Digital Commons Network^™

A Solution To The Murkiness Of Nonparent Visitation Rights In Texas, Morgan Tauscher

SMU Law Review

To protect parental rights, Texas law presumes that a child’s parent or parents are in the position to make decisions regarding the best interest of their child. However, Texas courts favor granting nonparent visitation rights, even over parents’ objections, if there is sufficient evidence presented by the nonparent to overcome the presumption. Although Texas law is well-established when considering sufficient evidence to overcome the presumption in nonparent child custody cases, courts are inconsistent about the standards and tests involved in nonparent child visitation cases. There are differences between child custody disputes and visitation disputes, such as the level of parental …

The U.S.-China Audit Oversight Dispute: Causes, Solutions, And Implications For Hong Kong, Robin Hui Huang

The International Lawyer

No abstract provided.

Bertillonage In An Age Of Surveillance: Fourth Amendment Regulation Of Facial Recognition Technologies, David C. Gray

SMU Science and Technology Law Review

The Fourth Amendment is a closed hydraulic system. As a general rule, if government conduct is deemed a “search” under the Fourth Amendment, then agents must secure a warrant from a detached and neutral magistrate before engaging in that conduct. There are exceptions, of course, but they just shift the pressure into another valve. Officers who conduct searches based on their own initiative must show not only probable cause, but also good reasons why, in their circumstances, they were not required to get a warrant.

One consequence of these Fourth Amendment hydraulics is a reluctance on the part of the …

Covid-19: Legal Framework For Vaccine Distributions And Mandates, Dana B. Taschner, Ashley Atwood

SMU Science and Technology Law Review

The COVID-19 pandemic has created heightened turmoil for at-risk populations, solidified laws allowing the use of mask mandates, raised legal issues surrounding vaccine mandates, and presented the new issue of a vaccine passport. As a nation, we have failed to implement vaccination schemes that properly protect vulnerable populations. Specifically, the homeless population has been overlooked, creating an additional layer of hardship, and contributing to greater community spread. This article contemplates the various methods by which an equitable vaccination scheme could have been achieved and the division of powers that created complications.

Additionally, the legality of vaccine mandates is discussed, and …

Signed, Sealed, Patented?: A Look At The United States Postal Service’S Patent Application For Implementing Blockchain Technology In Mobile Voting Systems, Ethan Todd

SMU Science and Technology Law Review

No abstract provided.

Front Matter

SMU Science and Technology Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Communitarian Deficit In The Usa: Three Telling Cases, Amitai Etzioni

SMU Science and Technology Law Review

Liberal communitarianism suggests that the balance between individual rights and the common good must be adjusted as historical conditions change. Much attention has been paid to violations of rights, e.g., by the police, for good reasons. This Article examines three new technologies that undermine public safety, a key common good, and asks whether they should be banned. The 2020 pandemic revealed that scores of millions of Americans objected, not merely to government mandates to take measures that are likely to spare fellow Americans a severe disease or death, but even to respond to moral calls, especially wearing a mask. This …

Copyright, Pandemics, And Emergencies: When Desperate Times Dictate Contextual Responses, Caroline L. Osborne

SMU Science and Technology Law Review

This article explores fair use, the library exception, the first sale doctrine, and controlled digital lending as responses to copyright in the context of permitting libraries to digitize materials existing exclusively in print in their collection for use in teaching, research, and scholarship by students, faculty, and other patrons. Also included is a decision matrix to be employed as a tool for analysis in making the decisions as to digitization of print resources in response to instances of emergencies.

Abolishing The Communications Decency Act Might Sanitize “Politically Biased,” “Digitally Polluted” And “Dangerously Toxic” Social Media? ― Judicial And Statistical Guidance From Federal-Preemption, Safe-Harbor And Rights-Preservation Decisions, Willy E. Rice

SMU Science and Technology Law Review

Sitting and former U.S. Presidents as well as members of the general public, financial, political and educational institutions use social media. Yet, an overwhelming majority of users, content creators, parents, “conservatives,” “progressives,” Democrats and Republicans distrust social-media owners. Some critics allege that owners “digitally pollute” platforms by encouraging users to post “corrosive, dangerous, toxic and illegal content.” Other critics assert that service providers’ purportedly objective content-moderation algorithms are biased ― discriminating irrationally on the basis of users’ political association, ideology, socioeconomic status, gender and ethnicity. Republicans and Democrats have crafted roughly twenty bills. In theory, the enacted proposals would “sanitize” …

Uncovering The “Realness” Of Cgi Influencers, Samantha Favela

SMU Science and Technology Law Review

No abstract provided.

Can New Fingerprint Technology Help In Solving America’S Problem Of Mass Incarceration For Nonviolent Drug Crimes?, Caroline Rumbolo

SMU Science and Technology Law Review

No abstract provided.

Front Matter

SMU Science and Technology Law Review

No abstract provided.

Q: Can Booking.Com Be Trademarked? A: Booking.Yeah, Samantha Favela

SMU Science and Technology Law Review

By choosing a generic Internet domain as a brand name, that brand can hit the Internet jackpot. But the popularity and use of a generic domain name creates tension with trademark law. While companies want to be easily found on the Internet, they also want to protect themselves from competitors. This Case Note argues that the Supreme Court’s ruling in United States Patent & Trademark Office v. Booking.com B.V. is the best possible outcome in protecting brand’s rights and balancing trademark law principles. Through the analysis of past cases, the Supreme Court decision in Booking.com itself, and trademark law principles, …

The Fifth Circuit, Fourth Amendment, And The Third-Party Doctrine: Two Takeaways From The Court’S First Ruling On Bitcoin Privacy, Daniel Penn

SMU Science and Technology Law Review

No abstract provided.

All Aboard The Momnibus: Will Congress’ Proposed Legislative Package Help Drive Down Black Maternal Mortality Rates?, Skyler Arbuckle

SMU Science and Technology Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Reform Blindspot, Irene Oritseweyinmi Joe, Shelly Richter, Dayja Tillman

SMU Law Review

The last few years have seen a marked shift in the public’s response to mass incarceration. Some state legislatures have responded by changing criminal statutes and sentencing schemes to reduce the number of people incarcerated in jails and prisons and lessen the collateral consequences faced by those previously convicted of crimes. Although these efforts are laudable, they may fail to consider the limitations imposed upon convicted persons seeking to avail themselves of these benefits without the assistance of counsel. This essay argues that, in addressing the question of how best to effectuate the progressive goals of criminal justice reform, it …

Fifty-First Annual 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.

Fiftieth Annual 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.

“A Defendant’S Paradise”: Failings Of The Brooke Group Test In The Airline And E-Commerce Industries, Kaitlyn Thorson

Journal of Air Law and Commerce

No abstract provided.

Using The Artemis Accords To Build Customary International Law: A Vision For A U.S.-Centric Good Governance Regime In Outer Space, Walker A. Smith

Journal of Air Law and Commerce

International space law is a relatively undeveloped field primarily occupied by the 1967 Outer Space Treaty (Treaty). This Treaty, while long on general principles, is short on details. With the United States’ recent push to return to the Moon by 2024 and send humans to Mars as soon as practicable after that, the time has come to fill in the gaps of the Outer Space Treaty out of necessity. The U.S. seeks to do this through the Artemis Accords (the Accords).

This Comment argues that the U.S. should use the Accords to develop a U.S.-centric legal and good governance regime …

Immunity Doesn’T Fly: The Case For Federal Responsibility For Torts Committed By Transportation Security Officers, Courtney Rimann

Journal of Air Law and Commerce

Transportation Security Officers (TSOs) are the Transportation Security Administration’s first line of defense against terrorism in U.S. airways. The American flying public puts their safety, and their luggage, in the hands of these officers, who execute searches that range from metal detectors to physical pat-downs. Since the federal government has mandated searches and screening for airport security, passengers should be able to seek recovery from the federal government where a TSO commits certain intentional torts in the course of duty. Currently, only the Courts of Appeals for the Third Circuit and Eighth Circuit have cleared the runway for such recovery …

Delivery Drones: Inapt For Application Of Current Negligence Theory, Hyewon Hannah Choi

Journal of Air Law and Commerce

No abstract provided.

Barring Immoral Speech In Patent And Copyright, Ned Snow

SMU Law Review

In the past three years, the Supreme Court has twice ruled that Congress’s moral bars to trademark protection violate the First Amendment. Those rulings raise a simple question in other areas of intellectual property. Does the First Amendment preclude Congress from denying patent or copyright protection based on a moral reason? Congress, for instance, might deny patent protection for inventions directed toward the consumption of marijuana. Inventors would accordingly choose not to disclose knowledge about those inventions to the public, and the denial would chill their speech. Similarly, Congress would chill speech if it denied copyright protection for moral reasons. …

Front Matter

SMU Law Review

No abstract provided.

Thoroughly Modern Motherhood, Joanna Grossman

SMU Law Review

No abstract provided.

From Protecting Water Quality To Protecting States’ Rights: Fifty Years Of Supreme Court Clean Water Act Statutory Interpretation, Stephen Johnson

SMU Law Review

In 1972, a bipartisan Congress enacted the Clean Water Act “to restore and maintain the chemical, physical, and biological integrity of the Nation’s waters.” Almost fifty years have passed since Congress enacted the law, and during that time, the Supreme Court has played a significant role in the administration and evolution of the law. Since the dawn of the environmental era in the 1970s, the Supreme Court has heard more cases involving the Clean Water Act than any other environmental law. However, the manner in which the Court has analyzed the law has changed substantially over the last half century. …

The Racial Architecture Of Criminal Justice, Bennett Capers

SMU Law Review

One of the pleasures of contributing to symposia—especially symposia where each contribution is brief—is the ability to engage in new explorations, test new ideas, and offer new provocations. I do that now in this essay about race, architecture, and criminal justice. I begin by discussing how race is imbricated in the architecture of courthouses, the quintessential place of supposed justice. I then take race and architecture a step further. If we think of architecture expansively—Lawrence Lessig’s definition of architecture as “the physical world as we find it” comes to mind—then it becomes clear that race is also imbricated in the …

Beyond Transparency: Police Union Collective Bargaining And Participatory Democracy, Walter Katz

SMU Law Review

Police unions rose in power partially in response to the civil unrest in urban neighborhoods in the 1960s. As unions gained political power, critics argue that they have frequently stood as obstacles to accountability-related reforms. One vehicle of the exercise of such power is through

collective bargaining agreements negotiated between unions and public bodies representing cities and counties. Contracts that civilian policymakers negotiate with police unions shield officers from accountability for misconduct and excessive force. Through a lack of political will, expediency, and a lack of public transparency during negotiations, civilian leaders agree to contracts that, for example, erect obstacles …

Victims’ Rights In The Diversion Landscape, Kay L. Levine

SMU Law Review

In this Article, I explore the practical and theoretical conflicts that might surface when the diversion movement and the Victims’ Rights Movement intersect. I focus on two possible sites of tension: victim input into the diversion offer and the victim’s right to receive restitution as a term of diversion. Protocols to give victims greater voice in the justice process have been a mainstay of the burgeoning Victims’ Rights Movement for the past several decades, but I argue that those protocols must be understood within (and thus limited by) the contexts of fiscal responsibility, compassion for the offender, and proportionality in …

“Victims’ Rights” And Diversion: Furthering The Interests Of Crime Survivors And The Community, Miriam Krinsky, Liz Komar

SMU Law Review

Against the backdrop of the prosecutorial reform movement, this Article explores the origins of the tensions between victims’ rights and criminal justice reform efforts and argues that while victims’ rights may be in tension with diversion in some individual cases, the broader needs and interests of crime survivors do not conflict with decarceral diversion and deflection strategies. The Article describes the growing movement toward diversion among reform prosecutors and briefly recounts the history of the victims’ rights movement and “tough-on-crime” politics. The Article then discusses the demographics of crime survivors, who are disproportionately from the communities most harmed by “tough …