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While the standing doctrine is one of the most widely theorized and criticized doctrines in U.S. law, its origins remain controversial. One revisionist view argues that New Deal progressive Justices purposely invented the standing doctrine to insulate administrative agencies from judicial review. Yet existing support for this “insulation thesis” is weak. Our Article provides the…

In line with accepted theories of environmental law, many prominent environmental law scholars have dismissed the climate change plans of U.S. cities and other local governments, presuming that these efforts will have no more than a trivial effect on greenhouse gas emissions. Drawing upon economic theories, others find local “piecemeal” efforts not only ineffective, but…

Bankruptcy judges enjoy neither of the twin structural protections provided by Article III of the Constitution: life tenure and compensation that cannot be diminished. Yet, they exercise broad adjudicatory powers. This Article questions whether the conventional justifications for non-Article III tribunals should apply to the bankruptcy courts and offers alternative rationales for the current system…

In Bivens v. Six Unknown Named Agents of Federal Bureau of Narcotics, 403 U.S. 388 (1971), the Supreme Court held that the Federal Constitution provides a cause of action in damages for violations of the Fourth Amendment by individual federal officers. The so-called “Bivens” cause of action—initially extended to other constitutional provisions and then sharply…

Imagine the following scenario: A police officer is investigating a major drug trafficking ring. She obtains a wiretap on the cell phone of the suspected kingpin of the organization. The wiretap enables her to overhear conversations between the top target of the wiretap and several other people in the drug ring. Before the wiretap produces…

In the aftermath of the Supreme Court’s 2007 opinion in Bell Atlantic v. Twombly, judges and civil procedure scholars throughout the country divided on the opinion’s significance. In just twenty-four pages, Twombly uprooted the Conley v. Gibson standard for evaluating motions to dismiss a lawsuit under Rule 12(b)(6) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.…