Law Commons^™

Eviction Sealing Should Top New Mexico’S Legislative Housing Agenda, Allison Freedman

Faculty Scholarship

In January 2023, the White House released a Blueprint for a Renters Bill of Rights, which called for immediate sealing of eviction case filings—often referred to as “Scarlet E’s”—to help reduce the likelihood that tenants would be “locked out of future housing opportunities without the chance to defend themselves.”

Indigenous Influence On The Rights Of Nature Movement, Vanessa Racehorse

Faculty Scholarship

The growing recognition of the rights of nature is a blend of both modern conservation efforts and principles reflected in traditional Indigenous stewardship that should be an essential component of the discourse around environmental justice. This article provides an overview of the laws that invoke the rights of nature that Indigenous perspectives and practices regarding environmental preservation have influenced. This discussion pays particular attention to the White Earth Band of Ojibwe's "Rights of Manoomin" law and Manoomin v. Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (White Earth Band of Ojibwe Tribal Ct. 2021), the first rights of nature case filed in a …

Ai Is Here. Here’S How New Mexicans Can Prepare, Sonia Gipson Rankin, Melanie E. Moses

Faculty Scholarship

Last December we asked the AI chatbot ChatGPT to solve a programming assignment given to computer science students at UNM. It wrote some Python code, but it generated an error. We gave the chatbot the error message and were astounded by how good its response was.

Action Is Not Activism: Moving Martinez/Yazzie V. State Forward, Griffin Arellano

New Mexico Law Review

Education has long been regarded as the foundation of a strong society and fundamental to an individual’s ability to determine the course of their own life. Article XII of the New Mexico Constitution asserts that all students in New Mexico have a right to not just an education but one that is “sufficient.” However, in 2018, a state district court found that at-risk students across New Mexico were being denied that right. In Martinez/Yazzie v. State of New Mexico, the court ordered the State to quickly provide more funding for education and accountability mechanisms to ensure that money was spent …

Front Matter, New Mexico Law Review

New Mexico Law Review

No abstract provided.

Big Data Policing Capacity Measurement, Ronald J. Coleman

New Mexico Law Review

Big data, algorithms, and computing technologies are revolutionizing policing. Cell phone data. Transportation data. Purchasing data. Social media and internet data. Facial recognition and biometric data. Use of these and other forms of data to investigate, and even predict, criminal activity is law enforcement’s presumptive future. Indeed, law enforcement in several major cities have already begun to develop a big data policing mindset, and new forms of data have played a central role in high-profile matters featured in the Serial and To Live and Die in LA podcasts, as well as in the Supreme Court’s leading privacy and criminal procedure …

The Outer Limits: Jury Discretion, District Court Deference, & Excessive Damages In Morga V. Fedex Ground Package Sys., Inc., Aaron Sharratt

New Mexico Law Review

What is the value of life? Courts and commentators have long debated the question of the inherent value of life in relation to the awarding of compensatory damages. The New Mexico Supreme Court’s recent decision affirming a record $165 million civil award in Morga v. FedEx again brings this debate into public view. The decision effectively shuts the door to the prospect of higher State courts overturning a jury’s noneconomic compensatory damages award based on an excessive verdict claim. The case highlights the district court’s power and discretion in awarding monetary damages for nonmonetary injuries and the implications of defense …

Tracing The Roots Of A Poisonous Tree: On The Origins And Impact Of Criminal Terminology In A Civil Apprehension Scheme, Shani Mahiri King, Nicole Silvestri Hall

New Mexico Law Review

Language is powerful. It can affect how we think about and treat groups of people. Poor language choices have a massive impact on immigration law, an area of the law that determines how groups of perceived “outsiders” are classified and regulated. Language and bias in judicial opinions have been studied, but less research has been done on poor language choices in immigration statutes. This Comment focuses on the harmful effects of poor language choices in immigration statutes, including the criminal terminology “arrest” and “warrant” in civil immigration apprehension statutes 8 U.S.C. Sections 1226 and 1357. Two fundamental problems arise when …

Banding Together: Law Versus People Power In The United States, Benjamin E. Douglas

New Mexico Law Review

To become a democratic society, the United States must respect the people’s right to associate. This does not sound like a radical principle—freedom of association is part of the First Amendment—but realizing this freedom requires serious changes in existing policy. State and federal laws obstruct the ability of people to band together to shape the type of society that they wish to live in. People face severe restrictions impeding their right to form and direct value-based, powerbuilding, membership-driven organizations. I begin with an examination of the democracy deficit in this country, explored in three dimensions. First, when there are conflicts …

The Mindful First Amendment, Gary Myers

New Mexico Law Review

The mindfulness movement has begun to play an expanding role in personal well-being and in society more generally. Although there is an active push for mindfulness in law, its primary focus is on ways in which mindfulness techniques can help lawyers in their personal and professional lives. This article explores the possible contributions of mindfulness to the widely recognized challenges facing freedom of speech and freedom of the press in an era of severe cultural and political polarization. This article focuses on the external aspects of mindfulness—the interaction with others and with society—to assess whether its techniques might assist in …

Reaping The Rewards Of Hard Work: Eliminating The New Mexico Minimum Wage Act’S Exemption For Workers Paid On A Piecework, Flat Rate, And Commission Basis, Jackie Munro-Vahey

New Mexico Law Review

The federal Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) of 1938 created minimum wage, maximum hours, and overtime protections for the first time in United States history. One of the core principles of the FLSA was that states could also pass their own wage and hour laws, provided they were more protective of workers than the federal Act. In 2023, however, New Mexico is the only state where workers paid on a piecework, flat rate, and commission basis are exempt from the basic wage and hour protections of the federal Act because of a less protective state law. So, for example, medical …

Queer Crises: Movements From Queerness And Feelings Of White Religion In The United States, Austin Williams Miller

Communication ETDs

Anchored by contemporary crises surrounding queer and trans people in the United States, I employ movements from queerness within an affective queer phenomenological framework to understand how arrangements of “white religion” (Schaefer, 2015, p. 63), a process whereby U.S. American Christian forms escape ideology into religious affective economies in the United States, relegate queer people “to the background… to sustain a certain direction” (Ahmed, 2006, p. 31). I assemble a queer rhetorical context analyzing white religious space in documentary film, secular sexual regulation through contemporary U.S. legal contexts around marriage, and settler colonial Christian nationalist political imaginations to critique how …

Risk Management Perceptions And Preventive Practices Of Athletic Directors From Naia Schools, Yan Gioseffi

Health, Exercise, and Sports Sciences ETDs

The increase in the number of incidents associated with sports has led to the rise of litigation, and physical, emotional, and financial damage to stakeholders. Collegiate athletic directors (ADs) have the duty to keep their programs safe.

This study aimed to explore and understand the practices, perceptions, and experiences of ADs from National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) institutions regarding preventive risk management. As risk management is significantly new in the sporting industry, an exploratory study using a qualitative design, grounded in narrative inquiry was conducted using the D.I.M. Process as a guide to collect data from 10 NAIA ADs …

First In Time: The Place Of Tribes In Governing The Colorado River System, Matthew Mckinney, Jay Weiner, Daryl Vigil

Natural Resources Journal

Native Americans are the first inhabitants of the Colorado River Basin and have relied on its water and other resources since time immemorial. However, tribes were not involved in the shaping the Colorado River Compact and its governing institutions, and they have faced uphill battles to secure, protect, and develop their water rights—including the ability to acquire access to clean water for their members. This article begins by explaining the historic role of tribes in governing the Colorado River system. It then reviews ongoing efforts to better integrate tribal needs, interests, and priorities into management decisions, and to support opportunities …

Case Note: Up In The Air: Environment Texas And The New Violation-Based Approach To Determining Standing In Environmental Citizen Suits, Noah T. Allaire

Natural Resources Journal

No abstract provided.

Case Note: Mind The (Federal) Gap: Nuisance Claims In The Tenth Circuit To Address Climate Change, Serafina Seluja

Natural Resources Journal

No abstract provided.

From Austin To Santa Fe: Exploring The Prosecution Of Environmental Crimes Within Epa Region 6, Dr. Joshua Ozymy, Dr. Melissa Jarrell Ozymy

Natural Resources Journal

Criminal violations of environmental law are prosecuted by EPA and DOJ. Despite decades of such prosecutions, there has been relatively little analysis done towards understanding existing patterns in criminal prosecution of environmental crimes, especially on a regional basis. This article analyzes the 287 prosecutions which occurred in EPA Region 6 between 1983–2022, out of the 2,807 total environmental crimes prosecuted by all of EPA during that period. In the selected cases, defendants were cumulatively assessed with over $908 million in monetary penalties, 225 years of incarceration, and 1,032 years of probation. At 43 percent of the selected prosecutions, water pollution …

Balkinization Symposium On Christian G. Fritz, Monitoring American Federalism: The History Of State Legislative Resistance, Christian G. Fritz

Faculty Scholarship

Balkinization, the blog founded by Knight Professor of Constitutional Law and the First Amendment Jack Balkin (Yale Law School), hosted a symposium on Christian Fritz's book Monitoring American Federalism: The History of State Legislative Resistance (Cambridge University Press, 2023) June 14-26, 2023. Six scholars from law schools across the United States discussed the book and the symposium concluded with Professor Fritz's response to the commentators.

The Role Of United States V. Cooley And Mcgirt V. Oklahoma In Determining Criminal Jurisdiction In Indian Country, Prof. Dustin Jansen

Tribal Law Journal

Understanding jurisdiction is paramount to deciding whether federal, state, or tribal courts can exercise jurisdiction for crimes committed in Indian country. The evolution of federal Indian law has created a legal landscape that is far from consistent. For the Indian law practitioner, it is important to stay abreast of the latest case law available to understand where proper jurisdiction lies. The latest cases of McGirt v. Oklahoma and United States v. Cooley are the newest case law available that demonstrate the Supreme Court’s reasoning and analysis in determining proper jurisdiction.

A Proposal For A Model Indigenous Intellectual Property Protectiontribal Code (Miipptc), Prof. Tomasz G. Smolinski

Tribal Law Journal

The appropriation of Native American cultural and intellectual property has become commonplace in the United States. At the same time, mainstream, Western cultural/intellectual property laws are inadequate to properly protect traditional Indigenous knowledge. To address this problem, scholars have begun to advocate for a three-tiered system, in which, in addition to national and international legal protections, tribal laws would play a fundamental role in the fight against cultural appropriation. Alas, few Native American tribes explicitly address cultural and/or intellectual property rights in any of their legal instruments. This is especially true with respect to intangible intellectual property, such as traditional …

Front Matter, Tribal Law Journal

Tribal Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Tribes And H-1bs: Promoting Inclusion Of Tribal Interests In Immigration Policy Through Employment-Based Visas, Alejandro Alvarado

Tribal Law Journal

Tribal law and immigration law provide a comprehensive space, with plenty of crossover issues, for legal practitioners to explore how immigration law may benefit Tribes and Indigenous Peoples. These issues arise from the history of the United States undermining Tribal interests through immigration policy as it created international borders and established citizenship criteria. As a result, Indigenous Peoples have been impacted by U.S. immigration policy with regard to global mobility, family separation, issues related to border security, and economic prosperity. With the continued growth of Tribal economies, U.S. immigration policy risks limiting Tribal interests and welfare by not providing explicit …

Experiments In Legal Hybridity: From Indian Tort Law To Tribal Tort Law, Noah T. Allaire

Tribal Law Journal

Tort law is a broad set of rules designed to compensate people who have suffered injuries and harm by imposing penalties on those who caused the resulting injuries and harm. Indian tort law is the limited set of rules that the United States imposed upon tribal nations over a century ago. Today, tribal courts have the important opportunity and responsibility to articulate tribal tort law. Tribal legislatures, in turn, can codify tribal tort rules to guide future judicial decisionmaking. Through this process, tribal tort law will gradually supplant Indian tort law. Articulating tribal tort law necessarily involves conducting experiments in …

Traditional Tlingit Law & Governance And Contemporary Sealaska Corporate Governance: 4 Core Values And A Jurisprudence Of Transformation, Micah S. Mcneil , Esq.

Tribal Law Journal

This paper will give historical insight into the Tlingit Nation’s governance and showcase how their government has changed over time. This paper will then talk about the unique form of governance adapted through the Sealaska Corporation and its various associate organizations. The Tlingit governmental structure was clan-based throughout its history but has evolved to a regional corporate and tribal government structure because of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA). Fundamental to Tlingit law and governance is holding to core values while embracing a jurisprudence of change and transformation. Though, I focus on the four core values of the Tlingit, …

“Subsistence Is Cultural Survival”: Examining The Legal Framework For The Recognition And Incorporation Of Traditional Cultural Landscapes Within The National Historic Preservation Act, Wesley James Furlong

Tribal Law Journal

Over the past thirty years, Tribes have exercised growing influence in federal land management and permitting decisions, precipitated, in part, by amendments to the National Historic Preservation Act (“NHPA”) and evolving perspectives in cultural resource management and historic preservation. Despite the increased influence Tribes have gained in federal decision-making processes with the NHPA, it is often an ineffective tool to protect tribal cultural resources. Indigenous cultural resources and perspectives on cultural resource stewardship often do not fit easily within the NHPA’s framework. Nevertheless, until federal law is changed to actually protect Indigenous cultural resources, Tribes must operate within this existing …

Interposition: A State-Based Constitutional Tool That Might Help Preserve American Democracy, Christian G. Fritz

Faculty Scholarship

Interposition was not a claim that state sovereignty could or should displace national authority, but a claim that American federalism needed to preserve some balance between state and national authority.

http://commonplace.online/article/interposition/

It Is What It Is... Enduring The Never-Ending: The Lived Experiences Of Parenting Adult Children With Developmental/Intellectual Disabilities, Siri Gurunam Kaur Khalsa

Nursing ETDs

The parental home is the principal place of residence for adults with developmental disabilities/ intellectual disabilities (DD/ID) (Heller et al., 2007). More than 75% of the adult population with DD/ID living in the U.S. continue to have their basic needs provided by their parents (Williamson & Perkins, 2014). This is based on the estimated statistic that 1.0 to 1.58% of the U.S. adult population has a developmental disability (Anderson et al., 2019; Fox et al., 2015). About 2.9 million adults with DD/ID live with a parent of 55 years (Byun et al., 2006), with more than 25% of these parents …

Mental Distress Among Adults With Serious Mental Illness In A Criminal Legal Setting: A Secondary Data Analysis Of The Mcarthur Mental Health Court Study Data, Violette Cloud

Psychology ETDs

Chronic criminal legal system (CLS) involvement among individuals with serious mental illness (SMI) is of growing concern. Mental health courts (MHCs) are a known diversion strategy currently used by the CLS to address this problem. MHCs are seen as an effective method for linking individuals with SMI to needed treatment, removing them from a detention setting, and subsequently reducing recidivism. However, less is known about the impact of MHC enrollment on mental health related outcomes (mental distress). Using the McArthur Mental Health Court Study data, this study aimed to inspect the impact of MHC participation, legal coercion, and treatment motivation …

Monitoring American Federalism: The Overlooked Tool Of Sounding The Alarm Interposition, Christian G. Fritz

Faculty Scholarship

One key feature of the U.S. Constitution – the concept of federalism – was unclear when it was introduced, and that lack of clarity threatened the Constitution’s ratification by those who feared the new government would undermine state sovereignty. Proponents of the new governmental framework were questioned about the underlying theory of the Constitution as well as how it would operate in practice, and their explanations produced intense and extended debate over how to monitor federalism.

http://50shadesoffederalism.com/case-studies/monitoring-american-federalism-the-overlooked-tool-of-sounding-the-alarm-interposition/#more-1574

“With All Deliberate Speed”: The Ironic Demise Of (And Hope For) Affirmative Action, Vinay Harpalani

Faculty Scholarship

Is affirmative action in university admissions about to end? As the United States Supreme Court prepares to decide lawsuits against Harvard and the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill (UNC), the outlook for race-conscious admissions policies is not good. Even before its recent rightward shift, the Court had long been hostile to such policies, and many observers think it will now overturn Grutter v. Bollinger and end them altogether. Such a ruling would be a painful and paradoxical twist for civil rights advocates. In a classic turn of Orwellian irony, the plaintiffs challenging affirmative action now call themselves Students for …