Law Commons^™

Banning The Box In Missouri: A Statewide Step In The Right Direction, Jessica Chinnadurai

Missouri Law Review

Missouri, like many other states, has evaluated and decided to address employment discrimination that occurs as a result of requiring people with a criminal history to disclose that information during the initial phases of the hiring process. Efforts to eliminate bias have been seen through the “Ban the Box” movement. The movement generally advocates removing the box applicants check if they have a criminal history, opting instead to delay this question for later in the employment process. This Note analyzes the advantages and disadvantages of adopting this legislation and evaluates whether doing so leads to a lower risk of employment …

Check Yes For Checkpoints: Suspicionless Stops And Ramifications For Missouri Motorists, Conner Harris

Missouri Law Review

One of the great advantages of living in a free society is the enjoyment of general privacy and freedom from unwarranted interference in one’s personal affairs. This advantage benefits citizens in both their private and public interactions. For example, it is expected one could drive to the store across town, the mall in a neighboring city, or somewhere on the other side of the country uninterrupted and unhindered. The Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution codifies this privacy expectation as a right to be enjoyed by all within its reach. Specifically, the Fourth Amendment protects against “unreasonable searches and …

Impeding Reentry: Agency And Judicial Obstacles To Longer Halfway House Placements, S. David Mitchell

Faculty Publications

Part I of this article details the Bureau of Prisons' rules and policies governing inmate placement, including the most recent iteration. Part II examines Chevron27 and the Bureau of Prisons' extraordinary justification exception rule. Part III turns to the threshold matter of obtaining judicial access to challenge the Bureau of Prisons' new rule, with Part III.A arguing that the federal courts should relax their standards when faced with exceptions to the exhaustion requirement and Part III.B arguing for the adoption of a federal public importance exception to the mootness doctrine. The article concludes that these changes will further Congress' dual …

Undermining Individual And Collective Citizenship: The Impact Of Exclusion Laws On The African-American Community, S. David Mitchell

Faculty Publications

The purpose of this article is to expose felon exclusion laws as a method for undermining the individual and collective citizenship rights of the African-American community, and to call for their abolition.

Murder, Meth, Mammon & Moral Values: The Political Landscape Of American Sentencing Reform (In Symposium On White Collar Crime), Frank O. Bowman Iii

Faculty Publications

This Article examines the ongoing American experiment in mass incarceration and considers the prospects for meaningful sentencing reform.

Editor's Observations: The Geology Of Drug Policy In 2002, Frank O. Bowman Iii

Faculty Publications

Public concern about drug abuse as a major issue in American life may be ebbing. The notion that "the drug war is a failure" has become the common wisdom in academic and journalistic circles. Support for routine and lengthy imprisonment of non-violent drug offenders may be eroding, even among the prosecutors, police, and judges whose job it is to enforce the law. Anger among African American, Latino, and other minority communities at the perceived discriminatory enforcement of drug laws is simmering and may begin to boil over in ways that effect the political terrain. And after the events of September …

Police Under The Gun, Richard C. Reuben

Faculty Publications

Back in 1968, Justice William O. Douglas warned in a dissenting opinion in Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, that the Court was opening a Pandora's box by eschewing the traditional "probable cause" standard for Fourth Amendment search and seizures in traffic stop cases, and permitting warrantless detentions based merely on "reasonable suspicion."

More than a quarter-century later, the confusion over the "reasonable suspicion" approach is still commanding the Supreme Court's attention. A pair of cases on the justices' argument calendar this spring address the tension between legitimate traffic stops and those based on pretext.

Playing "21" With Narcotics Enforcement: A Response To Professor Carrington (Symposium, Regulatory Future Of Contingent Employment), Frank O. Bowman Iii

Faculty Publications

Although I have fundamental disagreements with Professor Carrington even when his argument is reduced to its core, my purpose here is neither to defend every jot and tittle of national drug policy, nor to propose any sweeping personal vision of the place of recreational drugs in America. My ambitions are more modest. I suggest three premises: (1) Intelligent discussion of drug policy requires that we shed the image of law enforcement as warfare. (2) Instead, criminal narcotics prohibitions, penalties, and enforcement methods should be analyzed by the same standards which *939 govern any other type of crime. (3) If antinarcotics …

Rethinking Excessive Force, R. Wilson Freyermuth

Faculty Publications

Each year claimants file thousands of section 1983 actions against law enforcement or prison officials. Many of these claimants allege that officials used excessive force against them in violation of their constitutional rights. Despite the large number of excessive force cases in the federal courts, however, the Supreme Court has decided only two excessive force cases brought under section 1983. In Whitley v. Albers, the Court elaborated the appropriate standard for determining whether the shooting of a prisoner violated the eighth amendment. In Tennessee v. Garner, the Court applied the fourth amendment to strike down a Tennessee statute that authorized …