FedSoc Forums

This Teleforum will provide an overview of criminal and civil enforcement provisions of environmental laws pertaining to water, air, soil, and hazardous materials. It will include a discussion of the factors that the government considers in deciding whether to pursue a criminal or civil case, and the prospects for enforcement and alternative resolutions under the current Administration.
The Teleforum will be hosted by John Irving, a Partner at Holland & Knight LLP, whose practice and prior work as a prosecutor focuses on internal investigations, white collar defense, and environmental enforcement.
Featuring:
John S. Irving IV, Partner, Holland & Knight LLP

Teleforum calls are open to all dues paying members of the Federalist Society. To become a member, sign up here. As a member, you should receive email announcements of upcoming Teleforum calls which contain the conference call phone number. If you are not receiving those email announcements, please contact us at 202-822-8138.

After Gilbert Hyatt, the petitioner, moved to Nevada he was investigated by the Franchise Tax Board of California for failing to pay California personal income taxes. Due to California’s actions in doing so, Hyatt sued California in Nevada’s courts for negligent misrepresentation, intentional infliction of emotional distress, fraud, invasion of privacy, abuse of process, and breach of a confidential relationship for which the jury found for Hyatt on all claims. California appealed the decision seeking to get the judgment vacated on sovereign immunity grounds.
This teleform will discuss the Supreme Court oral arguments in Franchise Tax Board of California v. Hyatt. This case considers if a citizen can sue a state in the court of a different state. This raises a variety of substantial questions concerning federalism and state sovereign immunity. In Nevada v. Hall (1979), the Supreme Court rejected that sister-state immunity was implicit in the Constitution. Today in Hyatt, 44 states, among others, are asking the Court to overturn that decision and protect states from suit in other state’s courts. Professor Stephen Sachs will discuss how the Court approached this case at oral arguments and its implications on the future of state sovereign immunity.
Featuring:
Prof. Stephen E. Sachs, Professor of Law, Duke Law

Teleforum calls are open to all dues paying members of the Federalist Society. To become a member, sign up here. As a member, you should receive email announcements of upcoming Teleforum calls which contain the conference call phone number. If you are not receiving those email announcements, please contact us at 202-822-8138.

American patent law has witnessed a number of high-profile patent wars throughout history and today is no exception. One of the latest chapters is the ongoing battle between Apple and its chip supplier Qualcomm. Among the highlights in this saga, Apple has sued Qualcomm in multiple countries, including in a U.S. suit seeking over a billion dollars in damages, while Qualcomm last month obtained a judgment from a Chinese court ordering Apple to stop selling iPhone 6, 7, and 8 series phones in China. These developments are taking place against a backdrop of disappointing Apple revenues attributed to weak Chinese sales, as well as a shifting international trade environment. This Teleforum will bring together experts to discuss the issues at stake and the likely outcomes of the battle between these technology giants, as well as the larger implications for innovation and intellectual property law and policy.
Featuring:
Prof. Jonathan Barnett, Director, Media, Entertainment and Technology Law Program, University of Southern California, Gould School of Law, Los Angeles
Prof. Thomas F. Cotter, Briggs and Morgan Professor of Law, University of Minnesota Law School
Moderator: Prof. Kristen J. Osenga, Professor of Law, University of Richmond School of Law

Teleforum calls are open to all dues paying members of the Federalist Society. To become a member, sign up here. As a member, you should receive email announcements of upcoming Teleforum calls which contain the conference call phone number. If you are not receiving those email announcements, please contact us at 202-822-8138.

The litigation over California's "sanctuary state" law raises important federalism questions that go far beyond the specific issue of immigration policy. The outcome will have a significant impact on potential future state efforts to restrict cooperation with federal law enforcement policies, and federal efforts to compel such cooperation. The litigation involves a federal government challenge to three California laws: Senate Bill 54, which restricts state and local officials from sharing information about immigrants within the state, with federal agencies; Assembly Bill 103, which requires the state attorney general to inspect any facility in the state where immigrants are detained by federal agents while awaiting immigration court dates or deportation; and Assembly Bill 450, which bars private employers from cooperating with federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids and audits unless such cooperation is mandated by a court order or a specific federal law. Last summer, a federal district court ruled in favor of California on the first two issues, but supported the federal government on the third. In this teleforum, Ilya Shapiro and Ilya Somin will debate that and related cases and consider their broader implications for federalism.
Featuring:
Mr. Ilya Shapiro, Director, Robert A. Levy Center for Constitutional Studies, Cato Institute
Prof. Ilya Somin, Professor of Law, Antonin Scalia Law School, George Mason University

Teleforum calls are open to all dues paying members of the Federalist Society. To become a member, sign up here. As a member, you should receive email announcements of upcoming Teleforum calls which contain the conference call phone number. If you are not receiving those email announcements, please contact us at 202-822-8138.

For the first time in over a decade, the Supreme Court has taken a case that could fundamentally alter the way that alcohol is regulated. In Tennessee Wine and Spirits Retailers Association v. Byrd, which will be argued January 16, the Court will determine whether Tennessee’s durational residency requirements for retail liquor licenses are unconstitutional because they effectively impose a nine-year waiting period on out-of-state individuals and corporations. While the residency requirements for in-state brick-and-mortar retail stores are at the heart of the case, the Court’s decision could have far-reaching effects on shipping by out-of-state retailers. Back in 2005, the Court ruled in Granholm v. Heald that the Commerce Clause prevented states from allowing in-state wineries to ship wine directly to consumers while prohibiting out-of-state wineries from doing the same. Although the Court acknowledged that out-of-state producers were protected against discriminatory and protectionist state laws, it did not reach the question of whether out-of-stateretailers were entitled to the same protections. Joining us to discuss the case is Ilya Shapiro of the Cato Institute and Todd Zywicki of George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia Law School.
Featuring:
Ilya Shapiro, Director, Robert A. Levy Center for Constitutional Studies, Cato Institute
Prof. Todd J. Zywicki, George Mason University Foundation Professor of Law, Antonin Scalia Law School

Teleforum calls are open to all dues paying members of the Federalist Society. To become a member, sign up on our website. As a member, you should receive email announcements of upcoming Teleforum calls which contain the conference call phone number. If you are not receiving those email announcements, please contact us at 202-822-8138.

In Merck Sharp & Dohme Corp. v. Albrecht, the Supreme Court has been asked to clarify the nature of the evidence defendants must produce to demonstrate that state law tort claims are preempted by federal law and whether such questions may be submitted to a jury. The Third Circuit rejected defendants’ contention that preemption was a purely legal issue for the court to decide and suggested that defendants must demonstrate that there is a “high probability” that the FDA would have rejected stronger labeling for a pharmaceutical product in order to invoke preemption. Doug Smith will attend the oral argument and then join us to discuss his thoughts on the proceedings.
Featuring:
Douglas G. Smith, P.C., Partner, Kirkland & Ellis LLP

Teleforum calls are open to all dues paying members of the Federalist Society. To become a member, sign up on our website. As a member, you should receive email announcements of upcoming Teleforum calls which contain the conference call phone number. If you are not receiving those email announcements, please contact us at 202-822-8138.

Heather MacDonald discusses her new book: The Diversity Delusion:
"America is in crisis, from the university to the workplace. Toxic ideas first spread by higher education have undermined humanistic values, fueled intolerance, and widened divisions in our larger culture. Chaucer, Shakespeare and Milton? Oppressive. American history? Tyranny. Professors correcting grammar and spelling, or employers hiring by merit? Racist and sexist. Students emerge into the working world believing that human beings are defined by their skin color, gender, and sexual preference, and that oppression based on these characteristics is the American experience. Speech that challenges these campus orthodoxies is silenced with brute force.
The Diversity Delusion argues that the root of this problem is the belief in America’s endemic racism and sexism, a belief that has engendered a metastasizing diversity bureaucracy in society and academia. Diversity commissars denounce meritocratic standards as discriminatory, enforce hiring quotas, and teach students and adults alike to think of themselves as perpetual victims. From #MeToo mania that blurs flirtations with criminal acts, to implicit bias and diversity compliance training that sees racism in every interaction, Heather Mac Donald argues that we are creating a nation of narrowed minds, primed for grievance, and that we are putting our competitive edge at risk.
But there is hope in the works of authors, composers, and artists who have long inspired the best in us. Compiling the author’s decades of research and writing on the subject, The Diversity Delusion calls for a return to the classical liberal pursuits of open-minded inquiry and expression, by which everyone can discover a common humanity."


Teleforum calls are open to all dues paying members of the Federalist Society. To become a member, sign up here. As a member, you should receive email announcements of upcoming Teleforum calls which contain the conference call phone number. If you are not receiving those email announcements, please contact us at 202-822-8138.

Edward Poitevent’s family has owned timber-rich land in Louisiana since Reconstruction. In the 1990s, Weyerhaeuser Company acquired a lease of the Poitevent property for its timber operations, and Weyerhaeuser also purchased a small piece of the land.
But, in 2012, under cover of the Endangered Species Act, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service designated more than 1,500 acres of this property owned by the Poitevent family and Weyerhaeuser a “critical habitat” for the endangered dusky gopher frog. That designation jeopardized development plans for the property that had been in place for years. In the landowners’ view, the designation amounted to a de facto uncompensated taking of the property for the frog
Moreover, no one in the state of Louisiana had spotted the frog in 50 years, and the frog would not survive on the property if it was moved to Louisiana. The only place the frog is found today is nearly 70 miles away from the property—in Mississippi. By locking down land on behalf of a frog that doesn’t - and cannot - live there because of the conditions of the property, the federal government - by its own admission - took an estimated $34 million in economic activity away from the Poitevents and Weyerhaeuser.
On November 27, 2018, the Supreme Court of the United States unanimously ruled that the Fish & Wildlife Service must show that “critical habitat” for an endangered species must in fact be habitat for a species before it can be designated as such. Moreover, in an important administrative law decision, the Court also held that the agency’s decision not to exclude the Poitevent and Weyerhaeuser property from the designation - despite the severe economic impact of the designation to the land owners - was judicially reviewable under the APA. The case is now remanded to the Fifth Circuit for it to consider anew in light of the High Court’s unanimous decision.
Featuring:
Mark Miller, Senior Attorney, Pacific Legal Foundation

Teleforum calls are open to all dues paying members of the Federalist Society. To become a member, sign up here. As a member, you should receive email announcements of upcoming Teleforum calls which contain the conference call phone number. If you are not receiving those email announcements, please contact us at 202-822-8138.

In Timbs v. Indiana, after Tyson Timbs pled guilty to drug charges, the State of Indiana civilly forfeited his vehicle on the theory that he used the vehicle to transport drugs. A state trial court ruled that forfeiture of the $42,000 vehicle for the crime of selling less than $400 worth of drugs was “grossly disproportionate” to his wrongdoing and would violate the Eighth Amendment’s ban on excessive fines. The Indiana Supreme Court reversed, holding that the Eighth Amendment’s Excessive Fines Clause did not even apply to the states.
On November 28, 2018, the Supreme Court will hear argument on whether the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition against excessive fines applies to states, just as it has applied to the federal government since 1791.
Darpana Sheth, Senior Attorney with the Institute for Justice, which represents Tyson Timbs, and Director of IJ’s National Initiative to End Forfeiture Abuse, will discuss the oral arguments in this teleforum.
Featuring:

Darpana Sheth, Senior Attorney, Institute for Justice


Teleforum calls are open to all dues paying members of the Federalist Society. To become a member, sign up here. As a member, you should receive email announcements of upcoming Teleforum calls which contain the conference call phone number. If you are not receiving those email announcements, please contact us at 202-822-8138.

On Monday, November 26, 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments for Apple, Inc. v. Pepper. At issue is whether Apple device (e.g., iPhone, iPad, etc.) users who buy apps from Apple’s App Store may sue Apple for alleged antitrust violations, or whether only app developers may bring such claims. The 9th Circuit below held that the class-action app purchasers have the standing to seek antitrust damages because of Apple “functions” as a “distributor” when it delivers apps to purchasers. Resolution of the case hinges on properly applying Illinois Brick Co. v. Illinois, 431 U.S. 720 (1977), which held that only the direct purchaser of a good or service may sue an allegedly abusive monopolist for damages.

Please join us as Mr. Cory L. Andrews, who filed an amicus curiae brief in the case on behalf of the Washington Legal Foundation, attended oral argument and will discuss the case’s likely outcome and impact.

Teleforum calls are open to all dues-paying members of the Federalist Society. To become a member, sign up here. As a member, you should receive email announcements of upcoming Teleforum calls which contain the conference call phone number. If you are not receiving those email announcements, please contact us at 202-822-8138.