Cleaning Up for Congress: Why Courts Should Reject the Presumption of Severability in the Face of Intentionally Unconstitutional Legislation

C. Vered Jona · April 2008 76 GEO. WASH. L. REV. 698 (2008) Congress passing a law regulating abortion is not surprising. Nor is it surprising that President Bush signed the statute into law. Even  less surprising, perhaps, is that the law was immediately challenged in three federal courts as unconstitutional under the Supreme Court’s...
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Severability as Judicial Lawmaking

David H. Gans · April 2008 76 GEO. WASH. L. REV. 639 (2008) Severability doctrine has been with us since the beginnings of judicial review, yet it remains shrouded in mystery. The doctrine is simple enough to state: it allows a court to excise any unconstitutional clauses or applications from a statute, leaving the remainder...
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Bellwether Trials

Alexandra D. Lahav · April 2008 76 GEO. WASH. L. REV. 576 (2008) This Article presents a third argument for collective justice based on democratic participation values. It urges that we re-envision the tort trial as a democratic enterprise rather than only an individual’s day in court. This argument draws an analogy to the theory...
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Products Liability Preemption: An Institutional Approach

Catherine M. Sharkey · April 2008 76 GEO. WASH. L. REV. 449 (2008) Products liability is a realm in which Congress typically either says everything—coupling broad preemption provisions that would seem to wipe out competing state tort claims with broad “savings clauses” that would seem to preserve those same actions—or nothing at all. Moreover, Congress...
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A Passive Approach to Regulation of Virtual Worlds

Jacob Rogers · February 2008 76 GEO. WASH. L. REV. 405 (2008) Imagine waking up one morning to find that your neighbor had erected a nude statue of himself and pointed it toward your window. Even worse, the moment you leave for work, a group of surly strangers makes your house its home. To top...
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Is This Your Bedroom?: Reconsidering Third-Party Consent Searches Under Modern Living Arrangements

Russell M. Gold · February 2008 76 GEO. WASH. L. REV. 375 (2008) Americans live in countless different types of housing arrangements. Whether for convenience, financial necessity, companionship, or other reasons, nearly ten percent of American households include at least one nonrelative. This variety of living arrangements has increased significantly in recent years. The Supreme...
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