Law Commons^™

Cnn Money Interviews Serge Martinez, My Chipotle Nightmare, Serge A. Martinez

Faculty Scholarship

Article on low-wage quoting professor Serge Martinez on low-wage workers.

Brief For Professors, Czyzewski V. Jevic Holding Corp. As Amicus Curiae, Laura Spitz

Faculty Scholarship

We urge that the decision of the Circuit Court should be affirmed because Petitioners were not injured or prejudiced by the settlement--they are not worse off than if the settlement had been rejected. Aside from that, the remaining issue is whether the bankruptcy court had discretion to approve the instant settlement even though it did not strictly follow the priority rule. We believe that the courts correctly decided not to apply the absolute priority rule under the circumstances of this case. We urge that the Rule need not be followed by a bankruptcy court in approving a settlement. Alternatively, if …

Why Are We Doing This? Cognitive Science And Nondirective Supervision In Clinical Teaching, Serge A. Martinez

Faculty Scholarship

In this article, I examine the idea of nondirective supervision in clinical education in theory and practice in light of recent findings in educational research. In Part I, I examine the theory and practice of nondirective supervision in clinical education. In Part II, I explore the history of nondirective supervisory pedagogy and how it may have developed in clinical education. In Part III, I look at the latest evidence and theories from educational research, where a large body of empirical evidence supports the value of explicit guidance for novice learners in certain settings. Finally, in Part IV, I apply this …

Brief For The American Association On Intellectual And Developmental Disabilities (Aaidd), And The Arc Of The United States As Amicus Curiae, James W. Ellis, Ann M. Delpha, Carol M. Suzuki, Steven Homer, David Stout, April Land

Faculty Scholarship

As with any field of scientific inquiry, our understanding of the condition of intellectual disability is improved and enhanced over time by continuing, rigorous study and analysis. The scientific study and the diagnosis of intellectual disability involve issues important to scholars and clinicians. But amici believe that there is no need for this Court to become enmeshed in the details and intricacies of those scholarly efforts in order to resolve the instant case and to provide guidance to lower courts in their task of fairly adjudicating cases under Atkins v. Virginia, 536 U.S. 304 (2002). This Court need only affirm …

Talking With Women About Community Healing In Uganda And Sierra Leone, Jennifer Moore

Faculty Scholarship

Featuring voices on international law, policy and practice

Engendering Peace And Justice After Armed Conflict: A Call For Qualitative Research Among Women's Community Networks, Jennifer Moore

Faculty Scholarship

Transitional justice refers to a variety of mechanisms established to help postconflict societies account for the war and build the peace, including war crimes tribunals, truth and reconciliation commissions, and reparations programs. The framework of transitional justice, while responsive to local actors and local realities, was largely constructed by external actors, including foreign states, international organizations, non-governmental agencies, advocates, and academics working in the fields of human rights and rule of law promotion. The gender dilemma for global and local transitional justice practitioners is the increasing awareness that most women in war-affected countries have not been well-served by the considerable …

State Innovation On Climate Change: Reducing Emissions From Key Sectors While Preparing For A New Normal, Gabriel Pacyniak

Faculty Scholarship

Climate change is a global phenomenon that is causing sea levels to rise, floods and droughts to become more severe, and countless other impacts. States are implementing many innovative initiatives that are helpful models for other state and federal action—catalyzing changes well beyond their borders. State and local governments possess important legal authorities in areas such as utilities regulation, infrastructure investment, and land use—governing important policies, programs and investments that have long-term consequences in the fight against climate change. More recently, states have begun to undertake efforts to prepare for the consequences of climate change—developing “adaptation plans” aimed at increasing …

High Court Denies Rights Of Natives, Barbara L. Creel, John Lavelle

Faculty Scholarship

June 13 of this year marked a milestone in constitutional law. Fifty years earlier, in 1966, the Supreme Court decided Miranda v. Arizona, requiring officers to notify individuals in police custody of their “Miranda rights,” including their right to a court-appointed lawyer if unable to afford one.

In United States v. Bryant, this nation’s highest court condoned the use of prior “uncounseled” tribal court convictions to charge and convict an Indian as a federal habitual domestic violence offender.

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who wrote Bryant, denigrates Indian people’s civil rights, citing the need to protect Native women from domestic violence. …

Time To Empower Tribal Authorities, Kevin Washburn

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Reviving The Dead Hand After Repeal Of The Rule Against Perpetuities, Sergio Pareja

Faculty Scholarship

This blog post summarizes a recent article by Reid Kress Weisbord, Trust Term Extension, 67 Fla. L. Rev. 73 (2015).

Modrall Sperling Interviews Kevin Washburn About Indian Law And Returning To New Mexico, Kevin Washburn

Faculty Scholarship

Reflections on Service as Assistant Secretary-Indian Affairs, the State of Indian Law in 2016, and Returning Home to New Mexico

Montana Standard Interviews Barbara Creel On The Violence Against Women Act And Double Standards, Barbara L. Creel

Faculty Scholarship

Barbara Creel, Southwest Indian Law Clinic Director Professor at the University of New Mexico, agreed with Babcock that the case was not about tribal sovereignty.

Yet she said the case reveals inequities in the criminal justice system of tribes created when Congress told them how to structure their governments under the Indian Reorganization Act but did not provide sufficient funding or additional legal protections to make those systems function as intended.

Additionally, in a brief she and colleagues filed to the court, Creel argues that the Violence Against Women Act creates a discriminatory double standard.

Flint Drinking Water Contamination: Frames Of Reference, Clifford J. Villa

Faculty Scholarship

Presentation given at Harvard Law School on Flint, Michigan, lead toxicity and what we can do as a matter of law.

Supreme Court Brief Interviews Creel, Barbara L. Creel

Faculty Scholarship

If tribal courts provided competent counsel to indigent Indian defendants, Creel said, "Then I would say, 'Prosecute all day long.' But [federal prosecutors] are trying to short-circuit that. They're saying because we have this epidemic, let's make it easier for everyone involved. That's against constitutional values and tribal values."

Creel asks the justices to hold that all persons facing incarceration must have the same protections in place. "That wouldn't apply the Constitution to tribes but it would disallow federal prosecutors from using uncounseled convictions."

Brief For Barbara L. Creel And The Tribal Defender Network, Us V. Bryant, Barbara L. Creel, John Lavelle

Faculty Scholarship

Although Congress intended to protect women in Indian Country from domestic abuse, they condoned the use of prior “uncounseled” tribal court convictions to charge and convict an Indian as a federal habitual domestic violence offender.

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who wrote Bryant, denigrates Indian people’s civil rights, citing the need to protect Native women from domestic violence. But Department of Justice statistics show most domestic violence perpetrators in Indian country are non-Indians, and the Bryant decision leaves intact their constitutional rights, including the right to appointed counsel.

U.S. Restores Millions Of Acres To Native Americans, Kevin Washburn

Faculty Scholarship

The Obama Administration has restored nearly 2 million acres to tribal ownership in a variety of different ways.

Uncounseled Convictions A Threat To Indians, John P. Lavelle

Faculty Scholarship

The Supreme Court is now poised to address whether a tribal court conviction that did not give the Indian defendant representation by a lawyer can be used to increase the sentence when the Indian is later prosecuted on a federal domestic assault charge.

Cedar Mesa Proposal Good For All, Kevin Washburn

Faculty Scholarship

A coalition of tribes, led by the Hopi and the Navajo, and including the Utes of Colorado and Utah and several of New Mexico’s pueblos have asked President Obama to use the Antiquities Act to declare this landscape a national monument to be protected alongside other nearby national treasures, such as Arches, Canyonlands, Bryce Canyon and Zion National Parks.

Brief For Professors As Amicus Curiae, Husky International Electronics Inc. V. Daniel Lee Ritz Jr., Laura Spitz

Faculty Scholarship

The amici submit that asking whether a misrepresentation is an essential element of an “actual fraud” under section 523(a)(2)(A) disguises Petitioner’s false presupposition, namely, that a debt arising from a transfer made to hinder, delay or defraud creditors is capable of being within the scope of section 523(a)(2)(A)’s “actual fraud” provision and thus excepted from a discharge later received by a chapter 7 debtor under section 727(a). That false presupposition leads to an unnecessary inquiry whether a misrepresentation is required for a fraudulent transfer to constitute an “actual fraud” under section 523(a)(2)(A). The amici would avoid that entire inquiry. They …

The Dawning Of Disaster Law, Clifford J. Villa

Faculty Scholarship

What really matters, what unites disasters of all stripes, including earthquakes in Japan, tornadoes in Oklahoma, oil spills in the Gulf of Mexico, and the terrorist attacks on 9/11, is how you respond during the disaster, how you recover from it afterwards, and how you prepare - or better, prevent - the next disaster from happening. This is what disaster theorists, including Professor Dan Farber at Berkeley Law, term the "disaster cycle." In simplest terms: readiness, response, and recovery.

Survival In The Face Of Scarcity: The Undocumented Immigrant Experience, Nathalie Martin

Faculty Scholarship

In this Article, I attempt to build an empathy bridge between readers and a group of undocumented immigrants living in the American southwest, applying original qualitative research to scarcity theory. While the original empirical study discussed here was designed to bring out the financial realities of the participants, including their credit and banking habits, we uncovered some unrelated themes, including a general feeling among participants of being taken advantage of on the basis of immigration status, as well as an unwillingness to use the court system to right wrongs, even when there was a clear legal right to do so. …

Biagaweit: Securing Water From The Mighty River In The Snake River Basin Adjudication, Jeanette Wolfley

Faculty Scholarship

This symposium article describes the Shoshone and Bannock peoples journey to quantify their water rights in the SRBA. It begins with the Shoshone-Bannock Tribal cultural perspective on water and water rights. It then discusses the concept of tribal homelands and the water required and necessary for sustaining a tribally reserved home as guaranteed in the Fort Bridger Treaty of 1868, including a discussion of the Winters doctrine which affirms the treaty's promises. It concludes with a review of the Fort Hall Indian Water Rights Agreement. 'Biagaweit' is the Shoshone word for the Snake River. The mighty Snake River begins its …

From Out To In: The Opportunity And Need For Clinical Law Programs To Effectively Serve Low-Income Lgbt Individuals, Sarah Steadman

Faculty Scholarship

Although the recent legalization of same-sex marriage in the U.S. is heartening for lesbians and gays, the resulting discriminatory legislative backlash against the LGBT population shows that this community continues to be marginalized and at risk. Over two hundred anti-LGBT bills have been introduced in state legislatures since January 2016. North Carolina recently passed anti-LGBT legislation that eliminated and prohibits LGBT anti-discrimination protections, and bars transgender individuals from using gender congruent public bathrooms. One result of recent and historical discrimination is LGBT individual's newfound and pre-existing fears of encountering anti-LGBT bias when seeking legal services, even as recent developments have …

Fracking In Louisiana: The Missing Process/Land Use Distinction In State Preemption And Opportunities For Local Participation, Alex Ritchie

Faculty Scholarship

Oil and gas development is testing and defining the boundaries of local government authority and autonomy as concerned municipal entities and citizens seek to limit oil and gas operations. Advances in high-volume hydraulic fracturing have increased domestic oil and gas production to historic levels.) At the same time, national and international concerns about irreversible man-made global warming have focused on fossil fuel combustion. National groups opposed to continued reliance on oil and gas as an energy source have found willing partners in many local governments and their citizens, who are anxious about the local implications of drilling and fracking. Many …

The Free Blacks Of Virginia: A Personal Narrative, A Legal Construct, Sherri L. Burr

Faculty Scholarship

The existence of the Free Blacks of Virginia as a group in United States history would surprise most Americans. The common narrative is that all Africans were brought to this country as slaves with no rights, and systematically received legal privileges after the Civil War in the 1860s and the Civil Rights struggle a century later. The reality differs from this assumption. The first Africans who landed on the shores of Virginia in 1619 began their lives as indentured servants similar to many European immigrants. After finishing their terms of service, these Africans were accorded liberties such as the right …

A Legal History Of The Civil War And Reconstruction: A Nation Of Rights By Laura F. Edwards, Jennifer Laws

Faculty Scholarship

This is a review of A Legal History of the Civil War and Reconstruction: A Nation of Rights by Laura F. Edwards

Recurring Issues In Indian Gaming Compact Approval, Kevin Washburn

Faculty Scholarship

Achieving agreement between a state and a tribe, and then achieving ratification of that agreement through state and tribal legislative processes, are challenging endeavors. Failing to account for the need for federal approval can undermine the entire negotiation process. The purpose of this article is to highlight several recurring problem areas that can place compact approval at risk. These include the requirement in IGRA that a compact avoid issues that are not germane to gaming,that the compact avoid regulating Class II gaming,which is beyond state authority, and the requirementthat the state avoid expanding its reach over ancillary services and spaces …

Inviting Everyone To The (Risk) Pool Party: Reforming The Premium Tax Credit To Boost Participation, Mary Leto Pareja

Faculty Scholarship

The year 2014 marked the first opportunity for American taxpayers to receive subsidized health insurance through the Affordable Care Act’s (“ACA”) new Premium Tax Credit (“PTC”). About 4.8 million people enrolled in an ACA plan in 2014 were eligible, and nearly 97% of these claimants were approved for advance payments of the PTC. The year 2015 marked the first tax return where taxpayers received the unpleasant surprise that they must repay excess credits due to reconciliation. Advance PTC estimates turned out to be highly inaccurate, with only 8% of claimants receiving accurate advance payments. A majority, 51%, had to repay …