Digital Commons Network^™

Elected Prosecutors And Discretionary Dissonance In The Pursuit Of Racial Justice, Leo Gabriel Tucker

University of Baltimore Law Review

No abstract provided.

Toward An Equitable Legal Marijuana Market In Maryland: Assessing Development Strategies, Jasmine L. Tyler

University of Baltimore Law Review

No abstract provided.

A Right To Be Born?: What Dobbs Could Mean For Artificial Reproductive Technologies, Stewart Chang

University of Baltimore Law Review

No abstract provided.

Over The Legal Limit: One State’S Attempt To Control Abortion Healthcare Access Outside Its Borders, Wendy Heipt, William Mitchell, Kelly O’Neill

University of Baltimore Law Review

No abstract provided.

Elections Don’T Have Consequences—How Over 57% Of Florida Voters Supported Abortion Rights And Still Lost, Mark Dorosin

University of Baltimore Law Review

No abstract provided.

Abortion On The Move: Navigating The Fractured Reproductive Healthcare Landscape, Claire Laurier Decoteau, Kim D. Ricardo

University of Baltimore Law Review

No abstract provided.

How States Decide: The Role Of Judicial Selection In Modern Abortion Jurisprudence, Lesley Bauer

University of Baltimore Law Review

No abstract provided.

Miscarriage Of Democracy: What Happened In Arkansas, Florida, Nebraska, And South Dakota To Defeat Abortion-Related Ballot Measures In 2024, Deborah Machalow

University of Baltimore Law Review

No abstract provided.

Money And Shame: Leaving Menstruators At Risk, Melissa Bosley

University of Baltimore Law Review

No abstract provided.

Sincerity Or Substantial Burden? Investigating The Proper Threshold Test For Prisoner Free Exercise Claims, David Wang

University of Chicago Law Review

When prison officials violate the free exercise rights of prisoners, prisoners can seek recourse under 42 U.S.C. § 1983. However, due to the specialized and restrictive nature of prisons, courts adjudicate these claims under a reasonableness test set out in the case Turner v. Safley instead of under a strict scrutiny standard. While circuits agree on using the Turner test for prisoner free exercise claims, there is a deep circuit split on the proper threshold test for these types of claims.

While some circuits hold that inmates need to show that their religious practice was substantially burdened, other circuits hold …

From Winans To Wallahee: Treaties, The Washington State Supreme Court, And The Pursuit Of A More Just Rule Of Law, Monte Mills

Washington Law Review

The relationship between the United States federal government, the states, and Native Nations has long been at the core of federal Indian law. From the earliest decades of its jurisprudence, for example, the United States Supreme Court struggled in its efforts to analyze and define the rights, authorities, and interactions of Native Nations within and in relation to the evolving structure of constitutional federalism. Treaties between the United States and Native Nations were central to those decisions and provided a necessary, constitutional check against state interests intent on eliminating sovereign Native Nations. Those constitutional and structural implications thus go well …

The Reasonability Rule For Medical Damages In Tort: In Defense Of Chargemaster Recovery, Avery E. Tunstill

Washington Law Review

In a personal injury suit, Washington law requires the plaintiff to prove that their medical costs are reasonable to recover damages for those costs. Tort reform proponents attempt to use this reasonability rule to limit tort damages awards. They argue that a plaintiff should only recover a portion of a hospital’s bill because most people do not pay a hospital’s sticker price—or the “chargemaster rate”—for medical care. Some reformers argue that recovery rates should instead be based on a set figure. Others argue in favor of eliminating the collateral source rule, which prohibits juries from reducing tort damages awards in …

Climate Science And Natural Resource Litigation, Jessica A. Wentz

Sabin Center for Climate Change Law

Climate change has major implications for sustainable use and conservation of natural resources. Many natural systems are already under severe stress and may be unable to sustain historical use patterns; resource management decisions can also exacerbate or mitigate climate change by affecting the balance of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. This Article describes the legal and scientific basis for recognizing agencies’ obligations to assess and respond to climate change, drawing insights from a survey of U.S. litigation involving forests, fisheries, rangelands, and freshwater resources. The cases suggest litigants have been somewhat successful in driving more rigorous assessments of climate change. …

The Disaster Management Complex: Law’S Adaptations In Times Of Climate Disaster, Michael Burger, Jeffrey Schlegelmilch, Lucia Bragg

Sabin Center for Climate Change Law

The Anthropocene is marked by constant climate-related disasters and defined by the urgent need to foster and implement adaptations to future climate impacts that reduce disaster risk. The intensity, frequency, and severity of extreme weather events continue to rise even as nations and corporations alike miss their emissions targets, all promising a hotter, wetter, and more extreme future. A number of federal agencies, including the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), have, at times, sought to adapt their own famously fragmented responses to these changing circumstances. However, federal disaster response is conducted against a backdrop of authorizing legislation that is designed …

From Policy To Practice: How Institutional Interpretations Of Ferpa Shape The Campus Safety Conversation, Britney Deaver

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) is a foundational federal law designed to protect the privacy of student education records. FERPA includes exceptions—such as for health and safety emergencies—that institutions may interpret and apply in varied ways. This qualitative study explores how higher education professionals across diverse institutional contexts conceptualize and apply the health or safety exception, and how those interpretations influence campus safety practices and policy-making. Through semi-structured interviews with compliance officers and administrators, the research examines the intersection of federal policy, institutional culture, and individual judgment.

Findings reveal a range of interpretations shaped by institutional risk …

An Analysis Of Policies Impacting Ex-Offenders And The Barriers Created In Their Transition Into Society: A Qualitative Metasynthesis, Thomas A. Ayala

Theses & Dissertations

In 2018, more than six million people in the United States were under correctional supervision, including incarceration, probation, or parole, equivalent to 1 in 40 adults (Maruschak & Minton, 2020). While this reflects a decline from previous years, prison populations reversed course in 2022, increasing by 2% nationwide, with 36 states and federal facilities reporting higher inmate counts (Nellis, 2024). Since 1973, policy shifts have fueled the rise of mass incarceration (Nellis, 2021; O’Brien, 2020). According to the Pew Center, the United States remains a global outlier, holding 5% of the world’s population, but incarcerates 25% of the 9 million …

Workers’ Rights: Legal Protections Against Discrimination For Undocumented Employees, Nathan C. Zipperian, Mark Xiao, Kari Siegenthaler

Immigration Law Blog

Although undocumented workers are protected from workplace discrimination through federal and state laws, increasingly common immigration raids on workplaces coupled with widespread racist sentiment has caused some employers to preemptively terminate employees they suspect are undocumented. Even if undocumented workers succeed in keeping their employment, employers often weaponize the threat of immigration enforcement to create an environment of exploitation in which undocumented workers feel they cannot report abusive employer conduct.

This article will outline the legal protections afforded to undocumented people in the workplace, as well as detailing empirical studies that outline the types of discrimination undocumented workers often experience. …

Keeping The Ball Rolling: Enhancing The Lrw And Skills Curriculum By Incorporating Nextgen Bar Foundational Skills And Ai Innovations, Donna L. Eng

UF Law Faculty Publications

As of fall 2025, Legal Research, Writing, and Skills Professors nationwide are at a pivotal moment: determining whether and how to update their course curriculum to incorporate the NextGen Uniform Bar's (NextGen Bar) Foundational Skills and the latest advancements in AI. This article discusses how Legal Research, Writing, and Skills Professors might revise their curriculum to incorporate the NextGen Bar's Foundational Skills and advancements in AI.

Combating Reproductive Injustice In A Ruby-Red, Restrictive State: The University Of Tulsa College Of Law Reproductive Justice Practicum, Miriam H. Marton

University of Baltimore Law Review

No abstract provided.

Invitation To The Dance: The Texas Two-Step, Bankruptcy, And Mass Tort Litigation, Richard C. Ausness

Hofstra Law Review

No abstract provided.

Private Equity And A.I. In Healthcare: A Perilous Pairing For Patient Privacy, Eunice Park

Hofstra Law Review

The American healthcare system faces two trends that not only threaten the quality of health care, but which, combined, exacerbate another threat: the threat to patient privacy. The first of the two trends is the rapid expansion of private-equity acquisitions in the healthcare sector in the last decade, continuing the trend of medicine's corporatization. Decisions increasingly are being made by investors motivated by short-term profit, rather than by doctors motivated by clinical care, compromising healthcare delivery. The second trend is the simultaneous incursion in the healthcare industry of The American healthcare system faces two trends that not only threaten the …

Are A.I. Lawyers A Legal Product Or Legal Service?: Why Current Upl Laws Are Not Up To The Task Of Regulating Autonomous A.I. Actors, Sean Steward

Hofstra Law Review

The rise of automation, particularly with the advent of large language models, presents a significant potential for the legal profession. While automation has traditionally focused on manual and repetitive tasks, A.I.'s evolution now allows machines to handle complex, thought-intensive work involving decision-making. This shift underscores a pressing issue: the American legal system lacks a clear definition of the practice of law. This becomes especially critical as A.l, an "autonomous actor," begins to take on roles that were previously exclusive to human practitioners. One company that exemplifies the advanced capabilities of modern A.I.-powered technology is Pactum Al Pactum's autonomous negotiation software …

Defining The Field Of Wellness Law, Barbara J. Zabawa

Hofstra Law Review

Some lawyers practice "wellness law " without knowing what it is and how it differs from more recognized fields of practice such as health law, public health law, and medical malpractice. This Article defines the field of wellness law using, in a prescriptive manner, the organizational framework that identifies the common and distinctive patterns in wellness and the law that surrounds it. This examination entails reviewing statutes and cases that differentiate between conventional health care and products or services outside of it to identify the core problems that are common and unique to wellness law. Those core problems are twofold. …

Diamonds Are Forever The Consumer's Worst Enemy: The Failure Of The Kimberley Process To End The Trade Of Conflict Diamonds, Sadie Mehr

Hofstra Law Review

No abstract provided.

Shielding Freedoms: State Noncooperation In Hunts For Evidence And People, Mary D. Fan

Washington Law Review

The nation is fracturing into a patchwork of rights and punishment. What some states and localities safeguard as rights, other jurisdictions are criminalizing and punishing. As the divides in rights and punishment deepen, some states are becoming sanctuaries for freedoms penalized elsewhere and enacting shield laws prohibiting cooperation with criminalization and punishment states. A prime example is shield laws protecting people seeking to exercise reproductive rights or obtain gender-affirming care. Major jurisdictions for healthcare and technology-related businesses, such as Washington, California, New York, and Massachusetts, have enacted shield laws that prohibit law enforcement and companies from complying with subpoenas seeking …

The Case For Selective Non-Transparency In Ai-Mediated Work: A Workers Rights Framework, Daniel Plate, James Hutson

Faculty Scholarship

This article advances a labor rights argument for selective non-transparency in AI-mediated work, framed through educational labor yet generalizable across the United States. The central claim asserts that blanket requirements to disclose all AI-assisted methods reconfigure managerial power by converting process knowledge into a surveillance substrate, thereby diminishing autonomy, chilling professional judgment, and enabling rapid deskilling. Synthesizing U.S. labor and privacy frameworks—especially interpretations of the National Labor Relations Act regarding electronic monitoring—alongside emerging state initiatives on automated decision systems, the analysis demonstrates how expansive process transparency risks infringing protected concerted activity while normalizing function creep in algorithmic management. Empirical literature …

Freedom Of Expression In Next-Generation Computing, Brittan Heller

UC Law Journal

Extended reality (XR)—the integration of virtual, augmented, and mixed reality technologies—creates immersive, embodied, and behaviorally integrated forms of communication that challenge traditional understandings of freedom of expression. While XR offers new opportunities for creativity, civic engagement, and cross-cultural participation, its immersive nature introduces risks of censorship, surveillance, biometric profiling, algorithmic manipulation, and inequitable access.

This Article situates XR within the framework of European human rights law. It begins by identifying the technical and psychological features that distinguish XR from conventional platforms, particularly presence, immersion, and embodiment, which transform speech into multisensory and interactive experiences. It then evaluates how existing legal …

Foreword: Casebooks And The Choices That Shape Constitutional Law, Sanford Levinson, Caroline Olsen

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

This collection of essays is the product of a conversation between the two co-authors of this Introduction. It occurred toward the conclusion of a very illuminating Symposium at William & Mary Law School in March 2024 on Jack Balkin’s latest book, Memory and Authority, on the role that memory plays in our notions of law. Caroline was the incoming Editor-in-Chief of the William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal, which had sponsored the Symposium. Sandy was a participant in the Symposium. Jack is a very close friend with whom he has coauthored at least two dozen articles and …

Casebooks, Canons, And Constitutional Memory, Jack M. Balkin, Sanford Levinson

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

Casebooks on constitutional law take a lot of time and effort to prepare. What is the point of bothering to edit one? There are several possible reasons. First, you might want to make money from sales. For the vast majority of law professors, the financial return to the hours spent organizing and editing cases is simply not worth it. Second, you might be the sort of person who just likes to do things by yourself. If you are going through the bother of preparing your own materials, then why not publish them and possibly influence others as well? Most law …

What Is The Measure Of Success For A Constitutional Law Casebook?, Erwin Chemerinsky

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

In this Essay, I want to address four topics: how I came to write my constitutional law casebook; my goals for my Constitutional Law class and how the book facilitates achieving them; the challenges in writing a constitutional law casebook; and thoughts about the future of constitutional law casebooks.

There are many different constitutional law casebooks on the market because there are countless different ways of teaching the subject. There is no right way or best way to teach this or any other subject in the law school curriculum. I am describing my approach to teaching a subject that is …