Digital Commons Network^™

Was Atwater V. Lago Vista Decided Correctly? The Fourth Amendment's Shadow And Simulacra Of Police Brutality And The American Dream, Charles Lincoln

Barry Law Review

No abstract provided.

Money Laundering In The Global Art Market, Arran Walton

Undergraduate Theses and Capstone Projects

It is no secret that money laundering has seeped into the art market for years, but veils of anonymity and lack of regulation have kept many of those who foster the illegal operations immune from justice. As criminal operations permeate the art market on a regular basis, what can be done? This thesis will approach this question through an examination of qualitative data and studies, including investigating applicable recent cases, to understand four unique vulnerabilities of the art market and how these weaknesses are exploited. Additionally, the major groups who use the art market as a means of money laundering …

The History And Trajectory Of Major Vice Regulations In Massachusetts, Jonathan D. Zlotnik, David K. Muradian

School of Professional Studies

No abstract provided.

Working To Elect Under-Represented Groups In Public Office, Jenny Pacillo

School of Professional Studies

Running for public office is a massive undertaking that is often inaccessible to marginalized groups of people including women, people of color, low income folks and members of the LGBTQIA+ community. These people, especially when they are first time candidates, face barriers that range from lack of finances to gatekeeping. Communities benefit when residents are represented by a diverse range of elected officials, as they bring unique perspectives, lived experiences and opinions to the table. This capstone will provide an overview of strategy, guidelines to follow and basic tools that are needed to run for office to assist first time …

The Connecticut Clean Slate Law

Connecticut Law Review

By erasing or sealing criminal records, Clean Slate policies propose a second-chance opportunity of employment, housing, and education to thousands of Americans. In targeting the archaic and inaccessible processes of expunging and sealing records, Clean Slate ambitiously pursues economic and public safety policy goals. In 2021, Connecticut joined the states devoted to ascribing to these goals when it enacted a Clean Slate law that aids thousands of Connecticut residents who face major disadvantages as a result of misdemeanor or low-level felony records stemming from years-old convictions.

Supporters of Connecticut’s Clean Slate law theorize that without the barriers imposed by criminal …

Necessity, Proportionality, And Executive Order 14086, Alex Joel

Joint PIJIP/TLS Research Paper Series

No abstract provided.

Automated Agencies, Joshua D. Blank, Leigh Osofsky

Minnesota Law Review Vols. 106:2 onward (2021-present)

When individuals have questions about federal benefits, services, and legal rules, they increasingly seek help from government chatbots, virtual assistants, and other automated tools. Most scholars who have studied artificial intelligence and federal government agencies have not focused on the government’s use of technology to offer guidance to the public. The absence of scholarly attention to automation as a means of communicating government guidance is an important gap in the literature. Through the use of automated legal guidance, the federal government is responding to millions of public inquiries each year about the law, a number that may multiply many times …

Freedom To Pray, Not To Protest, Leah Reiss

Minnesota Law Review Vols. 106:2 onward (2021-present)

The Supreme Court has never definitively ruled on the constitutionality of curfews that target political activity. Historically, curfews have been very difficult to challenge. They suffer from mootness issues because they tend to be temporary in nature, so associated harms are also temporary. Likely as a result, challenges to curfews more commonly take the form of a complaint regarding misconduct by a law enforcement officer during the curfew, rather than a facial challenge to the curfew itself. Further, courts are typically deferential to state claims of police power, which provides the authority for state and local governments to take action …

Debt And Dependence: Foreign Interference In Haiti And The Importance Of Non-State Actor Accountability, Sandra Wisner, Brian Concannon

Northwestern Journal of Human Rights

Colonialist policies and lending practices by foreign states and non-state actors have led to serious and wide-spread violations of Haitian individuals’ fundamental human rights. In particular, a series of loan conditions imposed by international financial institutions and their members states left Haiti vulnerable to increased food insecurity and a severely diminished social sector. This paper proposes that the imposition of such loan conditions constitutes a violation of foreign actors’ obligations under international law respecting economic, social, cultural, and political rights, as well as their extra-territorial obligations (ETOs) to take joint and separate action to promote and respect human rights beyond …

How To Solve The Initial Appearance Crisis, Malia N. Brink, Pamela R. Metzger, Jiacheng Yu

Deason Center Reports

Across the United States, people are arrested and held behind bars for days, weeks, and sometimes even months, without ever seeing a judge or attorney. These delays violate the United States Constitution’s promise that an arrested person—who is innocent unless proven guilty—will have prompt access to the courts, the assistance of counsel, and a fair and speedy trial.

These due process milestones begin at initial appearance: the first time an arrested person sees a judge about their case. At an initial appearance, the judge should inform an arrested person of the charges against them. The judge should also make an …

Correcting Crooked Licensing Boards With A Revolving-Door Statute, Ronnie Thompson

Georgia State University Law Review

Contrary to conventional wisdom, occupational licensing restrictions do not serve a primary purpose of protecting consumers. They instead wage war on the market economy. This reality is unsurprising when one considers the makeup of a typical licensing board, which consists primarily of active market participants. These industry incumbents scheme to keep potential competitors out. Entrance exams for florists and onerous educational requirements for interior designers—absurd as they seem—become the rule rather than the exception. Despite their propensity for anticompetitive conduct, licensing boards elude review under the Sherman Act, the nation’s chief law regulating anticompetitive conduct. Licensing boards need not defend …

Tragedy Of The Digital Commons, Chinmayi Sharma

North Carolina Law Review

No abstract provided.

Revenue, Race, And The Potential Unintended Consequences Of Traffic Enforcement Reform, Beth A. Colgan

North Carolina Law Review

No abstract provided.

Left Behind, Again: Intellectual Disability And The Resentencing Movement, Katie Kronick

North Carolina Law Review

No abstract provided.

Misapplication Of Inverse Condemnation Liability: A Legal Analysis Of The Application Of Inverse Condemnation Liability On Electrical Utilities, Nadra Mamou

UC Law Constitutional Quarterly

No abstract provided.

Florida Gun Laws Weaken: Another Setback For The Mass Shooting Generation, Riley Kendall

Barry Law Review

While gun control has been a topic of controversy in the United States for decades, one area that has seemed undebatable is the protection of children from gun violence in our Nation’s schools. The methods of achieving this end goal vary from state to state. Some states have continued the longstanding tradition of designating schools as “gun-free zones,” while others have employed armed security guards. Florida has chosen the latter option for its public and charter schools. However, the Florida Legislature has taken a dramatic deviation from this path that will negatively affect students attending private religious schools: it passed …

Comment: The Unjust Side Of Civil Asset Forfeiture In Illinois: Innocent Victims And Corrupted Incentives, Sarah Farwick

Northern Illinois University Law Review

Under the broad scope of modern civil asset forfeiture, law enforcement agencies routinely deprive citizens of their property without ever formally charging them with a crime. This system diminishes the ideal values of American justice, yet the Supreme Court has long held that civil asset forfeiture is constitutional, leaving prospects of judicial reform unlikely. Therefore, it is crucial that individual states take action to protect their citizens by abolishing the use of civil asset forfeiture. In 2017, the Illinois General Assembly attempted to reform its civil asset forfeiture system, but upon close analysis and application of the statute, it is …

Criminalizing Threats Against Schools: A Divergence Of Mens Rea And Punishment Severity In Recent State Legislation, Max Kaufman

Fordham Law Review

School shootings occur on a regular basis in the United States. Fear of the next school shooting leads schools to take any potential threat of violence seriously, but responding to a threat can be extremely disruptive to a school’s operations and the community that it serves. In the last five years, nine state legislatures have attempted to deter these threats by specifically criminalizing threats of violence against schools.

Despite the proximity in time in which these states enacted school threat statutes, these laws diverge in two important ways: First, the nine statutes employ several different mens rea requirements. Second, these …

A New Test For The New Crime Exception, Colin Miller

Utah Law Review

The new crime exception to the Fourth Amendment exclusionary rule allows prosecutors to introduce evidence connected to new crimes committed by defendants who were illegally detained and/or questioned. Unfortunately, as illustrated in this Article, courts largely have applied this new crime exception without any analytical framework or regard for the severity of the initial police misconduct or the defendant’s response. Moreover, courts have begun applying the new crime exception to crimes such as giving a fake name in response to an un-Mirandized interrogation following a lawful arrest.

By doing so, courts have allowed the new crime exception to swallow two …

Mass E-Carceration: Electronic Monitoring As A Bail Condition, Sara Zampierin

Utah Law Review

Over the past decade, the immigration and criminal legal systems have increasingly relied on electronic monitoring as a bail condition; hundreds of thousands of people live under this monitoring on any given day. Decisionmakers purport to impose these conditions to release more individuals from detention and to maintain control over individuals they perceive to pose some risk of flight or to public safety. But the data do not show that electronic monitoring successfully mitigates these risks or that it leads to fewer individuals in detention. Electronic monitoring also comes with severe restrictions on individual liberty and leads to harmful effects …

25 Is The New 18: Extending Juvenile Jurisdiction And Closing Its Exceptions, Dylan Raymond

Utah Law Review

Courts are in broad agreement that juveniles—defined as people under 18-yearsold — are less culpable than adults and thus punish them differently. Indeed, few would disagree that the adult criminal system should apply only to adults—people “fully developed and mature.” If separating adults and juveniles based on culpability is the goal, it begs a simple question: should the split happen at age 18? Some U.S. institutions imply that they believe an 18-year-old lacks the requisite maturity to assume certain responsibilities, including the House of Representatives and car rental agencies, which permit participation at 25. Looking globally, important institutions like the …

“Strict In Theory, Fatal In Fact”: The Phrase That Rings True In Recent Voting Rights Cases, Chloe Fisher

University of the Pacific Law Review

No abstract provided.

Adults In Juvenile Court For Sex Offenses Committed As Children: Poetic Justice For Victims, Or Ineffectually Reopening Old Wounds For All?, Kimberly Jenkins

University of the Pacific Law Review

No abstract provided.

Are Third Parties Creating A Loophole For Police Investigations?, Alexandria N. Short

Northern Illinois Law Review Supplement

This article discusses the current case law and statutory law related to the privacy of information collected by third parties. At times, we see the private sector and law enforcement working together to solve crimes. However, that may not always be a good thing. This article offers a solution to these problems of uncertainty by suggesting a uniform code to regulate the private sector, or, in the alternative, a change to the Fourth Amendment that encompasses a more modern interpretation of the information that law enforcement should have access to.

Burning Questions: Changing Legal Narratives On Cannabis In Indian Country, Sam J. Carter, Robin M. Rotman

Mercer Law Review

In the not-so-distant past, thoughts of Cannabis legalization in the United States were radical. In the present day, the narratives around Cannabis are changing. The term “present day” affixes this Article to early 2023, a snapshot in time. To understand the current legal narratives surrounding Cannabis, and what they might become in the future, it is important to examine the history of Cannabis law and policy in United States. This Article begins by discussing Cannabis regulation in the United States, from the rise of federal regulation to the gradual deregulation by states with tacit federal consent. The Article then examines …

The Impact Of Encryption Technologies On Criminal Investigations In Canada: A Balanced Approach To The 'Going Dark' Problem In Light Of Self-Incrimination And Privacy Considerations, Laura Ellyson

PhD Dissertations

Encryption, a method of concealing information from unwanted eyes, has recently become more prevalent in society, following revelations of massive surveillance conducted by governments and the increasing number of attacks on companies holding their customers’ digitized information. Encryption mechanisms have become more sophisticated and widely used by citizens who wish to keep their personal information private and secure. Conversely, criminals have also been using strong encryption mechanisms to hide their wrongdoing, which has made it harder for law enforcement officials to access evidence. This “going dark” phenomenon has impacted both the seizure of “data at rest” (i.e., data that is …

Comment: Instilling Ordered Procedure In Assessing Motions For Reduced Sentences Under Section 404 Of The First Step Act, Michael C. Vega

Northern Illinois University Law Review

This Comment discusses the lack of ordered procedure in assessing motions brought pursuant to § 404 of the First Step Act of 2018. For nearly a quarter century, federal cocaine sentencing subjected crack-cocaine offenses dealing in one-hundredth the quantity of drug to the same statutory penalty as powder-cocaine offenses. This disparate treatment of drug offenses impacted primarily African Americans. The Fair Sentencing Act of 2010 reduced the disparity but applied only prospectively. Section 404 of the First Step Act made certain provisions of the Fair Sentencing Act retroactive. In the ensuing years, the federal courts have disagreed on the precise …

In Defense Of (Mental) Hearth And Home: Challenges To § 922(G)(4) In The Wake Of New York State Rifle & Pistol Ass’N V. Bruen, Zachary M. Robole

Minnesota Law Review Vols. 106:2 onward (2021-present)

Individually, discussions about mental illness and firearm possession are at the forefront of American discourse. Intriguingly, the intersection of the two issues produces provocative social and legal questions. 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(4) bans those who have been involuntarily committed to a mental institution from owning a firearm. This ban is an indefinite one. Such indefiniteness supports a conclusion that “once mentally ill, always so.” But the “once mentally ill, always so” mantra is falling out of acceptance today. Therefore, it is logical to conclude that § 922(g)(4) does not best serve its intended function. Congress provided a route for those …

The U.S. Government Taking Under Eminent Domain: When Just Compensation Is Unjust (Comment), Michael Perez

The Scholar: St. Mary's Law Review on Race and Social Justice

The true effects of private takings do not occur in a vacuum and are not solely academic in nature. The consequence of losing property implicates loss of income, loss of value in residual property, and loss of familial land. The importance of protecting the rights of individual land-owners becomes increasingly apparent when analyzing the effect of the taking.

This comment will explore how the government’s taking of private property occurs—including how the government has loosened restrictions and procedural hurdles. The analysis will focus specifically on processes, policies, and statutes, created and used by the federal government to facilitate takings necessary …

Mass E-Carceration: Electronic Monitoring As A Bail Condition, Sara Zampierin

Faculty Scholarship

Over the past decade, the immigration and criminal legal systems have increasingly relied on electronic monitoring as a bail condition; hundreds of thousands of people live under this monitoring on any given day. Decisionmakers purport to impose these conditions to release more individuals from detention and to maintain control over individuals they perceive to pose some risk of flight or to public safety. But the data do not show that electronic monitoring successfully mitigates these risks or that it leads to fewer individuals in detention. Electronic monitoring also comes with severe restrictions on individual liberty and leads to harmful effects …