Truck accident litigation

Meeting proceedings of a seminar by the same name, held March 4, 2020

The Marriage of the False Claims Act and the Freedom of Information Act: Parasitic Potential or Positive Synergy?

The qui tam provisions of the False Claims Act ( FCA or the Act ) allow private citizens to prosecute fraud on the government\u27s behalf. There are at least three primary justifications for such provisions: (1) the need to provide private incentives to expose fraudulent conduct, (2) the Justice Department\u27s unwillingness to aggressively prosecute fraud, and (3) the limited enforcement resources available to the federal government. The FCA contains a jurisdictional bar that provides that no court shall have jurisdiction over a qui tam FCA action if the information on which the action is based has been publicly disclosed. Ostensibly, this jurisdictional bar is in place to prohibit freeloaders from bringing parasitic actions while contributing nothing to the actual disclosure of fraud. The central problem this Note seeks to address is whether a disclosure pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act constitutes a public disclosure within the meaning of the FCA. Hence, this Note asks whether FCA actions based on information in Freedom of Information Act ( FOIA ) disclosures will be jurisdictionally barred. The prevailing view is that a disclosure made pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act qualifies as a public disclosure within the meaning of the FCA, thus triggering the jurisdictional bar. This Note will demonstrate why the prevailing interpretation is problematic, and why the future of qui tam litigation under the FCA may be in jeopardy. While five courts of appeals have considered this problem, to date no commentator has addressed the issue

The Mosaic Theory, National Security, and the Freedom of Information Act

This Note documents the evolution of the mosaic theory in Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) national security law and highlights its centrality in the post-9/11 landscape of information control. After years of doctrinal stasis and practical anonymity, federal agencies began asserting the theory more aggressively after 9/11, thereby testing the limits of executive secrecy and of judicial deference. Though essentially valid, the mosaic theory has been applied in ways that are unfalsifiable, in tension with the text and purpose of FOIA, and susceptible to abuse and overbreadth. This Note therefore argues, against precedent, for greater judicial scrutiny of mosaic theory claims

The Importance of Accessible Government Data in Advancing Environmental Justice

Part I of this Article sets forth the history and animating principles of the environmental justice movement in the United States during the 1970s, which developed as an adjunct to the larger civil rights movement. Part II then turns to the role of documents and data in exposing where toxins present a risk to public health and where documentation habitually falls short. It discusses how freedom of information laws can unlock access to the documents and data that quantify environmental hazards but also how those laws fail to produce reliable results because of the influence of regulated industries. Part III examines how journalists and advocates use data to call public attention to dangerous environmental conditions and provoke change—and how, at times, they must build their own databases to make up for government regulators’ failings. Part IV concludes by underscoring the symbiotic relationship between two movements—environmental justice and open government—that evolved along parallel timelines with complementary goals. Because effective environmental advocacy depends on requiring regulators to gather and report trustworthy information, the authors conclude, government transparency should be recognized as a necessary prerequisite to the success of environmental justice advocacy. This abstract has been taken from the authors\u27 introduction

Reforming the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to Curb Executive Branch Abuse of Surveillance Techniques

As intelligence agencies like the NSA increase their surveillance activities on law-abiding citizens, the need for protection of privacy rights becomes apparent. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) was designed to protect this fundamental right, but due to changes in the law and to the structure of the court, the court’s role as a watchdog has been weakened. This Comment provides an overview of amendments to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act that have tempered the court’s role, including the USA FREEDOM Act of 2015 (Freedom Act), and discusses the need for reform of the FISC due to the unwieldy nature of surveillance agencies. Ultimately, this Comment identifies structural changes that could restore the court to the protector of privacy rights that it was initially intended to be

The Power of Debt: Identity and Collective Action in the Age of Finance

The Debt Collective is organized around the possibility for radical action within and against finance capitalism. In the wake of the 2008 financial crisis it was often hard to understand how finance intersected with the everyday lives of ordinary—and especially, poor—people. But in the years since, it has become increasingly clear that mass indebtedness—from the mortgage crisis to student debt, criminal “justice” fines and fees to municipal austerity—is a direct effect of the conflict between debt payments generating value as securitized investments (mortgage backed securities, municipal bond offerings) vs. their role in providing shelter, food, and the ability to merely get by. In the age of finance, debt has become an immersive, systemic problem; but it is one that, in its ubiquity, may hold the seeds of its own solutions. As oil tycoon JP Getty famously quipped: “If you owe the bank $100 that’s your problem. If you owe the bank$100 million, that’s the bank’s problem.” Student debt alone stands today at 1.5 trillion dollars. Together, arguably, we can be the banks’ problem. This is the provocation of the Debt Collective: how can we reframe debt from an issue of isolation and shame to a platform for collective action and political mobilization