Law Commons^™

A Municipal Police Officer's Jurisdiction To Arrest Without Warrant, Gerald S. Reamey

Faculty Articles

It is difficult to discern the jurisdictional boundaries of a Texas peace officer's warrantless arrest authority. This is due in part to the variety of “peace officers” recognized in Texas law, and in part to the numerous imprecise statutes which govern the issue. Arrest “jurisdiction” may mean the authority to arrest for certain kinds of offenses, or it may refer to the power to make an arrest in a certain territorial area. Territorial jurisdiction is most difficult to resolve in Texas. The determination of whether an arresting officer is a “peace officer,” and if so, what kind of officer, is …

Presumption Instructions And Juror Decision Making, John M. Schmolesky

Faculty Articles

Examined the effects of 3 types (conclusive, mandatory, permissive) of presumptions (“PRs”) on verdicts in a 4 (defendant culpability) by 6 (PR instruction) factorial design. 264 undergraduates read a case summary and completed a questionnaire about the summary. Only the conclusive PR significantly increased overall guilty verdicts. Additional analyses indicated that as defendant culpability decreased there was a greater tendency to nullify the PR instructions. The mandatory PR instruction intended to shift the burden of production elicited the most misapplications of the PR instructions (guilty verdicts that are inconsistent with the PR instruction).

Investigative Detentions For Purposes Of Fingerprinting, David A. Schlueter

Faculty Articles

This article focuses on constitutional issues associated with fingerprinting suspects in investigative detention. Following a series of barracks larcenies, Naval Investigative Service (NIS) investigators fingerprinted approximately 100 servicemembers. All those ordered to report to the NIS office for fingerprinting had been present in the unit at the time of the offenses, and among those was the accused, who was later linked to the crime through his fingerprints. Before the accused reported to the NIS office there was no probable cause or reasonable suspicion to believe that he was in any way involved in the crimes. Were the fingerprints admissible?

United …

The Politics Of Law (Teaching) (Book Review), Michael S. Ariens

Faculty Articles

The satiric novel, as a “message” novel, can provide unvarnished truths about the object of satire. Institutions of higher learning, particularly law schools, and the denizens of those institutions, are prime subjects for satire because they take themselves so seriously. Unfortunately, though, The Socratic Method by Michael Levin takes itself as seriously as the law school it is criticizing.

One of the hazards of the satiric novel is that the message may overwhelm the plot and characterization. Levin, in his zeal to awaken the reader to the torture of the law school, and particularly the torture of the law school …

Born As Second Class Citizens In The U.S.A.: Children Of Undocumented Parents, Bill Piatt

Faculty Articles

Courts must guarantee that native-born citizens of undocumented parents are not second class citizens. Historically, courts intervened to prevent administrative officials from making the educational or economic circumstances of citizen children more difficult because of their parents' undocumented status, as in Plyer v. Doe. However, courts generally show greater reluctance in preventing officials from making the circumstances of children of undocumented parents more difficult when their parents are removed from this country by deportation.

As a result of the holdings in Kleindienst, Fiallo, and Wang, it is not likely that courts will scrutinize the congressional policy choice of allowing imposition …

Toward Domestic Recognition Of A Human Right To Language, Bill Piatt

Faculty Articles

There is no clearly defined “right to language” in the United States. Yet, there do exist sources of such a right. For example, a constitutionally protected right to express oneself or receive communications in a language other than English is supported by a number of federal court decisions. Further, there may be a first amendment right to receive broadcast programming in languages other than English, and some federal statutes even provide a guarantee of the exercise of language rights in a number of public and civic contexts.

In spite of these sources for a right to language, it is an …

Warrantless Arrest Jurisdiction In Texas: An Analysis And A Proposal, Gerald S. Reamey, J. Daniel Harkins

Faculty Articles

Within the State of Texas, there exist a great number of “peace officers” who are granted a wide range of power and authority. This includes the power to make warrantless arrests and searches pursuant to those arrests. Significant ambiguity exists regarding a peace officer’s jurisdiction. The confusion is largely due to imprecise statutory language and varying judicial interpretations.

Article 998 of Texas Revised Civil Statutes, for example, bestowed on city police officers the same powers, authority, and jurisdiction as city marshals. The statute, though, neglected to define the extent of that jurisdiction, or even what “jurisdiction” meant in that context. …

Suicidal Rights, Michael S. Ariens

Faculty Articles

The legal debate regarding the right to commit suicide requires a critical review of the relationship between the individual and the community in present liberal political thought. Modern liberal political thought postulates that the government or community must be neutral about what is good both for members of the community and the community itself. It also postulates that there exists a sphere of action which affects solely an individual.

The neutrality postulate and the harm of self/harm to others dichotomy are best explicated by John Stuart Mill in his essay On Liberty, in which Mill separates and categorizes the individual …