Parchment
Facilitating Faculty Scholarship and Research
At Toledo Law, we value scholarly engagement, which not only promotes knowledge in the field of law but also enhances our ability to teach our students in-depth information about our fields of law. Our recent scholarship shows that our faculty are leaders in their respective legal fields and teach our students the most relevant legal theory.
The Parchment is updated frequently with articles, books, and publications that have been accepted or published, as well as presentations that are scheduled or have been delivered by our 蜜桃传媒 of Law faculty.
Faculty Scholarship Highlights
Queering the Climate Crisis in "Climate Justice: Resisting Marginalization."
Zsea Bowmani
听
Toledo Law professor Zsea Bowmani had his book chapter, 鈥淨ueering the Climate Crisis,鈥� published in the edited volume Climate Justice: Resisting Marginalization by Cambridge University Press. The book is available via Open Access (as well as through major retailers).
The Policy Loop That Broke Hospitals: Medicare Underpayment, Insurer Incentives, and Wall Street's Unchecked Gutting of Healthcare
Candice Kline & Sara DeHaven, J.D. '26
听
The Article examines two developing crises: the collapse of Steward Health Care, the largest hospital failure in American history, and the pending MultiPlan litigation, which alleges algorithmic suppression of reimbursement across hundreds of health plans. Together, these disputes illustrate how vertically integrated insurers, private equity sponsors, and financial intermediaries may suppress provider reimbursement, influence utilization decisions, acquire distressed healthcare assets, and profit from provider failure.
听
The Article argues that current doctrine fails because antitrust law remains narrowly focused on consumer price effects while federal bankruptcy preemption forecloses meaningful state intervention. As a result, communities lose access to emergency rooms, obstetrics units, and other essential care infrastructure, even where market participants technically comply with existing regulatory regimes.
听
Accepted into Drexel Law Review 2026 Fall Symposium.
Undemocratic: Antiabortion Politicians鈥� Attacks on Direct Democracy
Deborah Machalow
听
This Article highlights examples of antiabortion politicians abusing their positions throughout the initiative process to maintain their preferred antiabortion status quo during the 2024 election cycle, before Election Day, despite broad and increasing support for legal abortion. Ultimately, in only Arkansas, Florida, Nebraska, and South Dakota, antiabortion politicians succeeded; in Arizona, Colorado, Missouri, Montana, and Nevada, citizens voted to expressly protect abortion in their state constitutions through the citizen-led initiative process.
Defending Civil Service Rules from Existential Attacks - Worklaw
Joseph Slater
听
In 鈥淒efending Civil Service Rules from Existential Attacks,鈥� Toledo Law professor Joseph Slater reviews Catherine Fisk鈥檚 article Democracy and a Nonpartisan Civil Service, which examines recent efforts to weaken or eliminate civil service protections for federal employees. The article argues that merit-based civil service rules, established to prevent political patronage and ensure government competence, are facing unprecedented challenges through proposals that would make many federal employees easier to fire and more directly accountable to political leaders.
Cyber Letters of Marque: Addressing the Geopolitical Risks of Private Cyber Warfare: Lessons from History and International Law
Glenys Spence
听
This Article examines H.R. 4988, the 鈥淐ybercrime Marque and Reprisal Authorization Act of 2025,鈥� which seeks to revive the historical practice of letters of marque by authorizing cyber letters of marque against state-linked cybercrime. It argues that, although escalating state-sponsored cyberattacks and attribution difficulties have prompted calls for novel defensive tools, this proposal represents an anachronistic and dangerous use of constitutional authority. By delegating coercive power to private actors operating extraterritorially, the bill threatens to recreate in cyberspace the blurred lines between public and private violence that characterized mercenary practices during the Thirty Years鈥� War and the activities of chartered trading companies in the imperial era.
Fugitives From Slavery, Free Black Activists, and the Origins of Birthright Citizenship
Rebecca Zietlow
听
This Essay explores the origins of birthright citizenship and describes the centrality of citizenship rights in the advocacy of people who participated in the Free Black Civil Rights Movement and Antislavery Movement. Birthright citizenship is a promise of equality for all people born in the United States, regardless of their race or their parents' national origin. It is in our Constitution today because of the advocacy of people who were brought involuntarily into our country and claimed their right to citizenship with their actions and their activism.
Issues
Evan Zoldan
听
This Article argues that the ambiguous term 鈥渋ssue鈥� found in Federal Rules of Civil Procedure 50 and 52 is best read to mean a 鈥渄ispute of fact.鈥� This reading best comports with judicial interpretations of Rules 50 and 52, best fits their history and purpose, and best connects them with conceptually related rules of civil procedure. In order to eliminate the ambiguity of the term 鈥渋ssue鈥濃�攁nd avoid future interpretive difficulties鈥擱ules 50 and 52 should be amended to clarify their meaning.
Past Faculty Scholarship
January - March 2026
Zsea Bowmani听had his book chapter, 鈥淨ueering the Climate Crisis,鈥� published by听听in the edited volume听Climate Justice:听Resisting Marginalisation. The book is available via听听(as well as through听major retailers).
Paul Finkelman听was cited in two decisions issued by the 4th听Circuit Court of Appeals last month,听United States v. Vazquez-Ramirez, 2026 WL 17253 (4th Cir. 2026),听and听Kipke v. Moore, 2026 WL 143528 (4th Cir. 2026).听Paul also had two of his books cited in "Dred Scott ruling denied Black citizenship,
fueled white supremacy stands as one of Supreme Court's darkest moments" in the Pensacola
News Journal. His book review "" was published in Los Angeles Review of Books. At the end of January, Paul gave a
talk titled "The Nation's First Step Towards Religious Liberty and an Ambiguous Notion
of Racial Fairness: 听The Northwest Ordinance of 1787," at The Ohio State University
Conference听New Perspectives on the Northwest Ordinance,听Sponsored the Ohio State University Mershon Center for International Security Studies,
OSU's Chase Center for Civics, Culture, and Society, and America 250-Ohio. He was
also quoted in "" from the Southern Poverty Law Center and his听essay review (attached) published in
the American Jewish Archives Journal on slavery and American Jews.
Candice Kline听attended the Southern Region Conference for the Commercial Law League of America
(CLLA), as a representative of the bankruptcy section, board member, and (nominated)
president-elect in February. Also, she will record an episode on Feb. 26 for the CLLA's
"Outstanding Accounts" podcast series about her experiences in bankruptcy law.
Deborah Machalow鈥檚听symposium piece听听was published in the Baltimore Law Review.
Joseph Slater听published听, a review of an article by Catherine Fisk on federal civil service rules in JOTWELL:
the Journal of Things We Like (Lots).
Glenys Spence听presented听听on January 7th听at the AALS Annual Meeting in New Orleans for the Junior Faculty Workshop: Section
on Race and Private Law. On February 6th,听she presented her paper听听at the听Indiana International and Comparative Law Review听Symposium - America at the
Crossroads: International Policy, Global Relationships, and Domestic Market Consequences,
Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law, Indianapolis, IN. On February
11th, she presented her paper听听at the Washington & Lee International Business Transactions (IBT) Roundtable.听She
also served as an Arbitrator/Judge on February 14th听for the Florida Bar Section of International Law,听Richard DeWitt Willem C. Vis Arbitration听Pre-Moot Competition.
Rebecca Zietlow听presented "Nothing Doesn't Matter: What I Learned from My Mother About Women's Leadership" at the 2025-2026 Association of American Law Schools Section on Women in Legal Education
Conference at Boston University School of Law on February 13.听 Her essay will be published
in the BU Law Review
December 2025
Zsea Bowmani听presented his work at the virtual Ecological Justice workshop hosted by the University
of Birmingham, Newcastle University, and the University of St. Andrews, which brought
together scholars and practitioners across disciplines to advance our thinking about
multispecies planetary crisis, governance, and justice; build a global network; and
work toward publication of workshop contributions.
Paul Finkelman听had a presentation on听听at the Rosenbach Museum in Philadelphia. He was recently cited in the USA Today article
"," and "," both part of their "Injustices" series. He was also cited in this case in the听.
Greg Gilchrist听led a two-day civil discourse practicum for undergraduates and law students in which
the students were asked to discuss immigration. The event encouraged engagement with
a contentious issue between people who disagree and taught methods for more successful
discussions in the civic arena. He also participated in a fireside chat on the subject
of civil discourse at the UT Foundation with Provost Mitchell McKinney and Professor
Nasser Hussain on civil discourse. Judge James K. Knepp presented to Gilchrist鈥檚 Civil
Procedure students, some of whom also went on a 鈥渇ield trip鈥� to the U.S. District
Court to observe a hearing and meet with Judge Darrell Clay, a federal prosecutor,
and a U.S. Pretrial Services Officer.
Joseph Slater听gave a presentation on Nov. 14 at the ABA Annual Labor and Employment Law Conference
in Denver. The panel was 鈥淧ublic Sector Labor Law Primer,鈥� and the paper was "How
and Why Private-Sector Labor Laws Should Practice Public-Sector Labor Law.鈥� On November
18, he gave the annual William R. Stewart Endowed Lecture at the Maurer School of
Law, Indiana University, in Bloomington. The topic was 鈥淩ecent and Continuing Attacks
on Collective Bargaining in the Federal Sector.鈥�
Jason Steed听will be speaking to Indiana appellate judges about "Better Judicial Writing" (CLE
presentation) at their annual Winter Workshop in December.
Kelly Tomlinson听spoke at a November 13th听Toledo Women's Bar Association听CLE program,听Anatomy of a Murder: Exploring Ethical Professionalism in Trial Practice. She presented on current Ohio Rules of Professional Conduct and disciplinary cases
evoked by situations in Otto Preminger's 1959 film,听Anatomy of a Murder, and moderated a discussion panel of judges and attorneys.听听
Rebecca Zietlow听presented her paper,听Fugitives From Slavery, Free Black Activists, and the Origins of Birthright Citizenship听at the Loyola Constitutional Law Colloquium in Chicago.听 At the same conference,
she also appeared on a panel discussing David Sloss's new book,听People v. The Court: The Next Revolution in Constitutional Law.
November 2025
Paul Finkelman presented a paper on "Race and the Territories" at the Lat Crit 30th Anniversary Conference in Denver. The paper examines how Congress structured the admission of new states to the Union from 1800 to 1952 to favor the migration of White settlers, and in many ways explicitly discriminated against non-White migrants. The paper will be submitted for publication later this academic year.
Candice Kline presented two CLE programs at the Toledo Bar Association's Legal Perspectives for听Nonprofits: Boards, Fiscal Responsibility, Conflict Resolution, and More, featuring a presentation on Conflict Resolution for Nonprofits and participation as a panelist in the "Ask a Nonprofit Lawyer" session. She presented her law review article draft,听Channeling Fairness, at the Central States Law Schools Association 2025 Scholarship Conference hosted by the University of Kansas Law School. (). She also听joined an amicus brief filed at the U.S. Supreme Court in the Boy Scouts of America bankruptcy case,听.
Rebecca Zietlow听spoke on a panel听discussing Professor Mark Graber鈥檚 recent book,听Punish Treason, Reward Loyalty: The Forgotten Goals of Constitutional Reform, at a day-long conference on the book at New York Law School on October 10.
Evan Zoldan was invited to present The Unitary Interpreter at the Legislation Roundtable, Yale Law School.
October 2025
Paul Finkelman gave the Constitution Day talk at Louisiana State University School of Law on Birthright Citizenship on September 15. He gave a Constitution Day talk on September 17 (via Zoom) for Touro Law School on Long Island in New York State on Baseball, Constitutionalism, and the Rule of Law. On September 22, he gave the Dean's Democracy Series Lecture at Santa Clara University School of Law on birthright citizenship and was also the guest teacher in the school's Sports Law Class, discussing the case of Popov v. Hayashi, which focused on the ownership of Barry Bonds' 73rd Home Run Ball. Professor Finkelman was the lead expert witness in that case, which is currently found in most Property Law casebooks, including the one co-authored by Professor Cavalieri.听
Greg Gilchrist is coordinating three speaker events this term. First, on October 7, our own Professor Nathan Goetting will be joined by two Innocence Project lawyers and an exoneree who spent 32 years in prison for a crime he did not commit, to discuss Goetting鈥檚 new book,听The Supreme Court鈥檚 Actual Innocence Problem. On October 23, Professor Alan Rozenshtein from the University of Minnesota will give the Stranahan Lecture, titled听The Unitary AI Executive. On November 13, Professor Nasser Hussain from Duke will give a talk entitled Teaching Taboo Subjects.
Candice Kline had two articles published for the National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges (NCBJ) in September 2025: , 44 Am. Bankr. Inst. J. 9 (Sept. 2025) and , Com. L. World (Sept. 2025).
Joseph Slater presented the paper,听The Current Crisis in Federal-Sector Labor Relations听at the 20th Annual Colloquium on Scholarship in Employment and Labor Law at Seton Hall University Law School on Sept. 20.
Glenys Spence will be presenting at the AALS Section on Race and Private Law Junior Faculty Workshop during the 2026 annual meeting in New Orleans. The title of her paper is Poseidon's Enduring Legacy: Historical Injustices, Deep Seabed Mining, Private Law, and Racial Justice in the Global South.听Additionally, she has been invited to speak on May 19, 2026, at the Washington and Lee University School of Law International Business Roundtable. The title of her presentation will be Exploiting the Deep: Incomplete Contracts, Agency Failure, and Corporate Behavior in Deep Seabed Mining.听Furthermore, she will participate in the Private Law and Multicultural Identities Conference, hosted by the Section in Italy, which will take place from July 13 to 16, 2026, in Arona, Italy.听Professor Spence听has also been selected as a member of the 2025-2026 Working Group on International Contracting & Theory of the Firm, which consists of a series of virtual webinars hosted by Washington and Lee University School of Law.听Lastly, she published an article titled , 15 J. Nat'l Security L. & Pol'y 267 (2025).
Evan Zoldan agreed to publish听The Enduring Value of the Right to a Hearing听with the Memphis Law Review.
September 2025
Zsea Bowmani's听chapter on the climate crisis (presented in 2023 at Friedrich-Alexander University in Erlangen-N眉rnberg, Germany) will be published in the volume鈥嬏�Climate Justice: Resisting Marginalisation听by Cambridge University Press, available in print and open access September 2025. Bowmani was also part of a law professor听amicus听brief submitted to the California Court of Appeals, 1st District in the animal rights defense case听People v. Hsiung听(submitted August 5, 2025).
Candice Kline听was a panelist at the Commercial Law League's National Convention on May 15, 2025,
presenting on Chapter 11 developments. Kline has two articles being published for
the National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges (NCBJ) in September 2025:听Breaking Barriers: Advocating for State AGs in Chapter 11 Proceedings, 44 Am. Bankr. Inst. J. 9 (Sept. 2025) and听Simmering Issues in Chapter 11: The Future of Nondebtor Releases, Injunctions, and
Consent in Bankruptcy Reorganization after Purdue Pharma, Com. L. World (Sept. 2025).
Paul Finkelman听published听Defeating Antisemitism in the World鈥檚 First Democratic Republic: The American Revolution
and Jewish Legal and Political Equality听(co-authored with Lance J. Sussman), 40听Touro Law Review听121-71 (2025);听, 43听California Real Property Journal听28-34 (2025);听,听Slate, July 2, 2025;听, Washington Monthly, June 23, 2025. Finkelman was the lead named amici in 鈥淏rief
for Professors Paul Finkelman, Gabriel J. Chin, and Erika Lee as听amici curiae听in support of plaintiffs-appellees and affirmance鈥� in Casa Inc., et al. v. Donald
J. Trump, et al.鈥� in United State Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, filed June
4, 2025. He is a named amici in two other briefs to the First Circuit Court of Appeals
and in one brief to the Supreme Court.
Jessica Knouse听presented听Erasing/Inverting Equal Protection: The Debate over Gender-Affirming Names and Pronouns听at the Law & Society听Association Annual Meeting held in summer 2025 as part of the
Feminist Legal Theory CRN's programming.
Debbie Machalow鈥檚听piece,听Terminating Democracy: The Antiabortion Movement's Attempted Subversion of Direct
Democracy听draft on SSRN was cited in the听听in December. The final draft is slated to be published in the Connecticut Public
Interest Law Journal early next year. A shorter, narrow piece (Undemocratic: Antiabortion Politicians' Attacks on Direct Democracy) was accepted by the Journal of Race, Gender, and Ethnicity.听She presented her听Terminating Democracy听research in March at the Eastern Sociological Society's Mini-Conference on Reproduction
(in Boston); in April at the Democracy Works-in-Progress Conference at Michigan State
University 蜜桃传媒 of Law; and听in May at the Law & Society Annual Conference (in Chicago).
Machalow presented related work,听Miscarriage of Democracy: What Happened in Arkansas, Florida, Nebraska, and South
Dakota to Defeat Abortion-Related Ballot Measures in 2024,听at the University of Baltimore Law Review Symposium on States and the Battle to
Secure Reproductive Freedoms Post-Dobbs in March.听 The related article's publication
is anticipated in January 2026.听In March, she also presented a project titled听Actively Doing Harm: Restrictive Abortion Laws Make Pregnancy More Dangerous and Increase
Obstacles to Reproductive Care听at Touro's Institute for Health Law, Bioethics, and Policy's Annual Symposium. She
also presented similar work to the Toledo Women's Bar Association in March.听In May,
she presented her summer project idea (Involuntarily Unsterilized: Needed Changes to the Medicaid Sterilization Consent Process
Post-Dobbs) at the Politics of Reproduction Workshop, the University of Kentucky Developing
Ideas Conference, and the Midwest Legal Scholars Roundtable. She also presented it
at the monthly Reproductive Rights / Reproductive Justice Roundtable in June.听
Glenys Spence听published听Combating Maritime Perils in the Global Supply Chain: An Analysis of Force Majeure
Clauses and the Doctrine of Commercial Impracticability in the Wake of 鈥淪tate-Sponsored
Piracy, 15 J. Nat'l Security L. & Pol'y 267 (2025).
Evan Zoldan听presented听The Major Questions Doctrine in the States听to the Federation of Association of Regulatory Boards in April. He also presented听Measuring Judicial Ideology听at the Michigan State University Democracy Roundtable in April. In May, he presented听The Unitary Interpreter听at the inaugural Midwest Legal Scholars Roundtable at Wayne State. In July, he presented听The Shifting Regulatory Landscape听at the Federation of Association of Regulatory Boards Annual Summit.