Digital Commons Network^™

After Affirmative Action, Meera E. Deo

Seattle University Law Review

This is a time of crisis in legal education. In truth, we are in the midst of several crises. We are emerging from the COVID pandemic, a period of unprecedented upheaval where law students and law faculty alike struggled through physical challenges, mental health burdens, and decreased academic and professional success. The past few years also have seen a precipitous drop in applications to and enrollment in legal education. Simultaneously, students have been burdened with the skyrocketing costs of attending law school, taking on unmanageable levels of debt. And with the Supreme Court decision in SFFA v. Harvard, we are …

Religious Freedom And Diversity Missions: Insights From Jesuit Law Deans, Anthony E. Varona, Michèle Alexandre, Michael J. Kaufman, Madeleine M. Landrieu

Seattle University Law Review

This Article is a transcript of a panel moderated by Anthony E. Varona, Dean of Seattle University School of Law. During the panel, Jesuit and religious law school deans discussed what law schools with religious missions have to add to the conversation around SFFA and the continuing role of affirmative action in higher education.

Feeding The Good Fire: Paths To Facilitate Native-Led Fire Management On Federal Lands, Kevin Burdet

Seattle University Law Review

In 2003, nearly twenty Native American reservations were devastated by wildfires that originated on adjacent federal lands. The San Pasqual Reservation’s entire 1,400 acres were burned along with over a third of its homes, and seventy-five percent of the Rincon Reservation was burned, taking twenty homes with it. These devastating fires, along with others in 2002, brought about the Tribal Forest Protection Act of 2004 (TFPA), which offered hope for Tribes to propose projects on bordering or adjacent federal lands and protect reservation lands in the process. Unfortunately, twenty years later, the TFPA has had a marginal effect in enabling …

Verses Turned To Verdicts: Ysl Rico Case Sets A High-Watermark For The Legal Pseudo-Censorship Of Rap Music, Nabil Yousfi

Seattle University Law Review

Whichever way you spin the record, rap music and courtrooms don’t mix. On one side, rap records are well known for their unapologetic lyrical composition, often expressing a blatant disregard for legal institutions and authorities. On the other, court records reflect a Van Gogh’s ear for rap music, frequently allowing rap lyrics—but not similar lyrics from other genres—to be used as criminal evidence against the defendants who authored them. Over the last thirty years, this immiscibility has engendered a legal landscape where prosecutors wield rap lyrics as potent instruments for criminal prosecution. In such cases, color-blind courts neglect that rap …

Table Of Contents, Seattle University Law Review

Seattle University Law Review

Table of Contents

The Marijuana Insurgency: Federalism And Social Reframing In Policy Reform, Matthew P. Cavedon

Seattle University Law Review

After fifty years of federal prohibition, marijuana reform efforts have won political and legal success. These victories hold lessons for anyone seeking to resist federal law without being able to directly affect it.

Victory can come from reframing an issue. For marijuana reform, social reframing—not formal legal analysis or material factors—provides the best explanation for how advocates achieved change. Their unconventional political tactics, akin to those used by insurgents in wartime, undercut federal prohibition by winning hearts and minds.

This is an analysis of the sociology of legal change. It is also the story of how ordinary Americans retook personal …

The Class Of Injuries Test: A Unifying Proposal To Determining Duty, Proximate Cause, And Superseding Cause In Negligence Claims, Judge Leonard J. Feldman, Julia Doherty

Seattle University Law Review

While there seems to be universal agreement that liability in tort cannot be unlimited, there is widespread disagreement regarding the various tests that courts utilize to limit such liability. We assume here that breach can be proven: the defendant failed to conduct themself in accordance with the salient standard of conduct (for example, failure to exercise reasonable care under all the circumstances). In the ensuing litigation, the court and jury are asked to decide several issues that each limit liability for negligence. Here, we focus on three oft-debated issues: duty, proximate cause, and superseding cause. The tests for each are …

Due Process Shaped By The Present Instead Of The Past: The Needed Reinvigoration Of A Lawrence Vision Of Due Process, Azor Cole

Seattle University Law Review

The recognition of unenumerated rights, rights implied from the text of the constitution, is a political battlefield waged through law with profound implications for all Americans. Generally, there have been two prongs for an inquiry into an unenumerated constitutional right under the Fourteenth Amendment. One is to ask whether the right to be found is objectively deeply rooted in this Nation’s history and tradition. The other is to ask whether the right to be found is fundamental to this Nation’s scheme of ordered liberty. The current Supreme Court has effectively done away with this present-day liberty analysis, saying it is …

A Meaningful Life: The Future Of Juvenile Justice In Washington After Anderson, Samuel Coren

Seattle University Law Review

Until 2022, Washington’s line of juvenile sentencing jurisprudence gave every indication of continuing along the course set by Miller v. Alabama, as Washington courts recognized that “children are different” and should not be subjected to the harshest punishments available in the criminal legal system. State v. Anderson marked a stark diversion from this course. In upholding the constitutionality of a de facto life sentence for a juvenile, the Washington Supreme Court all but rejected the well-established scientific consensus surrounding juvenile brain development and implicit racial bias. Whether this decision reflects a minor aberration or a broader trend in the court’s …

Sneakers, The Shoes That Talk The Talk And Walk The Walk: How Jack Daniel’S Properties, Inc. V. Vip Products Left Its Footprint On Trademark Law And The Sneaker Industry, Nitya Tolani

Seattle University Law Review

As the fashion industry—including the sneaker industry housed within it—continues to go through the motions of collectively flocking out, and then collectively flocking again to the newest innovations in the world of wearables, the landscape of laws to protect and promote those innovations expands as well, mainly in the area of intellectual property law. Although copyright, trademark, and patent law can cover innovations in the fashion industry, this Note centers its analysis on trademark law. Trademark law has been through notable change in recent years because of the United States Supreme Court’s 2023 decision in Jack Daniel’s Properties, Inc. v. …

Real-World Consequences For Online Actions: The Case For Expanding Employee Harassment Protection Via Employers’ Rights Of Action, Alexander Barnes

Seattle University Law Review

This Note argues for expanding employers’ access to legal remedies that allow them to recoup the costs of protecting their employees from swatting, doxing, and other online harassment arising from their employees’ professional activity. Part I provides a brief description and history of the online harassment problem and its potentially deadly dangers. Part II describes employers’ legal responsibility to take action to protect their employees from harassment aimed at their employees within the scope of their employment. Part III explores common legal remedies that are currently available to employers, using the state of Washington as an example. Part III also …

Foreseeability And Duty In Washington Negligence Law: Leaving The Road Less Traveled By, Leo Linder

Seattle University Law Review

Washington negligence law is a confusing labyrinth of foreseeability that not even Ariadne’s string could guide plaintiffs out of. Foreseeability is implicated in four distinct analyses, several of which overlap considerably. Doctrines that were once questions of law are now questions of fact, and vice versa. Something needs to change.

Washington has taken the novel approach of bifurcating the duty element into two parts—duty’s mere existence, which is a question of law for the court to determine; and duty’s scope, which is a question of fact handed off to the jury to determine. Foreseeability impacts both of these assessments, but …

What Is In Your Tampon? Increasing Transparency In Menstrual Products, Elianna Spitzer

Seattle University Law Review

The average person who menstruates will bleed for an average of five days, every twenty-four to thirty-eight days, over several decades and could use thousands of disposable menstrual products in their lifetime. Menstrual products line retail shelves. They can be found in homes, bags, and bodies—but until 2021, manufacturers were not required to disclose the ingredients used to make these products to consumers at all. In fact, they still are not federally required to disclose menstrual product ingredients on product packaging. Instead, in recent years, changes to menstrual product labels have largely been the result of state legislation. In 2019, …

D-Hacking, Emily Black, Talia B. Gillis, Zara Hall

Faculty Scholarship

Recent regulatory efforts, including Executive Order 14110 and the AI Bill of Rights, have focused on mitigating discrimination in AI systems through novel and traditional application of anti-discrimination laws. While these initiatives rightly emphasize fairness testing and mitigation, we argue that they pay insufficient attention to robust bias measurement and mitigation — and that without doing so, the frameworks cannot effectively achieve the goal of reducing discrimination in deployed AI models. This oversight is particularly concerning given the instability and brittleness of current algorithmic bias mitigation and fairness optimization methods, as highlighted by growing evidence in the algorithmic fairness literature. …

Code And Prejudice: Regulating Discriminatory Algorithms, Bernadette M. Coyle

Washington and Lee Law Review Online

In an era dominated by efficiency-driven technology, algorithms have seamlessly integrated into every facet of daily life, wielding significant influence over decisions that impact individuals and society at large. Algorithms are deliberately portrayed as impartial and automated in order to maintain their legitimacy. However, this illusion crumbles under scrutiny, revealing the inherent biases and discriminatory tendencies embedded in ostensibly unbiased algorithms. This Note delves into the pervasive issues of discriminatory algorithms, focusing on three key areas of life opportunities: housing, employment, and voting rights. This Note systematically addresses the multifaceted issues arising from discriminatory algorithms, showcasing real-world instances of algorithmic …

Reclaiming Sacred Homelands: Asserting Treaty Rights And The Path Towards Restoration Of The Badger-Two Medicine, Sarah Greenberg

American Indian Law Journal

“In order for law to have an influence in the lives of ordinary people, it must have something to do with the emotional feelings of justice, it must speak to our basic humanity, and it must give us common sense directions as to what behavior and beliefs are right and wrong"

The Constitutional Ambition Of Black Liberation, Paul A. Gowder

DePaul Journal for Social Justice

No abstract provided.

A Silent New Threat To The Trans Community: The Unregulated Use Of Ai Without Public Consent Raises Ethical Concerns, Eduardo Salazar Uribe

Capstones

Abstract:

The unregulated use of artificial intelligence (AI) without public consent has raised ethical concerns, particularly affecting marginalized communities such as transgender individuals. This project, based on interviews with 34 transgender people, explores the impact of AI on historically marginalized minorities, emphasizing the urgent need for an ethical and legal framework. This research reveals instances of discrimination and challenges faced by transgender individuals at various stages, from border control to airport security, highlighting the limitations and biases of AI in recognizing diverse gender identities. Trans rights activists, and AI experts remark the importance of inclusivity in AI development and regulation. …

Disinfecting The Criminal Legal System Of Punitive Deterrence, Joseph Dole

DePaul Journal for Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Women Seldom Make History And Tradition: Patriarchal Originalism In Dobbs, Anna Greer

DePaul Journal for Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Redress For Historical Injustices: Haiti’S Claim For The Restitution Of Post-Independence Payments To France, Günther Handl

University of Miami Inter-American Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Pima County Jail In A “State Of Full-Blown Crisis”: Inmate Deaths Four Times The National Average, Natalie Robbins

Capstones

Last year, 12 inmates died in custody at the Pima County Jail in Tucson, Arizona. With a 10-year average jail population of 1,827, that is a per capita rate of 656.8 deaths per 100,000 inmates.

According to the most recent data from the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the 2019 national local jail mortality rate was 167 deaths for every 100,000 inmates, making the Pima County Jail’s 2022 per capita death rate nearly four times as high as the national average in 2019.

In a December 2022 memo to the Pima County Board of Supervisors, Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos wrote …

Haiti And The Burden Of History, Frédérique Beauvois

University of Miami Inter-American Law Review

No abstract provided.

Front Matter And Table Of Contents

University of Miami Race & Social Justice Law Review

No abstract provided.

Ethical Implications Of Ai-Based Algorithms In Recruiting Processes: A Study Of Civil Rights Violations Under Title Vii And The Americans With Disabilities Act, Vanessa Rodriguez

Cyber Operations and Resilience Program Graduate Projects

This research paper analyzes the ethical implications of utilizing artificial intelligence, specifically AI-based algorithms in business selection and recruiting processes, with a focus on potential violations under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Title 1 of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Amazon’s attempt at launching AI recruiting tools is examined. This paper will assess the fairness of AI recruiting practices, considering data collection, potential biases, and accuracy concerns in its implementation process. Additionally, the paper will provide an overview of federal civil rights statutes enforced by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and recent …

Dentistry And The Law: Requiring Proof Of Adoption/Retaining Orthodontic Models, Dan Schulte Jd

The Journal of the Michigan Dental Association

In this Dentistry and the Law column, a dentist seeks guidance on handling a situation where racial differences between a child and an accompanying adult raised concerns during an examination, leading the dentist to request proof of adoption. The response clarifies that asking for proof of adoption is not illegal, citing relevant Michigan adoption statutes. The column advises adopting an office policy, emphasizing human trafficking training. Additionally, a dentist inquires about retaining orthodontic models and X-ray films. The answer recommends assuming orthodontic models are part of dental records, subject to a 10-year retention period. Patients can be given their models, …

Clark Memorandum: Fall 2023, J. Reuben Clark Law School, Byu Law School Alumni Association, J. Reuben Clark Law Society

The Clark Memorandum

• Five Ways Law School Contributes to Life’s True Purpose
• Faith in Law: A Q&A with President Dallin H. Oaks
• Personal Religious Conviction and the Practice of Law

The Federal Government's Role In Local Policing, Farhang Heydari, Barry Friedman, Rachel Harmon

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

For far too long, the federal government has failed to exercise its constitutional authority to mitigate the harms imposed by local policing. Absent federal intervention, though, some harmful aspects of policing will not be addressed effectively, or at all. States and localities often lack the necessary capacity and expertise to change policing, and many states and localities lack the will. This Article argues for federal intervention and describes what that intervention should look like.

The Article begins by describing three paradigmatic areas of local policing that require federal intervention to create real change: excessive use offorce, racial discrimination, and the …

Who's Afraid Of Being Woke? – Critical Theory As Awakening To Erascism And Other Injustices, Berta E. Hernández-Truyol

UF Law Faculty Publications

Woke means “the belief there are systemic injustices in American society and the need to address them.” Ryan Newman, General Counsel to Governor of Florida.

Stopping wokeness is to combat the belief there are systemic injustices in American society which, true to form, does sound a lot like the opposite of being awake, and that is to say, totally asleep. Alex Wagner.

[B]y condemning the word “Woke” the establishment is not only attacking African American language. It also [is] disparaging the whole concept of being “awake” which I believe is one of the essential elements of moral and religious consciousness. …

Don’T Say Gay Or God: How Federal Law Threatens Student Religious Rights And Fails To Protect Lgbtq Students, Stephen Mcloughlin

BYU Law Review

Federal law requires schools to protect students from discrimination based on their sexual orientation and gender identity. This protection is based on the principle that students must be free to explore their self-identity within the school environment as part of their intellectual development. Thus, schools must eliminate speech that threatens LGBTQ students based on their gender identity or sexual orientation. However, schools must also protect free speech and religious rights. Indeed, the expression of religious beliefs is also crucial to intellectual growth. Thus, schools must develop student speech policies that protect LGBTQ students from harmful speech while protecting controversial religious …