Digital Commons Network^™

At The Intersection Of Sovereignty And Contract: Traffic Cameras And The Privatization Of Law Enforcement Power, William Davenport Mercer

Scholarly Works

Many municipalities are making critical errors in their attempts to alleviate current financial burdens by contracting with private entities to perform many of their essential functions, most notably those agreements with companies to install traffic cameras and, in many cases, to monitor and cite offenders. By subcontracting part of their exclusive power to enforce law, these municipalities essentially bargain away sovereignty by parting with portions of their inherent police power. As these cameras fill a role played by the state’s law enforcement personnel, municipalities impermissibly infringe on the actual sovereignty of the state as well as the conceptual sovereignty of …

A Better Balancing: Reconsidering Pre-Conviction Dna Extraction From Federal Arrestees, Joy Radice

Scholarly Works

Federal law mandates the collection of a biological sample from anyone arrested by federal authorities or facing federal charges, regardless of the charge. The FBI then creates a DNA profile from the sample and enters that profile into the Combined DNA Index System (“CODIS”), a national database through which law enforcement matches individuals and crime scene DNA evidence.

Part I of the essay briefly reviews the federal statute that authorizes pre-conviction DNA extraction and the Fourth Amendment principles that underlie the current constitutional challenges to it. Part II identifies the various, and sometimes competing, rationales offered to justify the constitutionality …

Triaging Appointed-Counsel Funding And Pro Se Access To Justice, Benjamin H. Barton

Scholarly Works

For decades, scholars and advocates have lauded Gideon’s guarantee of appointed counsel in criminal cases and sought to extend it into a civil-Gideon right in a range of civil cases. This past Term, the Supreme Court disappointed the civil-Gideon movement in Turner v. Rogers, unanimously rejecting an across-the-board right to counsel while encouraging reforms to make courts more accessible to pro se litigants. Turner is mostly right, we argue, because funding limitations require reserving counsel mostly for criminal cases, where they are needed most. For the first time, the Court recognized that lawyers can make cases not only slower and …

Constitutional Limits On The Right Of Government Investigators To Interview And Examine Alleged Victims Of Child Abuse Or Neglect, Teri Dobbins Baxter

Scholarly Works

Investigating allegations of child abuse or neglect presents unique challenges, particularly if parents or guardians are the alleged perpetrators. Those accused of harming the children are in a position to prevent the victims from getting access to the help they need to escape their abuser(s). The courts have not clearly defined the federal constitutional boundaries of searches and seizures in this context. The Supreme Court, in particular, has not weighed in on the constitutionality of warrantless searches and seizures in connection with abuse and neglect investigations. This lack of Supreme Court guidance has led to unpredictable and sometimes conflicting opinions …

Juror Privacy In The Sixth Amendment Balance, Melanie Wilson

Scholarly Works

Some eight million citizens report for jury duty every year. Arguably, jury duty is one of the most significant opportunities to participate in the democratic process. For the accused, the jury acts as an indispensable safeguard against government overreaching. One might expect, therefore, that our justice system would treat putative jurors with care and tact. The opposite is true. During voir dire, potential jurors are required to share insights into their own lives, quirks, proclivities, and beliefs. Litigants have probed jurors’ sexual orientation, criminal histories, criminal victimization, health, family relations, and beyond. A few scholars have chided the system for …

Administering Justice: Removing Statutory Barriers To Reentry, Joy Radice

Scholarly Works

After years of swelling prison populations, the reentry into society of people with criminal convictions has become a central criminal justice issue. Scholars, advocates, judges, and lawmakers have repeatedly emphasized that, even after prison, punishment continues from severe civil penalties that are imposed by federal and state statutes on anyone with a conviction. To alleviate the impact of these punishments, they have increasingly endorsed state legislation that creates certificates of rehabilitation. Seven states offer these post- conviction certificates, and six others proposed such legislation in 2011. Many look to New York’s statute as the best model because it is the …