Law Commons^™

Officers Without Borders: Georgia Court Of Appeals Expands Campus Police Jurisdiction And Authority In State V. Zilke, Whitney Bly Edwards

Mercer Law Review

The deaths of Black men at the hands of law enforcement officers-or vigilantes, as in the case of George Zimmerman-have received consistent and sustained media attention in the United States in recent years. The primary incidents on which the media focused occurred in several geographic regions, indicating that the problem was not concentrated in only one or two "problem" areas. For the first time since the Rodney King beating in 1991, American society-at-large was-at least to some degree-able to see how often Black men are the targets and victims of police brutality, sometimes through firsthand video recordings of the incidents. …

Justice In The Deep South: Learning From History, Charting Our Future: An Introduction, Sarah Gerwig-Moore

Mercer Law Review

Opinions differ on the principal role of academic institutions. Should Universities be primarily concerned with scholarship and research? With classroom instruction? With producing well-rounded citizens? Mercer University has long been committed to each of these three priorities. Decades before I joined the faculty at Mercer Law School, schools within the University were already working to make public service a priority, in addition to teaching and scholarship.

Following suit, this year's Mercer Law Review Symposium boldly moved to address controversial social justice issues.' The Symposium, "Justice in the Deep South: Learning From History, Charting Our Future," featured a powerful and varied …

Keynote Address, Stephen B. Bright

Mercer Law Review

No abstract provided.

Session Three: Learning From Innovators

Mercer Law Review

No abstract provided.

How The Narrative About Louisiana's Non-Unanimous Criminal Jury System Became A Person Of Interest In The Case Against Justice In The Deep South, Angela A. Allen-Bell

Mercer Law Review

Stories are central to what lawyers do; yet, to the average member of the legal community, they exist only inconspicuously. In actuality, all cases start with a story. As lawyers do their work, that initial story grows and evolves. When judges enter the picture, the story is revised and, ultimately, the final chapter is written; then, the process begins again with an entirely different cast of characters. This Article advocates against impersonal, mechanized systems of justice that are built upon defendants, dockets, cases, quotas, formulas, and rapidity. This Article calls for the justice community to see cases in a highly …

Public Defenders, Local Control, And Brown V. Board Of Education, Russell C. Gabriel

Mercer Law Review

The topics the Mercer Law Review Symposium addresses-race, history, criminal law, and the South-have a long reach across time, place, and the spectrum of justice. It is both temptingly easy and distressfully complicated to disentangle the strands of the Southern tapestry, woven from past to present. The theory of this Essay is the easy part. Evaluating the correctness of the theory is more complicated. I am indebted to Mercer Law Review for inviting the effort.

When the United States Supreme Court decided Gideon v. Wainright' and told the states that they were required to provide lawyers to poor defendants accused …

#Sayhername #Blackwomenslivesmatter: State Violence In Policing The Black Female Body, Teri A. Mcmurtry-Chubb

Mercer Law Review

On June 30, 1974, Alberta Williams King was shot and killed in the sanctuary of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia as she played the organ for Sunday morning service. Mrs. King, seventy years old, was the mother of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. News of her death was overshadowed by four Black men: her son, killed six years previously; the shooting of a "young Black man" in Atlanta on June 26, 1974, who was out on parole; Maynard Jackson, then newly elected as Atlanta's first Black mayor; and her assailant, a Black man, a Vietnam War veteran …

Binary Imprisonment: Transgender Inmates Ensnared Within The System And Confined To Assigned Gender, Danielle Matricardi

Mercer Law Review

It is June 26, 2015. The sun is shining, and the grass is wet with morning dew. Those unaware sip their coffee on the way to work, perplexed why so many rainbow flags clutter their morning commute. Celebrations are breaking out across the Nation. The United States Supreme Court has legalized same-sex marriage. Finally, the day has come when people who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender (LGBTQ) are given the same rights as their heterosexual brothers and sisters. If only there was any truth to such idealism. To the contrary, there are still debilitating injustices against members of …

Symposium Transcript: Justice In The Deep South: Learning From History, Charting Our Future

Mercer Law Review

No abstract provided.

Session One: Learning From Souther History And Culture

Mercer Law Review

No abstract provided.

Session Two: Learning From Struggles

Mercer Law Review

No abstract provided.

In Search Of The Beloved Community, Robert L. Rhodes Jr., Tremaine Reese

Mercer Law Review

This Article describes the process by which the Georgia Appleseed Center for Law & Justice (Georgia Appleseed) has engaged Georgians in crucial conversations about critical issues concerning the relationship among law enforcement officers and the community members they serve. We also discuss how Georgia Appleseed is working to have the content of these conversations foster change to law and policy designed to enhance police community relations.

This is a story half told. As of the date of publication of this Article, the fact-gathering and legal research described below will have been completed and public advocacy for change will have commenced. …

Where Healthcare And Policing Converge: How Georgia Law Promotes Evasion Of Financial Responsibility For Indigent Arrestees' And Municipal Inmates' Medical Care, L. Taylor Hamrick

Mercer Law Review

When a law enforcement officer arrests an injured or visibly sick person, the officer typically transports the arrestee directly to a hospital for treatment prior to formal booking in a jail or detention facility. Indeed, convicted inmates, pretrial detainees, and arrestees have a constitutional right to receive necessary medical care while in police custody. However, the United States Supreme Court has distinguished a government's constitutional obligation to provide necessary medical care from a duty to pay for such care.' Instead, the Supreme Court has held that a governmental entity must pay for medical treatment of a person in its custody …

Practicing Practical Wisdom, Deborah J. Cantrell, Kenneth Sharpe

Mercer Law Review

Here is what we believe and what we set out to test: Wisdom is not an innate character trait; no one automatically is wise; and wisdom is learned and acquired. More importantly, one can learn and acquire wisdom intentionally and skillfully-one can practice it. And, if the practice is structured in particular ways, the practice will improve one's capacities to act with wisdom. For lawyers, and even more so for law students, that should be heartening. For legal educators, the ability to improve one's capacity to act with wisdom should be a call to action.

We set out to discern …

Third Party Stepparent Childcare, Jeffrey A. Parness

Mercer Law Review

More and more children are raised by a parent and a stepparent.' These children are often unaware of the differences between such child caretakers under law. When a parent and a stepparent separate, stepparent childcare often ceases at the direction of the parent, sometimes prompting harm to the child, to the stepparent, and to other one-time and current family members (including stepgrandparents and stepsiblings). As well, stepparent childcare can cease when a parent dies, prompting similar harm. ...

This Article explores the federal constitutional limits on third party stepparent childcare over current parental objections. The Article then surveys both general …

Inconsistencies In Georgia's Sex-Crime Statutes Teach Teens That Sexting Is Worse Than Sex, Emily L. Evett

Mercer Law Review

Jack and Jane are high school sweethearts. Jane is a sixteen-year-old high school junior, and Jack is a nineteen year old freshman in college. Last night, the teenage couple had sexual intercourse. Tonight, they decide to send sexually suggestive photographs to each other using their cell phones. Neither Jack nor Jane sent the photographs to anyone else. In Georgia, no crime was committed by either of them when they had sexual intercourse because Jane is over the age of sixteen. But, Jack committed a misdemeanor of high and aggravated nature when he sent a sexually explicit photograph of himself to …

Contraceptive Coverage Falls, No More: Using Rfra To Limit The Scope Of Religious Challenges To The Aca's Contraceptive Mandate, M. Catherine Norman

Mercer Law Review

Contraceptive coverage is a required part of all new insurance plans under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), but many employers' are exempt from this requirement. Other employers have challenged the contraceptive requirement on religious grounds. In East Texas Baptist University v. Burwell, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit held as follows: (1) the plaintiffs are either automatically exempt from the contraceptive-coverage mandate or eligible for accommodation upon application; (2) the challenged provisions do not violate rights to religious freedom under the Religious Freedom and Restoration Act (RFRA); (3) RFRA applies only to …

The Odd Couple: How Justices Kennedy And Scalia, Together, Advanced Gay Rights In Romer V. Evans, Tobin A. Sparling

Mercer Law Review

Amidst the excitement surrounding the flurry of decisions supporting gay marriage' which culminates in the United States Supreme Court's affirmation of same-sex marriage in Obergefell v. Hodges, Romer v. Evans, the Supreme Court's first step on the road to marriage equality, has not received the recognition it deserves. Yet, as its twentieth anniversary nears, Romer warrants a reexamination and greater recognition of its place in the advancement of gay rights. Decided in 1996, Romer held that Amendment to the Colorado constitution violated the Equal Protection Clause because the amendment discouraged the enactment of laws banning discrimination based on …

Timber! The Sec Falls Hard As The Georgia District Court In Timbervest Finds The Appointment Of The Sec Aljs "Likely Unconstitutional", Moses M. Tincher

Mercer Law Review

The higher you go, the harder you fall. This simple, yet powerful, adage could not be more apt regarding the recent rise and fall in power of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The rise began in 2010 when Congress enacted the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Dodd-Frank Act), giving the SEC new power over its administrative proceedings. Using this new power, the SEC brought more insider-trading and highly contested cases before specially hired administrative law judges (ALJs), who conduct these administrative proceedings. This "home-court" advantage corresponded with the SEC's enforcement division enjoying an 86%, …