Digital Commons Network^™

Animal Rights Activism And The Constitution: Are Ag-Gag Laws Justifiable Limits?, Jodi Lazare

Osgoode Hall Law Journal

It is a troubling time to be an animal rights activist in Canada. Recently, Alberta adopted legislation to create harsh penalties for trespassing onto private property, for obtaining permission to enter private property based on false pretences, and for interfering with vehicles on public highways. These laws relate to agricultural lands, to private property generally, and, where roads are concerned, to public property. Ontario has adopted similar legislation aimed specifically at agricultural property. The legislation in both provinces purports to protect the security of farmers, their families, and rural property owners generally, as well as the safety of the food …

Privacy Please — Direct Observation Drug Testing & Invasion Of Privacy, Elizabeth Black

University of Cincinnati Law Review

No abstract provided.

Race And Washington's Criminal Justice System: 2022 Recommendations To Criminal Justice Stakeholders In Washington, Task Force 2.0: Race And The Criminal Justice System

Fred T. Korematsu Center for Law and Equality

Race and Washington's Criminal Justice System: 2022 Recommendations to Criminal Justice Stakeholders in Washington

The Fourth Amendment And The Problem Of Social Cost, Thomas P. Crocker

Northwestern University Law Review

The Supreme Court has made social cost a core concept relevant to the calculation of Fourth Amendment remedies but has never explained the concept’s meaning. The Court limits the availability of both the exclusionary rule and civil damages because of their “substantial social costs.” According to the Court, these costs primarily consist of letting the lawbreaker go free by excluding evidence or deterring effective police practices that would lead to more criminal apprehension and prosecution. But recent calls for systemic police reform by social movements have a different view of social cost. So too do calls for reforming qualified immunity. …

Climate Change And The Threat To U.S. Jails And Prisons, Laurie L. Levenson

Villanova Environmental Law Journal (1991 - )

No abstract provided.

The Collateral Effects Of Criminal Orders Of Protection On Parent Defendants In Cases Of Intimate Partner Violence, Isabelle Leipziger

Fordham Law Review

Intimate partner violence is a serious public health problem that affects people from all cultures, ethnicities, and socioeconomic backgrounds. Although courts have historically refused to get involved due to the intimate and private nature of these offenses, widespread reforms have led to some judicial intervention. Through the issuance of criminal orders of protection, courts have alleviated some of the difficulties associated with prosecuting cases of intimate partner violence and have provided immediate protection for victims. However, criminal orders of protection also pose significant challenges for defendants who live and co-parent with their accuser.

In New York, issuance of these orders …

Public Carry Versus Public Health — The Harms To Come From The Supreme Court’S Decision In Bruen, Michael Ulrich

Faculty Scholarship

In June, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen that the Second Amendment provides a constitutionally protected right to carry firearms in public. The decision is already creating turmoil in the form of political and public backlash and a scramble by policymakers to find new ways to combat the growing gun-violence epidemic in the United States. The majority opinion in Bruen, written by Justice Clarence Thomas, will have a devastating impact on efforts to mitigate gun violence and address racial disparities, but the reasoning used in the decision could cause even …

Decarceration's Inside Partners, Seema Tahir Saifee

Fordham Law Review

This Article examines a hidden phenomenon in criminal punishment. People in prison, during their incarceration, have made important—and sometimes extraordinary—strides toward reducing prison populations. In fact, stakeholders in many corners, from policy makers to researchers to abolitionists, have harnessed legal and conceptual strategies generated inside the walls to pursue decarceral strategies outside the walls. Despite this outside use of inside moves, legal scholarship has directed little attention to theorizing the potential of looking to people on the inside as partners in the long-term project of meaningfully reducing prison populations, or “decarceration.”

Building on the change-making agency and revolutionary ideation inside …

Newsletter, Fall 2022

Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Initiatives At A Glance, University Of The Pacific, Mcgeorge School Of Law

California Initiative Review (CIR)

No abstract provided.

Proposition 26: California Sports Wagering Regulation And Unlawful Gambling Enforcement Ac, Jara Lindgren, Elizabeth Rocha Zuñiga

California Initiative Review (CIR)

No abstract provided.

Local Measures For The City Of Sacramento, Elizabeth Rocha Zuñiga, Jara Lindgren

California Initiative Review (CIR)

No abstract provided.

An Algorithmic Assessment Of Parole Decisions, Hannah Lacqueur, Ryan W. Copus

Faculty Works

Objectives: Parole is an important mechanism for alleviating the extraordinary social and financial costs of mass incarceration. Yet parole boards can also present a major obstacle, denying parole to low-risk inmates who could safely be released from prison. We evaluate a major parole institution, the New York State Parole Board, quantifying the costs of suboptimal decision-making.

Methods: Using ensemble Machine Learning, we predict any arrest and any violent felony arrest within three years to generate criminal risk predictions for individuals released on parole in New York from 2012–2015. We quantify the social welfare loss of the Board’s suboptimal decisions by …

Solving The Procedural Puzzles Of The Texas Heartbeat Act And Its Imitators: New York Times V. Sullivan As Historical Analogue, Charles W. "Rocky" Rhodes, Howard M. Wasserman

Faculty Publications

The Texas Heartbeat Act (S.B. 8) prohibits abortions following detection of a fetal heartbeat while delegating exclusive enforcement through private civil actions brought by “any person,” regardless of injury, for statutory damages of a minimum of $10,000 per prohibited abortion. Texas sought to impose costly litigation and potentially crippling liability on reproductive health providers and rights advocates, with the hope of stopping abortion in the state. Prior to Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization overruling Roe v. Wade and eliminating constitutional protection for abortion, the law represented a unique threat to reproductive freedom. But states are spreading S.B. 8’s exclusive …

F22rs Sgcr No. 2-7, 10-49, 51-85 (Appointments And Vacancies), Olivia Devall

Student Senate Enrolled Legislation

To appoint a member or fill a vacancy

Greening Criminal Legal Deserts In Rural Texas, Pamela R. Metzger, Claire Buetow, Kristin Meeks, Blane Skiles, Jiacheng Yu

Deason Center Reports

Texas’ rural communities urgently need more prosecutors and public defense providers. On average, Texas’ most urban areas have 28 lawyers for every 100 criminal cases, but rural areas only have five. Many rural prosecutor’s offices cannot recruit and retain enough staff. The Constitution’s promise of equal justice for all remains unfulfilled. Rural Texans charged with misdemeanors are four times less likely to have a lawyer than urban defendants. In 2021, only 403 rural Texas lawyers accepted an appointment to represent an adult criminal defendant. In 65 rural counties, no lawyer accepted an appointment. And the problem is getting worse. Since …

Bringing Congress And Indians Back Into Federal Indian Law: The Restatement Of The Law Of American Indians, Kirsten Matoy Carlson

Washington Law Review

Congress and Native Nations have renegotiated the federal-tribal relationship in the past fifty years. The courts, however, have failed to keep up with Congress and recognize this modern federal-tribal relationship. As a result, scholars, judges, and practitioners often characterize federal Indian law as incoherent and inconsistent. This Article argues that the Restatement of the Law of American Indians retells federal Indian law to close the gap between statutory and decisional law. It realigns federal Indian law with the modern federal-tribal relationship negotiated between Congress and tribal governments. Consistent with almost a half-century of congressional law and policy, the Restatement clarifies …

Uncovering Lies With Family Ties: The Use And Legal Implications Of Investigative Genetic Genealogy In The United States And United Kingdom, Rebecca James

The International Law Review Association Student Forum

Investigative genetic genealogy is a fascinating, yet controversial, forensic technique that began to gather recognition around 2018. Investigative genetic genealogy takes identification through familial matches to a new level by comparing unidentified DNA samples to the samples submitted to increasingly popular direct-to-consumer databases, like AncestryDNA, 23andME, and FamilyTreeDNA. Because of the technique’s ability to supply significant leads in new and old cases, countries around the world have begun to consider the use of investigative genetic genealogy. However, some countries have been slower than others to adopt the technique due to privacy concerns and countries’ existing privacy laws. Using the United …

Frontiers In Regulating Building Emissions: An Agenda For Cities, Danielle Spiegel-Feld

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

Recent developments in Congress and the Supreme Court have highlighted the folly of relying solely on the federal government to contain global climate change. If the United States is to help rein in the climate crisis, state and local governments will need to accelerate their efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. In many urban areas, where most Americans now live, the most important step that local governments can take to curtail these emissions is to reduce energy use in buildings. Recognizing this, a number of American cities have adopted building performance standards (“BPSs”) in recent years, which limit the annual …

Assessing The Constitutional Validity Of Substantiation Laws For Medical Device Safety And Effectiveness Under The Medical Devices Regulations And The Food And Drugs Act, Victoria Kongats

LLM Theses

This thesis examines federal scientific evidence requirements for medical device safety and effectiveness under the mainstream market entry licensing pathway under Part 1 of the Medical Devices Regulations, and under the new ‘agile’ market entry pathway, the Advanced Therapeutic Products Amendments, which amended the Food and Drugs Act. Apart from a narrow category of medical devices (near patient in vitro diagnostic devices), scientific evidence requirements are vague and do not enumerate explicit expectations for methodologically rigorous forms of scientific evidence. Medical device safety and effectiveness could be more predictable with explicit expectations for scientific rigour. The thesis analyzes if this …

Measuring And Assessing The Impact Of Race And Culture Assessments In Sentencing, Alexia Bystrzycki

LLM Theses

In recent years, the use of Impact of Race and Culture Assessments (“IRCA”) emerged in sentencing across Canada, especially in Nova Scotia and Ontario. Sentencing judges recognized that IRCAs “have the potential to provide a bridge between an accused’s experience with racial discrimination and the problem of over-incarceration” (R v Jackson, 2018 ONSC 2527). Consequently, IRCAs are helpful in achieving fit and proportional sentences. Using a mixed-methods approach, this thesis seeks to assess the impact of IRCAs on sentencing decisions. First, this thesis examines how judges apply IRCAs in crafting sentences by way of content analysis. Second, this thesis attempts …

January 6, Ambiguously Inciting Speech, And The Overt-Acts Rule, Alan Z. Rozenshtein, Jed Handelsman Shugerman

Faculty Scholarship

A prosecution of Donald Trump for his role in the January 6 attack on the Capitol would have to address whether the First Amendment protects the inflammatory remarks he made at the “Stop the Steal” rally. A prosecution based solely on the content of Trump’s speech—whether for incitement, insurrection, or obstruction—would face serious constitutional difficulties under Brandenburg v. Ohio’s dual requirements of intent and likely imminence. But a prosecution need not rely solely on the content of Trump’s speech. It can also look to Trump’s actions: his order to the remove the magnetometers from the entrances to the rally and …

Conservation Options: Conservation Easements, Flexibility, And The "In Perpetuity" Requirement Of Irc § 170(H), Molly Teague

Vanderbilt Law Review

Conservation easements have been closely tied to tax incentives since the 1970s, when Congress passed legislation to encourage land preservation. In an attempt to balance the desire to conserve more land with the desire to prevent tax abuses, Congress later passed § 170(h) of the Internal Revenue Code, which requires that conservation easements be donated “in perpetuity” to be eligible for the federal tax deduction.

As climate change increases global temperatures, shifts migratory patterns, and causes sea levels to rise, conservation easements’ ability to adapt to changing circumstances must also become part of Congress’s balancing equation. This Note evaluates the …

Data Types, Data Doubts & Data Trusts, João Marinotti

Articles by Maurer Faculty

Data is not monolithic. Nonetheless, the word is frequently used indiscriminately—in reference to a number of distinct concepts. It may refer to information writ large, or specifically to personally identifiable information, discrete digital files, trade secrets, and even to sets of AI-generated content. Yet each of these types of “data” requires different governance regimes in commerce, in life, and in law. Despite this diversity, the singular concept of data trusts is promulgated as a solution to our collective data governance problems. Data trusts—meant to cover all of these types of data—are said to promote personal privacy, increase corporate transparency, facilitate …

Vox And Spanish Nationalism: The Constitutional Processes For The Elimination Of Regional Autonomy, Noah Halterman-Mitchell

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

After the death of Francisco Franco and the creation of the modern Spanish State, hard-core right-wing Spanish nationalism disappeared from the political spectrum. Spain and Portugal avoided the lure of far right-wing political tendencies to which the rest of Europe fell victim. Until recently, VOX, a far right-wing party, gained seats in Parliaments at the Autonomous Community level and in the Spanish National Parliament.

VOX believes in a mono-national state, a Spanish State, rather than a state composed of different nationalities such as Basque, Catalan, or Galician. In order to achieve their desired vision of the Spanish State, VOX advocates …

Sanctions, Financial Regulation, And Crypto In Latin America, Camilla Oliva

Cardozo International & Comparative Law Review

The note examines the intersection of corruption, financial regulation, and cryptocurrency in Latin America, arguing that U.S. sanctions and the lack of effective financial regulation have inadvertently enabled corruption in the region. It explores how cryptocurrencies, while offering potential solutions to financial instability, are also exploited by corrupt actors and governments to circumvent sanctions and regulatory frameworks. The analysis highlights the dual role of cryptocurrencies as both a tool for financial inclusion and a means of evading accountability, particularly in countries like Venezuela and El Salvador.

A Comparative Look At The Response To Organized Crime In The Ports Of New York-New Jersey And Vancouver, Julia Pjevach

Cardozo International & Comparative Law Review

The note examines the influence of organized crime in ports, focusing on the Port of New York/New Jersey and the Port of Vancouver. It highlights the effectiveness of the Waterfront Commission of New York Harbor in reducing crime through centralized regulation and contrasts it with Vancouver's decentralized approach, which lacks a unified policing mechanism. The analysis underscores the need for stronger regulatory measures and adaptive strategies to combat evolving criminal activities in both ports.

Solitary Confinement: What The United States Can Learn From England And Norway, Markus Wieshofer

Cardozo International & Comparative Law Review

The note argues that the United States should reform its solitary confinement system by adopting key aspects from England and Norway, such as robust oversight mechanisms and a rehabilitative focus, to address the harsh conditions and negative effects of solitary confinement on inmates.

Annotated Legal Bibliography

Cardozo Journal of Equal Rights & Social Justice

No abstract provided.

A Second Look For Children Sentenced To Die In Prison, Kathryn E. Miller

Articles

Scholars have championed “second look” statutes as a decarceral tool. Second look statutes allow certain incarcerated people to seek resentencing after having served a portion of their sentences. This Essay weighs the advantages and disadvantages of these statutes as applied to children sentenced to die in prison and argues that focusing on this small, discrete group may be a digestible entry point for more conservative states who fear widespread resentencing. Moreover, because early data indicates that children convicted of homicide and released as adults have very low recidivism rates, second look beneficiaries are likely to pose little threat to public …