Law Commons^™

Where Is Equal Protection? Applying Strict Scrutiny To Use Of Race By Law Enforcement., Evan Gerstmann

Evan Gerstmann

This article seeks to move the debate over the use of race by law enforcement beyond the current focus on racial profiling, arguing that the courts must apply strict scrutiny to all use of race by law enforcement, including the stopping and questioning of persons based on suspect descriptions that include race. The current debate implicitly (and sometimes explicitly) assumes that law enforcement’s use of race can be divided into unconstitutional racial profiling and all other uses of races, which are presumptively legitimate. However, when other institutions rely upon race, such as public universities implementing affirmative action programs, courts automatically …

Problems And Reforms In Mortgage-Backed Securities: Handicapping The Credit Rating Agencies, Franz P. Hosp

Franz P Hosp V

Here we go again - another financial mess with credit rating agencies in the cross hairs. This is nothing new. Over the last four decades, credit rating agencies have been associated with several major financial disasters: the bankruptcy of Penn Central Transportation Company in 1970, the bankruptcy of Orange County in 1994, the Asian financial crisis in the late 1990's, the bankruptcy of Enron in 2001, and the bankruptcy of WorldCom in 2002.

Currently, the United States is suffering from an economic crisis precipitated largely by the deterioration of mortgage-backed securities. The process of securitizing mortgages is complex and involves …