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Transgender Women In Sports: A Test Case For State Legislative Protections, Payal Doctor

City University of New York Law Review

For decades, transgender people have been fighting for the right to participate in sports leagues consistent with their gender identity. Much of this fight has played out on the federal stage, but recently both the federal government and federal courts have become hostile to transgender rights broadly, and transgender rights in sports in particular. This Comment examines an alternate but increasingly promising avenue for the vindication of transgender rights in sports: state law. Using a New York lawsuit brought by a women’s roller derby team, Long Island Roller Rebels v. County of Nassau, as a case study, this Comment …

Court-Appointed Neutrals And Legal Ethics: Fish, Fowl, Or Platypus, Dennis A. Rendleman

NYLS Law Review

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A court-appointed neutral (CAN) is ethically neither fish nor fowl. A CAN who is a lawyer is …

Rethinking The Religious Purpose Test After Catholic Charities Bureau: The Sincerity-Then-Standards Framework, Victoria Litman

Roger Williams University Law Review

No abstract provided.

2025 Rhode Island Public Laws, Ryan Claudino

Roger Williams University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Watch Hill Fire Dist. V. Westerly Zoning Bd. Of Rev., 338 A.3d 326 (R.I. 2025)., Trent Huff

Roger Williams University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Rights Retained: Constitutional Protections For Incarcerated Persons In U.S. Prisons, Alison J. Brochu, Olivia F. Johnson

Roger Williams University Law Review

No abstract provided.

New England Prop. Servs. Grp., Llc V. Vt. Mut. Ins. Co., 331 A.3d 730 (R.I. 2025)., Kayla Badstubner

Roger Williams University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Martinez V. State, 328 A.3d 626 (R.I. 2025)., Carter Lee Hazzard

Roger Williams University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Time Out: Mandatory Holds As A Tool For Domestic Violence Response & Prevention In Rhode Island, India Awe

Roger Williams University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Another Look At Judicial Review Of Labor Arbitration Awards In Rhode Island, William E. Smith, Stefanie Fischer, Kai Wiggins, Sam Jaksa

Roger Williams University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Medicaid's Broken Promise To Children, Jerron R. Wheeler

Faculty Articles

In the United States, poor children's access to necessary healthcare is determined more by geography than medical need. This variation is not the result of thoughtful local tailoring but of excessive state autonomy and passive federal oversight. The result is a fragmented and unequal system that obscures accountability and fails the Nation's most vulnerable children.

Building on scholarship showing how decentralized implementation of federal social programs can erode America's social safety net, this Article examines how one of Congress's most ambitious entitlements for children-Medicaid's Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnostic and Treatment (EPSDT) benefit has been quietly undermined. In light of …

What To Do About The Decay Of The Conventions Of The Canadian Constitution, Léonid Sirota

Dalhousie Law Journal

Constitutional conventions are central to the operation of the Canadian constitution. Yet because they are not legislated rules, their coming into being and disappearance can be subject to considerable uncertainty. Worse, it appears that conventions can disappear or be replaced inadvertently, without anyone fully appreciating that this is happening. This article describes this process in relation to three conventions of the Canadian constitution: the one regulating the appointment of the Chief Justice of Canada, the convention of civil service neutrality, and the convention governing the choice of Prime Minister in a hung Parliament. It argues that these conventions are being …

Widening The Avenues For Rehabilitation And Release In The Criminal Legal System Through A Revision Of The First Step Act's Safety Valve Provision In Response To Pulsifer, Drew Svensson

Cardozo Journal of Equal Rights & Social Justice

The note argues that the Supreme Court's decision in Pulsifer v. United States severely undermines the First Step Act by restrictively interpreting the safety valve provision, thereby limiting judicial discretion and increasing incarceration. To remedy this, the note proposes legislative revisions to the safety valve to expand eligibility for relief from mandatory minimums while maintaining public safety.

Beyond Sports: Recognizing College-Athletes As Employees In The Pursuit Of Fairness, Hannah Cohen

Cardozo Journal of Equal Rights & Social Justice

The note argues that student-athletes should be legally classified as employees under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) because the traditional amateurism model no longer reflects the economic realities of modern collegiate sports. By applying established legal tests, the analysis asserts that recognizing this employment status is essential to ensuring social justice, fundamental fairness, and basic workplace protections for athletes.

Heller Was Egregiously Wrong And Should Be Overruled, Henry J. Renk

Roger Williams University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Potenza V. Deutsche Bank Nat’L Trust Co., 338 A.3d 1050 (R.I. 2025)., Áine Guyer

Roger Williams University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Runey V. Faring, 336 A.3d 16 (R.I. 2025)., Jessica Galego

Roger Williams University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Closing The Door On Housing Discrimination: Why Rhode Island Must Enact A Fair Chance In Housing Act, Jessica Galego

Roger Williams University Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Flock Above Us: The Unconstitutionality Of Automated License Plate Readers, Evan Degaitas

Roger Williams University Law Review

No abstract provided.

A Personal Take: An Argument In Favor Of Adopting The Uniform Partition Of Heirs Property Act In Rhode Island, Isiah Dipina, Natasha Varyani

Roger Williams University Law Review

No abstract provided.

State V Mangru, 337 A.3d 1009 (R.I. 2025)., Stephen Olive

Roger Williams University Law Review

No abstract provided.

New England Prop. Servs. Grp., Llc V. Ngm Ins. Co., 329 A.3d 889 (R.I. 2025)., Justin Edward Keyes

Roger Williams University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Chat M.D., Nathan Cortez

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

Large language models (LLMs) such as Claude and ChatGPT are the most powerful artificial intelligence (AI) systems ever created, and they are being used to diagnose and treat patients. But LLMs have been shown to be unreliable, unpredictable, and unsafe on occasion. New AI guidelines recommend hundreds of standards, such as ‘transparency’, ‘trustworthiness’, and ‘safety’. But there is deep uncertainty whether these are sufficient. The literature focuses mostly on which standards best suit AI models, not on how to transmute standards into law. This article does that by considering AI guidelines as a starting point, then evaluating whether existing frameworks …

Searches And Seizures Of The Unhoused, Shawn E. Fields

Faculty Scholarship

The United States recorded its largest ever unhoused population in 2024. Acute affordable housing shortages and climate-fueled natural disasters have exacerbated a decades-long unaddressed humanitarian crisis, straining resources in cities and rural areas alike. In response, state and local governments have pivoted to a more punitive approach to houselessness. Draconian "anti-camping" ordinances subject houseless people to fines or arrests while police destroy their property in encampment "sweeps," disconnecting the unhoused from critical social structures. Quality-of-life laws criminalize basic biological functions in public. New York, California, and other states have expanded the reach of involuntary civil commitment procedures, forcibly hospitalizing and …

Build, Baby, Build: Federal Takings For Affordable Homes, Desiree C. Hensley

Missouri Law Review

The private housing market in the U.S. fails to produce sufficient affordable housing for the people who need it. Even middle-income Americans are stretched to buy or rent. If local and state governments cannot respond effectively, may the federal government simply use eminent domain to build affordable homes to correct the nation’s housing market, including the high cost of land? Conventional wisdom is that the Constitution prohibits such federal action. This understanding arises from a brief period during which the federal government built fifty housing projects—approximately 21,000 housing units—in thirty-five cities across the United States during the Great Depression. The …

Unreasonable Accommodations: Staple V. School Board Of Broward County And The Case For The Interactive Process In Title Vii Accommodations, M. Thomas Yang

Missouri Law Review

When Congress enacted the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) in 1990, it envisioned a unique dispute resolution mechanism within the statute—the interactive process. Under this process, when an employee requests an accommodation from an employer, the two must “work together to assess whether an employee’s disability can be reasonably accommodated.” Although the term “interactive process” does not appear in the ADA’s text, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) interpreted Congress’s intent and incorporated the interactive process into its regulations to guide disability accommodations. Strangely though, Title VII, which governs religious accommodations, does not include the interactive process in its text …

Fighting To Teach, Struggling To Stay: Prevalent Challenges Within Mississippi's K-12 Public Education System And Recommendations For Solving The Most Acute Issue, Faith Hall

Florida A & M University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Beyond The Classroom: Publics Schools As An Essential To Economic And Legal Reform, Oliver Telusma

Florida A & M University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Democratizing Health Data: A Legal Framework For Privacy-Preserving, Government-Led Ai Collaboration, Nicole Nigri

Cybaris®

No abstract provided.

The Institutions Of Exceptions: Justification In Trade And Investment Treaties, Julian Arato

Michigan Journal of International Law

International economic law binds states in the interest of liberalizing markets, including in cross-border trade in goods and services (trade) and capital (investment). The treaty regimes for both trade and investment do this by disciplining states through legal rules, while preserving a modicum of governmental authority over domestic policy. The preservation of policy space in these regimes usually involves a process of exceptions-based justification – through formal exceptions clauses in most trade treaties and some investment agreements, and also through informal exceptions-style reasoning by adjudicators in the investment treaty regime more generally. This “exceptions paradigm” of justification has worked well …