Law Commons^™

Public Enforcement And Disability: A United States-South Korea Comparison, Joonghan (Joseph) Jo

UC Law Journal

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was enacted with the hope that it would solve issues regarding discrimination against the disabled. However, the outcome fell short of its aspirations. Many people with disabilities still suffer from ongoing discrimination. This Note argues that the ADA’s heavy reliance on private enforcement is the main reason for this shortcoming. This Note analyzes the effectiveness of public enforcement in South Korea under the Act on the Prohibition of Discrimination Against Persons with Disabilities, Remedy Against Infringement of Their Rights (Korean Disability Discrimination Act. This Note then argues that civil law country-style public enforcement based …

“It’S Like I’Ve Got This Music In My Mind”: Protecting Human Authorship In The Age Of Generative Artificial Intelligence, Justine Magowan

UC Law Journal

The music industry stands on the brink of a crisis. With unpredictable judicial standards that are inconsistent across the country, plaintiffs seeking to protect their musical works against copyright infringement face a heavy burden of proof, especially when facing defendants who are more wellknown and more well-funded. Not only that, but plaintiffs may not receive their day in court given that powerhouse artists like Taylor Swift, Sam Smith, and Bruno Mars have chosen to settle rather than defend their musical works in court. Now, Generative Artificial Intelligence (“Generative A.I.”) and A.I.-generated music will inevitably send the music industry into a …

Criminal Law, J. Scott Key

Mercer Law Review

This Article reviews some of the most important opinions impacting the practice of criminal law delivered by the Supreme Court of the United States and the Supreme Court of Georgia covering the period from June 1, 2022, up and until May 31, 2023, as well as legislation adopted by the Georgia General Assembly during the 2023 session. This Article is designed to be a general overview for both prosecutors and defense attorneys of decisions and new statutes and serves as a broad guideline to how these decisions will affect the practice of criminal law.

Legal Ethics, Patrick Emery Longan

Mercer Law Review

This Survey covers the period from June 1, 2022 to May 31, 2023 and discusses developments with respect to attorney discipline, bar admission and readmission, malpractice and other civil claims against lawyers, ineffective assistance of counsel, prosecutorial misconduct, attorney’s liens, judicial conduct, disqualification and withdrawal of counsel, contempt, proposed formal advisory opinions of the State Bar of Georgia Formal Advisory Opinion Board, and proposed amendments to the Georgia Rules of Professional Conduct.

Insurance, Myrece Johnson, Maren R. Cave, Thomas D. Martin

Mercer Law Review

During this survey period, the courts in Georgia issued several meaningful decisions in the area of insurance following a somewhat quiet year immediately after the pandemic. The three areas of insurance that typically dominate this annual update—liability, property, and automobile insurance—saw several noteworthy decisions from the federal district courts, the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, and the Court of Appeals of Georgia. In the liability or “third-party” arena, the courts in Georgia grappled once again with time-limited demands. The survey also disclosed at least one case dealing with the viability of coverage defenses not raised in …

Mama Knows Best: Raffensperger V. Jackson Ushers In A New Framework For Professional Licensing Challenges And Recognizes A Right To Work For Lactation Providers Under The Georgia Constitution’S Due Process Clause, A. Tyler Kelly

Mercer Law Review

“State constitutionalism . . . is . . . vital yet underdeveloped[.]” The right to pursue one’s chosen profession free from unreasonable government interference is inherent in the Georgia Constitution’s Due Process Clause, and a recognition of such economic liberty reappears throughout the jurisprudence of the Supreme Court of Georgia. With the passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) in 2010, the federal government delegated to the states the responsibility of navigating new policy which led insurance companies to reimburse a host of medical services from licensed professionals. At the time of the ACA’s passage, Georgia faced …

A Run For Your Money: The Supreme Court Of Georgia In Taylor V. Devereux Foundation, Inc. Upholds The Constitutionality Of The Statutory Cap On Punitive Damages, Rachel N. Ratajczak

Mercer Law Review

The sky is the limit! This idiom rings true, except for plaintiffs in many states who dream of million-dollar punitive damage awards. Many states have statutorily capped punitive damage awards, despite their role as “quasi-criminal . . . private fines” to punish defendants for their wrong-doing, and to deter future similar conduct by others. Challenges to statutory caps have plagued both federal and state courts for decades.

In 2023, the Supreme Court of Georgia in Taylor v. Devereux Foundation, Inc. addressed whether O.C.G.A. § 51-12-5.1(g), Georgia’s statutory cap on punitive damages, violates the right to trial by jury, separation …

W&L Law Library Newsletter, Vol. 3, Iss. 1 (Dec. 2023), The Law Library At Washington And Lee University School Of Law

W&L Law Library Newsletter

W&L Law Library Newsletter, Volume 3, Issue 1 (December 2023).

Historians Wear Robes Now? Applying The History And Tradition Standard: A Practical Guide For Lower Courts, Alexandra Michalak

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

Never before has the Supreme Court relied on the history and tradition standard to such a magnitude as in the 2021 term to determine the scope of a range of constitutional rights. [...] In reaffirming this standard, the Supreme Court provided no guidance to lower courts on how to apply and analyze the history and tradition standard. Along with balancing the lack of resources in deciding cases with the history and tradition framework, lower courts must face the reality that this standard presents ample opportunity for one-sided historical analysis. To combat the temptation of conducting unbalanced and cursory reviews of …

Remedying The Insular Cases: Providing Tribal Sovereignty To Unincorporated Territories To Ensure Constitutional Rights For All U.S. Nationals And Citizens, Allison Ripple

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

This Note will focus on the Supreme Court’s decisions in the Insular Cases to demonstrate the origins of denying jus soli citizenship to those born in unincorporated territories and to analyze its direct contradiction to the Fourteenth Amendment and other Supreme Court decisions. It will argue that the Court’s decisions in the Insular Cases were influenced by colonial rule and rooted in racism. Furthermore, this Note will argue that because of these influences, the continued application of the Insular Cases by Congress and the Supreme Court to deny constitutional rights for U.S. nationals and citizens born in unincorporated territories violates …

Staff Matters: Holiday Celebrations That Engage And Appreciate Employees, Jodi Schafer Sphr, Shrm-Scp

The Journal of the Michigan Dental Association

This Staff Matters column addresses a dentist's concerns about organizing inclusive end-of-year holiday celebrations for the staff. The response emphasizes the importance of recognizing diverse religious practices and fostering camaraderie. Suggestions include a themed recipe exchange, outdoor activities, community service, or involving staff in event planning. Emphasizing the need for initial guidance to align with goals, the column encourages inclusive celebrations that contribute to staff satisfaction, retention, and a positive workplace atmosphere.

J Mich Dent Assoc December 2023

The Journal of the Michigan Dental Association

Every month, The Journal of the Michigan Dental Association brings news, information, and features about Michigan dentistry to our state's oral health community and the MDA's 6,200+ members. No publication reaches more Michigan dentists!

In this issue, the reader will find the following:

• A cover story on “New Dentists’ Most Asked Legal Questions”
• A case report on “Endodontic Therapy, Crown Amputation, and Soft Tissue Advancement to Treat a Hopeless Tooth”
• A feature “Be a Leader in Your Practice: What’s Your Style?”
• 2023 Author/Title Index to the Journal of the Michigan Dental Association
• News you need, a Guest Editorial and regular …

Toward Opt‐In Consent For Pregnancy Testing, Kim D. Ricardo

UIC Law Open Access Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Just Extracurriculars?, Emily Gold Waldman

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

Extracurricular activities have been the battleground for a striking number of Supreme Court cases set at public schools, from cases involving speech to religion to drug testing. Indeed, the two most recent Supreme Court cases involving constitutional rights at public schools--Kennedy v. Bremerton School District (2022) and Mahanoy Area School District v. B.L. (2021)--both arose in the extracurricular context of school sports. Even so, the Supreme Court has never fully clarified the status of extracurricular activities themselves. Once a school offers an extracurricular activity, is participation merely a privilege? Does the fact that extracurricular activities are voluntary for students affect …

Pathways To Liberty: What Colonial, Antebellum, And Postbellum Education Can Teach Us About Today, Danielle Wingfield

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

Education is a critical part of nation-building. More specifically, it can also be a powerful pathway to liberty and a tool for disseminating knowledge. However, historically it has been used to subjugate and censor vulnerable groups like women, socio-economically disadvantaged persons, as well as men of color. Therefore, to avoid subordinating members of such minoritized groups and suppressing uncomfortable historical facts, advocates must continually evaluate the purpose and method of education. Such persistent monitoring can provide a basis for constructive reform of public education in the United States. Such reform must also consider changing social conditions.

Presently, for example, public …

"There's A New Sheriff In Town": Why Granting Qualified Immunity To Local Officials Acting Outside Their Authority Erodes Constitutional Rights And Further Deteriorates The Doctrine, Josephine Mcguire

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

Part I traces the history of qualified immunity and the doctrine’s analytical changes over time, detailing the twofold test as it currently stands. Part II considers Large and Sweetin, comparing the courts’ approaches to essentially similar scenarios and evaluating the differences in outcome. Part III addresses the Supreme Court’s denial of the Large plaintiffs’ petition for certiorari and explicates the “scope of authority” question the Court declined to address. Part IV breaks down the decision in Large and conducts the qualified immunity analysis anew, determining that the court misapplied the doctrine regardless of its failure to consider the scope …

The Role Of Leaders In Implementing Effective Leadership Strategies Towards The Educational Barriers Of Us-Based Refugee Students: A Qualitative Case Study Of Congolese Refugee Students, Faustin Busane

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

This qualitative research study explored the experiences of three families of refugee school students, two school officials (a Superintendent and a Principal), three teachers, and one humanitarian agent all living in a Southeastern U.S. city. The results of the study revealed that the language barrier is the main academic challenge that refugee students encounter when they enroll in U.S. schools. The study also found that educators conceptualize their responsibilities toward refugee children by emphasizing the importance of high-quality teaching, and establishing through establishing strong relationships between parents, school officials, and exercising patience in the process. This study poses important implications …

"If You're On Time, You're Late": Law School Application Timing Among Historically Underrepresented Applicants, Sherrie K. Godette, K. L. Risman, Tiffane Cochran, Baylee Jenkins

AccessLex Institute Research

The “not so big” secret of college and graduate school admissions is that applicants who apply early are more likely to receive an offer of admission than those who apply closer to the final deadline. The same is true for law school applicants. When applicants submit applications later, their admission chances may be lower simply due to the timing of their application rather than their qualifications. Applicants who identify as underrepresented people of color (uPOC) or socioeconomically disadvantaged are less likely to apply early to law school or utilize formal early decision programs. In other words, applicants who identify as …

Justice On Trial: A Multifaceted Analysis Of Capital Punishment, Abby Long

Honors Theses

There is an ongoing debate surrounding the criminal justice system, focusing specifically on the controversial topic of capital punishment. Highlighting a startling statistic—one in nine death row inmates being exonerated— a pivotal question arises of what factors influence sentencing outcomes? Seven variables, number of sentences, income of offender, region of sentencing, race of offender, gender of offender, and political affiliation of sentencing state, are considered to understand the variations in sentencing outcomes and assess the fairness of the current judicial process. Using an OLS regression analysis of data from all 50 U.S. states, the paper seeks to better understand capital …

Transcript – Civil Liberties: The Next 100 Years, Susan Herman, Erwin Chemerinsky, Ellis Cose, Anthony Romero, Nadine Strossen

Journal of Law and Policy

In honor of Professor Susan Herman’s distinguished academic career and tenure as the ACLU’s president, a panel was held on Friday, October 13, 2023 at Brooklyn Law School and on Zoom to discuss the current state of civil liberties in the United States. The participants also discussed Professor Herman’s new book, Advanced Introduction to US Civil Liberties. The transcription below captures the discussion among Susan Herman, Erwin Chemerinsky, Ellis Cose, Anthony Romero,and Nadine Strossen. All panelists have approved of the overall substantive accuracy of this transcription. Any remaining errors in this transcript should be attributed to the Journal of Law …

Social Costs Of Dobbs' Pro-Adoption Agenda, Malinda L. Seymore

Faculty Scholarship

Abortion opponents have long claimed that women denied access to abortion can simply give their children up for adoption. Justice Alito repeated this argument in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health. Of course, this claim assumes away the burdens of the pregnancy itself, which can result in economic strife, domestic violence, health risks, and potentially death in childbirth. But even on its own terms, the argument that adoption is an adequate substitute for abortion access makes normative assumptions about adoption as a social good in and of itself, ignoring the social costs of adoption for birth parents and adoptees. Idealizing adoption …

Investigating The Relationship Between Foster Care And Sex Trafficking: What Factors Are Maintaining The Cycle Of Abuse, Shannon M. Budgell

Student Theses

Sex trafficking is a global crime and human rights issue that benefits abusers at the detriment of vulnerable groups, including children involved in the United States welfare system. This meta-synthesis explored the risk factors present within the United States foster care system that expose children to potential victimization. Using qualitative research, the purpose of this study was to review sex trafficking exploitation and analyze the current policies creating this vulnerability in the nation’s child welfare services. Upon completing a systematic literature search, nine studies were included by meeting the following criteria: qualitative or quantitative research studies published in English any …

Investigating The Benefits Of Live Remote Proctoring, State Bar Of California

Grantee Research

This research project evaluated the Live Remote Proctoring (LRP) for the First-Year Law Students’ Examination (FYLSX) in terms of test performance, examinee experience, and exam violation incidents.

Utilizing LRP in the October 2022 FYLSX, the study compared this session to 20 previous exams spanning from 2012 to 2022 and analyzed post-exam feedback and violation reports. The findings indicate that LRP did not conclusively outperform previous remote testing modalities in terms of exam performance. While there was a modest improvement in pass rates, it fell within the expected range of historical fluctuations, suggesting that LRP may not have been the influencing …

The Gptjudge: Justice In A Generative Ai World, Maura R. Grossman, Paul W. Grimm, Daniel G. Brown, Molly (Yiming) Xu

Duke Law & Technology Review

Generative AI (“GenAI”) systems such as ChatGPT recently have developed to the point where they can produce computer-generated text and images that are difficult to differentiate from human-generated text and images. Similarly, evidentiary materials such as documents, videos, and audio recordings that are AI-generated are becoming increasingly difficult to differentiate from those that are not AI-generated. These technological advancements present significant challenges to parties, their counsel, and the courts in determining whether evidence is authentic or fake. Moreover, the explosive proliferation and use of GenAI applications raises concerns about whether litigation costs will dramatically increase as parties are forced to …

Local Government, Jacob Stalvey O'Neal

Mercer Law Review

This Article surveys a selection of noteworthy cases involving local government that Georgia courts decided between June 1, 2022 and May 31, 2023.

High Stakes, Bad Odds: Health Laws And The Revived Federalism Revolution, Nicole Huberfeld

Faculty Scholarship

The Supreme Court’s 2021 term produced a remarkable number of blockbuster decisions, nearly hiding an underlying federalism agenda that surfaced in health care, reproductive rights, administrative law, and public health related domains. Health law has been a vehicle for constitutional change before, but the stakes for older laws, most of which rely on states to accomplish national goals, have been raised. The Court has doubled down on interpretive methods that limit governmental power, using formalist tools like clear statement rules that demand specificity and offer little deference to lawmakers or regulators. These rules have constitutional dimensions, including separation of powers …

Commissioners Shoot For The Moon, Citizens Land Among The Stars: The Supreme Court Of Georgia Affirms Citizen Referendum Power In Camden County V. Sweatt, J. Bailey Hotard

Mercer Law Review

Georgia citizens possess few direct democratic mechanisms to check the power of their local governments. One available tool is the referendum power proscribed by the Home Rule Provision of the Constitution of the State of Georgia. Under this provision, county and municipal citizens may petition their local governing authorities for referendum when a legislative decision is largely unpopular. Relying on originalism and textualism, the Supreme Court of Georgia interpreted the Home Rule Provision broadly in Camden County v. Sweatt, a decision than ran counter to a twenty-five-year precedent. This court’s recent interpretation of the Home Rule Provision allows citizens …

Preventing Undeserved Punishment, Marah Stith Mcleod

Notre Dame Law Review

Defendants should not be punished more than they deserve. Sentencing scholars describe this precept against undeserved punishment as a consensus norm in American law and culture. Yet America faces a plague of mass incarceration, and many sanctions seem clearly undeserved, often far exceeding an offender’s culpability or the seriousness of an offense. How can a society committed to desert as a limitation on legitimate sanctions allow such undeserved punishments?

Critics argue increasingly that our focus on what offenders deserve is itself part of the problem. They claim that the notion of desert is too amorphous, malleable, and arbitrary to limit …

A Broken System: How New York City Is Failing Transgender Inmates, Skylar Corby

ERSJ Blog

In June 2019, Layleen Polanco, a transgender woman awaiting trial at Rikers Island because she could not afford $500 bail, was found dead in her solitary confinement cell. After an investigation that took an extensive period of time and external pressure to complete, New York City’s Board of Correction found that Polanco died from an epileptic seizure, which corrections officers entirely missed due to their neglect and lack of properly timed monitoring checks. This prompted public outrage and a wave of protests surrounding not only Polanco’s death, but also the extreme levels of violence faced by trans women, especially those …

“Cancel Culture” And Criminal Justice, Steven Arrigg Koh

UC Law Journal

This Article explores the relationship between two normative systems in modern society: “cancel culture” and criminal justice. It argues that cancel culture—a ubiquitous phenomenon in contemporary life—may rectify deficiencies of over- and under-enforcement in the U.S. criminal justice system. However, the downsides of cancel culture’s structure—imprecise factfinding, potentially disproportionate sanctions leading to collateral consequences, a “thin” conception of the wrongdoer as beyond rehabilitation, and a broader cultural anxiety that “chills” certain human conduct—reflect problematic U.S. punitive impulses that characterize our era of mass incarceration. This Article thus argues that social media reform proposals obscure a deeper necessity: transcendence of blame …