Digital Commons Network^™

Duty To Rescue In The Digital Age: A Comparative Analysis, Cameron Kellett

Cardozo International & Comparative Law Review

The article advocates for the enactment of state legislation establishing a duty-to-rescue doctrine, arguing that the absence of such a legal duty leads to preventable harm and undermines societal solidarity. It critiques the arbitrary nature of the special relationship exception under current law and proposes Minnesota's duty-to-rescue statute as a model for reform. The analysis emphasizes that requiring bystanders to provide reasonable assistance, without endangering themselves, is both feasible and morally justifiable, as it aligns with human tendencies to help others in distress.

Sex Work Is Real Work: The Implications Of U.S. Strippers Winning The Right To Unionize, An International Comparative Study, Katherine Fustich

Cardozo International & Comparative Law Review

The note examines the landmark NLRB decision in *Nolan Enterprises*, which granted U.S. strippers the right to unionize by classifying them as employees rather than independent contractors. This ruling has significant implications for labor rights in the sex work industry, both domestically and internationally. The analysis compares this development with international perspectives from the UK, Germany, and the Netherlands, highlighting the challenges and opportunities for sex worker unionization and the broader implications for labor movements globally.

How Racism Persists In Its Power, Deborah N. Archer

Michigan Law Review

A Review of The Fire Next Time. By James Baldwin.

Bans With No Bite: Why Racial Profiling Bans Are Unable To Create Racial Justice In Policing, Rebecca Yin

Cardozo Law Review

No abstract provided.

Trauma: Community Of Color Exposure To The Criminal Justice System As An Adverse Childhood Experience, André Douglas Pond Cummings, Todd J. Clark, Caleb Gregory Conrad, Amy Dunn Johnson

University of Cincinnati Law Review

No abstract provided.

Trauma: Community Of Color Exposure To The Criminal Justice System As An Adverse Childhood Experience, André Douglas Pond Cummings, Todd Clark, Caleb Gregory Conrad, Amy Dunn Johnson

Law Faculty Scholarship

The reality that traumatic childhood experiences are directly linked to negative health outcomes has been known and widely recognized in public health and clinical literature for more than two decades. Adverse Childhood Experiences (“ACEs”) represent the “single greatest unaddressed public health threat facing our nation today” according to Dr. Robert Block, former President of the American Academy of Pediatrics.

ACEs are traumatic events that occur in early childhood, which can range from abuse and neglect to experiences derived from household and community dysfunction, such as losing a caregiver, being incarcerated, or living with a household member suffering from mental illness. …

Unshackled: Stories Of Redemption Among Serious Youth Offenders, Julie E. Mcconnell

Richmond Public Interest Law Review

In a series of decisions concerning child defendants, the United States Supreme

Court has embraced the understanding, based on adolescent brain

development, that the legal system must recognize children are different than

adults concerning criminal culpability and sentencing. That recognition, culminating

in Miller v. Alabama and Montgomery v. Louisiana, led to the opportunity

for thousands of individuals across the country, initially sentenced

to death-in-prison sentences when they were minors, to gain a meaningful

opportunity for release. These cases permanently banned mandatory life sentences

for children. In Virginia, the legislature now allows reconsideration

of these cases through hearings before the parole …

Hip Hop And The Law : Presented By Intellectual Property Law Association 03/31/2022, Roger Williams University School Of Law

School of Law Conferences, Lectures & Events

No abstract provided.

Race And Washington’S Criminal Justice System: 2021 Report To The Washington Supreme Court, Task Force 2.0

Washington Law Review

RACE & WASHINGTON’S CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM:

EDITOR’S NOTE

As Editors-in-Chief of the Washington Law Review, Gonzaga Law Review, and Seattle University Law Review, we represent the flagship legal academic publications of each law school in Washington State. Our publications last joined together to publish the findings of the first Task Force on Race and the Criminal Justice System in 2011/12. A decade later, we are honored to join once again to present the findings of Task Force 2.0. Law journals have enabled generations of legal professionals to introduce, vet, and distribute new ideas, critiques of existing legal structures, and reflections …

The Democratizing Potential Of Algorithms?, Ngozi Okidegbe

Faculty Scholarship

Jurisdictions are increasingly embracing the use of pretrial risk assessment algorithms as a solution to the problem of mass pretrial incarceration. Conversations about the use of pretrial algorithms in legal scholarship have tended to focus on their opacity, determinativeness, reliability, validity, or their (in)ability to reduce high rates of incarceration as well as racial and socioeconomic disparities within the pretrial system. This Article breaks from this tendency, examining these algorithms from a democratization of criminal law perspective. Using this framework, it points out that currently employed algorithms are exclusionary of the viewpoints and values of the racially marginalized communities most …

Law Dean’S Letter Urges Confirmation Of Biden’S Historic Scotus Pick, Ketanji Brown Jackson, Angela Onwuachi-Willig

Shorter Faculty Works

In a letter citing Black women’s underrepresentation on the federal bench, Angela Onwuachi-Willig, dean of the BU School of Law, and more than 200 other Black women law deans and professors urged the US Senate on Friday to confirm President Joe Biden’s nominee, Ketanji Brown Jackson, to the nation’s highest court “swiftly and with bipartisan support.”

Like, Comment, Or Subscribe—Unless You Are A Prisoner: How Prisoners’ First Amendment Rights Are Thwarted For Penological Interests, Jerome Shaen

Villanova Law Review (1956 - )

No abstract provided.

Resistance Is Not Futile: Challenging Aapi Hate, Peter H. Huang

William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice

This Article analyzes how to challenge AAPI (Asian American Pacific Islander) hate—defined as explicit negative bias in racial beliefs towards AAPIs. In economics, beliefs are subjective probabilities over possible outcomes. Traditional neoclassical economics view beliefs as inputs to making decisions with more accurate beliefs having indirect, instrumental value by improving decision-making. This Article utilizes novel economic theories about belief-based utility, which economically captures the intuitive notion that people can derive pleasure and pain directly from their and other people’s beliefs. Even false beliefs can offer comfort and reassurance to people. This Article also draws on interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary theories …

Curing Corrective Rape: Socio-Legal Perspectives On Sexual Violence Against Black Lesbians In South Africa, Waruguru Gaitho

William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice

Corrective rape can be defined as a hate crime that entails the rape of any member of a group that does not conform to gender or sexual orientation norms, where the motive of the perpetrator is to “correct” the individual, fundamentally combining gender-based violence and homophobic violence. In the South African context, these biases intersect with systemic racism, producing a disproportionate impact on Black, queer, womxn. While the legal framework has evolved to better address sexual violence crimes, Black lesbians remain prone to falling through the legal cracks, and South African society continues to sanction the homophobia and misogyny that …

Blocking The Ballot Box: The Republican War On Voting Rights, Brendan Williams

William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice

This Article addresses threats to the right to vote that have arisen since 2018, when voter suppression efforts were key to denying Stacey Abrams, the Black Democratic nominee, victory over Republican Brian Kemp in the Georgia gubernatorial race, while Kemp, in administering his own election while Georgia’s Secretary of State, “laid out a chilling blueprint of voting suppression for other states to follow.”

This Article begins by examining the early Republican voter intimidation tactics that resulted in a consent decree, as these can be viewed as part of a continuum to the present day. It discusses the two U.S. Supreme …

Law Library Blog (February 2022): Legal Beagle's Blog Archive, Roger Williams University School Of Law

Law Library Newsletters/Blog

No abstract provided.

Texas Disenfranchisement Of Felons, Michelle Baker

Quest

Policy Research Project

Research in progress for GOVT 2306: Honors Texas Government

Faculty Mentor: Tiffany Cartwright, Ph.D.

Michelle Baker wrote the following research paper as an assignment for my online GOVT 2306: Honors Texas Government class during the Fall 2020 semester. The class assignment helps students begin to formulate a classic policy paper, in which alternative policy options are discussed and analyzed, ultimately leading to a preferred policy option. Students submitted just a few paragraphs of the paper at a time over the course of the fall semester before finally pulling everything together in one cohesive research paper. As Michelle’s …

Statement Of The District Task Force On Jails And Justice. Before The Committee On The Judiciary And Public Safety Of The Council Of The District Of Columbia, Katherine S. Broderick

D.C. Council Testimony

No abstract provided.

Chemical Weapons And Their Unforeseen Impact On Health And The Environment, Alexandra Chen

Seattle Journal of Technology, Environmental, & Innovation Law

The May 2020 police murder of George Floyd catalyzed a racial reckoning in the United States that saw millions of people take to the streets to protest police brutality against people of color. In following months, law enforcement used massive amounts of "less-lethal" chemical weapons against protesters in cities across the country. Despite widespread use of chemical weapons by police agencies and mounting evidence of related environmental and health harms, the federal government does not regulate the use nor the manufacture of chemical weapons. Chemical weapons contain toxic ingredients such as hexavalent chromium, lead salts, and methylene chloride, which are …

“Officer-Involved Shootings”: How The Exonerative Tense Of Media Accounts Distorts Reality, Michael Conklin

University of Miami Race & Social Justice Law Review

In “Officer-Involved Shootings”: How the Exonerative Tense of Media Accounts Distorts Reality, the author examines how the use of passive language absolves officers from public and media accountability after a shooting. This Article reports the findings of a first-of-its-kind study designed to measure how the use of the phrase “officer-involved shooting” affects public perceptions of police behavior justifications.

Confrontation During Covid: A Fundamental Right, Virtually Guaranteed, Daniel Robinson

University of Miami Race & Social Justice Law Review

The novel threats posed to our criminal justice system by the COVID-19 pandemic and attendant shutdowns of courts beg the question of whether our must fundamental pillars of law can withstand the ultimate test of time. And inherent in the ultimate test of time is the ultimate test of technology—this is, will there come a time that technology outgrows the confines of our legal landscape? Consider this: The United States Constitution guarantees every criminal defendant the right to confront their accuser in court; yet, for a substantial period of time in 2020, court, as we knew it, was nothing more …

Resolving The Anders Dilemmas: How & Why Texas Should Abandon The Anders Procedure, Michael J. Ritter

St. Mary's Journal on Legal Malpractice & Ethics

When an indigent defendant has a right to counsel for an appeal, and counsel believes the appeal is wholly frivolous, Texas has adopted the Anders v. California procedure that permits counsel to withdraw from representation and argue to the appellate court why their client’s appeal is wholly frivolous. This Article argues that, either by a change to the disciplinary rules or by judicial decision, Texas should abandon the Anders procedure as other states have. Doing so will promote the integrity of the right to counsel, avoid numerous conflicts and dilemmas created by the Anders procedure, and advance judicial efficiency and …

The Antiracist Constitution, Brandon Hasbrouck

Scholarly Articles

Our Constitution, as it is and as it has been interpreted by our courts, serves white supremacy. The twin projects of abolition and reconstruction remain incomplete, derailed first by openly hostile institutions, then by the subtler lie that a colorblind Constitution would bring about the end of racism. Yet, in its debut in Supreme Court jurisprudence, colorblind constitutionalism promised that facially discriminatory laws were unnecessary for the perpetuation of white supremacy. That promise has been fulfilled across nearly every field of law as modern white supremacists adopt insidious, facially neutral laws to ensure the oppression of Black people and other …

The New Jim And Jane Crow Intersect: Challenges To Defending The Parental Rights Of Mothers During Incarceration, Carla Laroche

Scholarly Articles

Family law scholars and advocates have expressed the importance of providing counsel to parents in the family regulation system, especially parents who are incarcerated, because of the system’s complexities. This article establishes, however, that when mothers must navigate both the family regulation and criminal legal systems, the protections appointed parents’ counsel are supposed to provide are weakened. These harms are heightened especially for Black mothers within the carceral state. As this article shows, appointed lawyers in family regulation cases cannot properly protect the due process rights of mothers who are incarcerated because of the added challenges both mothers and their …

Movement Constitutionalism, Brandon Hasbrouck

Scholarly Articles

The white supremacy at the heart of the American criminal legal system works to control Black, Brown, and poor people through mass incarceration. Poverty and incarceration act in a vicious circle, with reactionaries mounting a desperate defense against any attempt to mitigate economic exploitation or carceral violence. Ending the cycle will require replacing this inequitable system with the life- and liberty-affirming institutions of abolition democracy. The path to abolition democracy is arduous, but abolitionists can press for change through what I coin “movement constitutionalism.” Movement constitutionalism is the process by which grassroots abolitionist movements shift—through demands and in solidarity with …

Black Women And Voter Suppression, Carla Laroche

Scholarly Articles

Black women who are eligible to vote do so at consistently high rates during elections in the United States. For thousands of Black women, however, racism, sexism, and criminal convictions intersect to require them to navigate a maze of laws and policies that keep them from voting. With the alarming rate of convictions and incarceration of Black women, criminal law intersects with civil rights to bar their involvement in the electoral process. This voting ban is known as felony disenfranchisement, but it amounts to voter suppression.

By reconceptualizing voter suppression based on criminal convictions through the experiences of Black women’s …

The War On Drugs And Its Legal Effects On Black Americans, Alexia L. Howard-Mullins

2022 Symposium

The differences in treatment between Black and white Americans in the past fifty years has been a topic of thought in the minds of political and sociological scholars since the inception of the War on Drugs in 1971. These differences in treatment may lead to discrimination legally, resulting in longer prison sentences and a higher proportion of Black Americans in prison. This study analyzes the results of the War on Drugs that led to disproportionate imprisonment of Black Americans, including mandatory sentencing laws, drug classifications, and discrimination within law enforcement and the legal system. This study will use primary sources …

On Lenity: What Justice Gorsuch Didn’T Say, Brandon Hasbrouck

Scholarly Articles

This Essay was first published online at 108 Va. L. Rev. Online 239 (2022).

Facially neutral doctrines create racially disparate outcomes. Increasingly, legal academia and mainstream commentators recognize that this is by design. The rise of this colorblind racism in Supreme Court jurisprudence parallels the rise of the War on Drugs as a political response to the Civil Rights Movement. But, to date, no member of the Supreme Court has acknowledged the reality of this majestic inequality of the law. Instead, the Court itself has been complicit in upholding facially neutral doctrines when confronted with the racial disparities they create. …

Reclaiming Safety: Participatory Research, Community Perspectives, And Possibilities For Transformation, Janet Moore

Faculty Articles and Other Publications

This paper offers the first known interdisciplinary, community-based participatory research study to focus directly on two questions that have drawn increased attention in the wake of global protests over racialized police violence: 1) What is the definition of safety? and 2) How can safety be made equally accessible to all? The study is part of a larger project that was co-designed by community members and academic researchers. The project aimed to strengthen local justice reform efforts by adding new data literacy skills to existing community-organizing capacity among Black residents of the Cincinnati, Ohio metropolitan area. Community-led roundtable discussions offered community …

Strategies And Techniques For Integrating Diversity, Equity And Inclusion Into The Core Law Curriculum : Comprehensive Guide To Dei Pedagogy, Course Planning, And Classroom Practice, Teri A. Mcmurtry-Chubb

AALL Legal Website of the Month

Professor Teri A. McMurtry-Chubb at the University of Illinois Chicago School of Law has authored a book about the strategies to incorporate diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) into classrooms. The focus of this publication is on learning outcomes and assessments, and course planning templates for each course in the core law curriculum, and racial trauma-informed teaching approaches. Each chapter also includes FAQs and discussion questions to work through for the course planning and DEI curricular initiatives to transform the way we think, teach, learn and act such that all experiences and ways of being are handled with fairness and justice.