Law Commons^™

John Jay, Discrimination, And Tenure., Guillermo S. Dekat

The Scholar: St. Mary's Law Review on Race and Social Justice

American courts should cease allowing the academic deference doctrine to interfere with tenure decision cases and treat tenure decisions the same way they treat any other employment discrimination case. Unlike recent court precedent that holds that summary judgement and judgement as a matter of law should not be granted when the employer’s defenses are vague and subjective, or when they heavily rely on testimony of interested parties, this principle has yet to be applied to a plaintiff in a tenure case. The Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit provided five reasons for distinguishing between tenure decisions and regular employment …

Moving Beyond The Immutability Debate In The Fight For Equality After Proposition 8., M.K.B. Darmer, Tiffany Chang

The Scholar: St. Mary's Law Review on Race and Social Justice

On May 15, 2008, the California Supreme Court issued its historic decision regarding marriage rights for same-sex couples. In the course of its opinion, the court found that classifications based upon sexual orientation are subject to the protections of “strict scrutiny” for purposes of the state’s equal protection clause. The court also found that marriage is a fundamental right that extends to same-sex couples. On November 4, 2008, 52% of California voters voted for Proposition 8, which purported to “amend” the state constitution by adding fourteen words in a new clause following the equal protection clause: “only marriage between a …

Whores And Other Sex Slaves: Why The Equation Of Prostitution With Sex Trafficking In The William Wilberforce Reauthorization Act Of 2008 Promotes Gender Discrimination., Elizabeth Kaigh

The Scholar: St. Mary's Law Review on Race and Social Justice

Congress should vote to exclude the William Wilberforce Reauthorization Act from the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act (VTVPA).  The William Wilberforce Reauthorization Act concerns prostitution, whereas the VTVPA concerns human trafficking. Lawmakers dealing with sex trafficking and prostitution in the United States wrongly combine them as one unified activity. A significant difference between sex trafficking and prostitution concerns the consent of the women having sex. Nevertheless, it is unfair for states to strengthen prostitution laws on a federal level, which is what the William Wilberforce Reauthorization Act would do. The Act would effectively turn prostitution into a federal …

Class Of 2012 Incoming Il Law Students, St. Mary's University School Of Law, St. Mary's University School Of Law

Incoming 1L Photos (Facebooks)

Photographs of incoming law students for the St. Mary’s University School of Law, class of 2012

Beyond The Plenary Power Doctrine: How Critical Race Theory Can Help Move Us Past The Chinese Exclusion Case., Freddy Funes

The Scholar: St. Mary's Law Review on Race and Social Justice

The application of the plenary power doctrine, established in the Chinese Exclusion Case, not only fails to reflect reality, its application also continues to perpetuate the blatant racism underlying its creation. The Supreme Court couched the doctrine’s plainly racist context by offering three justifications for its creation: sovereignty, national security, and self-definition of the political community. However, when examined, the Court’s reasonings hold little, if any, merit and seem to simply be an attempt to justify the legislature’s racial animus toward Chinese immigrants. First, while international law provided the basis for the plenary power doctrine, courts refuse to allow international …

The Effect Of Tort Reform On Tort Case Filings, Patricia W. Moore

Faculty Articles

Does so-called "tort reform" decrease tort case filings? In Texas and other states that have enacted numerous rounds of tort reform, the answer appears to be a resounding "yes," at least as of the year 2000. More recent evidence from Oklahoma supports that conclusion and provides an interesting case study within the tort reform juggernaut.

During at least the past twenty years, tort reformers have achieved substantial legislative successes and, some would argue, public relations victories. Yet their desire for more "reform" seems insatiable, and their legislative agenda rarely sleeps.

Tort reform bills bloom perennially in the Oklahoma legislature, and …

Destroyed Community Property, Damaged Persons, And Insurers’ Duty To Indemnify Innocent Spouses And Other Co-Insured Fiduciaries: An Attempt To Harmonize Conflicting Federal And State Courts’ Declaratory Judgments, Willy E. Rice

Faculty Articles

Perhaps because of habit or a strong aversion to risks, consumers purchase a considerable amount of insurance generally, and consumers purchase property, indemnity, and liability insurance in particular. Typically, national property and casualty insurers sell property, indemnity, and liability insurance contracts. As a result, those insurers sales and revenues increase from year to year. At the dawn of the 21st century, foreign property and casualty insurers are realizing similar successes.

It is expected that anxious or prudent consumers would insure themselves and their various property interests against strangers, strange events, and perils over which consumers have little control or influence. …

Texas Annual Survey: Securities Regulation, George Lee Flint Jr

Faculty Articles

Texas federal courts have continued to narrow the application of Texas securities laws. The Fifth Circuit applied the federal class action preemption test of Securities Litigation Uniform Standards Act of 1998 (“SLUSA”) after consolidation in federal court, but permitted unconsolidated state actions to continue unpreempted. The Fifth Circuit also determined that the stringent federal pleading rules apply to state law actions filed in federal court. The Southern District of Texas narrowed aider and abetter liability in the secondary market by imposing a privity requirement for the primary perpetrator under the Texas Securities Act (“TSA”) and requiring a duty to disclose …

Plea To The Jurisdiction: Defining The Undefined., Rebecca Simmons, Suzette Kinder Patton

St. Mary's Law Journal

Pleas to the jurisdiction have been part of Texas jurisprudence since shortly after Texas became a state. The resulting confusion over the procedure and standards to be employed in resolving a plea was partially alleviated by the Texas Supreme Court’s decision in Texas Department of Parks and Wildlife v. Miranda. From a number of reports from Texas’s reviewing courts, however, it is evident the courts continue to struggle with the plea. Currently there are no established procedural rules to assist with the resolution of a plea to the jurisdiction. Thus, procedures vary from court to court and case to case. …

Practitioners Beware: Under Amended Trap 47, Unpublished Memorandum Opinions In Civil Cases Are Binding And Research On Westlaw And Lexis Is A Necessity., Andrew T. Solomon

St. Mary's Law Journal

In 2003 and 2008, the Texas Rule of Appellate Procedure (TRAP) 47 was amended. TRAP 47 is the rule which governs the issuance, citation, and precedential value of unpublished and memorandum opinions. The 2003 amendment was designed to make the law more readily available by prohibiting the issuance of unpublished opinions in civil cases and authorizing memorandum opinions in place of unpublished opinions. Despite its intention, the 2003 amendment failed to make civil case law more readily available. This is because such new opinions are only available via electronic repository, such as Westlaw or Lexis. As a result, to completely …

Civil Jury Trials R.I.P. - Can It Actually Happen In America Essay., Royal Furgeson

St. Mary's Law Journal

Civil jury trials in America have been declining at a steady rate for the last thirty years. This is a well-documented trend. If the trend continues, within the foreseeable future, civil jury trials in American may eventually become extinct. Jury trials have been central to justice in America and its states since their inception. Their importance has been stated as bringing accountability to the law and to society. As all persons, even the powerful and wealthy ones, are accountable under the law. Yet, as important as juries and jury trials are to the health of justice in America, the civil …

Professional Malpractice In A World Of Amateurs., Thomas D. Morgan

St. Mary's Law Journal

Clients experience the speed at which the world changes, both technologically and socially. They expect lawyers to keep pace. The technology which permits lawyers to deliver legal services faster also chains lawyers to their electronic devices. This technology has also led to a growing market of those who promise to do the same work faster, better, and cheaper. Such developments will ultimately affect how lawyers view professional malpractice or the way the industry understands “competence and diligence normally exercised by lawyers.” The malpractice question becomes: to what standard of care and competence should such “amateur” lawyers be held? The legal …

Loyalty In Limbo: The Peculiar Case Of Attorneys' Loyalty To Clients., Eli Wald

St. Mary's Law Journal

Attorney loyalty to clients is considered a cornerstone of the attorney-client relationship. Yet, loyalty is underexplored, misunderstood, and the subject of heated discord. Advocates of client-centered loyalty and their opponents both fail to provide a compelling accounting of loyalty to clients and its consequences. Leaving loyalty in limbo is an unacceptable state of affairs. The legal profession bears the continuous burden of accounting for its own practices. Because the Bar cannot assert broad client-centered loyalty as self-explanatory, the burden of disproving loyalty shifts to the critics. Critics of broad loyalty to clients are not helping advance the discourse by advocating …

Ten Years After Burrow V. Arce: The Current State Of Attorney Fee Forfeiture., Jeffrey A. Webb, Blake W. Stribling

St. Mary's Law Journal

“Extreme [attorney] misconduct may warrant an extreme remedy.” Fee forfeiture certainly constitutes an extreme remedy, at least compared to the ordinary remedy for violation of a legal duty. But neither the degree to which the remedy is extreme nor how extreme the misconduct must first be before the forfeiture becomes appropriate is apparent in light of the Texas Supreme Court’s decision in Burrow v. Arce. Understanding the confusion which has arisen with regard to Burrow’s impact depends in large measure on a thorough evaluation of (1) the basis for the court’s determinations relating to forfeiture, (2) the sources from which …

Patent-Holding Patent Attorneys: Conflicts Of Interests, Confidentiality, And Employment Issues Comment., Ashley R. Presson

St. Mary's Law Journal

Patents are grants issued by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) which confer upon the holder, the patentee, patent rights to such intellectual property as inventions, technologies, and processes. Patent rights include the right to exclude others from “making, using, offering for sale, or selling the invention throughout the United States or importing the invention into the United States.” Once the USTPO has granted a patent, the inventor may market the product. Patentees who do not have the funds or time to market the product may profit by conveying the legal rights conferred by the patent to other …

The Texas Supreme Court's Erroneous Doctrine Of Implied Appellate Jurisdiction., Charles R. Flores

St. Mary's Law Journal

A Texas statute gave final appellate jurisdiction over cases not to the state supreme court but to the intermediate courts of appeals. After losing at the appellate level, one of the parties in Eichelberger v. Eichelberger appealed to the state supreme court despite the statute. But because the court of appeals decision conflicted with a United States Supreme Court decision, the Texas Supreme Court held its jurisdiction should be implied. Though legal commentators declared the decision an abrupt departure from standards for judicial decisions, they postulated it would be invoked so infrequently to do no lasting harm to Texas jurisprudence. …

Could Government Speech Endorsing A Higher Law Resolve The Establishment Clause Crisis., Bruce Ledewitz

St. Mary's Law Journal

The Establishment Clause crisis exists due to the Supreme Court’s promise that America would have a secular government—meaning one which was neutral between religion and irreligion, as well as being neutral to all religions. This promise evolved pursuant to the Supreme Court’s interpretation of the Establishment Clause. Nevertheless, the commitment to neutrality was never carried to fulfillment by the Court. The crisis may be illustrated by Congress’ addition of the words “under God” to the Pledge of Allegiance in 1954. This addition seemed to violate the promise of neutrality made by the Supreme Court in Everson v. Board of Education …

Of Lies And Disclaimers - Contracting Around Fraud Under Texas Law., Robert K. Wise, Andrew J. Szygenda, Thomas F. Lillard

St. Mary's Law Journal

The Texas Supreme Court has failed to provide a bright-line test in determining whether reliance disclaimers are enforceable. A reliance disclaimer is a provision in a contract that disclaims all extra-contractual representations and provides that the contracting parties are not relying on any such representations. By including a reliance disclaimer, a contracting party may be attempting to immunize itself from liability for false statements made during negotiations. Even if a contracting party’s misrepresentations or non-disclosures were made with fraudulent intent, Texas law gives contracting parties broad freedom to contract around misrepresentation claims. In Forest Oil Corp. v. McAllen, the Texas …

Should Texas's Former Ban On Obscene-Device Promotion Pass Constitutional Muster Under A Murky Lawrence Comment., Laura M. Clark

St. Mary's Law Journal

When the Fifth Circuit freed Texans to promote and distribute sexual devices without criminal penalties, it created a split with the Eleventh Circuit’s decision to uphold Alabama’s ban. Both courts based their rulings on the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Lawrence v. Texas, which invalidated Texas’s statute banning homosexual sodomy. In upholding Alabama’s sex-toy statute in 2007, the Eleventh Circuit found no fundamental right to sexual privacy under Lawrence and held public morality was a sufficiently rational basis for the statute. The court distinguished Lawrence, which dealt with prohibition of private conduct, rather than public commercial activity. The Fifth Circuit …

The Yearning For Zion Raid And Its Impact On Texas Child Welfare Cases: How A Botched Rescue Effort Exposed A Need To Refocus Efforts On Effective Service Plans Comment., Shannon K. Dunn

St. Mary's Law Journal

The raid of the Yearning for Zion ranch exposed fundamental flaws in the operation of the Texas Department of Children and Family Services (the Department). In the raid, the Department took custody of 468 children without a court order and removed them from their homes. This is one of the most glaring examples of the Department’s disregard for the Texas Family Code. Subchapter B of section 263 of the Texas Family Code mandates for the creation and implementation of a comprehensive service plan whenever the Department removes a child from his home. The Department, however, failed to create service plans …