Digital Commons Network^™

The Contracts Clause Can Be Enforced Via Section 1983, Period: The Nonexistent Circuit Court "Split”, Timothy M. Harris

SMU Law Review Forum

The Federal Circuit Courts are apparently split on whether 42 U.S.C. § 1983—which provides a civil cause of action for constitutional deprivation of rights— applies to actions brought under the Contracts Clause in article 1 of the U.S. Constitution. The “split” has existed since 2017 and a new case out of the Sixth Circuit seeks to end that constitutional discrepancy via cert petition. The case, however, is a suboptimal vehicle for ending this circuit court stalemate.

The Sixth and Fourth Circuits have held that Section 1983 does not apply to actions brought under the Contracts clause. The Ninth Circuit has …

A Blunt Reality: How § 922(G)(3) Of The Gun Control Act Violates The Second Amendment Rights Of Marijuana Users, Christian Z. Macdonald

SMU Law Review Forum

Over 98% of Americans live in a state that has some form of legal marijuana, with over half of Americans having used the drug at least once. The United States also has a strong historical tradition of individual gun ownership for the purposes of self-defense, with gun ownership currently at its highest level in decades. In this modern era of both rising gun ownership and marijuana usage, could it truly be the case that any American who uses cannabinoids forfeits her presumptively protected constitutional right to firearm possession? The answer depends upon whether 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(3) unconstitutionally infringes on …

California Public Defense Workloads And Staffing, Malia N. Brink, Pamela R. Metzger, Andrew L.B. Davies, Cynthia G. Lee

Deason Center Reports

This report assesses the current workloads and staffing of California public defense providers. The report concludes that California’s public defense attorneys are almost universally burdened by workloads that far exceed nationally recommended standards. Additionally, compared to district attorneys’ offices in the same jurisdictions, public defender offices typically have 20-45% fewer attorneys.

This report also details how public defense providers in California also lack the appropriate support staff – investigators, social workers, paralegals, and administrative assistants – necessary to efficiently and effectively represent their clients. At their current workload and staffing levels, public defense attorneys simply cannot do all that their …

Race To Robustness: Adaptation To Globalization In Authoritarian Regimes Of The Middle East, Lexi Eid

The Dialogue

The Middle East has been notably absent from the wave of democratization and failed to adapt to globalization since the 1990s. In the Middle Eastern countries, the economy has largely stagnated and the political system has remained authoritarian despite popular revolts during the Arab Spring. Earlier literature often emphasized the cultural and religious differences between the Middle East and the rest of the world. However, the Arab Spring proved that the Middle East could be a part of the democratization wave. More recent literature attempts to explain this surge of public response to the regime and explores how the authoritarian …

Constraints And Conservatism: The Effect Of Presidential Choices On Voting Patterns Of Supreme Court Justices, Tyler Mccall

The Dialogue

The decisions of the Supreme Court are constantly featured in news headlines with the accusation that the core institution of the judicial branch is completely politicized. In fact, justices are directly chosen by presidents who have clear political and constitutional agendas. But what about justices whose voting behavior and opinions seem less politically motivated than others? One major answer to that query may lie in the difference between constrained and unconstrained choices. When a president chooses a nominee based on political promises made or limitations imposed by other branches of government, that choice is constrained because those nominees must appeal …

Voice Of My People: An Expression Of Welcome And Liturgical Justice For Afrodiasporic People In North American Catholicism, Marvand Roger Holland Ii

Doctor of Pastoral Music Projects and Theses

Music has always been central to the lives of Black people. The Black religious experience is even more profound when expressed through music. It is therefore no happenstance that music is of great import as pertains to the spiritual lives of Black people, including Black Catholics. Faith is expressed through culture. It is through culture that the faith is realized and known. In this, is the essence of inculturation.

Anscar Chupungco states that if not inculturated, the liturgy of the local Church will remain at the periphery of people’s cultural experience. For this reason, it is imperative that Afrodiasporic music …

Essays In Applied Microeconomics, William Cunningham

Economics Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation contributes to three interconnected areas of economic research: microeconomics, behavioral economics, and urban economics. Each chapter examines how individual decision-making processes may produce more pronounced economic patterns, while highlighting the role of psychological factors and spatial considerations in shaping outcomes. Chapter 1 studies the causes and dynamics of segregation in US neighborhoods. A conditional instrumental variables estimator allows for unbiased estimation of preferences for past neighborhood minority shares by addressing endogeneity concerns present in my theoretical model. I use estimated preference parameters to simulate neighborhood population dynamics for Texas. I regress measures of racial animus and xenophobia on …

Essays In Immigration Economics And Immigrant Location Choice, Abdullah Shamim

Economics Theses and Dissertations

Across the chapters of this dissertation, I analyze the drivers of immigrant location choice in host countries. I specifically contrast the sorting patterns of refugee and nonrefugee immigrants, and explore how the influence of ethnic networks, economic conditions, and other host-country and origin-country characteristics contribute to the distinct location choices observed across these groups.

Prior research suggests that immigrants are drawn to both economic fundamentals and ethnic networks. However, places that have good fundamentals–in terms of employment, wages, and desirable house prices–often have disproportionately large ethnic networks, making it difficult to disentangle the contributions of economic fundamentals and ethnic networks …

Enhancing News Article Generation With Ai Tools, Adam Ercanbrack, Christopher Johnson, Max Pagan, Nibhrat Lohia

SMU Data Science Review

Abstract. This paper aims to present a comparative analysis of a custom-built AI Journalist Assistant and ChatGPT 4.0 for news article generation. The goal is to evaluate the performance of each model based on accuracy, speed, ethical safeguards, and relevance, particularly in the context of journalism. While ChatGPT is widely used for general-purpose content creation, its reliance on older data and potential for plagiarism presents challenges in the fast-paced, high-stakes world of news reporting. To address these issues, we will design and implement an AI Assistant using Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) techniques, focusing on real-time data access, bias reduction, and plagiarism …

The Prevalence And Impact Of Discourse In Social Media Networks: The 2024 Presidential Election, Kyle Kuberski, Xavier R. Mojica, Gwonchan J. Yoon, Brad Klein, Bivin P. Sadler

SMU Data Science Review

Abstract. Social Media platforms serve as central hubs for global discourse, where political dialogue is widely shared and echoed. This exchange shapes civic participation and influences electoral outcomes, often with both intended and unintended consequences. In its inception, social media platforms served as message boards for the masses, yet manipulation and exploiting of systems via bot usage has made platforms susceptible to outside forces. Thus, false narratives and an artificial sense of consensus are endemically augmented. As for the 2016 and 2020 U.S. presidential elections, it is important to investigate the prevalence of evolved bot activity in both political and …

Quixotes, Quacks, And Laughing Philosophers: Humor And Intellectual Authority In The Long Eighteenth Century, Macklin Fanning

English Theses and Dissertations

Quixotes, Quacks, and Laughing Philosophers: Humor and Intellectual Authority in the Long Eighteenth Century recovers the fascinating and forgotten story of John Elliot (1747–1787), a novelist, physician, mad scientist, pioneering optical theorist, criminal lunatic, and Gothic antihero whose life and work illuminate a strange new history of science, medicine, law, and literature in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

Quantum Chemical Methods And Multiscale Modeling In Computer-Aided Drug Design, Hunter W. La Force

Chemistry Theses and Dissertations

Computer-Aided Drug Design (CADD) leverages a diverse toolkit of computational methods to accelerate the discovery and development of novel therapeutics. Among these, quantum chemical calculations provide unparalleled accuracy in understanding molecular interactions, albeit at a higher computational cost. This accuracy is crucial for identifying and quantifying fundamental interactions that dictate drug efficacy and selectivity, as exemplified by our investigation of ruthenium polypyridyl complexes. These metal-based compounds are model systems for studying covalent coordination bonds between ruthenium and its ligands and noncovalent interactions with DNA and protein targets. Local Mode Vibrational Theory emerges as a powerful lens within this framework, enabling …

“How Can We Sing In A Strange Land?” The Pastoral Musician As A Master Griot/Griotte, Dollie Howell

Doctor of Pastoral Music Projects and Theses

The writer of Psalm 137 asks a question that poignantly resonates with the experiences of enslaved Africans who were taken captive, exiled from their homelands, and told to forget their languages, worship practices, and tribal traditions. Their dehumanization was intensified by expectations that “required a song and . . . mirth.” The question was “How shall we sing the Lord’s song in a strange land?” In response to this question of engaging in song as a community while in a strange land of deep and persistent systemic suffering, enslaved African-descended people founded a unique tradition within Christianity that responded to …

Nonlinear Phenomena Of Discrete Wave Systems With Nonlocal Coupling, Austin E. Marstaller

Mathematics Theses and Dissertations

There is a long and rich story of nonlinear dynamics in discrete lattices. A particular well studied model is the discrete Nonlinear Schr\"odinger Equation, with many applications, most notably in nonlinear optics.

Recent studies have explored dynamics in scenarios where coupling amongst the array elements is nonlocal. The interest in particular is that in the longwave approximation, it leads to fractional diffraction. In this contribution, we consider two long range interaction lattice wave models, the fractional discrete nonlinear Schr\"odinger equation and the Long Range Ablowitz-Ladik system. By use of perturbation methods, asymptotics and numerical simulations, we present results on modulational …

A Pastoral Music Response In Support Of The Universal Apostolic Preferences Of The Society Of Jesus, Daniel Dangca

Doctor of Pastoral Music Projects and Theses

This thesis establishes the relationship between Catholic congregational song and the apostolic work of the Society of Jesus. The Society of Jesus is currently at the halfway mark of their ten-year plan guided by the Universal Apostolic Preferences (UAPs). These UAPs focus on the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola, marginalized communities, young people, and caring for the earth. Currently, there are no resources that exist that promote the UAPs through the lens of liturgical music. It is the hope that the suggested hymns, whether sung in the community or individually, deepen the spiritual journey of the participants as …

The Seeming Beginning: The Drawings Of Dorothy Hood, 1942-1986, Natalia Lopez

Art History Theses and Dissertations

The notable career of American artist Dorothy Hood (1918-2000) spanned nearly six decades which she witnessed, and contributed to, the transformative shifts in art history from the 1940s through the late 1990s. Today, Hood is known as a cult figure in her native Houston, celebrated for her large-scale abstract paintings that are said to evoke the expansive Texas skies. While these paintings create a large portion of Hood’s oeuvre, they represent only a fraction of her prolific artworks. Equally significant are her meticulously detailed and surreal drawings, which form a substantial, often overlooked portion of her legacy.

Hood’s drawings embody …

Class Of 2025 Hooding Of Candidates For The Degree Of Juris Doctor And Advanced Degrees, Southern Methodist University Dedman School Of Law

Law School Commencement / Hooding Programs, 1942-present

No abstract provided.

How Criminal Offenders Offend Society’S Equality Expectations, T. Markus Funk

SMU Law Review Forum

The public’s concern over safety and rising crime rates dominated opinion polls and played a significant role in the 2024 presidential election. This article argues that, although much has been written on the offender’s state of mind and the concrete harms offenders impose, what is missing is a more victim-centric understanding of the full scope of crime’s consequences.

Criminal offenders’ selfish, self-directed conduct subjugates the victims’ legally protected interests and conveys that they do not consider their victims’ rights sufficiently important or deserving of conduct-guiding respect. Offenders, in short, differentiate themselves from the social group by adopting the harmful mindset …

The Theology Of Water And Spirit: A Radical Reclamation To Forge A Path From Fear To Faith, Shunda Kidd Wilkin

Doctor of Ministry Projects and Theses

In this dissertation, I am in pursuit of a deeper understanding of the disconnect that African American women, and perhaps people of African descent in the Western Hemisphere in particular, have encountered in the realm of aquatics, to find out how to forge a path from fear to faith in the realm of water and spirit for millions of women of the African diaspora - first and foremost. This work is inclusive of all others who are also disconnected from the aquatic realm, in order to create and curate a new field of practical theology - Aquatic Practical Theology – …

Enhancing Animal Shelter Operations With Time Series And Machine Learning, Sakava L. Kiv, Donald L. Anderson, Shivam Negi, Jacquelyn Cheun

SMU Data Science Review

Enhancing animal shelter operations through machine learning involves employing a variety of advanced techniques aimed at increasing efficiency, promoting animal welfare, and optimizing resource allocation. This paper explores predictive analytics for adoption rates using regression models to estimate the likelihood of adoption based on historical data, encompassing variables such as breed, health status, and previous adoption trends. Additionally, classification algorithms are utilized to categorize animals by adoption probability, facilitating better resources and marketing prioritization. Clustering algorithms are employed to group animals according to behavior patterns and/or physical health, enabling tailored medical care and enrichment activities that improve their mental and …

Enhancing Network Security Through Dual-Layer Log Analysis: Integrating Machine Learning Classifiers With Large Language Models For Intelligent Anomaly Detection, Anthony Burton-Cordova, O'Neil Gray, Mohammad Al Rousan

SMU Data Science Review

This paper presents an innovative approach to enhancing network security by integrating machine learning algorithms with fine-tuned large language models (LLMs) to provide an expert assistant querying. The proposed method utilizes machine learning for efficient preprocessing and feature extraction from log data, followed by the application of a fine-tuned LLM to analyze and interpret anomalies with greater accuracy. This dual-layer detection system is designed to improve the identification of subtle and sophisticated security threats. The research team’s extensive evaluation using real-world log datasets indicates that the combined approach increases detection rates and communicates results in an understandable manner, demonstrating its …

National Security Law, Barbara Linney, Orga Cadet, Geoffrey Goodale, Jonathan Meyer

The Year in Review

No abstract provided.

International Animal Law, Daina Bray, Paula Cardoso, Jessica Chapman, Hira Jaleel, Rajesh K. Reddy, Joan Schaffner

The Year in Review

No abstract provided.

Export Controls And Economic Sanctions, John Boscariol, Sylvia Costelloe, Abigail Cotterill, Mary Mikhaeel, Timothy O'Toole, Christopher Stagg, Lawrence Ward

The Year in Review

No abstract provided.

Customs Law, Adrienne Braumiller, Shannon Fura, David J. Glynn, Geoffrey Goodale, Lawrence Hanson, Jeremy Page, Michael Roll, George Tuttle Iii

The Year in Review

No abstract provided.

International Section Ethics Committee, David Levine, Amy Bowers, Antonia Iragorri, Tiffany Comprés, Roland Potts

The Year in Review

No abstract provided.

International Refugee Law, Banke Olagbegi-Oloba, Marie Isabelle Dumont, Marlyse Sime, Reuben Moses

The Year in Review

No abstract provided.

International Human Rights, Daniel L. Appelman, Carlos De Miguel Perales, Corrine Lewis, Shauna Curphey, Lawrence C. Locker, Sara Sandford, Cyreka Jacobs, Jaclyn Fortini Laing, Morvarid Bagheri, Constance Z. Wagner

The Year in Review

No abstract provided.

International Family Law, Robert G. Spector, Melissa A. Kucinski

The Year in Review

No abstract provided.

Immigration And Naturalization, Eshigo P. Okasili, Michael Freestone, Hon. Joan Churchill, Betina Schlossberg

The Year in Review

No abstract provided.