Joseph Rossi*

Alternate service is service of a party in a court proceeding through means other than direct personal service.  Amanda Sexton, DGR Serves First Instances of Service via Social Media Through LinkedIn & Instagram, DGR Legal (Oct. 18, 2017), https://www.dgrlegal.com/electronic-service-of-process/service-via-social-media-linkedin-instagram/.  Often, courts must grant motions for alternative service due to either difficulties in obtaining current information for a party, or because of a party’s evasion. Erdal Turnacioglu, Facebook Notification: You’ve Been Served!, L. Prac. Today (Nov. 13, 2015), https://www.lawpracticetoday.org/article/facebook-notification-youve-been-served/.  This entails posting the summons at a known address, placing the summons in well-known publications, or using a public posting at a local courthouse.  Sexton, supra.  Alternative service has greatly evolved over time as new ways to serve and new issues in service have arisen.  See Turnacioglu, supra.  For example, in auto-tort cases, a party’s insurance carrier, which would be aware of its policy holder’s most current address, may be served rather than the policy holder themselves.  Md. Code Ann., Ins. § 4-107 (West 1997).  Fifteen years ago, service through email in certain instances was approved for the first time.  Sexton, supra; Rio Props., Inc. v. Rio Int’l Interlink, 284 F.3d 1007 (9th Cir. 2002).  In a modern era with the growth of social media there has been a question of, when all else fails, whether social media can be a proper way to serve a party. Turnacioglu, supra.Continue reading “Is Social Media a Viable Vehicle for Alternate Service?”

Travis C. Jones*

Congress passed the latest iteration of the five-year farm bill in February 2014, and it is scheduled to expire in 2018.  Renée Johnson & Jim Monke, Cong. Research Serv., RS22131, What is the Farm Bill? 1 (2018), http://nationalaglawcenter.org/wp-content/uploads/
/assets/crs/RS22131.pdf.  The reauthorization process is underway, but the House and Senate have produced starkly different versions of the new farm bill.  Compare Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 Section-By-Section: Title I – Commodity Problems, Senate.gov, https://www.agriculture.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/ALL%20SBS%20S.3042.pdf (last visited Oct. 25, 2018) (outlining changes to the Farm Bill proposed by S. 3042, 115th Cong. (2018)), with Section-By-Section: H.R. 2, Agriculture and Nutrition Act of 2018, House.gov, https://agriculture.house.gov/uploadedfiles/agriculture_and_nutrition_act_of_2018_
section_by_section.pdf (last visited Oct. 24, 2018) (outlining changes to the Farm Bill proposed by H.R.2, 115th Cong. (2018)).Continue reading “Oh SNAP!  The Farm Bill Will Likely Impact Your Everyday Life.  “

Brenton Conrad*

In 2016, South Dakota enacted emergency legislation requiring out-of-state businesses to pay South Dakota sales tax for any in-state internet purchase, claiming that the loss of revenue from a sales tax was “causing revenue losses and imminent harm . . . through the loss of critical funding for state and local services.”  South Dakota v. Wayfair, Inc., 138 S. Ct. 2080, 2088 (2018) (quoting S. 106, 2016 Leg. Assemb., 91st Sess. (S.D. 2016)).  Pursuant to this Act, sellers that delivered more than $100,000 of goods or completed 200 or more transactions in the state annually were required to collect a 4.5 percent sales tax on all purchases within South Dakota.  Id. at 2089.  As a result, South Dakota filed a declaratory judgment action against Wayfair, Inc., Overstock.com, Inc., and Newegg, three companies that had no physical presence in South Dakota, and did not collect any South Dakota sales taxes, but nonetheless met the requirements of the 2016 South Dakota Legislature.  Id. at 2090.  The South Dakota Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Defendants by citing to the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Quill Corp. v. North Dakota, which enforced the “physical presence rule.”  Id. at 2091.  Ultimately, the 2016 Act was struck down by the South Dakota Supreme Court as unconstitutional.  Id. at 2091.Continue reading “Creating an Even Playing Field: State Sales Tax and Internet Transactions”

*Curtis Snyder

Under Maryland law, a “qualified offshore wind project” is permitted to be located in an area between ten and thirty miles off the coast of Maryland.  Md. Code Ann., Pub. Util. § 7-701(k)(1)(ii) (West 2017).  A qualified offshore wind project is defined as a wind turbine generation facility, which functions to produce renewable energy from ocean winds off the coast.  Md. Code Ann., Pub. Util. § 7-701(k) (West 2017); About Deepwater Wind, Deepwater Wind, http://dwwind.com/about/ (last visited Oct. 25, 2018).   In 2017, Deepwater Wind and U.S. Wind received approval to construct two qualified offshore wind projects off the coast of Ocean City, Maryland.  Jeremy Cox, U.S. Rep. Andy Harris Calls for Delay of Maryland Offshore Wind Projects for More Studies, Delmarva Now (May 30, 2018, 6:29 AM), https://www.delmarvanow.com/story/news/2018/05/30/andy-harris-calls-more-offshore-wind-development-studies-maryland/627226002/ [hereinafter Cox, Calls for Delay].  Deepwater Wind and U.S. Wind’s construction plans reveal the possibility of forty-seven turbines being built in two separate federal leases off the coast of Ocean City.  Id.Continue reading “Maryland Offshore Wind Farms: Concerns of Ocean City, Maryland’s Tourism, and the Fishing Industry”

*Adrian Aldrich

The unassuming dusky gopher frog has become a flashpoint in an ongoing struggle between private landowners advocating for stronger property rights and conservation efforts by the federal government.  Lawrence Hurley, U.S. Top Court Takes Up Property Rights Case Involving Endangered Frog, Reuters (Jan. 22, 2018, 9:45 AM), https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-court-frog/u-s-top-court-takes-up-property-rights-case-involving-endangered-frog-idUSKBN1FB1YO.  This year, the Supreme Court accepted a company’s petition for review of its lawsuit against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS).  Id.  The company alleged that the FWS overreached in its efforts to conserve a highly endangered animal.  Amy Howe, Justices Add Frog Case to Merits Docket, SCOTUSblog (Jan. 22, 2018, 3:02 PM), http://www.scotusblog.com/2018/01/justices-add-frog-case-merits-docket/.  The case’s central issue is whether the FWS overreached by designating private land leased by the Weyerhaeuser Company (the petitioner) as “critical habitat,” thereby imposing restrictions on use of the land, even though the species in question does not and —arguably— cannot live on the land.  Petition for a Writ of Certiorari at *i, Weyerhaeuser Co. v. U.S. Fish & Wildlife Serv., 2017 WL 2992380 (2017) (No. 17-71) [hereinafter Cert. Petition].Continue reading “Will the Supreme Court’s Decision in the Case of the Dusky Gopher Frog Forecast the Twilight of the Endangered Species Act?”