Law Commons^™

Legal And Medical Ethical Entanglements Of Infant Male Circumcision And International Law, Paul Jerome Mclaughlin Jr.

Library Faculty Publications

The practice of infant male circumcision has been debated by legal and medical experts for years. The practice, once seen as a social norm, has come under opposition by children’s rights, legal, and medical organisations around the world. In order to meet the requirements of international treaty law and allow infant male children the fullest opportunity for self determination, infant male circumcision must be treated under the law and by medical practitioners with the same degree of opposition that female genital mutilation has received.

Homelessness And Legal Advocacy, Legal Clinic Program

Course Descriptions and Information

This clinic offers a comprehensive set of legal services focused on assisting and empowering low income individuals in their interaction with the legal system. Students explore the facets of homelessness and the role of legal advocacy in addressing its causes and alleviating its consequences.

Guardian Ad Litem, Legal Clinic Program

Course Descriptions and Information

GUARDIAN AD LITEM (GAL): This clinic focuses on legal advocacy on behalf of children, while providing students with a strong foundation in lawyering skills and values. This clinic addresses constitutional, statutory, and common laws impacting children, the legal interests of parents, and the government and the law’s evolving conception of children’s rights.

Parents Super-Sizing Their Children: Criminalizing And Prosecuting The Rising Incidence Of Childhood Obesity As Child Abuse, Cheryl Page

Journal Publications

With all of the mudslinging that is taking place in the current healthcare debate, very few proponents and opponents seem to be addressing the elephant in the room-obesity. Childhood obesity, specifically, is rising at an alarming rate. "The prevalence of obesity (BMI 30) continues to be a health concern for adults, children and adolescents in the United States." Sadly, the rate of adult obesity is increasing almost as dramatically as that of childhood obesity. Based on the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) study, in the combined years of 2003-2006, of children between the ages of two and nineteen, …

Right Responsibility: Does The Right To Procreate Include The Responsibility To Parent?, A Felicia Epps

Journal Publications

No abstract provided.

The Ultimate Best Interest Of The Child Enures From Parental Reinforcement: The Journey To Family Integrity, John C. Duncan Jr.

Journal Publications

Most Americans agree that we are in the midst of a dangerous decline in moral and religious values that threatens the very foundation of our society. The facts are clear: marriage as a social institution is threatened and child well-being is affected. Part II of this Article traces the best interest of the child doctrine. Part III examines what the legally recognized rights of parents have been in the past and shows how those rights have been threatened or altogether eradicated in the best interest of the child. Part IV evaluates the opposing positions of both parental rights advocates …

Unacceptable Collateral Damage: The Danger Of Probation Conditions Restricting The Right To Have Children, A Felicia Epps

Journal Publications

You have the right to have as many children as you desire. You can have seven like the Waltons, six like the Brady Bunch, or none at all like Oprah. It is all left to your discretion-unless you fail to pay child support, and as a result end up facing criminal charges. The United States Constitution protects the right to freedom in procreation decisions. Generally, this means that the government cannot interfere with such decisions unless it has a compelling reason to do so. Even then, such interference must be narrowly tailored to meet government interests.

This article explores the …

To Pay Or Not To Pay, That Is The Question: Should Ssi Recipients Be Exempt From Child Support Obligations?, Angela F. Epps

Journal Publications

This article will explore whether it is legally permissible for state courts to order Supplemental Security Income (SSI) recipients to pay child support. As background, the history of the SSI program, showing its genesis in a perceived need for uniformity, will be reviewed along with its current requirements. A discussion of federal child support laws will provide additional background.

Although many feel that every parent should be required to pay child support or argue against further federal subsidies, this article proposes an alternate solution. First, SSI recipients should be exempt from payment of child support. Next, the federal government, through …

Save The Marriage Before (Not After) The Ceremony: The Marriage Preparation Act - Can We Have A Public Response To A Private Problem, Lundy Langston

Journal Publications

Two individuals meet, engage in an intimate, not necessarily sexual, relationship and marry. The two join in a union with the promise to spend the remainder of their natural lives together. But forever is not forever. On a national level, over 50 percent of marriages end in divorce.' Perhaps marriage vows should include a statement about the inevitability of divorce. States' divorce laws vary, from faultbased, to no-fault, to a statutory period of separation. Some states recently made it easier for individuals to be granted a divorce. Reasons for making it easier to end marriages could have been related to …

Sweep Searches--The Rights Of The Community, And The Guarantees Of The Fourth And First Amendments: Moms Of The Chicago Public Housing Complex, Revisit Your Civil And Constitutional Rights And Save Your Babies, Lundy Langston

Journal Publications

African-American babies are an endangered species. They have the potential to live to the ripe old age of fourteen. We are singing new songs of overcoming-overcoming the loss of our babies. However, it's the same song: the lyrics are Black, and the music is, as always, White. Across the nation let us hold hands, let us gather together, let us save our babies. Will the music, the lyrics of our collective songs, save our babies? Is there a collective voice? There must be a collective voice if we are to save our babies and WE must save them if we …

Political And Social Construction Of Families Through Pedagogy In Family Law Classrooms, Lundy Langston

Journal Publications

Most family law materials available today fail to reflect the diversity' of family arrangements in modem society. Traditionally, family law is taught as a rules-based area of law. Students learn the requirements of marriage and the grounds for and consequences of divorce. Currently, there are efforts to expand the codification of family law through such things as support guidelines, uniform acts, and legislation listing specific factors to be considered in custody and property distribution cases. Many of these efforts stem from the underlying assumption that there is a uniform methodology describing and defining doctrine appropriate for resolution of family related …

Force African-American Fathers To Parent Their Delinquent Sons - A Factor To Be Considered At The Dispositional Stage, Lundy Langston

Journal Publications

What species can survive and function when a substantial segment of its young male population is harnessed by the burdens of substance abuse, unemployment, and incarceration? Empirical data suggests that these maladies have infected African-American males at a rate alarmingly disproportionate to that of other races. This trend, if it continues, suggests that America is creating a dysfunctional class. In this Article the term "dysfunctional" refers to a predicament wherein African-American males engage in violent activities.' Their conduct may be attributable to their inability to contribute to the family or smaller groups which form the foundation of the social order …