Digital Commons Network^™

Tsai Today (2025), Southern Methodist University, Dedman School Of Law, Tsai Center For Law, Science And Innovation

Tsai Today

No abstract provided.

The Quad (The 2025 Alumni Magazine), Southern Methodist University, Dedman School Of Law

The Quad (Law Alumni Magazine), 1988-present

• Celebrating a Century of Legal Excellence
• Dedman Family Honored
• Jurist in Residence: Chief Judge Jeffrey Sutton
• International Alumni Spotlight: Mauricio Celis '19
• Honoring Chief Justice Nathan L. Hecht '74
• Trailblazer lecture series
• Faculty Spotlights: Professors Hillel J. Bavli, Christine Hurt, Marc I. Steinberg, and Jenia Iontcheva Turner

Bankruptcy & Commercial Law, Sally Mcdonald Henry

SMU Annual Texas Survey

This Article analyzes and discusses cases—arising from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, the Bankruptcy Courts in Texas, the Texas Supreme Court, and the Texas Courts of Appeals—that resolved some fascinating and important issues in the areas of bankruptcy and commercial law during this Survey period.

Privatizing Child Welfare: Texas’S Gamble With Community-Based Care, Grace Byers

SMU Law Review

There are arguably few populations with greater vulnerability in the United States than children in active child welfare cases. Beyond the abuse or neglect that triggered a child welfare investigation, the child will endure the trauma of having their life uprooted. A child may encounter dozens of people throughout a child welfare case: investigators, police officers, caseworkers, doctors, psychologists, judges, foster parents, and many others. At this critical junction in a child’s life, the state is appointed as the child’s legal conservator to care for the child, find them a temporary home, and provide services to them and their parents …

Survey Of Recent Mandamus Decisions Of The Texas Supreme Court, Douglas S. Lang

SMU Annual Texas Survey

No abstract provided.

Real Property, J. Richard White, Amanda R. Grainger

SMU Annual Texas Survey

No abstract provided.

The Role And Impact Of Forensic Evidence In The Prosecution Of Homicide Cases In The U.S., Afrah Dakhilallah A. Altubait

Theses and Dissertations

The role of forensic evidence in the criminal justice process is an important topic that is significant from both theoretical and practical perspectives. The present study is dedicated to a critical analysis of the role of this evidence in the U.S. criminal justice process with a focus on its significance in homicide cases. Specifically, this dissertation examines the implications of using DNA and fingerprint evidence for convictions in U.S. homicide cases by analyzing the role of DNA and fingerprint evidence in the prosecution of “hot” and “cold” homicide cases, discussing the main ways in which forensic evidence assists with prosecuting …

The Effectiveness Of The Hague Convention In Addressing International Child Abduction, Areej A. Dakelallah Althubiti

Theses and Dissertations

Parental child abduction is a growing concern fueled by immigration, cross-cultural marriages, evolving family dynamics, and gaps in the implementation and enforcement of developed international frameworks. This study examines the effectiveness of and challenges to the enforcement of the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction (HCCA), which was developed to address this problem. Specifically, the goal of this research is to assess the effect the HCCA has had on parental kidnapping, analyze its effectiveness in resolving international custody disputes, and identify the legal and practical obstacles that inhibit implementation. While the prevalence of parental kidnapping continues …

Front Matter

SMU Science and Technology Law Review

No abstract provided.

Professional Liability, Shelby Taylor, R. Max Ward, Levi Klinglesmith

SMU Annual Texas Survey

No abstract provided.

Front Matter

Journal of Air Law and Commerce

No abstract provided.

Prepare For Landing: The Dot’S Authority To Regulate Unfair And Deceptive Practices Amidst The Supreme Court’S Elimination Of Chevron Deference, Ali Garman

Journal of Air Law and Commerce

On June 28, 2024, the Supreme Court overturned Chevron U.S.A., Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc. with their decision in Loper Bright v. Raimondo—holding that judges are not obligated to defer to agency interpretations of the statutes they administer. One month after this decision, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals held that the Department of Transportation does not have authority to issue a rule regulating how airlines communicate certain fees to customers during the booking process. This decision contradicts the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals’ earlier decision to uphold similar DOT regulations attempting to prohibit unfair and deceptive …

Wills & Trusts, Gerry W. Beyer

SMU Annual Texas Survey

This Article discusses developments relating to the Texas law of intestacy, wills, estate administration, trusts, and other estate planning matters during the Survey period of December 1, 2023, through November 30, 2024. The reader is warned that not all cases decided during the Survey period are presented, and not all aspects of each case is analyzed. You must read and study each case’s full text before relying on it or using it as precedent. The discussion of most cases includes a moral, that is, the important lesson to be learned from the case. By recognizing situations that resulted in time- …

Advancing The Characterization Of Geophysical Signals Through Array Processing And Artificial Intelligence, Miro Ronac Giannone

Earth Sciences Theses and Dissertations

In geophysics, seismic and infrasound observations are routinely employed to constrain the nature and origin of events. Seismoacoustics, as a discipline, is built upon the simultaneous detection and integrated analysis of these data types. This joint approach is critical not only for advancing scientific understanding but also for supporting global monitoring efforts in hazard mitigation and nuclear explosion treaty verification. The data analyzed in this dissertation were recorded by array deployments, which consist of multiple sensors arranged in predetermined configurations to enhance signal detection, resolve directionality, and quantify waveform coherence. Leveraging these array recordings, I introduce novel approaches which combine …

“One Step Too Many”: Deference In Bruen, Loper Bright, And Rahimi, Haley Proctor

SMU Law Review

This Article examines the Supreme Court’s rejection of deferential twostep tests in New York State Rifle & Pistol Ass’n v. Bruen and Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo. Prior to these decisions, Second Amendment and administrative law doctrines limited courts’ interpretive role at Step One in order to create space for regulatory judgments to which courts would defer at Step Two. Bruen and Loper Bright rejected this approach, reclaiming courts’ authority to ascertain legal norms and (less emphatically) to apply them to concrete disputes without deferring to regulators.

Although it was decided the same term as Loper Bright, many …

Rahimi And The Future Of (The Rest Of) The Protection Order Prohibition, Bonnie Carlson

SMU Law Review

In the summer of 2024, the Supreme Court considered United States v. Rahimi. Scholars and lawyers watched with bated breath to see how the court would interpret and apply the foundation-shifting Second Amendment test it established in New York State Rifle & Pistol Ass’n v. Bruen two years earlier. Ultimately, the Court upheld the federal law which temporarily bans some protection order respondents from possessing firearms. But the Court provided little in the way of additional guidance that lower courts desperately needed as evidenced by the disparate outcomes on gun cases nationwide following Bruen. Rather, the Court opted …

Second Amendment Originalism, “General Law,” And Rahimi’S Two-Fold Failure, Nelson Lund

SMU Law Review

“A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”

New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen (2022), set out a bold new standard of review for Second Amendment cases. The Court rightly repudiated the intermediate-scrutiny approach adopted by the circuit courts after District of Columbia v. Heller (2008). Bruen purported to require that any gun regulation falling within the plain text of the Amendment be upheld only if the government can demonstrate that the regulation is consistent with America’s historical …

The Persistence Of Common Law Limits On Armed Travel In The Early Republic: Surety And Affray Laws In Historical Context, Saul Cornell

SMU Law Review

In New York State Rifle & Pistol Ass’n v. Bruen, the Supreme Court abandoned the two-step test that had emerged after its landmark, but controversial ruling in District of Columbia v. Heller. The new approach announced in Bruen rejected the second prong of this test, casting aside means end scrutiny, or balancing, in favor of a “text, history, and tradition” approach. More recently, in United States v. Rahimi, the Court clarified some of the confusion over its Bruen test. One ongoing problem that lawyers and judges face when implementing this framework flows from the nature of materials …

Salerno And The Second Amendment, Jacob D. Charles

SMU Law Review

The Supreme Court’s Second Amendment is beginning to take more concrete shape. In United States v. Rahimi, the Court rejected a challenge to the federal prohibition on gun possession by those subject to certain kinds of restraining orders. In that case, the Court’s analysis hinged in part on the difficulty of successfully waging facial constitutional challenges. It confirmed that the teaching of United States v. Salerno—that a statute is only facially unconstitutional if it has no valid applications—applies fully to the Second Amendment. Although it relied on this procedural lesson from Salerno, the justices overlooked Salerno’s …

Socially Responsible Ai In The Gpt Era, Yussuf A. Aleem

SMU Law Review

Recent advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) showcase its rapid evolution and promise, with the potential to profoundly transform decision-making, self-expression, and even the practice of law. However, AI also presents formidable challenges, including the further entrenchment of societal inequalities, widespread labor disruption, and existential threats to humanity. Modern AI systems show early signs of general intelligence, enabling them to perform a wide range of tasks beyond those of chatbots in both virtual and physical environments. Despite industry assurances of responsible AI development, these technologies are easily exploited and often exhibit troubling behaviors that even their creators struggle to understand.

This …

Potential Competitors’ Antitrust Standing Against Preemptive Acquisitions, Frank Lior, C. Paul Rogers Iii

SMU Law Review

This Article revolves around potential competitors’ “antitrust standing” rights in private merger litigation, especially against preemptive acquisitions. It builds upon various cases in which courts had explicitly recognized that a potential competitor has standing to challenge an allegedly anticompetitive merger that foreclosed it from entering the market dominated by an incumbent firm. Such mergers can be categorized as “strategic preemptive acquisitions.” Specifically, the courts held in these particular cases that the potential competitor’s “antitrust injury,” that is—exclusion from the relevant market—stems from the incumbent’s intentional and strategic acquisition of a company or set of assets that were required for the …

Regulating The Forever Wild, Edward W. De Barbieri

SMU Law Review

Communities in rural areas regularly come into conflict with government bodies regarding the use of protected lands. From New York, to Alaska, to Nevada—and many places in between—a common question emerges: who should have authority to regulate human activity on and around wilderness lands? It is not a new phenomenon for urban dwellers, often controlling money and political power, to use influence and a specter of conservation to control what is permitted in rural spaces. Resulting unrest among rural resi­dents may be the result of the exclusion of poor, racially underrepresented, indigenous, and other residents who earn their livelihood from …

Obituary For The Birth Certificate, Malinda L. Seymore

SMU Law Review

Have birth certificates outlived their usefulness? Birth certificates establish an individual’s name, identity, age, race, sex and gender, parental authority, and citizenship. In addition, the information collected at the time of birth and reflected on a long-form birth certificate provides data for public health policy, population statistics, internal migration, government planning, and resource allocation. Birth certificates are also the all-access pass to American life, necessary for many functions of modern life: registering a child in school, signing a child up for soccer, getting a driver’s license and passport, enlisting in the military, and applying for government benefits. All of this, …

The Future Of Frozen Embryos, Clare Ryan, Benjamin J. Mcmichael

SMU Law Review

he 2024 Alabama Supreme Court decision in LePage v. Center for Reproductive Medicine, which declared frozen embryos to be “children,” represents a significant shift in the legal treatment of in vitro fertilization (IVF) in the United States. This Article examines the context, implications, and potential consequences of LePage for family law, tort law, and access to reproductive technologies. The Article analyzes how this shift could impact disputes over embryo disposition, establishment of legal parentage, and liability for fertility clinics. It also explores the decision’s relationship to broader debates about fetal personhood in the wake of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s …

The Neuroscience Of Evidentiary Rules: The Case Of The Present Sense Impression, Christopher S. Sundby

SMU Law Review

The Federal Rules of Evidence (FRE) play a critical role in federal trials by determining what evidence the jury will be allowed to hear. Nonetheless, the rules are largely premised on untested psychological assumptions. The Present Sense Impression Rule (PSIR), for example, is an exception to the general ban against hearsay based on the assumptions that statements about contemporaneous events have fewer memory errors; are less likely to be lies; and, when they are lies, that listeners are better able to detect the lie than if the declarant has had time to prepare.

The rule, in other words, is based …

The Law Of First Impression, Amy J. Griffin

SMU Law Review

Judicial decision-making is governed by a complex web of unwritten operational rules—rules made by judges themselves. Some of these rules, like stare decisis or canons of interpretation, garner endless attention. Others remain unnoticed, becoming entrenched without ever being evaluated.

This Article is the first to identify and evaluate one such category of rules—those governing issues of first impression Public and academic attention is focused almost entirely on judicial fidelity to precedent, not what courts do in its absence. But issues of first impression are decided regularly by all U.S. courts, and the first impression label can have concrete legal effects. …

Front Matter

SMU Law Review

No abstract provided.

After Identity: Reverse Discrimination, Anti-Essentialism, And The Future Of Title Vii, Maayan Sudai, Lihi Yona

SMU Law Review

This Article argues that the Supreme Court’s unanimous decision in Ames v. Ohio Department of Youth Services marks a turning point in Title VII’s long-standing struggle with identity. By striking down the “background circumstances” rule, a doctrine that required majority-group plaintiffs to meet a heightened evidentiary burden, the Court appeared at first glance to reaffirm its steady march toward strict anticlassification. We offer a different reading. We contend that Ames gestures toward a third, overlooked normative framework within antidiscrimination law: anti-essentialism. This framework, rooted in feminist, critical race, and queer theory, rejects both the rigidity of anticlassification and the categorical …

Guilty Pleas Matter: Waivers And The Forgotten Solemnity Of A Sacred Process, Julian A. Cook Iii

SMU Law Review

Approximately 98% of federal cases are resolved by means of a guilty plea. Thus, it is the guilty plea hearing, not the jury trial, that is the heart and lungs of our criminal justice system. Given the frequency of its use, coupled with the deeply impactful personal consequences that necessarily accompany a conviction, district courts play a critical evaluative and safeguarding function. As famously stated by the Supreme Court in Brady v. United States, the decision to plead guilty “is a grave and solemn act to be accepted only with care and discernment . . . .”

Guilty Pleas …

Improving Regulatory Notice, Joshua Ulan Galperin, E. Donald Elliott

SMU Law Review

Effective notice of law is the cornerstone of any legal system, and yet many federal administrative agencies do not give small businesses, NGOs, and interested citizens notice of the vast amount of new or modified law they produce. They merely publish the text in the Federal Register, which works tolerably well for larger enterprises but not their smaller competitors and citizens’ groups. Despite these facts, few scholars have explored how agencies provide notice of the law. Even fewer have proposed ways that agencies could improve the methods they use for giving more effective notice of significant regulatory changes and …