Preview Of The 2022 U.S. News Law School Rankings: UGPA

The 2022 U.S. News Law School Rankings (based in part on 2020 admissions data) will be released in March (the 2021 rankings are here). In the current methodology, a law school's median undergraduate GPA counts 10% in the overall ranking. Here are the rankings by acceptance rate from ABA data:

Rank	School	2020 UGPA	2019 UGPA
1	Alabama	3.94	3.91 (2)
1	Yale	3.94	3.93 (1)
3	Virginia	3.90	3.90 (4)
4	Chicago	3.89	3.90 (4)
4	Pennsylvania	3.89	3.89 (6)
4	Stanford	3.89	3.91 (2)
7	Harvard	3.88	3.89 (6)
7	Washington Univ.	3.88	3.83 (9)
9	Cornell	3.86	3.81 (11)
10	Northwestern	3.85	3.85 (8)
11	Florida	3.84	3.80 (15)
12	Arizona State	3.83	3.81 (11)
12	USC	3.83	3.80 (15)
14	BYU	3.82	3.82 (10)
14	Columbia	3.82	3.80 (15)
14	NYU	3.82	3.80 (15)
14	Vanderbilt	3.82	3.80 (15)
18	UC-Berkeley	3.81	3.81 (11)
19	Boston Univ.	3.80	3.78 (23)
19	Duke	3.80	3.78 (23)
19	Emory	3.80	3.80 (15)
22	Ohio State	3.79	3.76 (26)
22	UCLA	3.79	3.79 (21)
24	Georgetown	3.78	3.78 (23)
24	Georgia	3.78	3.73 (31)
24	Indiana-Bloom.	3.78	3.79 (22)
27	George Mason	3.77	3.75 (28)
27	Minnesota	3.77	3.75 (28)
27	Utah	3.77	3.60 (67)
30	George Washington	3.76	3.73 (31)
30	Michigan	3.76	3.81 (11)
30	Texas A&M	3.76	3.62 (60)
30	Texas	3.76	3.72 (35)
34	Notre Dame	3.75	3.74 (30)
34	SMU	3.73	3.70 (36)
34	Wake Forest	3.73	3.68 (39)
37	Florida State	3.72	3.73 (31)
37	Penn State-Univ. Park	3.72	3.65 (43)
37	UC-Davis	3.72	3.61 (63)
40	Boston College	3.69	3.64 (48)
41	North Carolina	3.68	3.63 (54)
41	Pepperdine	3.68	3.66 (41)
41	Washington	3.68	3.68 (39)
44	UNLV	3.67	3.69 (38)
45	Kansas	3.66	3.65 (43)
45	Maryland	3.66	3.66 (41)
45	Missouri-Columbia	3.66	3.64 (48)
48	Cardozo	3.65	3.60 (67)
48	Cincinnati	3.65	3.64 (48)
48	Colorado	3.65	3.61 (63)
48	Florida Int'l	3.65	3.61 (63)
48	Northeastern	3.65	3.63 (54)
48	San Diego	3.65	3.57 (74)
48	Wayne State	3.65	3.56 (76)

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Gutman: Taxing Gains At Death

Harry L. Gutman (Ivins, Phillips & Barker, Washington, D.C.), Taxing Gains at Death, 170 Tax Notes Fed. 215 (Jan. 11, 2021):

Joe Biden has proposed addressing income inequality in part by eliminating the tax-free step-up in basis for property passing at death. Although details are lacking, the proposal would address a glaring omission from a comprehensive income tax base — an omission that exacerbates vertical inequity and produces horizontal inequity, inefficient resource allocation, and significant revenue loss.

In this article, I argue that tax-free step-up should be repealed and replaced by a regime in which death and lifetime transfers are income tax realization events. That would mean that when an individual dies owning property that has appreciated in value, tax would be payable on that gain rather than forgiven as it is under current law. Conforming rules would treat lifetime transfers similarly.

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These Law Profs Backed Trump—And Some Got Burned

Karen Sloan (Law.com), These Law Profs Backed Trump—and Some Got Burned:

It’s fair to say that the legal academy as a whole didn’t have many good things to say about Donald Trump’s presidency. Law professors spent the past four years denouncing Trump’s immigration policies, highlighting his ethical lapses, and making the case that he eroded democratic norms. Legal academics were even front and center during Trump’s first impeachment trial, testifying that he had violated the law.

Yet there were a handful of law professors who took a different tack, either publicly backing the former president, offering more quiet support behind the scenes or from their social media accounts, or questioning the legitimacy of the election results.

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Taxing Trades: Proposals To Keep Moneyball Out Of Tax Law

Cody Wilson (J.D. 2020, SMU), Comment, Taxing Trades: Proposals to Keep Moneyball Out of Tax Law, 72 SMU L. Rev. 953 (2019):

Ever since professional sports first captivated the hearts and minds of American fans, team scouts have scoured the land for athletic talent. Upon discovery, scouts must gauge the discovered player’s worth to their team, which is done through both observation and statistical analysis commonly known as “Moneyball.” However, as economists note, such valuation methods often fall short. Nonetheless, following the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (TCJA), current tax laws require that Internal Revenue Service (IRS) agents engage in the same player valuation conundrum to assess the tax consequences of trades between teams.

Before the TCJA, § 1031 of the Internal Revenue Code allowed trades of player contracts and future draft picks to go untaxed. Section 1031 allowed this because such trades constituted a like-kind exchange, which prevented any gain or loss from being recognized for tax purposes. Now, the TCJA has limited the non-recognition treatment afforded by § 1031 to real property, forcing IRS agents to ascertain the fair market value of player contracts and future draft picks to assess the tax consequences of trades. Adding to the conundrum facing the IRS, the Treasury Department has created a safe harbor permitting teams to treat player contracts and future draft picks as having a zero value for tax purposes; however, the Treasury Department has not released guidance addressing how valuations are to occur when teams avoid the safe harbor.

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Layser Presents Redevelopment Tax Incentives And Gentrification Online Today At Toronto

Michelle Layser (Illinois) presents Redevelopment Tax Incentives and Gentrification: A Spatial Analysis online at Toronto today as part of its James Hausman Tax Law and Policy Workshop Series:

Place-based tax incentives, such as the New Markets Tax Credit (NMTC) and Opportunity Zones incentives, are often used to promote investment in low-income census tracts. Critics fear that when gentrifying neighborhoods are eligible for incentives, they will attract investment away from the neighborhoods that need it most. However, few studies have provided empirical analysis to assess whether these concerns have merit. Through a novel geospatial analysis of the location patterns of tax-subsidized projects, this Article provides new evidence of inequitable distributions of tax credits, which can inhibit their ability to benefit struggling communities. These findings have profound implications for the federal and state NMTC programs, as well as the new Opportunity Zones law. This Article analyzes 15 years of NMTC data to explore location patterns of tax subsidized investments in 20 U.S. cities. It employs spatial analysis methods to describe the location patterns of investment and their relationship to two variables known to correlate with gentrification: high vacancy rates and increasing rental rates.

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Luke Reviews Field's M&A Termination Rights Triggered By Changes In Law

Charlene Luke (Florida), The Upside of Investigating Taxpayers' Approaches to the Downside Risks of Tax Law Change (reviewing Heather M. Field (UC-Hastings), Tax MACs: A Study of M&A Termination Rights Triggered by Material Adverse Changes in Law, 73 Tax Law. 823 (2020)):

Heather M. Field’s Tax MACs: A Study of M&A Termination Rights Triggered by Material Adverse Changes in Law presents information and insights about tax-specific material adverse change provisions in publicly filed mergers and acquisitions (M&A) agreements from May 2014–May 2019. Field identified and primarily focused on 13 agreements with “Tax MAC Out” provisions, meaning that these agreements provided an exit right that could be exercised unilaterally because of adverse tax law changes. Field also located 6 agreements that contained express Tax MAC provisions but that did not provide a unilateral ability to exit; most in this group were in the form of requiring the parties to work to address the tax change through restructuring, with termination expressly not following from an inability to complete such restructuring.

The article highlights the bespoke nature of Tax MAC provisions; while Field found that some boilerplate language recurred, there were also substantial differences among the agreements, and the article suggests explanations for the variability, tied to specific instances of difference. As Field notes, the heterogeneity suggests ample “opportunities for nuanced bargaining and value-added lawyering.” ...

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Is This Law Professor Really A Homicidal Threat?

Following up on my previous post, Controversy At UIC John Marshall Law School Over Use Of 'N_____ And B_____ (Profane Expressions For African Americans And Women)' On Fall Civ Pro Exam:  Chronicle of Higher Education op-ed:  Is This Law Professor Really a Homicidal Threat?, by Andrew Koppelman (Northwestern):

You would expect, given the sanctions that the University of Illinois at Chicago’s John Marshall Law School piled onto Professor Jason Kilborn, that he had done something horribly disgraceful. Disgrace there is in abundance, but it belongs to the school’s administration. Indeed, in this story, Kilborn is the only one who looks good. ...

[See here for a full description of the facts, including (1) Kilborn's use of the phrase “'n____' and 'b____' (profane expressions for African Americans and women)” on his fall Civil Procedure II exam and the uproar it caused among some students; and (2) Kilborn being placed on administrative leave and barred from campus following a determination by the university's threat assessment team and law school dean that he was a "homicidal threat" based on a comment he made in a 4 hour Zoom meeting with a BLSA member.]

Policies of mandatory investigation are warranted when students report threats. But there needs to be an available mechanism of summary dismissal when such reports turn out to be frivolous. John Marshall Law School has two such mechanisms: First, the Behavioral Threat Assessment Teams are charged with determining whether threats are genuine, and, second, the dean has discretion to accept or reject their recommendations. It is hard to believe that Dean Dickerson would have reacted the same way if Kilborn’s exam had not already provoked controversy. The complaints about the exam were apparently not sufficient to trigger the sanctions that might mollify the complaining students. The purported threat, however, offered that opportunity.

Given that this whole incident was occasioned by a “Civil Procedure” exam, it is hard not to remark upon the denial of due process. Kilborn has been given no opportunity to defend himself. When students make unreasonable demands, a school has an obligation to protect its faculty. The law school’s behavior is reminiscent of indiscriminate blacklisting during the McCarthy era.

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Harvard Law Students Petition Administration To Denounce Professor Adrian Vermeule's 'Highly Offensive Online Rhetoric'

Following upon my previous post, Four Student Groups Demand That Harvard Discipline Law Prof Adrian Vermeule For Tweets Mocking Leftists:  Harvard Crimson, Harvard Law School Organizations Petition to Denounce Professor Adrian Vermeule’s ‘Highly Offensive’ Online Rhetoric:

Eleven Harvard Law School student organizations have signed a statement calling for administrators to denounce what they characterize as “highly offensive, discriminatory, and violent statements in online posts” by Law School professor Adrian C. Vermeule ’90.

Addressed to five Law School deans, the statement — signed by organizations including the Harvard Parity Project, the Equal Democracy Project, and the Black Law Students Association, among others — describes Vermeule’s digital rhetoric as “harmful to democracy” and “unbelievably divisive,” with a particular emphasis on his recent allegations of election fraud. ...

Nicole M. Rubin, who co-wrote the statement, said she felt motivated to take action after realizing several students felt uncomfortable with what Vermeule posted online. She said many students documented Vermeule’s rhetoric by taking screenshots of his tweets.

From the statement:

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Preview Of The 2022 U.S. News Law School Rankings: Acceptance Rate

The 2022 U.S. News Law School Rankings (based in part on 2020 admissions data) will be released in March (the 2021 rankings are here). In the current methodology, a law school's acceptance rate counts 2.5% in the overall ranking. Here are the rankings by acceptance rate from ABA data:

Rank	School	2020 Acceptance Rate	2019 Acceptance Rate
1	Yale	7.40	8.22 (1)
2	Stanford	10.48	9.72 (2)
3	Harvard	13.00	12.49 (3)
4	Virginia	14.05	14.69 (5)
5	Pennsylvania	14.30	14.51 (4)
6	Michigan	16.36	16.63 (7)
7	Columbia	16.69	15.86 (6)
8	USC	17.18	17.69 (9)
9	Chicago	17.86	18.61 (11)
10	Wake Forest	17.99	40.45 (70)
11	Texas	18.43	17.53 (8)
12	Cornell	19.03	21.33 (19)
13	Northwestern	19.20	18.01 (10)
14	Georgia	19.35	20.77 (16)
15	Florida	19.77	20.65 (15)
16	Georgetown	20.10	19.54 (13)
17	Notre Dame	20.28	24.05 (24)
18	UC-Irvine	20.30	20.81 (17)
19	Washington Univ.	20.31	24.82 (25)
20	UC-Berkeley	21.53	19.68 (14)
21	NYU	21.58	21.60 (20)
22	North Carolina	21.62	33.87 (45)
23	Duke	22.34	18.91 (12)
24	Texas A&M	22.43	28.73 (32)
25	Vanderbilt	22.57	21.91 (21)
26	UCLA	22.75	22.41 (22)
27	George Mason	22.80	20.85 (18)
28	Boston Univ.	24.93	23.14 (23)
29	Arizona State	26.19	29.41 (34)
30	Florida Int'l	27.33	28.59 (31)
31	Fordham	27.37	27.25 (28)
32	Arizona	27.74	26.29 (26)
33	Pepperdine	28.20	29.81 (35)
34	Georgia State	28.57	29.30 (33)
35	Florida State	29.70	32.67 (41)
36	Villanova	29.75	34.18 (47)
37	Texas Southern	30.43	28.17 (30)
38	UNLV	31.07	27.24 (27)
39	Boston College	31.84	31.31 (40)
40	Emory	32.21	31.00 (37)
41	Chapman	32.55	33.96 (46)
42	District of Columbia	32.63	35.78 (54)
43	UC-Davis	33.06	31.03 (38)
44	Tennessee	33.33	34.36 (49)
45	Utah	33.45	40.87 (74)
46	Houston	33.59	35.05 (51)
47	Florida A&M	33.82	50.17 (112)
48	Baylor	34.02	35.45 (52)
49	George Washington	34.15	31.03 (38)
50	Howard	34.22	38.19 (61)

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A Critical Assessment Of The Originalist Case Against Administrative Regulatory Power: New Evidence From The Federal Tax On Private Real Estate In The 1790s

Nicholas R. Parrillo (Yale), A Critical Assessment of the Originalist Case Against Administrative Regulatory Power: New Evidence from the Federal Tax on Private Real Estate in the 1790s, 130 Yale L.J. ___ (2021):

The Supreme Court is poised to toughen the nondelegation doctrine to strike down acts of Congress that give broad discretion to administrators, signaling a potential revolution in the separation of powers. A majority of the Justices have suggested they are open to the sweeping theory that all agency rulemaking is unconstitutional insofar as it coerces private parties and is not about foreign affairs. If adopted, this theory would invalidate most of the federal regulatory state. Jurists and scholars critical of rulemaking’s constitutionality base their claims on the original meaning of the Constitution. But these critics face a serious obstacle: early Congresses enacted several broad delegations of administrative rulemaking authority. The critics’ main response has been that these early statutes don’t count, because they fall into areas in which (say the critics) the original nondelegation doctrine did not apply, or applied only weakly: non-coercive legislation (e.g., giving benefits) or foreign-affairs legislation.

This Article finds that the originalist critics of rulemaking are mistaken to say that no early congressional grant of rulemaking power was coercive and domestic. There is a major counter-example missed by the literature on nondelegation, indeed by all of legal scholarship, and not discussed more than briefly even by historians: the rulemaking power under the “direct tax” of 1798. In that legislation, Congress apportioned a federal tax quota to the people of each state, to be paid predominantly by owners of real estate in proportion to their properties’ respective values. Thousands of federal assessors assigned taxable values to literally every house and farm in every state of the Union, deciding what each was “worth in money”—a standard that the legislation stated but did not define. Because assessors in different parts of a state could differ greatly in how they did valuation, Congress established within each state a federal board of tax commissioners with power to divide the state into districts and to raise or lower the assessors’ valuations of all real estate in any district by any proportion “as shall appear to be just and equitable”—a phrase undefined in the statute and not a term of art. The federal boards’ power to revise valuations en masse in each intra-state tax district is identical to the fact pattern in the leading Supreme Court precedent defining rulemaking. Thus, each federal board in 1798 controlled, by rule, the distribution of the federal tax burden within the state it covered.

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Political Ideology And The U.S. News Law School Rankings: Measuring The Conservative Penalty And Liberal Bonus

Michael Conklin (Angelo State University), Political Ideology and Law School Rankings: Measuring the Conservative Penalty and Liberal Bonus:

U.S. News & World Report conducts overall rankings and peer rankings of law schools. This Article reports the findings of a first-of-its-kind study designed to measure whether peer rankings are affected by a law school’s ideological reputation. The extreme disparity uncovered — combined with consistent findings in studies that measure other forms of ideological bias in legal academia — make a strong case for the existence of a conservative penalty and liberal bonus in law school rankings. This Article concludes by proposing a simple solution to circumvent this particular manifestation of ideological bias.

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Taxing Cannabis On The Reservation

Mark J. Cowan (Boise State University), Taxing Cannabis on the Reservation, 57 Am. Bus. L.J. ___ (2020):

American Indian tribes that enter the cannabis industry confront a multi-sovereign tax system that lacks certainty and horizontal equity. The complex interaction of state legalization and taxation of cannabis, federal tax law, the status of tribes as both governments and business enterprises, and the legal and tax landscape in Indian country can give tribes tax advantages and disadvantages compared to off-reservation cannabis dispensaries. This article analyzes these tax issues, examines them in the context of prior challenges posed by Indian gaming, and suggests reforms that address the tax inequities that can result from cannabis sales on Indian reservations.

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Kirsch: Conditioning Citizenship Benefits On Satisfying Citizenship Obligations

Michael S. Kirsch (Notre Dame), Conditioning Citizenship Benefits on Satisfying Citizenship Obligations, 2019 U. Ill. L. Rev. 1701:

Citizenship status is often discussed in terms of both its benefits and its obligations. A recently enacted Federal statute (the FAST Act), which denies U.S. passports to certain citizens who owe significant unpaid taxes, provides an opportunity to examine the linkage between citizenship benefits and obligations. In particular, it raises the question under what circumstances, if any, should the benefits of citizenship be conditioned on compliance with the obligations of citizenship.

This Article identifies a typology for situating unpaid taxes within other circumstances under which passports may be denied to U.S. citizens. It then focuses on the instrumental, constitutional, and expressive impacts of the FAST Act, illustrating that the benefit-obligation linkage can have unintended consequences, not only from an instrumental perspective, but perhaps more importantly from its expressive impact on social norms. The Article then applies these lessons to a broader range of situations where Federal benefits are conditioned on compliance with citizenship obligations, most notably the denial of student loan benefits for those young men who do not register with the Selective Service.

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National Taxpayer Advocate Delivers 2020 Annual Report To Congress

IR-2021-11 (Jan. 13, 2021), National Taxpayer Advocate Delivers Annual Report to Congress; Focuses on Taxpayer Impact of COVID-19 and IRS Funding Needs:

National Taxpayer Advocate Erin M. Collins today released her 2020 Annual Report to Congress, focusing on the unprecedented challenges taxpayers faced in filing their tax returns and receiving refunds and stimulus payments during a year consumed by the COVID-19 pandemic. The report also finds that a roughly 20% inflation-adjusted reduction in the IRS's budget since fiscal year (FY) 2010 has left the agency with antiquated technology and inadequate staffing levels to meet taxpayers' needs.

As part of the report, Collins released the fourth edition of the National Taxpayer Advocate's "Purple Book," a compilation of 66 legislative recommendations designed to strengthen taxpayer rights and improve tax administration.

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NAACP Receives $40 Million Gift To Pay Tuition For 50 Law Students Who Agree To Do Civil Rights Work In The South For 8 Years After Graduation

Karen Sloan (Law.com), NAACP Legal Defense Fund Will Spend $40 Million to Put Racial Justice-Minded Attorneys Through Law School:

A new scholarship program from the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund aims to help establish the next generation of civil rights attorneys by covering the entire cost of law school for 50 law students over the next decade.

Under the Marshall-Motley Scholars Program, announced Monday, recipients will have their full law school tuition covered along with funds for room and board and incidentals. They will also complete summer internships with civil rights lawyers and do a two-year fellowship at a regional or national civil rights organization in the South upon graduation. In return, recipients will commit to spending at least eight years practicing civil rights and racial justice law in the South. The Legal Defense Fund will select up to 10 recipients a year for the next five years, at an estimated cost of $40 million. An anonymous donor has committed to funding the program, according to Janai Nelson, associate director-counsel for the LDF.

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One-Third Of Law Schools Now Accept The GRE For Admissions

These ABA-accredited law schools accept the GRE for admissions:

1. Akron
2. Alabama
3. Albany
4. American
5. Arizona
6. Arizona State 
7. Baltimore
8. Boston College
9. Boston University
10. Brooklyn
11. SUNY-Buffalo
12. BYU
13. California-Western
14. Cardozo
15. Case Western
16. Chicago
17. Chicago-Kent
18. Cleveland-Marshall
19. Columbia
20. Cornell
21. Dayton
22. Duke
23. Florida International
24. Florida State
25. George Mason
26. Georgetown
27. Georgia (students enrolled in another graduate program)
28. Harvard
29. Hawaii
30. Hofstra
31. Indiana-Bloomington
32. Loyola-L.A.
33. Maryland
34. Massachusetts
35. Mercer
36. Montana
37. New England
38. New Hampshire
39. Northwestern
40. Notre Dame
41. NYU
42. Oklahoma
43. Pace
44. Pennsylvania
45. Penn State-Dickinson
46. Penn State-University Park
47. Pepperdine
48. Seattle
49. Seton Hall
50. SMU
51. South Carolina
52. St. John's
53. Suffolk
54. Syracuse
55. Texas
56. Texas A&M
57. UC-Berkeley (students enrolled in another graduate program)
58. UC-Davis
59. UC-Hastings
60. UC-Irvine
61. UCLA
62. UIC-John Marshall
63. USC
64. Virginia
65. Wake Forest
66. Washington University
67. Willamette
68. Yale 

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2021 Princeton Review Law School Rankings: Overall Ranking

I previously blogged the lists of the Top 5 law schools in fourteen categories in the 2021 edition of the Princeton Review's Best Law Schools. Last week, I highlighted the Top 50 schools in the five categories for which the Princeton Review provides individual law school data:

• Admissions Selectivity
• Academic Experience
• Professors: Teaching
• Professors: Accessibility
• Career Rating

Yesterday, I blogged the Top 50 law school professor rankings, equal weight (50%) to the Professors: Teaching and Professors: Accessibility rankings.

Today, in my concluding post, I blog the Princeton Review's overall law school rankings, giving equal weight (20%) to each of the Admissions Selectivity, Academic Experience, Professors: Teaching, Professors: Accessibility, and Career Rating rankings:

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Lesson From The Tax Court: The CDP Silver Linings Playbook

Tax practitioners tend not to know much about bankruptcy.  Today’s lesson is for them.  In Wiley Ramey v. Commissioner, 156 T.C. No. 1 (Jan. 14, 2021), Judge Toro held that a CDP notice properly sent to a taxpayer’s last known address triggers the time period for the taxpayer to request a CDP hearing, even if the CDP notice is actually delivered to a different person who shares that address.  That is the tax lesson most folks will see in this case, and it’s a good one.

I see an additional lesson, a bankruptcy lesson.  While the taxpayer’s failure to timely request a CDP hearing meant no he received no Tax Court review of the administrative hearing, the news is not all bad.  The lesson for today is about silver linings:  the taxpayer’s equivalent hearing still got the delay benefits of CDP, and that delay did not count against Mr. Ramey should he file bankruptcy and seek a discharge of the tax liabilities at issue.  Practitioners would not be crazy to put this lesson in a Playbook, a CDP Silver Linings Playbook.  Yeah, it was a good movie, too.  More below the fold.

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Tax Analysts Makes Federal Tax Library (Code, Regs, Cases, Rulings, Legislative Materials) Available For Free

Press Release, Deloitte and Tax Analysts Take Great Strides to Increase Tax Policy Transparency:

Today Deloitte Tax LLP ("Deloitte") announced an agreement with Tax Analysts, the publisher of the Tax Notes product portfolio, to make the nonprofit's federal tax law library available to the general public. Placing Tax Notes' entire federal tax law library in front of a paywall is a win for tax policy transparency, as it grants the public easy access to timely information and updates on a platform that is intuitive and reliable.

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TaxProf Blog Holiday Weekend Roundup

Saturday:

• This Week's Ten Most Popular TaxProf Blog Posts
• Organizing A Business Law Department Within A Law School
• Controversy At UIC John Marshall Law School Over Use Of 'N_____ And B_____ (Profane Expressions For African Americans And Women)' On Fall Civ Pro Exam
• Cui: China’s Tax Policy Response To The Global Financial Crisis

Sunday:

• Donor Who Made $40 Million Naming Gift Loses Court Battle To Force Law School To Include His Name On All Degrees
• The Gospel In A Democracy Under Christian Assault
• Notre Dame Dean Marcus Cole's Statement On The U.S. Capitol Attack
• The Top Five New Tax Papers

Martin Luther King, Jr. Day:

• 2021 Princeton Review Law School Rankings: Professors (Teaching And Accessibility)
• MLK's Legacy: Push Past Tweetable Quotes To True Christlike Love
• NY Times: Biden May Eliminate Step-Up In Basis At Death, Hurting Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, And Efforts To Close The Black Wealth Gap
• How Not To Lie About Law School Affirmative Action

2021 Princeton Review Law School Rankings: Professors (Teaching And Accessibility)

I previously blogged the lists of the Top 5 law schools in fourteen categories in the 2021 edition of the Princeton Review's Best Law Schools. Last week, I highlighted the Top 50 schools in the five categories for which the Princeton Review provides individual law school data:

• Admissions Selectivity
• Academic Experience
• Professors: Teaching
• Professors: Accessibility
• Career Rating

Here are the Top 50 law school professor rankings, giving equal weight (50%) to the Professors: Teaching and Professors: Accessibility rankings:

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MLK's Legacy: Push Past Tweetable Quotes To True Christlike Love

Christianity Today op-ed:  It’s Not Enough to Preach Racial Justice. We Have to Champion Policy Change., by Esau McCaulley (Wheaton; author, Reading While Black: African American Biblical Interpretation as an Exercise in Hope (2020)):

The legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. reminds us to push past tweetable quotes and big talk to true Christlike love.

For a black boy growing up in Alabama trying to make sense of himself in a hostile world, Martin Luther King Jr. was my hero. Alongside a startingly pale Jesus, a picture of Martin hung beside photographs of my family. I knew Martin by sight. I could recognize the tenor of his voice.

The mental architecture of my young black imagination was formed by grainy videos of mass church meetings and marches and by the hymns and spirituals that threatened to shake the United States to its foundations. I knew about Selma, Birmingham, and Montgomery before I could find them on a map of my state. I do not remember not remembering Martin.

By contrast, the King that I see online on Martin Luther King Jr. Day is a stranger to me. This beloved figure is in part the construction of a society that never fully loved him or the cause he represented. King died an unpopular man. In 1968, the year of his death, 75 percent of Americans disapproved of his views and activities. That was up from 50 percent in 1963.

Today, his approval rating nears 90 percent. Some might suggest that with hindsight, Americans have come to appreciate King in a way that was impossible during the racist era in which he lived. But things are not that simple. If social media is any indication, a large portion of America still hasn’t wrestled with the King of 1968. ...

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NY Times: Biden May Eliminate Step-Up In Basis At Death, Hurting Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, And Efforts To Close The Black Wealth Gap

New York Times Wealth Matters:  The Estate Tax May Change Under Biden, Affecting Far More People, by Paul Sullivan:

What happens once Mr. Biden can begin enacting changes to tax policy? ... [P]erhaps the best way to consider what to do in 2021 is to think about what you need to do in the short, medium and long term. There’s a lot to think about, so I’m going to break this topic into two columns. This week, I’m going to look at long-term issues; next week, I’ll get into the more immediate tax issues that could bubble up this year.

The biggest potential long-term change involves the estate tax. But in contrast to previous changes, the tax code could be modified in a way that affects everyone who has something of value to leave to heirs.

For decades, assets were valued at the time of the owner’s death, even if the value had risen. This so-called step-up in basis rule works like this: If a stock that was bought for $1 is worth $10 when the owner dies, the gain is $9. But when that asset is passed on to heirs, the embedded gain is wiped out because the base value is now $10 and no capital gains tax is owed.

This treatment applies to any asset, from liquid securities and private investment partnerships to a family home. If the total value of the estate is less than the current $11.7 million exemption level for an individual or $23.4 million for a couple, then no estate tax would need to be paid, either.

A Biden administration may move to change this for logical and revenue reasons. At one point, the step-up in basis made sense. Imagine trying to determine the capital gains from AT&T stock that your grandmother bought in 1943 when record-keeping was done with a pencil and paper. Today, cost-basis information can be retrieved in seconds.

But two different groups of people have raised concerns about losing the step-up loophole: the very wealthy and the moderately wealthy.

If you’re Jeff Bezos or Elon Musk, the two richest people in the world, having your long-term holdings in Amazon and Tesla given a step-up in basis is a huge savings on capital gains tax, because they’re going to be paying estate tax regardless.

But for people of more modest wealth, say someone lucky enough to inherit a home or a stock portfolio, the loss of step-up could be even more significant. ...

For the Black community, the prospect of an heir’s paying capital gains tax on inherited property could contribute to maintaining the racial wealth gap, said Calvin Williams Jr., chief executive and founder of Freeman Capital.

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How Not To Lie About Law School Affirmative Action

Sherod Thaxton (UCLA), How Not to Lie About Affirmative Action, 67 UCLA L. Rev. 834 (2020):

As challenges to race-conscious admissions policies are, once again, advancing through the federal courts, research proclaiming to identify the wide ranging effects of affirmative action across a variety of educational settings is influencing this litigation through amici and expert testimony. It is crucial, then, that empirical research used to support claims by parties on either side of the affirmative action debate adhere to the fundamental precepts of causal inference. Yet the literature on causal inference is both vast and dense, and as a result, many judges, lawyers, legislators, and laypersons interested in understanding both the intended and unintended consequences of affirmative action are ill-equipped to understand the debate—especially when quantitative social scientists on both sides of the issue appear to draw conflicting (though not necessarily equally credible) inferences from the same data. The purpose of this Article is to lay bare the core requirements of credible causal inference to the uninitiated, highlighting how inattention to (and sometimes outright disregard for) these rules has muddied the debate over the effect of affirmative action in law schools and in college admissions more generally.

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Donor Who Made $40 Million Naming Gift Loses Court Battle To Force Law School To Include His Name On All Degrees

Following up on my previous post:  CBC News, Major Donor Loses Fight to Have His Name on All UBC Law School Degrees:

One of the most prominent donors to the University of British Columbia has lost a lengthy legal fight to have his name printed on every degree given to students who graduate from the law school that's named after him.

Peter A. Allard, a successful lawyer who has been fighting his alma mater on the issue for years, lost his B.C. Supreme Court battle against the university on Thursday. ...

The dispute began shortly after Allard made a historic $30-million donation to UBC in 2014 [in addition to an earlier $10 million gift] on a number of conditions. One of those conditions said degree certificates granted by the Faculty of Law would have Allard's name printed somewhere on the parchment.

But not all degrees from the Peter A. Allard School of Law are granted by the Faculty of Law. Higher level graduate degrees come from a different division: the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies. ...

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The Gospel In A Democracy Under Christian Assault

Russell Moore (President, Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, Southern Baptist Convention), The Gospel in a Democracy Under Assault:

How can this be our country?

As I watched on television images of angry mobs pouring into the United States Capitol, my hands were trembling with rage. A friend who has served for many years in government texted, “This looks like the fall of Rome to me.”

Indeed, it does—including the reality that, years before anyone scaled the walls of the Eternal City, Rome was captivated with bread and circuses. What can Americans—especially followers of Jesus Christ—do in a time when it seems that our very republic is more fragile than ever before?

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Notre Dame Dean Marcus Cole's Statement On The U.S. Capitol Attack

Marcus Cole (Dean, Notre Dame), Statement on the U.S. Capitol Attack:

Yesterday, I watched in horror as a mob made a terrorist assault on the United States Capitol. As the images unfolded, my son asked me whether I had ever seen anything like this before. I immediately recalled that twenty years ago, 37 Americans on United flight 93 gave their lives to protect that very building — the United States Capitol — from a terrorist attack. I never imagined that the President of the United States would incite a mob to accomplish what those hijackers could not.

In general, I do not think it appropriate for the Dean of a law school to comment on political events. But what happened yesterday was not political; it was a shameful crime. A mob was incited to attack the very thing to which we in this community have devoted our lives, namely, the rule of law. I have resisted commenting on the President’s posture over the last two months, since I fully trusted in our institutions and the rule of law. In the end, I believed, as I still do, that the will of the American people — expressed at the ballot box last November 3rd — will prevail.

I still believe in our American institutions. I still believe in the rule of law. But more than either, I believe in God, and our need for His divine guidance at this moment. Toward that end, I would like to ask each of us to join in prayer. I would like each of us to call upon God in the words of Saint Francis of Assisi:

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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 #5. The #1 paper is #474 among 15,661 tax papers in all-time downloads:

1. [898 Downloads]  A Simple Regulatory Fix for Citizenship Taxation, by John Richardson, Laura Snyder & Karen Alpert (Queensland)
2. [498 Downloads]  Tax Treaty Negotiations: Myth and Reality, by Yariv Brauner (Florida)
3. [296 Downloads]  Is It Time to Eliminate Federal Corporate Income Taxes?, by Edward Lane (Albany) & Randall Wray (UMKC)
4. [233 Downloads]  What May We Expect of a Theory of International Tax Justice?, by Dirk Broekhuijsen (Leiden) & Henk Vording (Leiden)
5. [192 Downloads]  5 Lessons on Profit Shifting From U.S. Country-by-Country Data, by Kimberly Clausing (UCLA)

This Week's Ten Most Popular TaxProf Blog Posts

1. 157 Law School Deans, Joint Statement On The 2020 Election And Events At The Capitol
2. State Bar of California, Bar Exam Pass Rate Is Highest In 12 Years, Due To Lower Cut Score; Supreme Court May Grant Licenses To 2,000 Applicants Who Failed Exams Since July 2015 And Scored 1390 Or Higher
3. Elise Westhoff (Wall Street Journal op-ed), The Left Wants A Philanthropy Of The Few
4. Los Angeles Times, Law Prof John Eastman Retires From Chapman 'Effective Immediately' Amidst Uproar Over Speaking At Trump Rally Last Wednesday
5. Bryan Camp (Texas Tech), Lesson From The Tax Court: Too Much Control Over IRA Distribution Makes It Income
6. The Princeton Review, 2021 Princeton Review Law School Rankings: Academic Experience
7. The Princeton Review, 2021 Princeton Review Law School Rankings: Admissions Selectivity
8. The Princeton Review, 2021 Princeton Review Law School Rankings: Career Rating
9. The Princeton Review, 2021 Princeton Review Law School Rankings: Professors (Teaching)
10. The Princeton Review, 2021 Princeton Review Law School Rankings: Professors (Accessibility)

Organizing A Business Law Department Within A Law School

William J. Carney (Emory), Organizing a Business Law Department Within a Law School:

This article argues that legal education needs to get its act together by getting organized. Unlike the rest of the university, law schools are over a century behind in recognizing the need for the greater organization that departments can provide. Specialization, which did not exist many years ago, has become so universal that some members of any faculty either cannot understand or care about, much less govern wisely, what goes on around them. Ignorance is compounded by non-professional agendas driven by ideologies and interdisciplinary interests. One probable result of disorganization in legal education has been a decline in bar passage rates and enrollments. This article provides a road map to a cure.

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Controversy At UIC John Marshall Law School Over Use Of 'N_____ And B_____ (Profane Expressions For African Americans And Women)' On Fall Civ Pro Exam

Following up on my previous post, AALS President Darby Dickerson: It's Time To Eliminate Legal Education's Caste System:  Brian Leiter (Chicago), Violation of Academic Freedom at UIC John Marshall Law School:

IMPORTANT UPDATE BELOW: PROFESSOR KILBORN WAS NOT SUSPENDED BECAUSE OF THE EXAM QUESTION

Last month, we noted UIC John Marshall Dean Darby Dickerson's suggestion "that law schools should be 'transformed' into 'anti-racist institutions' [as distinct from being non-racist ones that comply with equal opportunity laws]," observing that it "would portend a massive violation of the academic freedom of all faculty (for example)."   Alas, this proved more prophetic than we realized.

Professor Jason Kilborn gave a civil procedure exam last month involving an employment discrimination hypothetical, in which one worker used racist and sexist epithets.   As the petition denouncing Professor Kilborn reports:

The question at-issue contained a racial pejorative summarized as follows: “‘n____’and ‘b____’ (profane expressions for African Americans and women).” The fact pattern involved an employment discrimination case where the call of the question was whether or not the information found was work product.

Just to be clear:   the exam neither used nor mentioned the actual offending words, just the first letters of those words followed by the underline, as quoted above.  Professor Kilborn has actually used variations on this hypothetical, with the n- and b-words (as above), for a decade without any incident! ...

UPDATE (1/15/21):   Professor Kilborn has written to me a bit before 4:30 pm CST as follows:

I’ve just learned my suspension has been a huge failure of communication from the university to me.  While the battle over the exam language continues, it turns out I was actively misled into believing my suspension was related to that language.

On Thursday, January 7, I voluntarily agreed to talk to one of the Black Law Students Association members who had advanced this petition against me.  Around hour 1 or 1.5 of a 4-hour Zoom call that I endured from 5:00 pm to 9:00 pm with this young man, he asked me to speculate as to why the dean had not sent me BLSA’s attack letter, and I flippantly responded, “I suspect she’s afraid if I saw the horrible things said about me in that letter I would become homicidal.”  Conversation continued without a hitch for 2.5 or 3 more hours, and we concluded amicably with a promise to talk more later.

He apparently turned around and reported that I was a homicidal threat.  Our university’s Behavioral Threat Assessment Team convened, with no evidence of who I am at all, and recommended to my dean that I be placed on administrative leave and barred from campus.

Kathryn Rubino (Above the Law), Law School N-Word Controversy Is More Complicated Than It Appears At First Glance:

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Cui: China’s Tax Policy Response To The Global Financial Crisis

Wei Cui (British Columbia), China’s Tax Policy Response to the Global Financial Crisis:

VAT reform constituted the most important tax policy action China took during the global financial crisis in 2008-9. If China had had a more typical tax structure, this specific policy instrument (as well as certain others) would not have been available. Conversely, because of the idiosyncrasies of China’s current tax structure, some of the policy measures commonly deployed in other countries also cannot be used. In comparing China and Europe in the tax policies adopted since 2008, therefore, major differences in prior tax structures must be taken into account. There are also two other potential determinants of China’s tax policy.

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Weekly SSRN Tax Article Review And Roundup: Kim Reviews Holderness' Tax Relief for Commuters

This week, Young Ran (Christine) Kim (Utah) reviews a new work by Hayes Holderness (Richmond), Changing Lanes: Tax Relief for Commuters, 40 Va. Tax Rev. ___ (2021).

Commuting has mixed motives: one must travel to get to work (business motive), but the extent and burden of the travel is the result of the personal choice about where to live (personal motive). However, there is no middle ground under the tax law; an expense is classified as either personal or business. Under current law, it is well established that commuting expenses are personal, and thus, nondeductible expenses under the tax law (e.g., Comm'r v. Flowers, 326 U.S. 465 (1946)). However, in the wake of COVID-19, working from home has become the new normal. Many people who used to commute to work no longer have the same amount of expenditure for commuting, such as gas and metro passes. What are the normative implications of such changed behavior? Hayes Holderness offers his views in his recent essay, Changing Lanes: Tax Relief for Commuters (forthcoming in Va. Tax Rev.).

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Tax Policy In The Trump Administration

• Bloomberg, Generous Tax Perks Blossom in New Relief Loan Funding Round
• Bloomberg, Top U.S. Banks’ Tax Bill Would Rise $11 Billion With Biden Hike
• Bloomberg, Treasury and IRS Release Final Regs on Treatment of Carried Interest
• Forbes, Eight Ways The Biden Tax Plan Could Affect Your Real Estate Business
• The Hill, Is a Global Internet Tax Coming in 2021?

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Weekly Legal Education Roundup

• ABA Journal, Stanford law prof remembered as leading legal ethics scholar and advocate for access to justice
• ABA Journal, Will Paper Bar Exams Become a Thing of the Past?
• Scott Fruehwald (Legal Skills Prof Blog),  Cognitive Biases, Learning Styles, and the Bahadur/Zhang Article
• Neil Fulton (Dean, South Dakota), Ten Questions For Unconventional Dean Candidates
• Los Angeles Times, Chapman Professor Will Retire After Uproar Over His Speaking at Trump Rally

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Biggest Issues Facing College Presidents Due To COVID-19: Student, Staff, And Faculty Mental Health Trumps Enrollment/Financial Concerns

American Council on Education, College and University Presidents Respond to COVID-19: 2020 Fall Term Survey, Part 2 (Part 1 here):

In September 2020, ACE surveyed college and university presidents in order to capture how they are responding to the challenges presented by COVID-19, as well as to better understand both the immediate and long-term effects of the pandemic on higher education more broadly. In this second survey of the fall 2020 term, 268 presidents responded to share their most pressing concerns, how the pandemic has affected their fall enrollment and financial health, plans for the spring 2021 term, efforts to support student, faculty, and staff mental health, and strategies for internationalization. The survey also captures college and university efforts to promote civic engagement and student voting in the last election, as well as presidents’ thoughts on the level of priority the incoming Biden administration should place on some key higher education-related policy topics. What follows is a summary of our key findings.

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2021 Princeton Review Law School Rankings: Career Rating

I previously blogged the lists of the Top 5 law schools in fourteen categories in the 2021 edition of the Princeton Review's Best Law Schools. In a series of posts this week, I will highlight the Top 50 schools in the five categories for which the Princeton Review provides individual law school data:

• Admissions Selectivity
• Academic Experience
• Professors: Teaching
• Professors: Accessibility
• Career Rating

Career Rating:  This rating measures the confidence students have in their school's ability to lead them to fruitful employment opportunities, as well as the school's own record of having done so. This rating takes into account both student survey responses and school-reported statistical data. We ask students about how much the law program encourages practical experience; the opportunities for externships, internships, and clerkships; and how prepared to practice law they expect to feel after graduating. We ask law schools for the median starting salaries of graduating students; the percentage employed in a job that requires bar passage (and not employed by the school); and the percentage of these students who pass the bar exam the first time they take it. This rating is on a scale of 60–99.

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The Tax Lawyer Publishes New Issue

The Tax Lawyer has published Vol. 74, No. 1 (Fall 2020):

• W. Edward Afield (Georgia State), Moving Tax Disputes Online Without Leaving Taxpayer Rights Behind, 74 Tax Law. 1 (2020)
• Vorris J. Blankenship (Retired Attorney and CPA), Distributions to Beneficiaries of Tax-Favored Retirement Plans, Before and After the SECURE Act, 74 Tax Law. 43 (2020)
• David Hasen (Florida), Section 338 and the Step Transaction Doctrine, 74 Tax Law. 105 (2020)

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Death Of Rennard Strickland, Native American Law Pioneer And Dean Of Four Law Schools

University of Virginia School of Law Press Release, In Memoriam: Native American Law Pioneer Rennard Strickland:

Rennard Strickland, a pioneer in the movement for Native rights and a legal historian who received two law degrees from the University of Virginia School of Law, died Jan. 5 at the age of 80.

Born in Muskogee, Oklahoma, Strickland was of Osage and Cherokee heritage. In a career that spanned teaching and leading numerous law schools, he served as dean of four: the University of Tulsa, Southern Illinois University, Oklahoma City University and the University of Oregon. He was most recently senior scholar in residence at the University of Oklahoma Law Center, where he helped introduce Indian Law into the University’s legal curriculum. The author, editor or co-editor of 47 books and 208 essays, book chapters and articles, he was frequently cited by courts and scholars for his work as revision editor-in-chief of “Cohen’s Handbook of Federal Indian Law,” considered the authoritative text on the subject.

Obituary: Rennard Strickland (September 16, 1940 - January 5, 2021)

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Global Implementation Of Soda Taxes: Is There A Better Solution For Combatting Obesity?

Lauren Cedeno (J.D. 2020, Brooklyn), Global Implementation of Soda Taxes: Is There a Better Solution for Combatting Obesity?, 45 Brook. J. Int'l L. 329 (2019):

As incidences of overweight and obese populations continue to increase around the world, countries are looking for ways to decrease the prevalence of this epidemic. Soda and SSB taxes have increased in prevalence as countries seek to address the health problems associated with consumption of soda and other sugary beverages. This Note explores the implementation of these taxes in Mexico, Europe, and the United States. In analyzing these taxes, this Note seeks to gain a greater understanding of whether these taxes have impacted overweight and obesity rates in the countries and municipalities that have enacted them. This Note argues that soda and SSB taxes are only the first step in addressing this growing health epidemic and that more robust health policies are necessary to achieve a healthier global population.

Conclusion
The international community must begin to acknowledge the dangerous role that SSBs and other sugar-filled products play in the onset of NCDs caused by obesity. NCDs linked to poor consumption habits are currently the leading cause of death in the world today. Taxes on SSBs have been a critical step toward addressing the role sugary products play in the onset of NCDs and obesity. Without new policies to address the threat that obesity poses to population health, however, it is likely that the risk of obesity-related illness will only continue to rise. By imposing stricter regulations on the accessibility of SSBs, the sugar content in those products, and the manners in which they can be advertised, as well as developing more holistic food and beverage health initiatives, countries may very well see a substantial drop in obesity rates. Accordingly, it is important that international health organizations, such as the WHO, continue to raise awareness about the adverse health consequences that flow from diets high in food and drinks lacking proper nutrition. They can do this by encouraging countries to enact and reform legislation to better tackle the obesity epidemic.

Lederman: Valuation As A Challenge For Tax Administration

Leandra Lederman (Indiana), Valuation as a Challenge for Tax Administration, 96 Notre Dame L. Rev. ___ (2021):

Valuation issues have long posed challenges for the U.S. federal tax system. This is not just because of questions about what technique will most accurately value particular types of property. A key problem for tax administration is that taxpayers have an incentive to claim erroneous, self-serving valuations. This Essay analyzes tax valuation through this tax compliance lens. In so doing, it highlights the importance that third parties to the taxpayer-government relationship act at arm’s-length from the taxpayer. It also explains why penalties are insufficient to deter erroneous self-reported valuations. The Essay also draws on the tax compliance perspective to make some preliminary observations about valuation methodologies.

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Hemel & Polsky: Taxing Buybacks

Daniel J. Hemel (Chicago) & Gregg D. Polsky (Georgia), Taxing Buybacks, 38 Yale J. on Reg. 246 (2021):

A recent rise in the volume of corporate share repurchases has prompted calls for changes to the rules governing stock buybacks. These calls for reform are animated by concerns that buybacks enrich corporate executives at the expense of productive investment. This emerging antibuyback movement includes prominent politicians as well as academics and Republicans as well as Democrats. The primary focus of buyback critics has been on securities-law changes to deter repurchases, with only passing mention of potential tax-law solutions.

This Article critically examines the policy arguments against buybacks and arrives at a mixed verdict. On the one hand, claims that buybacks reduce corporate investment and inappropriately reward executives turn out to be poorly supported. On the other hand, the Article identifies legitimate tax-related concerns about the rising buyback tide. Buybacks exacerbate two of the U.S. tax system’s most severe flaws. The first is the “Mark Zuckerberg problem”: the effective nontaxation of firm founders on what is essentially labor income. The second is what we call the “Panama Papers problem”: the use of U.S. capital markets by investors in offshore tax havens to generate tax-free returns.

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Ten Questions For Unconventional Dean Candidates

Neil Fulton (Dean, South Dakota), Ten Questions for Unconventional Dean Candidates, 46 Ohio N.U. L. Rev. 71 (2020):

Thinking back on my experience as an unconventional decanal candidate, there are questions that I believe candidates must ask before tossing their hat into the decanal search ring. Conveniently, those questions fit into a top ten list.

1. Are You Sure? ...
2. Why? ...
3. Do You Know Who We Are? ...

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Big Law Firms Use AI To Combat Bias In Recruiting Lawyers

American Lawyer, Big Law Firms to Test New Recruiting Tool, Using Tech to Combat Bias:

Suited, an artificial intelligence-powered recruiting platform with the promise of expanding recruiting pools and eliminating unconscious bias in law firm hiring practices, is set to begin a pilot program that includes Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft; Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton; Troutman Pepper Hamilton Sanders; Willkie Farr & Gallagher and Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati.

“We are building a network of top law firms that utilize a single, common assessment tool, providing candidates an efficient way to access this highly competitive industry and show their true potential,” Matt Spencer, Suited co-founder and CEO, said in a statement. “We could not be more proud to partner with such an incredible group of firms and to be part of their continued commitments to diversity hiring and efforts to create a positive candidate experience.” ...

In addition to saving time and increasing the number of schools to recruit from, Suited looks to address another element that has stymied law firms for some time: bias in recruiting.

It’s not that law firms actively seek to deliberately limit the diversity of their workforce. But going back to the same schools each year with the same criteria in mind leads to what most firms deal with now: a homogeneity of mostly white males.

 

2021 Princeton Review Law School Rankings: Professors (Accessibility)

I previously blogged the lists of the Top 5 law schools in fourteen categories in the 2021 edition of the Princeton Review's Best Law Schools. In a series of posts this week, I will highlight the Top 50 schools in the five categories for which the Princeton Review provides individual law school data:

• Admissions Selectivity
• Academic Experience
• Professors: Teaching
• Professors: Accessibility
• Career Rating

Professors: Accessible:  This rating is based on how law students rate the accessibility of law faculty members at their school. The rating is on a scale of 60 to 99. 

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97% Of Students Rated In-Person Fall Semester Classes Good To Excellent, As Did 94% Of Students In Online Classes

Inside Higher Ed, Fall Semester Was Not a Wash For All:

Students who learned entirely online during the fall semester said they received a slightly poorer quality of education than those who had in-person instruction, according to a new poll released Tuesday by Gallup, the polling company, and the Lumina Foundation, a nonprofit organization that advocates for equity in postsecondary education.

The poll found that about three-quarters of students over all rated the quality of their education “excellent” or “very good” amid the disruptions of the coronavirus pandemic this fall, but this largely positive outcome dropped off somewhat when surveyed students were separated by learning modality. Eighty-five percent of students whose curriculum was “completely” in person said their education quality was “excellent” or “very good,” while 71 percent of those learning “completely” online said the same, a report about the findings said.

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Law Prof John Eastman Retires From Chapman 'Effective Immediately' Amidst Uproar Over Speaking At Trump Rally Last Wednesday

Los Angeles Times, Chapman Professor Will Retire After Uproar Over His Speaking at Trump Rally:

Capping days of growing uproar, Chapman University announced Wednesday that a professor who participated in the pro-Trump rally the same day that a violent mob stormed the U.S. Capitol would retire immediately.

John Eastman, an endowed professor and constitutional law scholar at Chapman, spoke alongside Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani at the “Save America” rally Jan. 6, making the unsubstantiated claim that “secret folders” inside ballot-counting machines skewed both the presidential and Georgia Senate race results in Democrats’ favor.

Chapman President Daniele Struppa said in a statement that the university and Eastman had reached an agreement and Eastman would retire immediately. Both parties agreed not to take any kind of legal action, including over claims of defamation, which Eastman had alleged.

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Domicile In Multistate Personal Income Tax Residency Matters

Scott R. Thomas (Bentley University), Domicile in Multistate Personal Income Tax Residency Matters: Enter the Swamp at Your Own Peril, 39 Pace L. Rev. 875 (2019):

This Article argues that states should remove the domicile concept from the definition of a resident and rely solely on an objective test or tests. Part I of this Article defines the terms resident and domicile using examples from the laws of Massachusetts, Minnesota, and New York. Part II discusses the problems created for individuals and state taxing authorities in the application of a subjective standard, the burden and standard of proof applied, and the domicile or residency bias of states. Part III describes how Congress defines a resident of the United States and the rationale behind Congress’s movement away from its previous subjective standard.

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Mason Presents The Legality Of Digital Taxes In Europe Online Today At Toronto

Ruth Mason (Virginia) presents The Legality of Digital Taxes in Europe (with Leopoldo Parada (Leeds)) online at Toronto today as part of its James Hausman Tax Law and Policy Workshop Series:

This essay argues that EU taxpayers may challenge digital services taxes as violations of EU law. Specifically, because digital services taxes exempt all but the very largest companies, which are disproportionately foreign, such taxes result in nationality discrimination as applied. As part of our analysis of the legality of digital taxes, we consider what role discriminatory intent should play in resolving nationality discrimination cases. We also evaluate potential justifications for digital taxes, and we argue that two recent decisions by the Court of Justice of the European Union suggest that the Court will uphold such taxes against challenges by taxpayers, but we explain how those cases could be distinguished.

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Batchelder: Optimal Tax Theory As A Theory Of Distributive Justice

Lily L. Batchelder (NYU), Optimal Tax Theory as a Theory of Distributive Justice:

The literature on taxation and transfers primarily relies on two theories of distributive justice: resource egalitarianism and welfarism, as elaborated through optimal tax theory. In recent years, optimal tax theory has garnered even greater prominence. But non-welfarists argue it fails to address a number of serious philosophical objections.

This article considers the primary critiques of optimal tax theory, especially by resource egalitarians. It argues the gap between these two theories is narrower than most appreciate. Indeed, once one focuses on egalitarian optimal tax theory and reads that literature broadly, the ideal policy design principles implied by each theory largely mimic the other.

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