Digital Commons Network^™

Too Cruel For School: How Parental Rights Doctrine Can Help Protect Against Book Bans, Tessa K. Wild

William & Mary Law Review

This Note argues that parents’ rights protections are crucial to protecting against broad censorship in public schools, and that if states want to effectively regulate book removals, they should preemptively adopt laws similar to Minnesota’s section 134.51.

[...]

Part I of this Note will provide background information about book removals as a freedom of speech issue, as well as a history of how parents’ rights rhetoric is tied to book-removal issues. Part II will address both the history and legal standards of parents’ rights protections. Finally, Part III, using Minnesota and Utah as case studies, will apply parents’ rights law …

Adoption And The Illusion Of Choice After Dobbs V. Jackson Women’S Health, Solangel Maldonado

Cardozo Law Review

Thalia, a twenty-eight-year-old mother of two, has struggled with a substance use disorder for several years. Her children, ages five and seven, are in foster care. Thalia was homeless when she learned that she was fourteen weeks pregnant. She wanted to have an abortion, but her state banned abortions after the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. The closest abortion care provider in a neighboring state was 400 miles away, and a medical (non-surgical) abortion was no longer an option.

Unable to access abortion care, Thalia was forced to carry the pregnancy to term. Her …

The Rhythm Of Reform, Michael Waldman

Cardozo Law Review

This year, we celebrate the 250th anniversary of our independence. In January 1776, Thomas Paine published Common Sense. Paine was an immigrant who had arrived only two years before. The pamphlet went viral, a widely bootlegged bestseller with 120,000 copies sold in its first three months in print. It galvanized support for independence and argued that the collection of colonies should become a republic. Paine wrote: “[I]n America THE LAW IS KING.”

Is that still true? We are finding out.

Today our Constitution and the institutions of self-government face extraordinary pressure. In the first two months of 2026 alone, …

From Dissent To Terrorism: The Formation Of A Security Grammar In Malaysia, Haezreena Begum Binti Abdul Hamid Dr

Indonesia Law Review

The absence of a universally accepted definition of terrorism has enabled states to exercise wide discretion in naming, governing, and exceptionalising violence. This article argues that, in Malaysia, “terrorism” did not emerge as a neutral legal category but as the product of a historically evolving security grammar, a patterned way of interpreting ideology, dissent, and conflict through the lens of existential threat. Employing a qualitative doctrinal socio-legal methodology, the study integrates analysis of international and Malaysian legal frameworks with case-based examination of key episodes, including Memali, Al-Arqam, Al-Ma’unah, Lahad Datu, and ISIS-linked incidents. Statutes, judicial decisions, policy materials, and regional …

Guarding The Game: Building A Defensive Line Between Athletes' Biometric Data And Gambling Interests, Caroline Hébert

The Journal of Business, Entrepreneurship & the Law

This comment examines the intersection of wearable technology, professional sports, and the burgeoning sports betting industry. Focusing primarily on the National Football League (NFL), the author explores how biometric markers such as heart rate, stress levels, and fatigue—originally intended for player health and performance—are increasingly targeted for commercialization in the gambling market. The comment provides a critical analysis of the current legal landscape, noting that existing frameworks like HIPAA and GINA, as well as current Collective Bargaining Agreements (CBAs), offer insufficient protections for athletes' sensitive personal data. Hébert identifies key points of exploitation by third-party vendors and highlights the conflicting …

Right To Life, Right To Arms: Conservative States' Antithetical Approaches To Abortion And Gun Laws, Kristen Mehalko

Health Matrix: The Journal of Law-Medicine

Following Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization and New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, twelve states enacted total abortion bans while simultaneously maintaining among the weakest gun safety laws in the nation. This Note explores the policy contradiction inherent in this approach: states invoking fetal life protection experience gun death rates substantially exceeding national averages, with firearms becoming the leading cause of death for children in these jurisdictions. The Note reveals how these states employ divergent strategies across two policy domains. Abortion restrictions receive vigorous enforcement through criminal statutes and private liability mechanisms, whereas gun regulations face …

The Florida “Educational” And Employer Censorship Statutes: Constitutional Challenges, Joel E. Davidson

UC Law Constitutional Quarterly

No abstract provided.

Surrogacy-Friendly State Law: Criteria For Categorizing State Law By Strength Of Legal Pathways To Gestational Surrogacy, Emma J. Noble

Honors Theses

This paper proposes new criteria for defining U.S. states as surrogacy-friendly. It exclusively considers gestational surrogacy and domestic intended parents. It provides an overview of the surrogacy laws in each state and Washington D.C., and classifies them by the newly proposed criteria. Existing definitions of surrogacy-friendly do not often provide detailed legal distinctions between the states. The proposed criteria consider whether or not a state has express surrogacy laws and if the intended parents’ sexual orientation, marital status, or genetic relationship to the child are limiting factors in their ability to obtain parentage orders. The criteria depend on the legal …

Evaluating Drug Use Through Examination Of Local Water Sources: Drug Concentrations Within Biota Systems, Madeleine Freyhof

Honors Projects

Understanding drug usage based on drug concentrations found within biota samples grown in different concentrations of cocaine and benzoylecgonine. Drug policy then can be potentially based on how drug concentrations display drug usage for a specific community.

Unsettling Settled Science: The Perils Of And Rationale Behind Blind Faith In Forensic Evidence, Jaclyn Marra

University of Miami Race & Social Justice Law Review

Science—a seemingly compelling and infallible adjudicative element—plays a pivotal role in criminal trials, serving as a cornerstone for evidence interpretation and decision-making. However, the perceived infallibility of scientific evidence often masks its inherent limitations and vulnerabilities. Forensic methods, widely regarded as objective and precise, can suffer from a plethora of inconspicuous constraints—including flawed methodologies, human error, and biases—which undermine their reliability. The American public and legal system frequently place undue trust in forensic evidence and experts, influenced by portrayals of their certainty in media and popular culture. This phenomenon has been referred to as the “Reverse CSI Effect.” This note …

On The “Storied” History And Sustained Impact Of A Thriving Social Justice Journal, Mario L. Barnes

University of Miami Race & Social Justice Law Review

No abstract provided.

Separate But Equal In The Bold New City Of The South: A Shadow Of What Remains, Charity Dera

University of Miami Race & Social Justice Law Review

This project undertakes the task of analyzing the historical and contemporary landscape of Jacksonville, Florida, the “Bold New City of the South,”1 from a multidisciplinary vantage point. It argues that the spirit of the overturned “separate but equal” holding of Plessy v. Ferguson2 and its bold segregationist ideologies reverberate today in both subtle and overt ways. Yet, that reality has not come without the resilience and perseverance of pioneering natives who have resisted such ideals in bold ways. While segregation is deeply rooted in U.S. history and scholars have readily addressed the contemporary effects of landmark cases such as Plessy …

Federalist Politics And The Elusive Original Meaning Of The Free Exercise Clause, Jack Thorlin

Catholic University Law Review

Originalism requires interpreting the Constitution by reference to a provision’s original public meaning. But there is very little evidence of original public meaning for some constitutional provisions, most notably the Free Exercise Clause. Originalists have splintered into several different methodological approaches toward the Clause. Justices Scalia and O’Connor staked out opposing originalist views on the Clause thirty years ago in Employment Division v. Smith and City of Boerne v. Flores. In the Roberts Court, some of the conservative justices have attempted to apply a simple textualist interpretation of the Clause, but those efforts have not attracted most of the …

The Double-Edged Rhetoric Of Parental Rights: Conflicts Between Freedom And Control In Cases Concerning Transgender Youth, Susan Etta Keller

Northwestern Journal of Law & Social Policy

This Article examines the rhetorical structures courts and advocates deploy in two distinct lines of cases adjudicating parental rights claims affecting transgender youth: cases challenging state bans on gender-affirming care, and cases challenging school policies supportive of transgender students. Although the legal basis for the parental rights claims in each set of cases is the same—substantive due process rights under the Fourteenth Amendment—the alignment of parental interests with those of their children diverges between the two sets. In the gender-affirming care cases, parents act in concert with their children’s expressed interests; in the school policy cases, parents seek to override …

Dei Under Scrutiny: Doctrinal Shifts, Litigation Risk, And Emerging Threats To Civil Rights Law After Sffa, Richard J. Grad

Duke Journal of Constitutional Law & Public Policy

For decades, private employers, nonprofits, and philanthropic institutions have implemented voluntary diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs to promote opportunity, mitigate bias, enhance organizational performance, and advance social justice. These initiatives were long understood to comply with civil rights law. But following Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard (SFFA), that understanding is steadily under attack.

Although SFFA's holding is confined to college admissions, the case's rhetoric has increasingly been appropriated in a broader campaign to dismantle DEI across sectors. Executive-branch actions, advocacy groups, state attorneys general, and private litigants have invoked SFFA's vision of colorblindness to …

A Harmonious Legal System: True Justice Through Modernized Platonic Marxism, Cian R. Batarla

Departmental Honors & Graduate Capstone Projects

The Marxist theory of the law is underdeveloped compared to the rest of Marx and Engels works. This can be chalked up to legal systems merely being part of the superstructure, by which the ruling class use to maintain power. In this essay I push back on this notion that the rule of law can be dismissed, arguing that if Marx's true community is to be as such then the addition of a just legal system is not an issue. However, Marx's true community on its own is not enough to satisfy the inclusion of a legal system. Thus necessitating …

The Right Of Nature: Lessons From Panama For Mangrove Protection In Miami, Jayson Fry

University of Miami Inter-American Law Review

Mangrove ecosystems are indispensable to climate resilience, yet traditional environmental governance has repeatedly failed to prevent their decline. This Note employs a comparative framework to examine Panama and Miami, two rapidly developing coastal regions facing parallel pressures of urbanization and sea-level rise, to demonstrate that mangrove loss persists not because law is absent, but because existing frameworks structurally authorize regulated degradation. Panama’s 2022 Rights of Nature Law, which grants ecosystems legal personhood and enforceable rights, represents a departure from anthropocentric environmental regulation. Its early judicial application in the Cobré Panamá mine case shows how rights-based protections can override extractive economic …

Originalism's Unbalanced Ledger, David Zaring

Duke Law Journal

This Essay examines the fundamental tension between originalism and cost-benefit analysis—the two dominant methodologies shaping modern, public law decision-making. Originalism, currently triumphant, prioritizes historical meaning and textual fidelity. It operates in stark contrast to cost-benefit analysis, the byword of the administrative state since 1982, which focuses on the future and efficiency. Descriptively, the two methodologies are irreconcilable. Nor is it possible to pair them by claiming they serve different purposes; originalism and cost-benefit analysis conflict when assessing agency design, constitutional rights, and judicial review of administrative action. As regulatory policymaking continues to rely on empirical and economic assessments, originalism's influence …

The Impact Of State And Federal Policies On Academic Researchers: Findings From A National Survey, Dylan Ruediger, Chelsea Mccracken, Jonathan Barefield

Copyright, Fair Use, Scholarly Communication, etc.

Key findings

● State and federal policies targeting divisive concepts or DEI are shaping research agendas at scale and across disciplines. Twenty percent of all respondents, and 29 percent of researchers working in states with divisive concepts or similar laws, reported having avoided certain research topics because of state laws and policies.

● Eight percent of respondents representing a wide range of disciplines reported having had a federal grant cancelled in 2025.

● Eleven percent of respondents reported that federal and state policies restricting research activities are compelling them to seek employment out of state, to leave the academy, or …

Prompt Engineering For Lawyers: We Will Add Your Distinctiveness To Our Own: Iterative Refinement And Prompt Chaining, Cliff Mckinney

Arkansas Law Notes

In the last edition, we explored two advanced prompt engineering techniques, chunking and few-shot prompting. In this edition, we will examine two more useful techniques: iterative prompt refinement and prompt chaining. Iterative prompt refinement involves repeatedly rephrasing and refining questions to lead to a better response. Prompt chaining involves guiding the artificial intelligence through related multi-step reasoning.

At first glance, iterative prompt refinement and prompt chaining may seem like the same concept, but the key difference lies in their approach. Refinement improves a single prompt through repeated adjustments, whereas chaining links a series of prompts together to tackle different stages …

Rural Mass Incarceration And The Politics Of Punitiveness, Gregory Brazeal

Maryland Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Intangible Nagpra, Trevor Reed

Maryland Law Review

No abstract provided.

Wastewater Monitoring And Informed Consent: Interrogating The Research/Surveillance Binary Under The Common Rule, Morgan Cole

Maryland Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Body At The Mercy Of The State: Sama V. Hannigan And The Fragmented Right To Refuse Across State Lines, Mallory Yeates

UC Law Constitutional Quarterly

Courts have long recognized bodily autonomy as a core constitutional value. Yet, doctrine governing reproductive healthcare tells a different story. Sama v. Hannigan exposes the fragility of the right to refuse medical treatment, particularly for incarcerated patients whose claims must survive the demanding standard of qualified immunity. When physicians removed Carrie Rahat Sama’s ovary despite her explicit refusal, her constitutional claim failed because no precedent with sufficiently similar facts had previously condemned such conduct. This case reveals how the “clearly established” prong of qualified immunity can foreclose redress for blatant violations of autonomy.

This Note argues that the viability of …

United States V. Skrmetti: On Realism, Reason, And Hope, Marc Spindelman

UC Law Constitutional Quarterly

No abstract provided.

The Unexplored Future Of State Copyrights And Patents In Ai-Generated Creations, Timothy J. Mcfarlin

Texas A&M Law Review

This is the first article to broadly explore the possibility of state copyrights and patents in AI-generated creations and what it could portend for the future of intellectual property law.

The U.S. Constitution delegates to Congress, via Article I, the power to pass laws “securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries.” It reserves to the states or to the people, via the Tenth Amendment, certain unspecified powers not delegated to the federal government. These could include the power to recognize exclusive rights in “writings and discoveries” generated by artificially intelligent …

Regulating Data Monetization, Peter Ormerod

Texas A&M Law Review

Companies today generate hundreds of billions of dollars each year by collecting massive amounts of information about human activity and wringing predictive insights from it. The scale of these influence activities is stunning: your driving habits dictate your car insurance rates, buying the wrong thing will increase your borrowing costs, and the information ecosystem you inhabit is finely tuned for keeping your attention available to the highest bidder.

States have recently enacted new consumer privacy laws that confer on individuals a series of generally applicable rights over their personal information. But this approach has proven ineffective at disciplining firms’ data …

What The Free-Roaming Cats Dragged In: Regulatory Concerns With Privatized Local Services, Jonathan Korger

Northwestern University Law Review

The United States entrusts local governments to provide citizens with a wide range of public services, and animal control makes up a small but essential piece of these local responsibilities. In recent years, American localities have largely privatized how they manage the nation’s growing free-roaming cat population, relying primarily on animal-loving volunteers and a controversial practice called trap-neuter-return (TNR). Academics have long debated the merits of privatization, but TNR raises a novel question: how should local governments think about regulating a privatized public service when altruism, instead of profits, motivates the service deliverer? This Note argues that TNR demonstrates the …

America Has A Problem: How The Student Criminalization Nexus Helps Maintain America's Modern Caste System, Kaela Allen

Northwestern Law Journal des Refusés

No abstract provided.

Fool's Gold: The Stibnite Gold Project, Critical Minerals, And The Public Health Perils Of Antiquated Hardrock Mining Laws, Faith Quigley

Idaho Law Review

The proposed reopening of the Stibnite Gold Mine in Idaho has been heralded as a model for the future of modern hardrock mining. This project has received national interest in light of the growing domestic demand for critical minerals essential to climate-friendly energy technologies and national security. But beneath its green branding lies a deeper legal and public health crisis. Operating under the General Mining Law of 1872—a relic of frontier-era resource exploitation—the Stibnite Gold Project exemplifies how an outdated legal framework continues to enable environmental and human harm. While policymakers tout the domestic necessity of critical minerals, the Stibnite …