Digital Commons Network^™

October 10, 2025 — Letter To Senator Sanders On The Health Care Workforce Expansion Act And Improving Outcomes In Rural And Health Professional Shortage Areas, American Dental Association

Advocacy in Action letters

No abstract provided.

Rape Myth Acceptance, Pretrial Publicity, And Decision-Making: An Examination Of Perceptions Of Victim Credibility And Perpetrator Guilt In A Real-World Sexual Assault Case, Lindsey Strouse

Student Theses

This study explores how the media narratives and political perspective of pretrial publicity (PTP) can influence jurors’ perceptions in sexual assault cases, raising significant concerns about justice in courtrooms. Specifically, it examines whether media framing of a real-life sexual assault case — through varying media narratives, with media that either challenges or endorses rape myths, and media source (liberal vs. conservative) — affects mock jurors’ rape myth acceptance (RMA), views of victim credibility, and judgements of perpetrator guilt. Participants first completed a RMA scale, then read mock news articles varying in media narrative and political affiliations (media source), followed by …

W&L Law Fall Scholarship Celebration 2025, Andrew Christensen, Michelle Cosby, Brandon Hasbrouck, Jennifer Mitchell, Melanie D. Wilson

Library Events

On October 9, 2025, the Washington and Lee Law Library hosted the fifth W&L Law Fall Scholarship Celebration. The event was co-sponsored by the Frances Lewis Law Center and took place in the Law Library's main reading room from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m.

On display were dozens of scholarly articles, books, chapters, and court briefs authored by the W&L Law faculty and student body between October 2022 and October 2025. Additional works were accessible online via QR codes to W&L Law Scholarly Commons institutional repository. A selection of vintage scholarship by former W&L Law professors was also on display, courtesy …

Pawns In The Power Struggle: Navigating Creative Labor Precarity Across Mcns, Platforms, And State Regulation In China, Qingyue Sun

Interdisciplinary Studies

This study examines how digital creators navigate the precarious Chinese digital creative industries (DCCIs), shaped by multi-channel networks (MCNs), platform logic, and intensifying state intervention. Drawing on interviews with 34 creators, I identified three challenges facing Chinese creators: (1) dual exploitation by volatile platforms and capricious MCN management; (2) erosion of creative autonomy under MCN gatekeeping and state oversight; (3) involuntarily being enlisted as propaganda artisans. Creators, especially those affiliated with MCNs, are increasingly positioned as state labor with governed creativity: cultural workers whose output is shaped, constrained, and redirected by the layered imperatives of state mandates, platform governance, and …

V.62-3, 2025 Masthead

San Diego Law Review

No abstract provided.

Artificial Intelligence And Energy Democracy, Heather E. Payne, Joel B. Eisen

San Diego Law Review

Artificial intelligence (AI) is quickly transforming many professional activities, and the electric grid has already started to see adverse impacts from its use, such as the burgeoning demand for electricity from data centers. This Article acknowledges these impacts, but also demonstrates that AI can be put to beneficial use on the grid. It proposes and describes a specific use of AI: assisting citizen intervenors in public utility commission (PUC) proceedings, who currently face barriers to participation due to the technical complexity and confidentiality imposed by monopoly utilities. The Article describes how AI can assist intervenors to overcome the barriers to …

Misapplying Pinkerton And Accomplice Liability In The United States Federal Sentencing Guidelines: How Courts Have Wrongly Imprisoned Criminal Defendants For Decades, Jessica Huang

San Diego Law Review

The Pinkerton and accomplice-liability doctrines are two of the most maligned doctrines in criminal law. Anyone deemed an “accomplice” to a crime can be convicted of that crime as if they had perpetrated the wrongdoing themselves; similarly, Pinkerton liability, a form of conspiracy liability, permits the government to hold someone accountable for the substantive crimes of another so long as those crimes were “in furtherance of the conspiracy,” “within the scope of the unlawful project,” and reasonably foreseeable “as a necessary or natural consequence of the unlawful agreement.” Scholars, activists, and reformers have criticized the doctrines on both constitutional and …

Regulating Government Statements Regarding Disinformation On Social Media, Michael J. Marando

San Diego Law Review

The United States saw in the 2016 presidential election how Russia used social media to spread disinformation. Russia engaged in similar conduct during the lead-up to its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and, most recently, during the days before the 2024 U.S. presidential election. An interesting development, however, has been the U.S. government’s issuance of public statements countering these disinformation attempts. This Article argues that such public statements are quite helpful, both in countering the disinformation and allowing social media companies to legitimately enforce their content. However, these types of statements pose risks and, at the extreme, could be …

The Implications Of Pulsifer V. United States For The Interpretation Of Criminal Statutes, Aparajita (Pj) Das

San Diego Law Review

All signs in Pulsifer point to considerable discretion for courts, all while operating within the confines of statutory text. For one, the opinion indicates that courts can override the text of a statute if the context so demands. The Court’s rejection of lenity also confirms this trend in two ways. It highlights the Court’s inconsistent approach when it comes to requiring the legislature to speak clearly. It also confirms that the threshold of ambiguity required to trigger lenity continues to be a high one, thus allowing judges to selectively apply the canon, even when a split in the Court demonstrates …

Law School News: Is It Legal For Trump To Send Troops Into U.S. Cities? 10-9-2025, Edward Fitzpatrick

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

Rogue Prosecutor Panic, Michael L. Smith

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

Discussions of criminal law, enforcement, and reform are frequently messy and misleading. Anecdotes distract from systematic abuse, and perceptions of crime frequently win out over existing trends. This essay identifies Zack Smith and Charles Stimson’s book, Rogue Prosecutors: How Radical Soros Lawyers are Destroying America’s Communities, as an example of this shoddy discourse. Smith and Stimson’s claim that “Radical Soros Lawyers” are being mobilized to destructive ends crumbles under minimal scrutiny, and I identify several core defects throughout their narrative, including a failure to demonstrate a truly unified scheme of ideology and funding amongst the prosecutors they identify, baseless assumptions …

Designing Invisibility: How Hostile Architecture Impacts People Living With Disabilities, Priscilla A. Okolie

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

This comment discusses the potentially unethical and unlawful nature of hostile architecture. This comment posits that hostile architecture is inherently illegal by way of implicitly and overtly violating the Americans with Disabilities Act. This comment argues that hostile architecture violates the ADA because it potentially discriminates against people living with disabilities by hindering their ability to utilize both public and private facilities such as bus stops. This comment acknowledges that while hostile architecture is often used as a tool to discourage unhoused people from using such facilities, hostile architecture also potentially discriminates against people living with disabilities. This comment highlights …

The History Behind The Enactment Of Public Law 115-126 And Whether Safesport Has Created A Safe Place For Competitive Athletes, Ashtyn L. Stevens

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

The Summer Olympic Games unite the world in celebrating athletic excellence, yet behind the global spectacle lies a troubling reality: the pervasive issue of sexual abuse within competitive sports. The high-profile case of former USA Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar, who sexually assaulted hundreds of athletes over decades, including Olympic champions Simone Biles and Gabby Douglas, exposed systemic failures in reporting and accountability. This comment analyzes the legal and institutional response to such abuse, focusing on the enactment of Public Law 115-126 in 2018. Designed to protect minors and amateur athletes, the law mandates timely reporting of sexual abuse to law …

Tinkering With The Machinery Of Death: Execution Through Nitrogen Hypoxia, Emiliano Villarreal

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

The modern era of the death penalty in the United States began in 1976 when the Supreme Court reinstituted the death penalty just four years after having found it to be unconstitutional. Since then, various states, as well as the federal government, have experimented with different methods of execution to find the most “humane” way of carrying out an execution. In 2018, Alabama legalized the use of nitrogen hypoxia as a method of execution, and in 2024, became the first state to execute a person with this new, previously untested method. However, the use of nitrogen hypoxia has been the …

Scrolling Into Risk: Navigating The Legal Landscape Of Social Media Influencers And Securities Promotion Under Section 12(A)(2) Of The Securities Act, Nathan T. Nguyen

San Diego Law Review

This Comment argues that the Supreme Court should clarify the definition of a “person who offers or sells” under Section 12(a)(2) of the Securities Act to resolve the disagreement among the circuit courts. Part II outlines the legal context of the Securities Act, examining efforts to safeguard investors from the illicit sale of unregistered securities. Part III delves into disagreements among circuit courts regarding the definition of a “seller” in today’s social media landscape. Part IV asserts that classifying social media influencers as sellers aligns with the Securities Act’s legislative intent and statutory language. Part V contends that the Ninth …

Indigent Defense: How The Attorney Shortage Crisis Raises The Continued Need For Public Defense In Rural Areas Of The Lone Star State, Cody Jess Huffman

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

Abstract: The Sixth Amendment provides numerous rights, one of the most important being the right to counsel. The right to an attorney is crucial because it attaches at adversarial hearings such as interrogations, arraignments, and other serious matters as an individual weaves throughout the obstacles of the criminal justice system. An important distinction in that right to counsel as the admonishments are delivered is that not only does an individual have the right to counsel, often meaning one can be retained, but if an individual cannot afford to hire a private attorney, one will be appointed to them. As times …

From Ambiguity To Accountability: The Case For A Legal Definition Of Antisemitism In Academia, Andrea J. Martin

Pepperdine Law Review

Following the October 7, 2023, Hamas attacks on Israel, U.S. college campuses experienced a sharp rise in antisemitic incidents, driven by an antizionism movement aimed at demonizing and delegitimizing the Jewish state and its supporters. A congressional investigation found that antisemitism persisted at prominent universities because administrators repeatedly failed to denounce antizionist conduct that functions as a vehicle for harassment of Jewish students and neglected to enforce their own nondiscrimination policies. The congressional committee, as well as several university antisemitism task forces, identified antizionism as a primary driver of campus antisemitism and strongly recommended that university leaders recognize and address …

Fcc V Consumers' Research: The Non-Delegation Doctrine And The Power To Tax, Bernard W. Bell

ConLawNOW

This Essay examines the 2025 Supreme Court case of Federal Communications Commission v. Consumers’ Research which seemingly involved an esoteric question of telecommunications law, but instead provided the Court with an opportunity some Justices have long sought to prune a foundational doctrine of the administrative state—the nondelegation doctrine. The nondelegation doctrine has garnered considerable judicial and academic attention, especially in comparison to the paucity of cases invalidating federal statutes on such grounds. The Court could have abandoned the forgiving “intelligible principle” test applied to congressional delegations for almost one hundred years, or, more cautiously, could have crafted a special rule …

October 8, 2025 — Odc Letter To Cis On H-1b Visa Guidance, American Dental Association, Academy Of General Dentistry, American Academy Of Oral & Maxillofacial Pathology, American Academy Of Periodontology, American Association For Dental, Oral, And Craniofacial Research, American Association Of Endodontists, American Association Of Orthodontists, American Dental Education Association, American Society Of Dentist Anesthesiologists, American Student Dental Association, Hispanic Dental Association, American Academy Of Pediatric Dentistry

Advocacy in Action letters

No abstract provided.

Bowers, Lawrence And Obergefell: A Case-By-Case Analysis, Hailey Moran

The Downtown Review: An Interdisciplinary Journal Written and Peer-Reviewed by Mandel Honors College Students at Cleveland State University

What does Bowers v. Hardwick, Lawrence v. Texas, and Obergefell v. Hodges all have in common? Each of these Supreme Court cases chronicles the passage of time and advancement in LGBTQ+ rights in America. Not only, however, do they chronicle the rights that have been achieved for LGBTQ+ individuals, but they also chronicle the evolution of the Justices on the bench. These cases here help us understand the influences that encourage the Justice’s decision-making, whether it be the state of the law or the Court’s environment. By analyzing each case, we can understand not only how these cases were decided, …

What Is The Point Of Free Speech?, Hrishikesh Joshi

The Journal of Contemporary Legal Issues

How might we understand the nature and importance of a right to freedom of speech? One way to go is to appeal to the rights of speakers and listeners. Individuals would then have a right against state interference in saying what they want to say. On the other hand, listeners have a right to listen to whom they please and thus also would have a right against state interference. By stopping certain things from being voiced or published, for instance, the state would also be violating individuals’ rights to hear or read these things if they so choose.

This paper …

V.27-1, 2025 Masthead

The Journal of Contemporary Legal Issues

No abstract provided.

Social Media, Social Sensibilities, And The Employment Relationship, Matthew W. Finkin

The Journal of Contemporary Legal Issues

Employers have long made decisions based on the applicant’s or incumbent employee’s respectability. Those whose transgress the bounds could be excluded; e.g., those who publicly embrace the Ku Klux Klan.[] In other words, frank speech—speech “unconstrained by anything that might normally encourage one to be more circumspect,”[] speech revealing one’s “true feelings, however repellant to popular morality”[]—is not invariably a good thing.[]

When social media came into wide use, employers extended their monitoring of applicants and incumbents for the acceptability of that speech.[] There is nothing new in that.[] In the absence of a clear direction embodied in law …

When Is Free Speech “Beyond” The Constitution?, Abner S. Greene

The Journal of Contemporary Legal Issues

The constitution of a nation without a state action doctrine might limit private restriction or compulsion of speech just as it limits the state. In such a nation, “free speech beyond the constitution” might not be a particularly meaningful concept. In the United States, however, the First Amendment’s free speech clause limits only what the federal, state, and local governments may do. As a nonconstitutional policy matter, it might or might not be a good idea for the government to impose First Amendment- like restrictions on private actors or for private actors to voluntarily impose First Amendment-like restrictions on themselves. …

Hear Me Out: What Is Our Obligation To Listen?, Thomas Healy

The Journal of Contemporary Legal Issues

Most scholarly discussions about “cancel culture” focus on the extent to which imposing economic or social sanctions on speakers violates the principle of free speech. In this essay, I consider a related question, which is whether deliberately avoiding, ignoring, or blocking speakers one disagrees with is antithetical to free speech. Although it might seem strange to suggest that a principle concerned with the right to speak entails an obligation to listen, I argue that genuine “good faith” listening is necessary to further the goals free speech is designed to serve. However, I also argue that this obligation is imperfect, or …

How Free Should Campus Speech Be?, Heidi M. Hurd, Michael S. Moore

The Journal of Contemporary Legal Issues

The general topic to which this piece is devoted concerns how non-governmental entities and individuals may and should respond to the speech of other non-governmental entities and individuals. The emphasis on private, non-governmental actions removes the discussion from the ambit of the First Amendment’s constitutional right of free speech and, indeed, removes the discussion from issues of legality, more generally. Although such normative discussions can result in recommended legal actions, in the first instance at least such discussions are about the morality—as opposed to the legality—of the negative responses by private persons to the speech of others.

The particular focus …

Comment On Hurd And Moore, Richard Arneson

The Journal of Contemporary Legal Issues

In their essay on “Wrongful Student Speech and Rightful Private University Responses to It,” Professors Heidi Hurd and Michael Moore (hereafter, Hurd & Moore) deepen the discussion by situating it in a general account of moral limits on freedom of expression and by noting connections to some of their own views on moral theory. The result is an excellent primer on freedom of speech, and more than just a primer. Their general views are shown to have plausible implications for tangled questions about what private university administrators ought to do in response to problematic examples of campus protest. That this …

From Mill To Mussolini And On To Microsoft: Freedom Of Speech In A Neo-Corporatist Era, Maimon Schwarzschild

The Journal of Contemporary Legal Issues

John Stuart Mill’s On Liberty—a fundamental text for political liberalism—not only defended the importance of freedom of expression and debate, but suggested that social pressure from private persons and institutions can be as much, or more, of a threat to freedom, including freedom of expression, as any legal sanction or act of government. Mill feared “a social tyranny more formidable than many kinds of political oppression” which “leaves fewer means of escape, penetrating much more deeply into the details of life, and enslaving the soul to itself”.

Recent decades in America have seen efforts to suppress free expression by colleges …

Interpreting The Law And Complying With It, Larry Alexander

The Journal of Contemporary Legal Issues

In this Article, I am going to focus on a set of issues that follow from the fact that laws are created by human beings and interpreted by human beings. It is unlike morality in these respects. For morality presumably applies to us humans, whether we accept what it requires or correctly assess what it requires. But it is we who decide what laws, good or bad, should govern us, and whose interpretations of those laws, correct or incorrect, should constitute our governing laws. And if the uncertainty of what morality requires creates the necessity for laws, and if laws, …

Should Private Universities Tie Themselves To The First Amendment?, Keith E. Whittington

The Journal of Contemporary Legal Issues

Private colleges and universities are generally free to depart from First Amendment standards regarding their own regulation of speech on campus and among campus community members. They may adopt more restrictive speech regimes that would sharply separate them from their public university counterparts which are bound by First Amendment requirements. In the modern era, private universities have nonetheless generally chosen to voluntarily embrace something like First Amendment principles to guide their own internal governance. Some would prefer that they shed those commitments and adopt some alternative speech regime. In this Article, I argue that private universities generally should adopt free …