfers. Cash has been obsolete for meaningful commerce for a long time, and since 1984 we’ve had a law in place to make sure it stays that way. Cash, as a tool for large, non-criminal transactions in the modern economy, is dead. Cash is a relic.

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George Washington Refuses To Fire Justice Thomas, Who Has Co-Taught A Course For A Decade; His Views 'Do Not Represent Those Of The University Or Its Law School'

George Washington Hatchet, Supreme Court Justice to Remain at GW Law After Thousands Call For His Removal:

Officials announced GW Law will not fire Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas after more than 6,000 people signed a petition calling for his termination after he voted to overturn Roe v. Wade and end federal abortion protections.

Provost Christopher Bracey and GW Law Dean Dayna Bowen Matthew said in an email Tuesday that employing Thomas will allow students to exchange ideas and that debate is essential to the University’s educational mission to train students to address the world’s problems. Rising junior Jon Kay started a petition calling on officials to remove Thomas from his teaching role at GW on Sunday, and it has since amassed more than 6,000 signatures.

“Because debate is an essential part of our University’s academic and educational mission to train future leaders who are prepared to address the world’s most urgent problems, the University will neither terminate Justice Thomas’ employment nor cancel his class,” Bracey and Matthew said in the email.

Thomas has lectured at GW Law since 2011, co-teaching a constitutional law seminar with his former clerk Gregory Maggs, and is set to teach that course again in the Fall 2022 semester, according to GW Law’s course catalog. ...

The email states while Thomas’ views “do not represent” the views of GW Law or the University as a whole, Thomas has “academic freedom and freedom of expression and inquiry” like all other faculty members. GW’s academic freedom guidelines, which officials quoted in the email, state it is not the University’s responsibility to “shield” individuals from opinions they may find offensive.

Christopher Alan Bracey (Provost) & Dayna Bowen Matthew (Dean), Email:

Dear Members of the George Washington University Community,

Since the recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling to overturn Roe v. Wade, we have heard from members of our community who have expressed feelings of deep disagreement with this decision.

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NY Times: 300,000 High Income Residents Fled New York City During The Pandemic

New York Times, The Flight of New York City’s Wealthy Was a Once-in-a-Century Shock:

When roughly 300,000 New York City residents left during the early part of the pandemic, officials described the exodus as a once-in-a-century shock to the city’s population.

Now, new data from the Internal Revenue Service shows that the residents who moved to other states by the time they filed their 2019 taxes collectively reported $21 billion in total income, substantially more than those who departed in any prior year on record. The IRS said the data captured filings received in 2020 and as late as July 2021.

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Supreme Court Refuses To Consider Race, Sex Bias Claims Against NYU Law Review

Following up on my previous post, Lawsuits Against Harvard, NYU Law Reviews Claim Racial, Gender Preferences:  Law.com, Justices Won't Consider Race, Sex Bias Claims Against NYU Law Review:

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday turned away a sex and race discrimination challenge to the way in which New York University’s law review selects articles.

The justices denied review without comment in the petition, Faculty, Alumni and Students Opposed to Racial Preferences v. New York University.

The petition was filed by conservative litigator Jonathan Mitchell of Austin, Texas, known as the author of the Texas law banning abortion after six weeks of pregnancy and requiring enforcement of the law by private citizens.

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QOZs Illustrate How Critical Tax Theory May Bolster Tax Policy Analysis

Islame Hosny (Pryor Cashman, New York), QOZs Illustrate How Critical Tax Theory May Bolster Tax Policy Analysis, Yale J. on Reg.: Notice & Comment (June 25, 2022):

June 30, 2022, is the last day on which certain taxpayers who had capital gains in 2021 can defer paying tax on those gains until 2026 by investing them in Qualified Opportunity Funds (QOFs)—investment vehicles used to invest in Qualified Opportunity Zones (QOZs). According to the IRS, the purpose of the QOZ program is to “spur economic development and job creation in distressed communities by providing tax benefits to investors.”

One such tax benefit is that an investor who holds a QOF investment for 10 years receives a 100% exclusion from federal tax on appreciation on the investment. That is a 0% effective tax rate on a potentially unlimited amount of gain. But how does the 0% tax rate compare to that of a QOZ resident?

Today, there are 8,764 QOZs in the United States. One of those QOZs is Central Harlem, where 29% of residents are below the federal poverty level, 77.2% of households do not include children, and the median household income is $57,720. The federal income tax liability for a single filer with no children, with income of $57,720, and who takes the standard deduction ($12,550) and, thus, has taxable income of $45,170, is $5,687. This results in an effective federal tax rate of 12.59% for a typical resident in Central Harlem. ...

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2021-22 LSAT Registrants Down 21%; 33% Drop In June 2022 LSAT-Takers

Law.com, LSAT Test Takers Down Approximately 21% for 2021-22 Cycle:

The 2021-22 cycle of Law School Admission Test administrations concluded with the June test, and shows that the number of people who registered to take the LSAT is down more than 21% compared with the previous cycle. ... [LSAC's] most recent figures show an 11.2% year-over-year decline in applicants and a 10.3% decline in applications.

Dave Killoran, CEO of PowerScore, and Spivey Consulting both tweeted last week that 15,500 took the June LSAT.

Spivey Consulting posted on Twitter that June 2022 registrants were down 23% as compared with June 2021, “but final test-takers ended up being down 33% (lots of no-shows).”

Killoran posted that “[l]ast June there were 23,085 LSAT takers. This June there were about 15,500. That’s a drop of about 1/3 from test to test. Great news if you are applying to law school this coming Fall!” ...

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Job Opportunities In The U.S. Treasury Department's Office Of Tax Policy ($126,233 - $176,300)

Following up on last week's post: Job Opportunities in the Office of Tax Policy:

The Office of Tax Policy is looking to hire attorney-advisors in the Office of Tax Legislative Counsel (TLC), the Office of International Tax Counsel (ITC), and the Office of Benefits Tax Counsel (BTC), as well as a Deputy International Tax Counsel for Treaty Affairs.  Our offices place a high value on diversity of experiences and perspectives and encourages applications from individuals from all ethnic and racial backgrounds, veterans, LGBTQ+ individuals, and persons with disabilities.

TLC is staffed by fewer than 20 lawyers and other advisors with specific subject matter expertise covering the spectrum of the U.S. domestic tax system, other than employee benefits and employment tax related tax matters.  Attorney-advisors in the office shape policy and legal interpretations of the tax law through their work on regulatory and other administrative guidance projects and by providing technical assistance to congressional staff in drafting tax legislation.  TLC is seeking attorneys with at least seven years of legal experience and significant experience in one of the following subject matter areas: taxation of individuals, estates, and trusts under federal income and transfer tax rules; rules related to charities and other exempt organizations, as well as state, local, or Indian tribal governments; taxation of partnerships, S corporations, or other pass-through business entities and their owners; and/or energy tax rules, especially with respect to renewable energy incentives.

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USC Is Sixth School To Offer Undergraduate Degree In Law

Reuters, Law Schools Are Offering Undergrad Degrees in Emerging Legal Education Trend:

Undergraduate degrees are catching on at U.S. law schools as universities seek new ways to give students a head start on legal careers and help them better understand the role of law in society.

The University of Southern California Gould School of Law said Tuesday that it will offer a Bachelor of Science in legal studies — making it at least the third law school in the country to grant degrees to undergraduate students and the first to do so among U.S. News & World Report’s top 20 highest rated schools.

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SSRN Tax Professor Rankings

SSRN has updated its monthly ranking of 750 American and international law school faculties and 3,000 law professors by (among other things) the number of paper downloads from the SSRN database.  Here is the new list (through June 1, 2022) of the Top 25 U.S. Tax Professors in two of the SSRN categories: all-time downloads and recent downloads (within the past 12 months):

		All-Time			Recent
1	Reuven Avi-Yonah (Michigan)	209,682	1	Reuven Avi-Yonah (Michigan)	9,738
2	Daniel Hemel (NYU)	125,718	2	Daniel Hemel (NYU)	5,526
3	Dan Shaviro (NYU)	124,944	3	Bridget Crawford (Pace)	4,157
4	Lily Batchelder (NYU)	124,498	4	Edward McCaffery (USC)	3,462
5	David Gamage (Indiana-Bloom.)	121,781	5	D. Dharmapala (Chicago)	2,931
6	Darien Shanske (UC-Davis)	114,774	6	Zachary Liscow (Yale)	2,898
7	David Kamin (NYU)	112,036	7	Lily Batchelder (NYU)	2,869
8	Cliff Fleming (BYU)	107,028	8	Ruth Mason (Virginia)	2,804
9	Manoj Viswanathan (UC-Hastings)	103,776	9	David Gamage (Indiana-Bloom.)	2,754
10	Rebecca Kysar (Fordham)	102,888	10	Darien Shanske (UC-Davis)	2,639
11	Ari Glogower (Ohio State)	102,674	11	Robert Sitkoff (Harvard)	2,637
12	D. Dharmapala (Chicago)	47,503	12	Kim Clausing (UCLA)	2,599
13	Michael Simkovic (USC)	46,794	13	David Kamin (NYU)	2,571
14	Paul Caron (Pepperdine)	39,579	14	Richard Ainsworth (Boston Univ.)	2,524
15	Louis Kaplow (Harvard)	37,015	15	Kyle Rozema (Washington University)	2,193
16	Richard Ainsworth (Boston Univ.)	35,171	16	Dan Shaviro (NYU)	2,040
17	Bridget Crawford (Pace)	32,107	17	Margaret Ryznar (Indiana-Indy)	1,983
18	Robert Sitkoff (Harvard)	29,200	18	Ari Glogower (Ohio State)	1,828
19	Ed Kleinbard (USC)	28,593	19	Louis Kaplow (Harvard)	1,797
20	Vic Fleischer (UC-Irvine)	28,508	20	Brad Borden (Brooklyn)	1,718
21	Brad Borden (Brooklyn)	28,126	21	Francine Lipman (UNLV)	1,630
22	Jim Hines (Michigan)	26,637	22	Hugh Ault (Boston College)	1,579
23	Ruth Mason (Virginia)	26,433	22	Vic Fleischer (UC-Irvine)	1,536
24	Ted Seto (Loyola-L.A.)	25,596	24	Yariv Brauner (Florida)	1,521
25	Katie Pratt (Loyola-L.A.)	25,472	25	Gregg Polsky (Georgia)	1,466

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CUNY Group Files ABA Complaint Over Law School Faculty's Unanimous Adoption Of BDS Resolution Against Israel

Yesterday, Students and Faculty for Equality at CUNY (S.A.F.E. CUNY) filed a complaint with the ABA Council on Legal Education alleging that the CUNY Law School faculty's unanimous adoption of a Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions resolution against Israel is discriminatory, infringes upon academic freedom, and violates accreditation standards 105 (Acquiescence For Substantive Change in Program or Structure), 205 (Non-Discrimination and Equality of Opportunity), 206 (Diversity and Inclusion), and 405 (Professional Environment):

We write on behalf of Jewish Zionists, Israelis, and other students and faculty members across the City University of New York (CUNY), including at CUNY School of Law ("CUNY Law"), who are deeply concerned with the law school's recent unanimous faculty adoption of a formal BDS policy that vulgarly and blatantly discriminates against students, prospective students, faculty and employees, and prospective faculty and employees on the basis of ethnicity, religion, and nationality. We believe that the adopted BDS policy also violates well-established principles of academic freedom. As detailed below, we submit that CUNY School of Law's newly adopted BDS policy is discriminatory and blatantly flouts the accreditation requirements set forth in the ABA Standards for Approval of Law Schools. We urge the ABA Council on Legal Education (the "Council") to take immediate action to bring the law school into compliance or to revoke its accreditation. ...

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Shaviro: Stanley Surrey And The Public Intellectual Practice Of Tax Policy

Following up on my previous post, A Half-Century with the Internal Revenue Code: The Memoirs of Stanley S. Surrey (Lawrence Zelenak (Duke) & Ajay Mehrotra (Northwestern; Google Scholar) eds. Carolina Academic Press 2022) (reviewed by Tracey Roberts (Cumberland; Google Scholar) here): Daniel Shaviro (NYU), 'Moralist' Versus 'Scientist': Stanley Surrey and the Public Intellectual Practice of Tax Policy:

Nearly forty years after his untimely death, Stanley Surrey, the renowned Harvard law professor (and Treasury official), remains perhaps the most important and influential tax law scholar in American history. The recent publication of his highly illuminating memoirs offers a convenient occasion for reassessing his work.

In offering such a reassessment, this essay takes its title from William F. Buckley’s 1974 observation that, while Surrey claimed to analyze tax policy issues with “scientific detachment,” in fact he was a tax “moralist,” whose policy recommendations were “based on a highly articulated set of personal value principles.” Largely agreeing with Buckley as a descriptive matter, the essay considers what Surrey’s work both gained and lost intellectually by hewing so strongly to a set of career-long, deeply held beliefs. Along the way, the essay contrasts Surrey’s moral and intellectual certainty with the skepticism and resistance to grand system-building of Boris Bittker of Yale Law School, Surrey’s only mid-century rival for intellectual leadership of the tax legal academy. ...

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Legal Ed News Roundup

• ABA Journal Op-Ed (John Villasenor, (UCLA)), Why Law Professors Should Co-author Academic Articles With Law Students
• ABA Journal, Think You Won't Pass the July Bar Exam? So Did Many Others, But They Did, Say Lawyers
• Boston Globe, Black Women Law Deans and Professors Sound Off on What Overturning the Constitutionally Protected Right to Abortion Means
• CNBC, Rutgers Law School Co-Dean: Roe v. Wade Decision Appears As 'Disastrous' As We Expected
• David Faigman (Chancellor & Dean, UC-Hastings), Roe v. Wade
• The Hill Op-Ed (Helen Alvaré (Associate Dean, George Mason), Dobbs Decision Shows U.S. Can Be Both Powerful and Humane
• KTLA, Loyola Law School’s Jessica Levinson Explains Legal Impact of Roe v. Wade Reversal

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ProPublica: Ten Ways Billionaires Avoid Taxes On An Epic Scale

ProPublica, Ten Ways Billionaires Avoid Taxes on an Epic Scale:

Last June, drawing on the largest trove of confidential American tax data that’s ever been obtained, ProPublica launched a series of stories documenting the key ways the ultrawealthy avoid taxes, strategies that are largely unavailable to most taxpayers. To mark the first anniversary of the launch, we decided to assemble a quick summary of the techniques — all of which can generate tax savings on a massive scale — revealed in the series.

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