Digital Commons Network^™

Judicial Impartiality In A Partisan Era, Cassandra Burke Robertson

Florida Law Review

Judicial legitimacy rests on the perception of judicial impartiality. As a partisan gulf widens among the American public, however, there is a growing skepticism of the judiciary’s neutrality on politically sensitive topics. Hardening partisan identities mean that there is less middle ground on political issues and less cooperation among those with differing political views. As a result, the public increasingly scrutinizes judges and judicial candidates for signs of political agreement, distrusting those perceived to support the opposing political party.

Judges themselves are not immune to these political forces. In spite of a strong judicial identity that demands impartiality and judicial …

The Skeleton In The Hard Drive: Encryption And The Fifth Amendment, David W. Opderbeck

Florida Law Review

In Teva Pharmaceuticals USA, Inc. v. Sandoz, Inc., the Supreme Court addressed an oft-discussed jurisprudential disconnect between itself and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit: whether patent claim construction was “legal” or “factual” in nature, and how much deference is due to district court decision-making in this area. This Article closely examines the Teva opinion and situates it within modern claim construction jurisprudence. The thesis is that the Teva holding is likely to have only very modest effects on the incidence of deference to district court claim construction, but that for unexpected reasons the case is far …

Desirable Inefficiency, Paul Ohm, Jonathan Frankle

Florida Law Review

Computer scientists have recently begun designing systems that appear, at least at first glance, to be surprisingly, wastefully inefficient. A stock exchange forces all electronic trades to travel through a thirty-eight mile length of fiber-optic cable coiled up in a box; the Bitcoin protocol compels participants to solve difficult yet useless math problems with their computers; and the iPhone locks users out for many painful seconds after a mistyped password, a delay that increases with each subsequent mistake. We draw these examples and others together into a common, emerging, and underappreciated approach to digital system design, which we name “desirable …

Dismantling Monuments, Richard H. Seamon

Florida Law Review

The Antiquities Act of 1906 authorizes the President to “declare” certain objects “to be national monuments,” and to “reserve parcels of land” to protect those national monuments. The Act does not expressly authorize the President to reduce or rescind a monument established by a prior President under the Act, and recent actions by President Donald Trump raise the question whether the Act impliedly authorizes such reductions or rescissions. The majority of legal scholars who have studied this question have said no, the Act does not grant such implied authority. This Article takes the contrary position. The President’s authority underthe Antiquities …

Unusual Deference, William W. Berry Iii

Florida Law Review

Three Eighth Amendment decisions—Harmelin v. Michigan, Pulley v. Harris, and McCleskey v. Kemp—have had enduring, and ultimately, cruel and unusual consequences on the administration of criminal justice in the United States. What links these cases is the same fundamental analytical misstep—the decision to ignore core constitutional principles and instead defer to state punishment practices. The confusion arises from the text of the Eighth Amendment where the Supreme Court has read the “cruel and unusual” punishment proscription to rest in part on majoritarian practices. This is a classical analytical mistake—while the Amendment might prohibit rare punishments, it does not make the …

Convictions Based On Character: An Empirical Test Of Other-Acts Evidence, Michael D. Cicchini, Lawrence T. White

Florida Law Review

Despite the time-honored judicial principle that “we try cases, rather than persons,” courts routinely allow prosecutors to use defendants’ prior, unrelated bad acts at trial. Courts acknowledge that jurors could improperly use this other acts evidence as proof of the defendant’s bad character. However, courts theorize that if the other acts are also relevant for a permissible purpose—such as proving the defendant’s identity as the perpetrator of the charged crime—then a cautionary instruction will cure the problem, and any prejudice is “presumed erased from the jury’s mind.” We put this judicial assumption to an empirical test. We recruited 249 participants …

The Global Trade Of Cloned Meat, Andrew Jensen Kerr

Florida Law Review

Until now commercial animal cloning has been generally limited to breeding stock. But Xu Xiaochun of the Chinese company Boyalife Genetics plans to mass produce animal clones for direct meat consumption. The research partnership between Boyalife and South Korean firm Sooam Biotech suggests the possibility of an international market for cloned food animals. Can cloned food imports be rejected by national governments? This Article outlines the relevant considerations, and argues that a revised understanding of the “precautionary principle” can help to reconcile disparate, and perhaps ineffable, goals like producing high-quality meat and maintaining the integrity of the human experience.

Why Congress Matters: The Collective Congress In The Structural Constitution, Neomi Rao

Florida Law Review

Congress currently operates in the shadow of the administrative state. This Article provides a modern reconsideration of why Congress still matters by examining the “collective Congress” within the text, structure, and history of the Constitution. Like the unitary executive, the collective Congress is a structural feature of the Constitution’s separation of powers. With deep roots in political theory, the Framers created a representative and collective legislature that would provide a legitimate mechanism for bringing together the nation’s diverse interests to most effectively pursue the common good. To fully realize the benefits of collective lawmaking, the Constitution insists on the double …

Rescuing The Rescuer: Reforming How Florida’S Workers’ Compensation Law Treats Mental Injury Of First Responders, Travis J. Foels

Florida Law Review

The 2016 Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando, Florida was the deadliest terrorist attack in the United States since the September 11 attacks in 2001. With a final death toll of forty-nine people, and fifty-three others wounded, the attack sent shockwaves throughout the city, state, and nation. People sent condolences to the families of those affected, prayers for those taken, and praise to first responders and health care professionals for their hard work and service. What many fail to consider, however, is the lasting effect such a horrific and traumatic event can have on the first responders whose job it is …

By Any Other Name: Rational Basis Inquiry And The Federal Government’S Fiduciary Duty Of Care, Gary Lawson, Guy I. Seidman

Florida Law Review

Under modern law, federal legislation is subject to “rational basis review” under the doctrinal rubric of “substantive due process.” That construction of the Fifth Amendment’s Due Process of Law Clause is notoriously difficult to justify as a matter of original constitutional meaning. Something functionally very similar to substantive due process, however, is easily justifiable as a matter of original constitutional meaning once one understands that the Constitution, for interpretative purposes, is best seen as a kind of fiduciary instrument. Fiduciary instruments operate against a background of legal norms that notably include a duty of care on the part of agents. …

Assessing The Viability Of Implicit Bias Evidence In Discrimination Cases: An Analysis Of The Most Significant Federal Cases, Anthony Kakoyannis

Florida Law Review

The theory of implicit bias occupies a rapidly growing field of scientific research and legal scholarship. With the advent of tools measuring individuals’ subconscious biases toward people of other races, genders, ages, national origins, religions, and sexual orientations, scholars have rushed to explore the ways in which these biases might affect decision-making and produce broad societal consequences. The question that remains unanswered for scholars, attorneys, and judges is whether evidence of implicit bias and its effects can or should be used in legal proceedings. Although the study of implicit bias dates back several decades, only recently have judicial opinions begun …

What Florida's Constitution Revision Commission Can Teach And Learn From Those Of Other States, Mary E. Adkins

UF Law Faculty Publications

The framers of Florida's constitution envisioned a Constitutional Revision Commission with complete freedom and independence - but its brainchild has not been able to keep that promise. In light of not only the public frustration with attempts at constitutional reform, but also of the specific problems identified both in structure and in practice of Florida's CRC, this Article suggests some reforms that could help not only Florida but other state constitution commissions or conventions be more effective and more readily accepted by the public.

The Armed Society And Its Friends: A Reckoning, Charles W. Collier

UF Law Faculty Publications

This Article provides a selective introduction to some of the main social, cultural, historical, and intellectual issues surrounding gun violence and the desultory policy “debates” over gun control in America.

Unregulated gun violence, unrestricted gun violence, unlimited gun violence: these are the grave “new normal” (a term coined in financial economics) on the otherwise pastoral landscape of America. Sociologically speaking, this level of gun violence is no longer considered deviant, such that “special sanctions” would be imposed to prevent it.

Gun violence and the lack of gun control have also been described as “tragic”—a cultural tragedy—and so they are, though …

Don’T Steal My Recipe! A Comparative Study Of French And U.S. Law On The Protection Of Culinary Recipes And Dishes Against Copying, Claire M. Germain

Working Papers

Food and gastronomy are at the heart of every culture. In 2010, The Gastronomic Meal of the French was listed as Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO. Interest in gastronomy became mainstream in the U.S. starting in the late ‘70s/early ‘80s. The emergence of cooking literature, television cooking, celebrity chefs, and competitive cooking programs have now permeated American and French popular culture like never before. It is also a huge business for restaurants. This article examines the legal status of recipes and culinary creations in U.S. and French law, and what can be done to stop others from copying …

Everybody Out Of The Pool: Recognizing A First Amendment Claim For The Retaliatory Closure Of (Real Or Virtual) Public Forums, Frank D. Lomonte

University of Florida Journal of Law & Public Policy

No abstract provided.

Who's Your Daddy?: In Vitro-Fertilization And The Parental Rights Of The Sperm Donor, Elizabeth Watkins

University of Florida Journal of Law & Public Policy

No abstract provided.

Judicial Bias Against Lgbt Parents In Custody Disputes, Amy Maitner

University of Florida Journal of Law & Public Policy

No abstract provided.

Beyond Criminal Prosecution: How Federalist Tensions In Marijuana Laws Affect State-Legal Businesses, Gabriel Roberts

University of Florida Journal of Law & Public Policy

No abstract provided.

Beyond Criminal Prosecution: How Federalist Tensions In Marijuana Laws Affect State-Legal Businesses, Gabriel Roberts

University of Florida Journal of Law & Public Policy

No abstract provided.

A Value-Added Ranking Of Law Schools, Christopher J. Ryan Jr.

University of Florida Journal of Law & Public Policy

No abstract provided.

A Value-Added Ranking Of Law Schools, Christopher J. Ryan Jr.

University of Florida Journal of Law & Public Policy

No abstract provided.

The Death Of The Psqia For Providers In Florida, Lindsey A. Lamb

University of Florida Journal of Law & Public Policy

No abstract provided.

Discordant Environmental Laws: Using Statutory Flexibility And Multi-Objective Optimization To Reconcile Conflicting Laws, Mary Jane Angelo

UF Law Faculty Publications

The current morass of federal environmental laws has led to significant conflicts among statutes and the manner in which agencies implement them. In recent years, this quagmire of environmental laws has hindered the progress of a number of high-profile environmental regulatory programs and restoration projects. Neither the Courts nor legal scholars have developed approaches to resolving conflicts in a manner that harmonizes environmental statutes while at the same time protecting the most critical environmental resources. A standard methodology that optimizes the multiple objectives of environmental statutes and their implementing programs would greatly enhance decision-making and ensure that the most salient …

The Climate Crisis Is A Human Security, Not A National Security, Issue, Maryam Jamshidi

UF Law Faculty Publications

Climate change is one of the first times, in recent memory, where public debate about treating an issue as a matter of “national security” has occurred. Many, including members of the grassroots climate change movement, have called for climate change to be treated as a national security issue. While there are a host of good reasons for treating the climate crisis as a security concern, there are equally good reasons to worry about applying the national security label to climate change, which have largely been absent from public debate. For the first time in the legal literature, this Article articulates …

Comparative Warranty Law: Case Of Planned Obsolescence, Stefan Wrbka, Larry A. Dimatteo

UF Law Faculty Publications

The cause of our present stagnation is that the supply line or arteries furnishing the needs of the country are clogged with obsolete, outworn and outmoded machinery, buildings and commodities of all kinds. These are obstructing the avenues of commerce and industry and are preventing new products from coming through. There is little demand for new goods when people make their old and worn-out things do, by keeping them longer than they should.

Implicit Racial Bias And Students' Fourth Amendment Rights, Jason P. Nance

UF Law Faculty Publications

Tragic acts of school violence such as what occurred in Columbine, Newtown, and, more recently, in Parkland and Santa Fe, provoke intense feelings of anger, fear, sadness, and helplessness. Understandably, in response to these incidents (and for other reasons), many schools have intensified the manner in which they monitor and control students. Some schools rely on combinations of security measures such as metal detectors; surveillance cameras; drug-sniffing dogs; locked and monitored gates; random searches of students’ belongings, lockers, and persons; and law enforcement officers. Not only is there little empirical evidence that these measures actually make schools safer, but overreliance …

Equality, Equity, And Dignity, Nancy E. Dowd

UF Law Faculty Publications

In this Essay I explore the definition and scope of children’s equality. I argue that equality includes equity and dignity. The meaning of each of these concepts is critical in imagining a deep, rich vision of equality, and in constructing policies to achieve that vision. This definition of equality creates affirmative rights, demands action to resolve structural discrimination that creates and sustains hierarchies among children, and requires affirmative support for children’s developmental equality.

Reconceptualizing Criminal Justice Reform For Offenders With Serious Mental Illness, E. Lea Johnston

UF Law Faculty Publications

Roughly 14% of male inmates and 31% of female inmates suffer from one or more serious mental illnesses, such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and major depressive disorder. Policymakers and the public widely ascribe the overrepresentation of offenders with serious mental illness in the justice system to the “criminalization” of the symptoms of this afflicted population. The criminalization theory posits that the criminal justice system has served as the primary agent of social control over symptomatic individuals since the closure of state psychiatric hospitals in the 1950s and the tightening of civil commitment laws. The theory identifies untreated mental illness as …

Antidiscriminatory Algorithms, Stephanie Bornstein

UF Law Faculty Publications

Can algorithms be used to advance equality goals in the workplace? A handful of legal scholars have raised concerns that the use of big data at work may lead to protected class discrimination that could fall outside the reach of current antidiscrimination law. Existing scholarship suggests that, because algorithms are “facially neutral,” they pose no problem of unequal treatment. As a result, algorithmic discrimination cannot be challenged using a disparate treatment theory of liability under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Title VII). Instead, it presents a problem of unequal outcomes, subject to challenge using Title VII’s …

Radical Aces: Building Resilience And Triggering Structural Change, Nancy E. Dowd

UF Law Faculty Publications

Children’s developmental equality is critical to their opportunity and lifetime success. If we are to dismantle hierarchies among children, we must dismantle barriers placed in their way as well as insure affirmative support so that each child achieves their full developmental potential. The Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) framework identifies factors that create hurdles, not necessarily insurmountable, to children’s development. A higher ACEs number translates into geometrically increased challenges for individual children. Identifying ACEs, if used simply to count obstacles for children, does not contribute to the goal of children’s equality. Indeed, counting ACEs may have the converse effect, if identifying …