Law Commons^™

From Fairness To Fake News: How Regulations Can Restore Public Trust In The Media, Sarah Clemens

Concordia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Adjudicating The Religious Beliefs Of An Asylum Seeker: When The "Well-Founded Fear" Standard Leads Courts Astray, Maritza Black

Concordia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Thinking About Deliberative Democracy With Rawls And Talisse, Joshua Anderson

Concordia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Health Care Reform In Washington: Past, Present And Future, Brendan Williams

Concordia Law Review

No abstract provided.

And On The Seventh Day, God Codified The Religious Tax-Exemption: Reshaping The Modern Code Framework To Achieve Statutory Harmony With Other Charitable Organizations And Prevent Abuse, Dominic Rota

Concordia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Grand Theft Auto: Calibrating Laboratory Conditions To The New Normal In Union Elections, Brandon Magner

Concordia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Masthead, Grace Dewitt

Concordia Law Review

No abstract provided.

After R.M.A. V. Blue Springs, Can All Trans Birth Certificate Statues Finally Mean Something More?, Katrina C. Rose Ph.D.

Concordia Law Review

No abstract provided.

That Is Northern Lights Cannabis Indica . . . No, It's Marijuana: Navigating Through The Haze Of Cannabis And Patents, Dawson Hahn

Concordia Law Review

By their very nature, patents are exclusionary. A patent grants the right to exclude others from making use of an invention or process. But patents are also tools to promote innovation. However, when an invalid patent is granted, the patent becomes an exclusionary tool that also chills innovation. Invalid cannabis patents may be chilling innovation in the cannabis market, but they may not be the only thing. While the Controlled Substances Act continues to prohibit cannabis at a federal level, researchers and medical professionals will be unsure of the legality of their actions. This naturally leads to another chilling effect …

Now You See It, Now You Don't: The Emerging Use Of Ephemeral Messaging Apps By State And Local Government Officials, Kurt J. Starman

Concordia Law Review

Public access to government-related information is essential in a democracy. The public expects state and local governments to function in an open and transparent manner to ensure accountability. All fifty states have adopted statutes that provide public access to government-related information. However, these statutes have not kept pace with changing technology. The emerging use of ephemeral messaging apps by state and local government officials presents an especially difficult problem. Ephemeral messaging apps are typically used on personal electronic devices, such as privately-owned smartphones. Unlike traditional text messages, however, ephemeral messages cannot be stored and subsequently accessed by the public. Rather, …

Private Prisons & Human Rights: Examining Israel's Ban On Private Prisons In A Us Context, Brandy F. Henry

Concordia Law Review

This article users a human rights lens to examine prison privatization in the US. The analysis builds on the 2009 Israeli Supreme Court ruling against the privatization of prisons, which relied on the human rights theories of both decommodification and dignity. The Israeli interpretations of dignity, and decommodification theory as related to the privatization of prisons suggest that prison privatization results in the commodification of both the state and prisoner, through the improper delegation of governmental power, which results in an infringement of the prisoner's human right to dignity. This argument is examined in the context of US statute and …

Vying To Be King Of The Jungle: Where Top-Two Primaries Fall Short, Taylor Larson, Joshua A. Duden

Concordia Law Review

Top-two primaries pose significant constitutional issues for political parties, but primary system selection is also a significant policy question for each state. Primary elections have served as a filter for candidates to enter the general election; however, primaries are predominantly party functions. Although the process varies from state-to-state and is regulated by individual state legislatures, primary elections allow voters of a particular party to nominate the candidate they think best represents them against other parties in the general election. To combat partisan politics, Washington and California have grappled with election reform by adopting a "top-two" primary system. This version of …

Searching The Legacy Of The Reformation For Lutheran Responses To Modern Family Law, Marie A. Failinger

Concordia Law Review

This article builds upon historical work on changes in the law of marriage, divorce and the family after the Reformation, and describes how modern Lutheran theology, formed during the Reformation, evaluates modern trends in American family law. From the key Lutheran theological insight that God is creatively ordering human activity as a partner with human beings, the Lutheran tradition approaches issues such as no-fault divorce and same-sex marriage with both trust and challenge.

Criminal Prosecutions And The 2008 Financial Crisis In The U.S. And Iceland: What Can A Small Town Icelandic Police Chief Teach The U.S. About Prosecuting Wall Street?, Justin Rex

Concordia Law Review

Politicians, journalists, and academics alike highlight the paucity of criminal prosecutions for senior financial executives in the US in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. One common argument for the lack of prosecutions is that, though industry players behaved recklessly, they did not behave criminally. I evaluate this claim by detailing the civil, and small number of criminal, actions actually taken and by reviewing leading arguments about whether behavior before the crisis was criminal. Rejecting the “reckless innocence” explanation, I provide examples of criminal behavior that could have been prosecuted and review the literature on why there were few …

The Consummate Legal Education: Teaching Analysis As Doctrine, Julie Ann Interdonato

Concordia Law Review

This paper addresses the necessity and means of developing analysis and its written expression as an independent topic of study throughout students’ law school tenure. “Doctrine,” as it appears in the above title, is defined as the transcendent analytic concepts that underlie the common law, and the modality of their application in the law’s constant evolution. The purpose of presenting analysis in this context is to enhance analytic instruction presently provided in law school, and thereby take students one step further in their education, into the realm of the practicing attorney. In this manner, educators, building on the case law …

A Common Enterprise: Law And The Connection Between Civil And Heavenly Realms In The Writings Of John Calvin, Kenneth L. Townsend

Concordia Law Review

The common ends that once united spiritual and civil realms have been privatized as those ends have come to be seen as controversial and plural, rather than unifying and common. Acknowledging the diversity of ends resulted in increased attention to uniform rules. Since there was no longer agreement about what teloi mattered for society, law gradually lost its aspirational features and became simply a way to limit and punish uncivil and criminal behavior.

The formal separation, but ultimate unity, of civil and heavenly spheres, of norm with vision, articulated by Calvin, allowed him to be both idealistic and realistic about …

Criminally Homeless? The Eighth Amendment Prohibition Against Penalizing Status, Tim Donaldson

Concordia Law Review

The article examines the extent to which the Cruel and Unusual Punishments Clause of the Eighth Amendment protects the ability of homeless persons to subsist in public places. It reviews Martin v. City of Boise and how the Eighth Amendment has been applied to test the constitutionality of local laws targeted at the homeless. It discusses whether homelessness constitutes a recognizable status protected by the Eighth Amendment, and, if so, whether protection is extended to unavoidable conduct resulting from that status.

Masthead, Dawson A. Hahn

Concordia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Two & A Half Parents: Three-Parent Ivf And Medical Malpractice In The United States, Jay M. Fulk

Concordia Law Review

Fertility medicine is seeing a rapid advancement with the emergence of a new procedure called three-parent in vitro fertilization (IVF). This novel procedure provides an opportunity for women who have defective mitochondria to bear their own healthy genetic children. As women encounter fertility issues, they will often turn to regular IVF by receiving an egg from a donor—ultimately resulting in a child with no genetic relation to the mother. Women with defective mitochondria will likely pass down a mitochondrial disease to their children, therefore, bearing a child without the assistance from a donor does not present a viable option. Mitochondrial …

Placentophagy: A Women's Right To Her Placenta, Amber Goeden

Concordia Law Review

Placentophagy is the consumption of the placenta after childbirth. While not every woman participates in placentophagy, there has been a notable increase of the practice. Many reasons exist in why woman partake in placentophagy. The most notable reasons for the growth, is the claimed increased breast milk production and the potential for reducing the effects of post-partum depression. Even though a woman might choose to partake in placentophagy, she might be met with law, or the lack thereof, that restricts her access to her placenta. Due to the increased requests for the placenta it has highlighted that a woman’s right …

Bounded By The Constitution: Resolving The Private Search Doctrine Circuit Split, Mark Kifarkis

Concordia Law Review

This Article analyzes the private search doctrine exception to the Fourth Amendment and the exception's application to smart phones and computers. The private search doctrine allows governmental authorities to replicate a private individual's search without obtaining a warrant. This Article proposes a standard for court's to use to resolve the circuit split on how to apply the exception to today's technology. Presently, there are two standards used by courts. The Article names one standard as the "boundless search approach" that is used by the Fifth and Seventh Circuits. The Article names the other standard as "bounded search approach" that is …

Conviction Beyond A Reasonable Suspicion? The Need For Strengthening The Factual Basis Requirement In Guilty Pleas, Myeonki Kim

Concordia Law Review

Does the court, before accepting a guilty plea, check the accuracy of the plea agreement in any significant way? This article addresses the issues on judges being unconcerned or the inconsistent practice of guiding the stages of guilty plea. The article further suggests that the judge should carefully review its factual basis to avoid a wrongful guilty plea. Although Rule 11(b) of the Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure requires the judges to check the factual basis of the guilty plea, the rule is not paid much attention to legal professionals. Setting the adversarial culture aside, the rule itself has a …

Abolishing Australia's Judicially Enacted Sui Generis Doctrine Of Extended Joint Enterprise, Victoria Bo Wang

Concordia Law Review

This Article argues that the decision in Miller v The Queen [2016] HCA 30 is supported neither by common law precedent in Australia nor the historical English precedents that informed the development of Australia’s common law doctrines. It is submitted that the majority judgment misquoted old English authorities to try to equate foresight with intention and argues that the High Court of Australia engaged in judicial activism, because its decision rested predominantly on the policy views of the judges. Moreover, it is argued that the case highlighted the urgent need for law reform in Australia. The Article puts forward a …

Using The Master’S Tool To Dismantle His House: Derrick Bell, Herbert Wechsler, And Critical Legal Process, William Rhee

Concordia Law Review

This Article retells the life stories of Derrick Bell, a founder of Critical Race Theory, and Herbert Wechsler, a founder of the Legal Process School, to suggest a synthesis of their often conflicting paradigms—Critical Legal Process. Critical Legal Process’s fundamental question is whether the Master’s tool, the so-called rule of law, can be considered—in the words of Wechsler’s most famous article—a genuine “neutral principle.” Can the Master’s favorite tool be repurposed to dismantle the very house it built? Can the same rule of law that was abused to build the racist Jim Crow system not only dismantle that explicitly racist …

Masthead, Jacob E. Newby

Concordia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Food Date Labels And Hunger In America, Gwen B. Thomson

Concordia Law Review

Millions of Americans go hungry, while 40% of the food in the United States is wasted. Research has shown that 43% of the waste occurs in homes and that consumers are making decisions about purchasing and throwing away food without understanding the meaning of the food date labels. One of the most cost-effective ways to begin to effect a change is to eliminate the myriad of confusing food date labels so that individuals do not throw away good food. In May 2016, the Food Date Labeling Act of 2016 was proposed in both houses of Congress. This bicameral bill was …

Keep The Patels: How Culturally Competent Teamwork Can Alleviate The Law's Diversity Retention Problem, Danisha Brar

Concordia Law Review

In the midst of an argument with law school classmates, I once remarked that I felt simultaneously invisible as a woman of color, or more specifically as a South Asian woman. A well-intentioned friend offered consolation in the form of an assurance: she had never viewed me as not-white, and in fact had always thought of me as white. This statement was not intended to insult me—in fact, I immediately knew what she meant: she had always thought of me as a person first—her vision of me was free of any overt racism. But I did not want to be …

Marriage, Millennials, And Massive Student Loan Debt, Victoria J. Haneman

Concordia Law Review

The purpose of this Essay is to explore the idea that the student loan indebtedness bearing down upon the majority of today’s college graduates creates economic insecurity that forces borrowers to reject or significantly delay marriage, and that burden, taken together with an already lukewarm Millennial attitude, may not bode well for the future of the institution. Record numbers of Millennials have rejected the traditional path of marriage-homeownership-children, and the percentage of Millennials who will marry by age 40 is projected to fall lower than the figure for any previous generation of Americans. To the extent that marriage is an …

Discrimination And Association, Caleb C. Wolanek

Concordia Law Review

In September 2016, the United States Commission on Civil Rights issued a report entitled Peaceful Coexistence: Reconciling Nondiscrimination Principles with Civil Liberties. In that report, the Commission argued that the law permits—and justice requires—that decision-makers prioritize nondiscrimination over civil liberties like freedom of religion and freedom of association. For example, the report endorsed the view that religious liberty should be limited as much as possible to freedom of belief; conduct “should conform to law.” This is because religion is discriminatory and can be used as a front for discriminatory activities. Nondiscrimination policies, in contrast, “are of preeminent importance.” Religious exemptions …

Civil Justice Reform - An Idaho Imperative, Jim Jones

Concordia Law Review

No abstract provided.