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Case 11cv773 In U.S. Dist. Court, Western Wisconsin, By C. Cooper, Christopher C. Cooper Dr., Attorney

Christopher C. Cooper Dr.

COMPLAINT FOR INJUNCTIVE RELIEF; DECLARATORY RELIEF & MONETARY DAMAGES

Plaintiffs, “D” by and through KURTIS B., as father and next friend, JENNIFER B. and KURTIS B., by and through undersigned counsel, and complaining of the Defendants, JAMES KOPP, sued in his individual capacity (hereinafter “KOPP”), JAN MORAVITS, sued in her individual capacity (hereinafter “MORAVITS”) and LISA RINIKER, sued in her individual capacity (hereinafter “RINIKER”), state as follows:

NATURE OF COMPLAINT & SYNOPSIS

This is primarily a 42 U.S.C. §1983 action in which a 6 year-old child identified as "D", joined by his parents, allege violations of their U.S. 1st, 4th, …

The First Amendment In The Multicultural Climate Of Colleges And Universities: A Story Ending With Christian Legal Society V. Martinez, Blake M. Lawrence

Blake M Lawrence

This article argues that the “limited public forum” analysis used by the United States Supreme Court in Christian Legal Society v. Martinez correctly addresses the competing concerns of students and university administration when approaching free speech and association on college and university campuses. It extensively analyzes the creation of the “limited public forum” analysis, explains why that particular analysis is ill-equipped for limiting high-school speech, and comprehensively addresses the Christian Legal Society v. Martinez opinion. Further, weaknesses in the dicta of Christian Legal Society v. Martinez are analyzed and points made by dissenting Justices are critiqued.

Friendly Fire Casualties Of American Civil Liberty In The War On Terror: Humanitarian Law Project V. Holder And The Erosion Of Free Speech, Alicia C. Armstrong Esq.

Alicia C Armstrong

The holding in Humanitarian Law Project (HLP) v. Holder marks a significant shift in First Amendment doctrine, unprecedented since the early twentieth century “Red Scare” cases. The HLP decision suggests that free speech principles which have been developing for over half a century—culminating in the paramount protection of “subversive advocacy”—are less deserving of adherence in the face of terrorism than in times of relative peace. Throughout the past several decades, the Court has retreated from the notion that speech which is disturbing to public opinion but benign in its capability to incite imminent lawless action deserves lower legal protection. To …

Bearing Injustice: Foster Care, Pregnancy Prevention, And The Law, Taylor I. Dudley

Taylor I Dudley

The State has numerous responsibilities to children and youth in and emancipating from foster care. Ensuring a foster child’s medical welfare is among the most imperative of the State’s obligations. Pregnancy prevention is a unique component of medical welfare and long-term well-being. Indeed, it stands out as a responsibility that the State must fulfill to counteract the likelihood of diminished life outcomes that so many former foster children face. However, like many problems facing foster children, pregnancy is noticed, yet unaddressed; contemplated, yet unresolved. The State’s failure to adequately address pregnancy prevention among youth in foster care is unconstitutional under …

The Times They Are A-Changin’: The “Sexting” Problem And How The Intrusiveness Of A Cell Phone Search Determines The (Un)Constitutionality Of Suspicion-Based And Suspicionless Searches In The Public School Setting, Andrew T. Moore

Andrew T Moore

In the past decade cell phone use amongst teenagers has gone from luxury to perceived necessity. With the expanded abilities of modern cell phones, students are able to easily participate in social sexual behavior such as sending explicit images of themselves or others to other cell phone users, an activity known as “sexting.” While schools may want to do all they can to eradicate this behavior, school administrators must not violate the constitutional rights of their students in the process of doing so. When a school administrator comes to suspect “sexting” behavior, he or she must follow existing Fourth Amendment …

Right To Information Identity, Elad Oreg

Elad Oreg

Inspired by the famous Warren&Brandeis conceptualization of the "right to privacy", this article tries to answer a modern conceptual lacuna and present the argument for the need to conceptualize and recognize a new, independent legal principle of a "right to information-identity". This is the right of an individual to the functionality of the information platforms that enable others to identify and know him and to remember who and what he is. Changes in technology and social standards make the very notion of identity increasingly fluid, transforming the way it is treated and opening new and fascinating ways of relating to …

The Invisible Man: How The Sex Offender Registry Results In Social Death, Elizabeth B. Megale

Elizabeth B. Megale

This Article establishes that overcriminalization serves to marginalize unwanted groups of society, and particularly regarding the sex offender registry, it results in social death. The author relies upon the notion of crime as a social construct to establish that the concept of “sex offense” changes over time as society and culture evolve. From there, the author incorporates the work of Michele Foucault involving the relationship of power, knowledge, and sexuality to show how the trend toward more repressive social controls over sex-related activity is related to a shift in this relationship. The Author identifies three characteristics and the associated traits …

Dreams Deferred – Why In-State College Tuition Rates Are Not A Benefit Under The Iirira And How This Interpretation Violates The Spirit Of Plyler, Laura A. Hernandez

Laura A Hernandez

A legal barrier to education. The concept is distinctly un-American. We are well acquainted with the narrative. No matter how humble your childhood circumstances, if you studied hard, dreamed big and worked even harder, access to the United States’ finest universities would be yours. A college degree would provide employment opportunities, the chance to form bonds with scions of the privileged and well connected, and with any luck, a direct entree into that world of financial security.

Because this particular tale of manifest destiny has such a strong hold on the American psyche, it is understandable why the number of …

Electronic Discovery: A Survey Of E-Discovery, Its Effect On Corporate Constitutional Rights And Why Corporations May Receive The Fifth Amendment Privilege Against Self-Incrimination During Parallel Civil And Criminal Litigation, Percy Arnell King

Percy Arnell King Esq.

Advancing technology has created more places to seek out relevant information than ever before which, has created a burden for corporations tasked with retaining this information to comply with applicable laws and the prospect of civil or criminal litigation. This article explores how the modern trend of storing information electronically and subsequent electronic discovery allowed in parallel civil and criminal trials is inherently unfair to corporations. Furthermore, corporations have been granted several rights derived from the Bill of Rights, and should also receive the Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination.

Freezing Assets In The War On Terror: Ofac And The Fourth Amendment, Rebecca Kagan Sternhell

Rebecca Kagan Sternhell

In 2001, President Bush issued Executive Order 13224 declaring a state of national emergency and triggering an array of emergency powers. Chief among these powers was the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (“IEEPA”), which permits the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Asset Control (“OFAC”) to freeze the assets and accounts of suspected terrorists and their affiliates. Recently OFAC has gone after U.S. charities. Three US charities filed suit alleging Fourth Amendment violations. Each organization received a different judicial determination on the Fourth Amendment question. The paper discusses these three cases and demonstrates no consensus on the Fourth Amendment issue. There …

The Fetish For Authentic Race In American Law, Christopher A. Bracey

Christopher A Bracey

This article offers an interdisciplinary and transhistorical account of race authentication as it has evolved over the past two centuries within American law and culture. As 21st century Americans, we find ourselves in the midst of an authenticity revival – a reaction to the increasingly vapid and digitized world in which we live. We generally crave authentic items and experiences, and this impulse has gained increased traction in the racial context. Most commentators agree that American society has become increasingly multiracial, and that race now takes on diminished significance as a determining factor of one’s life chances. Yet there are …

The Cost Of Democratization: Beyond Economists' Explanations Of Credit Card Debt, Andrea Freeman

Andrea Freeman

The credit card industry’s business model relies on the payment of fees and high interest rates by the poorest consumers to generate profits and subsidize credit card use by the richest. Industry studies indicate that African Americans and Latinos pay higher interest rates and more penalty fees than whites. Compounding credit card debt disparities are recent census statistics revealing that whites now have a median wealth twenty times higher than African Americans and eighteen times higher than Latinos. Despite the high social costs of deepening inequalities, law and economics and behavioral economics have largely ignored their contribution to market failure …

Advisory Adjudication, Girardeau A. Spann

Girardeau A Spann

"Advisory Adjudication" uses the recent Supreme Court decision in Camreta v. Greene as a takeoff point to discuss the way in which inconsistent demands make our conception of judicial review incoherent. In Camreta, the Supreme Court paradoxically issued an advisory opinion in the process of holding that it did not have jurisdiction to issue advisory opinions. I argue that this illustrates the manner in which we want the Supreme Court to act as a prospective policymaking body in a tricameral legislative process, while simultaneously insisting that the Court pretend merely to be engaged in the process of retrospective dispute-resolution. I …

Gelding The Lily: How The Bankruptcy Code's Promotion Of Marriage Leaves It Impotent, Tiffany R. Redding

Tiffany R. Redding

This Article challenges benefits in the Code that are reserved for married debtors as limiting the Code's power and ability to achieve its primary objective – providing all honest debtors with a fresh start. As the institution of marriage continues to evolve and marriage rates in America steadily decline, economic laws such as the Bankruptcy Code can no longer rely on marriage as an indicator of financial interdependence. This Article suggests several ways that the Code may be revised to eliminate marriage and restore power to the Code.

From Proving Pretext To Proving Discrimination: The Real Lesson Of Miller-El And Synder, Joshua Polster

Joshua Polster

In determining whether prosecutors have discriminated in their use of peremptory challenges, courts generally focus on whether defendants are able to prove that the nondiscriminatory reasons that prosecutors proffer for their challenges are pretextual. This focus is a natural result of the McDonnell Douglas framework, which the Supreme Court adopted for peremptory challenges from employment discrimination law. This Article argues that because of differences between jury selection and employment, the methods that employees use to prove pretext are not suited to peremptory challenges. Accordingly, while lower courts generally have interpreted two recent Supreme Court cases—Miller-El v. Dretke and Snyder v. …

United States V. Arizona: The Support Our Law Enforcement And Neighborhoods Act Is Preempted And Discriminatory, Melissa D. Goolsarran

Melissa D Goolsarran

In this paper I argue that S.B. 1070 should be not be upheld for two reasons. First, in ways that will be explicated below, S.B. 1070 directly conflicts with federal immigration law; thus it is preempted according to the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution. Second, the law is unconstitutional because it allows for discrimination by police officers on the basis of race or national origin. This Note contends that the Ninth Circuit correctly affirmed the decision of the lower court to find S.B. 1070 preempted by federal immigration law; however the Ninth Circuit should have also found that S.B. 1070 …

Online Investigations And The Americans With Disabilities Act: The Resurgence Of Overbroad And Ineffectual Mental Health Inquiries In Character And Fitness Evaluations, Bernice M. Bird

Bernice M. Bird

Nationally, state board bar examiners’ interest to inquire into mental health has been a hotly contested issue invoking the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) for the last two decades. After the enactment of the ADA in 1990 a floodgate of litigation resulted in a litany of publications, all surrounding the issue of whether mental health based inquiries into character and fitness violated the ADA. Consequently, narrowly tailored mental health inquiries into specific disorders emerged as the trend in a majority of jurisdictions. This comment analyzes whether fitness boards' mental health inquiries among social networking profiles may cause the resurgence of …

Delgado V. Araguz: A Trial Court’S Medical Opinion And The Constitutional Injury That Results., Abel C. Ramirez Jr.

Abel C Ramirez Jr.

In the state of Texas, “a marriage between persons of the same sex is not legally recognized, and will be rendered void.” Therefore, a marriage license will only be issued to a couple that consists of one person who fits within the exclusive gender category of “male” and one person who fits within the exclusive gender category of “female.” Traditionally, “gender” has been determined by a singular method – one’s genitalia at birth. However, what if it isn’t that simple? What if a person is born without a distinct gender (a person who is neither distinctly male, nor distinctly female)? …

Corporate Leadership And The Unfinished Diversity Movement, Evan M. Roberts Mr.

Evan M Roberts Mr.

This comment explores topics relating to diversity in the board room. It begins by covering the benefits a diverse board brings to firm, focusing on the business case rationales of saving firms money, strengthening core business concepts and corporate governance and increasing shareholder value. Next, the comment explores why, despite the apparent value a divers e board brings to a firm, corporations remain largely homogenized at the highest levels. Current legal, social and economic principles such as tournament theory and labor market externalities appear to shed light on what specific problems diversity advocates must contend with if they hope to …

The Constitutionality & Ethics Of Licensing Lawyers To Advise Designated Foreign Terror Organizations, Elinor R. Jordan J.D.

Elinor R Jordan J.D.

By design, lawyers play a foundational role in U.S. democracy. In representing their client’s causes, they create a bulwark against repressive government action. What would happen to that role if the government had to issue a license before an attorney could legally present her client’s case? Many scholars have reviewed Holder v. Humanitarian Law Project, wherein the Supreme Court held that a statute prohibiting lawyers from giving free legal advice to Designated Foreign Terrorist Organizations (“DFTOs”) does not violate lawyers’ First Amendment rights of free speech and association. However, neither the Court, nor scholars have directly addressed a statutory window …

The Right To Learn: Intellectual Honesty And The First Amendment, Jeffrey M. Cohen

Jeffrey M. Cohen

Science education is one of the most hotly contested issues in public debate. Even after decades of jurisprudence and scholarly analysis, politicians still ignite public passions by suggesting that creationism or intelligent design theory be taught alongside of evolution in public school science classrooms. Despite political rhetoric, the Establishment Clause has been steadfastly used to prevent religion masquerading as science from entering the science classroom. However, public officials have launched attacks recently on other scientific theories, such as climate change, that are not religiously motivated. Students are left in these instances without resort to the Establishment Clause and are potentially …

A Parent Is A Parent, No Matter How Small, Kendra H. Fershee

Kendra H Fershee

Every parent in America has constitutional rights to parent his or her children. But if a parent is under the age of eighteen, those rights are tenuous. There is no question that adolescent parents face difficulties while trying to juggle school, parental responsibilities, work, their social lives, and more. Add to that long list of challenges the legal infirmities all minors share and a picture of impending disaster begins to appear for the adolescent parent and his or her child. And once a minor parent enters the family court system, instead of getting the services, training, and supervision that may …

The Meaning Of The Seventeenth Amendment And A Century Of State Defiance, Steven E. Art, Zachary D. Clopton

Zachary D Clopton

Nearly a century ago, the Seventeenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution worked a substantial change in American government, dictating that the people should elect their Senators by popular vote. Despite its significance, no court or commentator has explained what the Amendment means or how it works. This Article fills that void, providing the first definitive interpretation of the Seventeenth Amendment. Our account is based on a detailed textual analysis and a variety of other sources: historical and textual antecedents; relevant Supreme Court decisions; the complete debates in Congress; and the social and political factors that led to this new constitutional …

Safeguarding The Safeguards: The Aca Litigation And The Extension Of Structural Protection To Non-Fundamental Liberties, Abigail R. Moncrieff

Abigail R. Moncrieff

This article confronts and challenges an emerging scholarly consensus that criticizes the hybridization of substantive and structural arguments in the litigation over the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA). Although there is no doubt that the ACA plaintiffs have requested and the ACA judges have provided a hybrid substantive-structural holding, there is nothing at all unusual about this indirect strategy for protecting constitutional liberty interests; it is a well-known and well-theorized strategy, which one scholar recently termed “semisubstantive review.” The article considers three possible distinctions between the ACA case and the ordinary case of semisubstantive review, and concludes that …

Book Review Of Current Issues In Constitutional Litigation: A Context And Practice Casebook (Carolina Academic Press 2011), Christy Whitfield

Sarah E. Ricks

This is a book review of Current Issues in Constitutional Litigation: A Context & Practice Casebook (Carolina Academic Press 2011). My perspective is unique because I have worked with and watched this casebook evolve – I was assigned an early draft of the casebook as a law school student taking a constitutional litigation course, I worked as a research assistant on a later version of the casebook, and now, several years later, I have viewed the final result of the casebook as a practicing attorney. As a former law clerk and now as an attorney advisor in the beginning years …

The Geography Of Sexuality, Yishai Blank, Issi Rosen-Zvi

Yishai Blank

Who regulates sexuality in America? Given the high salience of federal laws and policies such as the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) and the military’s “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” policy, and states’ legal activism regarding same-sex marriage, it would seem that sexuality is mostly a federal and a state matter, and that cities play a secondary, if not insignificant role. This Article argues that in fact the opposite is true: the regulation of sexuality has been decentralized, with cities being the main locus where the most important issues pertaining to the lives of gays and lesbians are decided. This “localization …

"Not That Smart": Sonia Sotomayor And The Construction Of Merit, Guy-Uriel E. Charles Mr., Mitu G. Gulati Mr., Daniel L. Chen Dr.

Guy-Uriel E. Charles Mr.

The appointment of Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court in 2009 was criticized as sacrificing merit on the altar of identity politics. According to critics, Sotomayor was simply “not that smart”. For some conservative critics, her selection illustrated the costs of affirmative action policies, in that this particular choice was going to produce a lower quality Supreme Court. For liberal critics, many were concerned that the President, by selecting Sotomayor, was squandering an opportunity to appoint an intellectual counterweight to conservative justices like Antonin Scalia, Samuel Alito and John Roberts. Using a set of basic measures of judicial merit, such …

The Meaning Of The Seventeenth Amendment And A Century Of State Defiance, Steven E. Art, Zachary D. Clopton

Zachary D Clopton

Nearly a century ago, the Seventeenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution worked a substantial change in American government, dictating that the people should elect their Senators by popular vote. Despite its significance, no court or commentator has explained what the Amendment means or how it works. This Article fills that void, providing the first definitive interpretation of the Seventeenth Amendment. Our account is based on a detailed textual analysis and a variety of other sources: historical and textual antecedents; relevant Supreme Court decisions; the complete debates in Congress; and the social and political factors that led to this new constitutional …

The Meaning Of The Seventeenth Amendment And A Century Of State Defiance, Steven E. Art, Zachary D. Clopton

Zachary D Clopton

Nearly a century ago, the Seventeenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution worked a substantial change in American government, dictating that the people should elect their Senators by popular vote. Despite its significance, no court or commentator has explained what the Amendment means or how it works. This Article fills that void, providing the first definitive interpretation of the Seventeenth Amendment. Our account is based on a detailed textual analysis and a variety of other sources: historical and textual antecedents; relevant Supreme Court decisions; the complete debates in Congress; and the social and political factors that led to this new constitutional …

The Meaning Of The Seventeenth Amendment And A Century Of State Defiance, Steven E. Art, Zachary D. Clopton

Zachary D Clopton

Nearly a century ago, the Seventeenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution worked a substantial change in American government, dictating that the people should elect their Senators by popular vote. Despite its significance, no court or commentator has explained what the Amendment means or how it works. This Article fills that void, providing the first definitive interpretation of the Seventeenth Amendment. Our account is based on a detailed textual analysis and a variety of other sources: historical and textual antecedents; relevant Supreme Court decisions; the complete debates in Congress; and the social and political factors that led to this new constitutional …