Digital Commons Network^™

Open Justice Baltimore V. Baltimore City Law Department: Brief For Scholars Of Civil Procedure And First Amendment Organizations As Amici Curiae In Support Of Petitioners, Maureen Carroll

Appellate Briefs

Amici are scholars whose research and teaching focus on civil procedure, including pleading standards; an organization that provides legal assistance at no charge to individuals who have had their rights violated, including First Amendment rights; and a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization dedicated to defending freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and the people’s right to know. Their expertise is relevant to the impacts of the legal issue in this case on civil procedure and the First Amendment. Amici also have a strong professional interest in the proper disposition of cases involving civil procedure and ensuring the efficient disposition of meritorious …

Preserving First Amendment Values: Social Media And The Harmful Content Test, Liam Watts

Undergraduate Honors Theses

We live in a world in which the internet is unavoidable. It is used for our everyday tasks (such as sending business emails) and is even used to communicate with other individuals around the world (through messaging services, for example). Another unavoidable aspect of the internet is social media; it is used for communication, news gathering, and engaging in discussion, inter alia. Sometimes, the way individuals use social media is quite aversive. Thus, social media companies have rightfully tried to govern their platforms in a way that attempts to reduce the harm that comes from aversive content. However, social media …

Reassessing The Use Exemption: Constitutional Tensions In The Lanham Act, Caleb Nelson, Abigail Peterson

Brigham Young University Prelaw Review

In today’s global economy, where new products and services are being created and marketed at an unprecedented rate, a fundamental inconsistency exists within U.S. trademark law. While domestic applicants in the United States are required to provide proof of use when applying for trademark registration, foreign applicants are statutorily exempt from providing evidence that they actually use their trademarks. This disparity, which has gone unaddressed for decades, puts small and mid-sized American businesses and individuals at a disadvantage to their foreign counterparts.

Security Or Suppression? Rethinking U.S. Policies Regarding Foreign Tech Firms And National Security, Gordon Mccreadie, Cade Morris

Brigham Young University Prelaw Review

Increasingly adversarial relationships between the United States and countries such as China, Russia, and Iran have resulted in legislative efforts to ensure the National Security of the United States by banning foreign technology firms deemed to pose a threat. Certain high profile bans, such as the ban of Huawei and potential ban of Tik Tok, have raised concerns that these bans are motivated by factors other than a legitimate national security threat. Failure to protect the rights of affected foreign firms could result in an anticompetitive, isolated U.S. market. This paper will analyze the legality of different efforts to ban …

Gender-Responsive Treatment For Girls And Women Within The Criminal Justice System, Kylie R. Huelsmann

SACAD: Scholarly Activities

There is a need for improved gender-responsive approaches for women and girls in the criminal justice system, especially for women of color and transgender individuals. Traditional programs built around men often neglect the unique challenges faced by these populations, such as substance use disorders, mental health conditions, trauma histories, and acting as caregivers. Women, in particular, experience higher rates of recidivism and barriers to successful reintegration. Trauma-informed and evidence-based programs that address mental health, addiction, and family support, ultimately lead to more effective rehabilitation and reduce recidivism for women and girls after adjudication.

Incrimination Of Carlton Lewis, Kaia L. Fox

SACAD: Scholarly Activities

On February 7, 1990, Cheryl Coleman was found dead in her apartment, sexually assaulted and beaten to death with a 2x4 piece of wood. Carlton Lewis became one the of few suspects in the case. Despite providing a statement that he was at his home at the time of the murder and the word of his wife, a suspect named William McKee was interviewed and said he saw Lewis go to a house on the corner of the street with Coleman. After McKee was interviewed, Lewis, who was illiterate at the time, was forced into a false confession by being …

25 Years For A Crime He Didn’T Commit: Anthony Wright, Caleb D. Purvis

SACAD: Scholarly Activities

Anthony Wright was found guilty of the rape and murder of an elderly woman in 1991 in Philadelphia. He was then convicted in 1993 (Kaur, 2020). Anthony Wright spent the next 25 years in prison before becoming the 344th person to be exonerated by DNA in the US (Innocence Project, 2025). Upon the re-examination of the evidence found at the crime scene, a new suspect was identified, but had already passed away, preventing any criminal charges from being filed against them. Anthony Wright also filed a civil lawsuit on January 17, 2017, after his exoneration (Wright v. Philadelphia, 2017).

Examining The Evidence: The Case Of Marcellus Williams And The Pursuit Of Justice, Star Parham

SACAD: Scholarly Activities

The case of Marcellus Williams, the case of a Missouri man killed on death row, has sparked many legal and ethical concerns. Those concerns are wrongful convictions, forensic evidence, and the orchestration of the death penalty in the United States. Willimas was convicted in 2001 for the murder of Felicia Gayle based on evidence of circumstances and testimony from informants. Despite all of that Missouri officials pursued the execution, and he was killed.

The Case Against Surge Pricing, Ramsi A. Woodcock

UC Law Journal

Surge pricing—using data and algorithms to raise prices in response to unexpected increases in demand—has spread across the economy in recent years, from Amazon and Disney World to commuter highways and, of course, Uber, which is infamous for surge pricing rides. Companies claim that surge pricing equilibrates supply and demand, but that is impossible, at least in the short run when demand unexpectedly outstrips supply. What surge pricing really does is to ration existing supply based on ability to pay. That is both distributively unjust and potentially inefficient. It should also be considered a violation of the antitrust laws because …

The Pathway To And Consequences Of Foster Parent Intervention In Dependency Cases, Gillian Katz Lamon

UC Law Journal

Over the last 50 years, federal child welfare legislation has wrestled with how to reconcile the competing goals of the child welfare system: child protection, family preservation, and permanency. The United States foster care system has evolved alongside transformations in private adoptions. As the prospects for private adoption have dwindled, the pendulum has shifted toward prioritizing child protection. Youth in foster care have suddenly become the private adoption alternative. Most recently, some state courts have granted foster parents standing to intervene in termination of parental rights proceedings. In those cases, foster parents are permitted to battle with natural parents for …

Recent Developments: State V. Smith, Dillan Moore

University of Baltimore Law Forum

No abstract provided.

Masthead

UC Law Science and Technology Journal

No abstract provided.

Derivative Data: Rethinking Market Definitions In The Age Of Generative Ai, Andrew Dang

UC Law Science and Technology Journal

Antitrust law fails to keep pace with the data-driven realities of the dig- ital economy, and foundation models further exacerbate the issue. Founda- tion models such as ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini are trained on broad datasets across different domains. While traditional antitrust frameworks fo- cus on narrow market definitions and readily observable effects, these frameworks fail to capture the anti-competitive potential of derivative data— data that is derived by a business through its operations and exerts cross- market influence—thereby fueling new forms of dominance.

Moreover, the dynamics of foundation model training data create a “Tragedy of the Data Commons,” where …

Weaponizing Ai, Stephen T. Black

UC Law Science and Technology Journal

No abstract provided.

Rps Coach Project: A Growing Library About A Valuable Ai Tool, John Lande

Faculty Publications

This document collects a growing library of publications, videos, and podcasts about the RPS Negotiation and Mediation Coach (RPS Coach), an AI tool grounded in Real Practice Systems (RPS) Theory. RPS Coach is designed to support mediators, lawyers, parties, educators, students, and scholars by promoting good decision-making and reflective practice in negotiation and mediation. This piece summarizes articles and blog posts that present the theory, knowledge base, and functions of RPS Coach, along with practical guidance for its use in dispute resolution, writing, and legal education. It includes links to each publication and will be updated as new work is …

Rps Coach Is Biased - And Proud Of It, John Lande

Faculty Publications

This short essay explores the concept of bias in artificial intelligence tools used in dispute resolution. Biases are not necessarily flaws to be avoided, but inevitable and potentially constructive features of these tools. They reflect values and design choices that AI developers should disclose.

There are both market and ethical imperatives for AI tools to disclose their features and embedded values. As developers compete for users, people will want to know what they’re getting. Disclosure helps users understand the effects of assumptions, priorities, and frameworks built into a tool’s design, and thus should be treated as a core ethical principle. …

Starting The Conversation: The Need For A Pre-Launch “Skinny Labeling” Dispute Resolution System, Eric H. Siemens

Missouri Law Review

Since Congress adopted the Hatch-Waxman Act in 1984, generic drug manufacturers have been able to come to market while certain uses of brand-name drugs are still patented by “carving out” the patented uses from their labeling. For example, suppose a brand-name drug is used to treat both tonsillitis and strep throat, but the drug company has patented only the specific method of using its drug to treat only strep throat. In this scenario, a generic manufacturer can still sell a generic version of the drug, but only for the non-patented use of tonsillitis treatment. To do this, the generic manufacturer …

New York's Constitutional Guarantee Of Environmental Rights, Katrina Fischer Kuh, Nicholas A. Robinson, Scott Fein

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

New York is embarking on the interpretation and implementation of potentially transformative constitutional reform, the addition of Article I, § 19 to New York’s Bill of Rights, which provides that “Each person shall have the right to clean air and water, and a healthful environment.” To ensure the fulsome and effective implementation of Article I, § 19, and give effect to the intent of the legislators and voters who adopted it, it will be important to provide substantive guidance to courts, government actors, and litigants in the interpretation and application of the new constitutional text. In Pennsylvania and other states, …

Alphafold 3, Ai, Antibody Patents, The Future Of Broad Pharmaceutical Patent Claims, And Drug Development, Brendan Bargmann, Robert A. Bohrer

Faculty Scholarship

Artificial intelligence (AI) will have an enormous impact both on pharmaceutical development and patent protection, particularly for antibody therapeutics. In Amgen Inc. v. Sanofi, the U.S. Supreme Court limited the scope of Amgen’s therapeutic antibody patent to only those antibodies that were specifically described in Amgen’s patent application and that had been shown to bind to a particular region of the target antigen, blocking the activity of the antigen that caused disease. The reason for this limitation was the patent requirement of enablement: that potentially millions of antibodies could be generated to the target antigen but that not all …

Criminal Abortion And Citizen’S Arrest, Ira P. Robbins

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

In the aftermath of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, many states rushed to classify abortion as homicide. In addition to criminalizing abortion, some states have shown a willingness to place enforcement of the new laws in the hands of ordinary citizens through a variety of private enforcement mechanisms. These new abortion statutes exist in tandem with existing citizen’s arrest laws to create the possibility for women, providers, and those who assist them to be subject to this problem-ridden doctrine. This Article analyzes potential scenarios in which these areas clash and pose new risks to exercising what was not long …

Copyright

Missouri Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Sec, Fraud, And Cryptocurrencies, Lawrence J. Trautman, Brian Elzweig, Neal F. Newman

Missouri Law Review

The SEC’s Strategic Plan for Fiscal Years 2022–2026 is focused on the impact of the rapidly developing rate of change in new technologies that provide for markets to be more interconnected and interdependent than ever. Because Congress has yet to give the SEC, or any other agency, express authority to regulate cryptocurrency, the SEC has taken a regulation-by-enforcement approach. The SEC’s recent enforcement efforts relating to crypto asset securities were substantial, with enforcement actions addressing a range of alleged misconduct in the crypto asset securities space, including billion-dollar crypto fraud schemes; unregistered crypto asset offerings, platforms, and intermediaries; and illegal …

Table Of Contents

Missouri Law Review

No abstract provided.

Masthead

Missouri Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Clobes Conundrum: Why Muldrow Should Not Apply To Hostile Work Environment Claims And How The Eighth Circuit Got It Right, M. Thomas Yang

Missouri Law Review

In 2024, the Supreme Court held that an employee does not have to prove material harm to prevail on a discrimination claim under Title VII. Because hostile work environment claims also derive from Title VII, courts and litigants are currently grappling with whether this ruling upends the long-standing “severe or pervasive” doctrine. This Note argues that it does not. Passed in 1964, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act makes it illegal for “an employer . . . to discriminate against any individual with respect to his compensation, terms, conditions, or privileges of employment, because of such individual’s race, color, …

The Buck Stops Here: Missouri Legislature’S Defunding Of Abortion Providers, Maizey Edgar

Missouri Law Review

On May 2, 2022, the Supreme Court’s draft opinion for Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization leaked online. The era-defining opinion to overturn fifty years of Roe v. Wade and undo the constitutional right to abortion reinvigorated the discussion surrounding reproductive healthcare access among the American public, with the majority of Americans supporting legal access to abortion in all or most cases. Over the last decade, a movement to defund abortion providers has arisen, and the issue of defunding has become an even hotter point of debate after the Dobbs decision. In Missouri, elected representatives have fought to defund Planned …

Suicide’S Shadow: The Evolution Of A Ghost Crime, Scott W. Howe

Missouri Law Review

Law treats suicide as malfeasance—a display of mental illness and, worse, a ghost crime that has never left us. While states no longer criminally punish suicide, they detain and force mental-health treatment on many who attempt it, or indicate they might attempt it, and threaten criminal sanctions against those who aid or encourage it. For these and other reasons, the suicide label functions not merely as a description of an event but as a censure. A lengthy, legal history, fueled originally by religion but then tempered by pragmatism, led to these circumstances and can largely rationalize relevant legal doctrines and …

Intangible Harms, Tangible Consequences: Analyzing The Impact Of Transunion On Standing To Sue For Data Breach, Noelle Wilson, Amanda Reid

Missouri Law Review

Scholars and practitioners predicted that the 2021 Supreme Court case TransUnion v. Ramirez would essentially nullify the private right of action—a key enforcement mechanism for many consumer privacy laws. This Article analyzes federal courts (N=96) interpreting TransUnion in data breach contexts. Our contribution is twofold: (1) identifying tests courts employ to determine whether data breach plaintiffs have alleged sufficient “injury in fact” to establish Article III standing, and (2) highlighting the areas of inconsistency in how courts employ those tests. The analysis serves to ground the scholarly debate about the implications of TransUnion in holding breached entities accountable. Despite the …

Seaweed Cultivation And Sinking For Carbon Dioxide Removal In Alaska, Ashwin Murthy, Korey Silverman-Roati, Romany M. Webb

Sabin Center for Climate Change Law

Meeting global climate change goals requires a rapid and dramatic reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. That will not be sufficient by itself, however. It will also be necessary to remove carbon dioxide, and potentially other greenhouse gases, from the atmosphere. One proposed approach involves the cultivation and sinking of seaweed.

Alaska’s coastal waters, rich in nutrients, provide ideal conditions for seaweed cultivation projects. Moreover, Alaska’s coastal waters are more vulnerable to acidification than those in lower latitudes, making aquaculture particularly beneficial in this region. Alaska has made active efforts to streamline the permitting of seaweed cultivation, encouraging research projects in …

Are The Kids Alright? An Analysis Of Sex Education, The Sexual Behaviors Of Minors And Age Of Consent Laws In The United States, Monica L. Johnston

Senior Theses

This paper explores the sexual development of children, the sexual education they receive, as well as the history of sex laws in the United States, to determine whether the laws regarding education and age of consent adequately protect children. A qualitative survey is also conducted with undergraduate students at the University of South Carolina to determine what topics were discussed in their sexual education curriculum, as well as their sexual behaviors as a minor. While the push for comprehensive sexual education models has been growing, millions of dollars are still being allocated to promote Abstinence Only Until Marriage programs, which …