The Chief Justice’s 2018 Year-End Report: The Federal Judiciary and #MeToo
Chief Justice John Roberts released his annual report on the federal judiciary today, focusing on the judiciary’s response to allegations of sexual misconduct in the workplace. Roberts had discussed this issue in his 2017 report, after several female law clerks accused Judge Alex Kozinski – then a prominent judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit – of inappropriate sexual conduct.
Supreme Court of Nevada Cites Contracts 2d and Liability Insurance
The Supreme Court of Nevada recently issued a decision in which it cited two ALI publications: the Restatement (Second) of Contracts and the Restatement of the Law, Liability Insurance (Proposed Final Draft No. 2, approved May 2018). The court looked to these Restatements to guide its analysis of a question of liability-insurance law under the law of Nevada.
The Mountaintop Cemeteries Surrounded by Coal Mines
A recent article for Atlas Obscura explores the interesting and often confusing legality surrounding property law in relation to grave sites. Coal mining pursuits in West Virginia have stretched up into the mountains and on occasion require navigation around generations old grave sites and remnants of forgotten mining towns.
Project Spotlight: Restatement of the Law, Charitable Nonprofit Organizations
A great deal of wealth in the United States is controlled by charitable nonprofit organizations. Yet, an authoritative statement of the law in charitable nonprofit organizations does not exist. The law of charities, drawn as it is from various other parts of the law, in many aspects remains confusing and incomplete. It is difficult for somebody who has not worked in this field to manage all these sources. This is the basis for the Restatement.
Several Roads to Decarceration, All of Which Should Be Taken
As the year comes to a close, it is undeniably true that criminal justice reform is in the air. The federal First Step Act, even with critics on the left and right, heralds a less punitive approach than the “get tough on crime” policies of the past several decades. Recent elections yielded a number of prosecutors swept into office on platforms focused on confronting racial disparities and rethinking approaches to low-level offenses.
October 2018 Council Updates
During its meeting in New York City on October 18 and 19, the ALI Council reviewed drafts for seven Institute projects. Drafts or portions of drafts for six projects received Council approval, subject to the meeting discussion and to the usual prerogative to make nonsubstantive editorial improvements.
The ALI Adviser is intended to inform readers about the legal topics and issues examined in many of ALI’s current projects; posts do not necessarily represent the position of the Institute taken in those projects. Posts on The ALI Adviser are written by ALI project participants, ALI members, and outside sources.