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Presidents, Congress, And Classified Information: The Constitutional Limitations And Processes Required To Declassify Information, Nick Dunard

Catholic University Law Review

On August 8 2022, the Federal Bureau of Investigation executed a search warrant at former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Resort. The search uncovered hundreds of documents bearing various classification and governmental markings. On June 8, 2023, Trump was indicted in the Southern District of Florida on thirty-seven counts of unlawful retention of national defense information. Almost immediately after the search, the former President and his allies advanced a theory that Trump’s retention of classified documents was permissible because he had declassified the documents before leaving office on January 20, 2021. The former President has repeatedly mentioned these arguments in both …

Clarifying The Probable Cause Standard In The Internet Age For Crimes Involving Child Pornography, Justin Kenyon

Catholic University Law Review

Since the rise of the Internet Age in the early 1990s the distribution of child pornography has increased at a staggering rate. In response Congress has repeatedly enacted legislation with the goal of eliminating the child pornography industry however, to date, a uniform probable cause standard to find evidence of these crimes remains elusive. This article explores the various approaches used to establish a sufficient basis of probable cause to search for evidence of child pornography. Within the last decade a clear divide has formed around the question of whether a prior conviction of child molestation can contribute to a …

Soft-Served Deserts: Soft Retributivism As A Free Will-Independent Alternative For The Criminal Justice System, Theodore Benson Randles

Catholic University Law Review

Human free will is foundational to our criminal justice system, yet contemporary scientific understanding casts doubt on a robust sense of human free will. If a person’s actions are wholly determined by the laws of physics, is that person morally deserving of punishment? This Article argues that our criminal justice system can be put on a footing that is not threatened by physical determinism. It suggests that a coherent system of criminal punishment can be founded on Daniel Farrell’s notion of “weak retributivism.” The Article build on Farrell’s work and develops a system built up from the universal right to …

Federal Criminal Defendants Out Of The Frying Pan And Into The Fire? Brady And The United States Attorney’S Office, Vida B. Johnson

Catholic University Law Review

The Supreme Court decided Brady v. Maryland in an effort to ensure fair trials and fair outcomes. The Brady decision requires prosecutors to disclose exculpatory evidence regarding guilt of the defendant. The Brady rule is meant to ensure innocent defendants are not convicted for crimes they did not commit. This rule should have unanimous support from both prosecution and defense teams, and yet Brady violations continue to occur within prosecutor offices around the country.

No offender highlights the short comings of the current system more so than the United States Attorney’s Office. Since the Brady decision, the USAO has repeated …

Miranda’S Near Death Experience: Reflections On The Occasion Of Miranda’S Fiftieth Anniversary, Eugene R. Milhizer

Catholic University Law Review

Miranda v. Arizona is widely regarded as one of the most controversial Supreme Court decisions in U.S. history. Shortly after the case was decided, Gallop Polls indicated that 63% of the public felt the Supreme Court was too soft on criminals. But despite its controversy, Miranda has become so widely accepted in popular culture that most people cannot imagine a criminal justice system without it. This wide spread acceptance, however, is more of a recent phenomenon in the landmark case’s history.

This article discusses Miranda’s tumultuous past; its harsh criticism from the legal community, academics, and the public at …

Federalism, Federal Courts, And Victims' Rights, Michael E. Solimine, Kathryn Elvey

Catholic University Law Review

One of the most striking developments in American criminal law and procedure in the past four decades has been the widespread establishment of victims’ rights at both the federal and state levels. A conspicuous exception to the success of the victims’ rights movement has been the failure of Congress to pass a proposed amendment to the U.S. Constitution that would uniformly establish such rights in all federal and state courts. Advanced by both private organizations and state officials, and with bipartisan support in Congress, bills establishing a Victims’ Rights Amendment (VRA) have been introduced several times in the past three …

Reality Check: Detention In The War On Terror, Monica Eppinger

Catholic University Law Review

No abstract provided.

United States V. Reeves: The Struggle To Save The Direct/Collateral Consequences Test After Padilla, Soojin Kim

Catholic University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Whistleblowers And Rogues: An Urgent Call For An Affirmative Defense To Corporate Criminal Liability, Marcia Narine

Catholic University Law Review

No abstract provided.