Digital Commons Network^™

Best Practices For Creating Hypotheticals For Legal Research And Writing, Olivia Smith Schlink, Aimee Self-Pittman, Theresa Tarves, Melissa Strickland

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

A "New" New Departure, Paula A. Monopoli

Faculty Scholarship

In the wake of enactment of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments, women’s rights activists embarked on an exercise in popular constitutionalism known as “the New Departure.” Frustrated by the failure of Congress to include women in the Reconstruction Amendments, suffragists turned to a strategy based, in part, upon republican theory. They argued that women had an inherent right to vote grounded in natural law and in their status as citizens of the United States under the Fourteenth Amendment. They operationalized that theory by engaging in mass-voting events and were prosecuted for illegal voting. These activist efforts came to an end …

Bailing Out Biometrics, Chinmayi Sharma, Elijah Gordon

Faculty Scholarship

In 2023, hackers breached 23andMe and extracted the biometric and genealogical data of nearly seven million people. By 2025, that data-originally offered up in the spirit of medical discovery and consumer empowerment-was being auctioned off in bankruptcy court as a corporate asset. The breach exposed more than technical lapses or governance failures. It revealed a structural gap in how the law understands, regulates, and protects biometric identity. Biometric data is intimate, immutable, and implicates human dignity and autonomy. And yet, the legal frameworks most often tasked with protecting it-tort, contract, and even modern privacy statutes-have consistently failed to impose meaningful …

How Ai Reinforces Caste: Creating And Amplifying Systematic Inequality, Catherine Powell

Faculty Scholarship

In arguing that artificial intelligence (“AI”) creates, reinscribes, and amplifies caste, this Article asserts that algorithmic discrimination is not just a bug, it is an essential feature of the system that powers the digital economy. Because this economy traffics in our information and is monetized through targeted advertising, it depends on knowing our race, gender, and other protected characteristics (i.e., our caste). Given that the digital economy is inherently an information economy, it is driven by population-wide demographics and predictions, which algorithms can process and commodify at scale. As such, digital surveillance can lead not only to individual harm, but …

Now?, I. Bennett Capers

Faculty Scholarship

This essay brings Afrofuturism, and its notion of the plasticity of time, to imagine how we will think of the past in the future and, more specifically, to consider what will "enrapture, haunt, and/or plague thinkers in the future." Although many answers come to mind, including this country's original sin-slavery-ultimately this essay turns to our current technologies, especially policing technologies. And this essay turns the question around to ask, "How should we in the present think about the future? And what can we do now to change it?"

Consumer Protection And The Illusory Promise Of The Unconscionability Defense, Benjamin C. Zipursky, Zahra Takhshid

Faculty Scholarship

The United States Supreme Court’s notorious decision in AT&T Mobility LLC v. Concepcion seems to display impatience with the idea of an unconscionability defense to the enforcement of a contract. At the core of Justice Antonin Scalia’s majority opinion, however, was not an argument against the idea of unconscionability per se, but an argument against using “unconscionability” as a cover for a broader public policy agenda. This interpretation is confirmed by the Court’s little-known decision in Marmet Health Care Center, Inc. v. Brown, handed down the term after Concepcion was decided. Plaintiffs were allowed to move forward in Marmet because …

Introduction, Malia Willey, Scott P. Libson

Faculty Scholarship

The introduction to Teaching Information Literacy by Discipline: Using and Creating Adaptations of the Framework.

Training Module And Assessment Strategy For Light Microscopy Skills Training In A Research Environment, Kristopher E. Kubow, Joseph A. Harsh

Faculty Scholarship

Training in specialized techniques and instrumentation is an important component of undergraduate and graduate education. While such training can occur in formal lab courses, it also occurs as students engage in research. Although training in a research lab setting is typically informal, implementing evidence-based practices from the classroom would be beneficial, particularly for learning complex techniques and instruments, for example, light microscopy. Using advanced microscopes for research is more complicated than using teaching microscopes in a course. In addition, microscopes are easy to misuse because they will generally always produce an image even if that image is suboptimal, misleading, or …

The Unconscionably Short Warranty, Marie T. Reilly

Faculty Scholarship

A typical consumer product warranty covers products for defects that appear before the warranty period expires. If the manufacturer warrants a vehicle for five years or 60,000 miles, whichever occurs first, problems that require repairs after the warranty period expires are outside the warranty and, therefore, the buyer's problem. Advocates for consumers have developed a theory to escape the claim-barring consequence of expiration of the warranty period. They have argued with some success that the warranty period that would otherwise bar their claim is unconscionable and thus unenforceable under Uniform Commercial Code ("UCC") section 2-302. The warranty period term, they …

Border Decriminalization As A State Project: Lessons From Marijuana And Assisted Suicide Legalization Across The United States, Victor C. Romero

Faculty Scholarship

My prior work argued for the decriminalization of border crossings without proof of specific intent to violate another law (like drug trafficking), which is even less likely to happen now than it was when the piece was published, given the current presidential administration’s zealous deportation strategy and Congress’s seeming acquiescence. As such, I advocate for a second-best solution involving federal-state cooperative agreements wherein border states abutting both Mexico and Canada are given the option by the federal government to pass local legislation decriminalizing border crossings into their states as their communities desire. To the extent that the current presidential administration …

The Unfulfilled Promise Of Obergefell For Children Of Lgbtq+ Parents: Advancing Non-Discrimination Laws For Familial Association, Jeffrey Dodge

Faculty Scholarship

Since the 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges decision, same-sex marriages have increased significantly in the United States. The American Community Survey data collected in 2022 shows that there are around 1.3 million same-sex couple households in the country, up from 565,000 in 2028. Just over half of these couples are legally married, up nearly 400% from prior to Obergefell. This data not only shows the significance of Obergefell for the LGBTQ+ community, but it also frames a generational shift in attitudes on marriage and family.

With the rise in same-sex couples accessing marriage has come greater visibility, representation, and acknowledgement. …

Crafting An Exception To The Principle Of Non-Intervention To End Military Coups, Ronnie R. Gipson Jr.

Faculty Scholarship

Oftentimes, when a foreign state refuses to get involved when another country is subjected to a military coup, the foreign state uses the principle of non-intervention as the reason for inaction. The principle of non-intervention in those instances takes on the role of becoming a shield against preserving or protecting human rights. Specifically, in Myanmar, the principle of non-intervention is being used as a weapon by the military junta, allowing it to strengthen its grip on the levers of power and crush any fledgling opposition to its rule with unimaginable cruelty and violence. This article advances the premise that a …

Climate Proof Electricity, Kristen Van De Biezendos

Faculty Scholarship

The devastating impacts of climate change make themselves known in the form of fires, floods, droughts, storms, extreme heat and cold, and worsening socioeconomic conditions around the globe. At the same time, the U.S. electricity system has never been more vulnerable to severe weather. Even as we embark on a national project to decarbonize the electricity system by 2035, the U.S. leads the developed world in power outages. These outages are in large part due to aging infrastructure, improperly weatherized systems, vegetation crashing down on transmission and distribution lines and—perhaps most devastating of all—wildfires caused by fallen power lines in …

More Than Miscommunication: Rethinking Interpretation At The Asylum Office, Pooja R. Dadhania, Hillary Mellinger

Faculty Scholarship

The United States requires asylum applicants to provide their own interpreters for their interviews at the Asylum Office, barring exceptional circumstances. Applicants can face significant hurdles in finding suitable interpreters, who play a critical role in giving them a voice in the asylum process. Inaccurate interpretation can have serious ramifications such as denial of an applicant’s asylum claim. Despite the critical need for meaningful language access in the asylum process, interpretation at the Asylum Office remains understudied. This article represents a first attempt at bringing the scholarly and practitioner communities together to rethink interpretation at the Asylum Office, with the …

The Artificial Intelligence Trolley Problem, James Cooper, Kashyap Kompella

Faculty Scholarship

This Essay addresses a growing Constitutional challenge in public governance: the increasing delegation of consequential decisions to algorithmic systems that encode value trade-offs between liberty and security, equity and efficiency, and expression and control, without visibility, legal justification, or institutional oversight. We view this hidden normative choice an example of the “Artificial Intelligence (AI) Trolley Problem.” Like the classic moral dilemma, it involves unavoidable sacrifices among competing goods. Unlike its philosophical counterpart, however, algorithmic trade-offs occur silently. They are embedded in data proxies, optimization logic, and model design, and insulated from scrutiny by claims of technical neutrality. This Essay argues …

Social Justice Unionism: Intersectionality In The Twenty-First Century Workplace, Shirley Lin

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Parafamily, Christina Mulligan

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Data Property & Digital Sales, Christina Mulligan

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Gendered Liberty, Laura Portuondo

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Replacing This Old House: Certifying And Regulating New Legal Services Providers, Bruce A. Green, M. Ellen Murphy

Faculty Scholarship

This Article comprehensively examines the decisions that state courts must make, and have made to date, when they certify and regulate new categories of legal services providers: those individuals other than lawyers who are authorized to provide discrete legal services that the laws governing the unauthorized practice of law (UPL) generally reserve to lawyers.

In certifying new categories of legal services providers, courts must make an array of interrelated decisions. These include decisions about the rules for educational and testing requirements, the scope of services that legal services providers may offer, the conditions under which they may provide services, and …

Brief Of Professors Julian Arato, Rachel Brewster, Harlan Grant Cohen, David Singh Grewal, J. Benton Heath, Timothy Meyer, Gregory Shaffer, And Chantal Thomas As Amici Curiae In Support Of Petitioners In No. 24-1287 And Respondents In No. 25-250, Julian Arato, Rachel Brewster, Harlan Grant Cohen, David Singh Grewal, J. Benton Heath, Timothy Meyer, Gregory Shaffer, Chantal Thomas

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

A Historical Analysis Of Book Challenges And Banning In Louisiana, Janelle Zetty

Faculty Scholarship

This article explores the history of challenges and bans on library and school materials in Louisiana from 1938 to 2024. It provides context for recent legislation, particularly Act 436 of 2023. The article reviews incidents documented in newspaper articles and library publications, focusing on challenges related to race, sexual content, political views, and LGBTQ+ themes. It discusses the roles of librarians, school boards, and community groups in these circumstances. The historical challenges and book bans in Louisiana reveal a recurring pattern of moral and political arguments used to justify censorship. This pattern directly influences, and is echoed by, recent legislation, …

Commentary On Capture, Redesign, Release: Market Structure Or Charter Structure In Vice Markets?, Zephyr Teachout

Faculty Scholarship

This essay evaluates Taparia and Buchanan’s proposal to address the social costs of addiction-driven industries through a “capture, redesign, release” framework, under which government would exercise eminent domain to acquire tobacco firms and restructure them as purpose-driven corporations. The commentary argues that, while innovative, the proposal raises serious constitutional and corporate law concerns. First, the reliance on eminent domain is vulnerable under the Takings Clause, particularly given the Roberts Court’s likely skepticism toward expansive readings of Kelo v. City of New London. Second, the plan to prohibit corporate marketing and lobbying as part of a redesigned charter would almost …

Poor In Practical Capacity: How Environmental Alienation Is Really A Deficit Of Political Know-How, Jeremy Bendik-Keymer

Faculty Scholarship

“Alienation from nature” is a popular notion in Western environmental culture. Influential Anglophone critical theorist Steven Vogel claims that it makes no sense, unlike alienation from our productive capacity to dwell on Earth, called “alienation from the environment.” His criticism is accurate, but his view isn’t. The normative sets appropriate production and consists of social processes of arriving at norms. Politics is foremost among these processes, and it is fundamentally know-how. Given these assumptions, poor practical capacity ends up being the heart of “environmental alienation” – alienation from the built environment. Look at large-scale, anthropogenic, environmental change: a deficit of …

The Association Between Medication Adherence, Internalized Stigma And Social Support Among Outpatients With Major Depressive Disorder In A Malaysian Hospital: A Cross-Sectional Study, Martha Sajatovic

Faculty Scholarship

Background: Internalized stigma and medication non-adherence pose significant challenges for treating major depressive disorder (MDD), leading to disability, increased suicide risk, and morbidity. Limited data exists on modifiable factors associated with adherence in lower-resourced settings like Malaysia. This study aimed to investigate poor adherence prevalence and the demographic and clinical factors associated with poor medication adherence among patients with MDD. Methods: This cross-sectional survey recruited participants using universal sampling from a major hospital in Selangor, Malaysia. Participants answered questionnaires consisting of demographic and clinical information (medical history, duration of anti-depressant treatment for MDD, psychiatric ward admission history, and any medication …

The Great Unsettling: Administrative Governance After Loper Bright, Cary Coglianese, Daniel E. Walters

Faculty Scholarship

“Chevron is overruled.” These three words surely captured more attention than any others in the U.S. Supreme Court’s thirty-five-page opinion in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo. For forty years, the Chevron doctrine had been virtually synonymous with administrative law. Now that the Court has taken a step that many scholars thought unfathomable even just a few years ago, speculation abounds about the possible downstream impacts of Loper Bright on both what agencies will be able to do in the future and how lower courts will respond when reviewing agency action. The vast majority of early expert commentaries suggest …

From Race-Conscious To Race-Neutral: The Next Generation Of Litigation Over Selective Admissions, Rachel F. Moran

Faculty Scholarship

In the wake of the United States Supreme Court’s decision in Students for Fair Admissions v. President and Fellows of Harvard College, there have been fierce debates over the meaning of colorblindness in the higher education admissions process. Setting the stage for these controversies are recent lawsuits challenging changes to admissions policies at selective public high schools. In these cases, the plaintiffs allege that although school officials relied on facially race-neutral criteria, their actions were motivated by a desire to improve the representation of Black and Latino students. According to the complaints, these revised policies are an impermissible form …

An Introduction To U.S. Groundwater Law: Domestic And Transboundary Considerations, Caleb Cook, Gabriel Eckstein

Faculty Scholarship

In light of the scientific and historical factors that have shaped the development of groundwater law and policy, this chapter seeks to provide a primarily descriptive account of its current state in the United States and to lay a foundation for future efforts to address gaps in the regime. Section 8B.02 considers the importance of groundwater in modern American society, with a particular focus on its uses and the threats these resources face. Section 8B.03 describes the U.S. framework for the domestic governance of groundwater resources. Section 8B.04 describes the mechanisms for transboundary governance of groundwater between the United States …

The Macroalgal Composition Differs Among Depths And Zones In Cuban Mesophotic Coral Reef Ecosystems, Beatriz Martínez-Daranas, M. Dennis Hanisak, Patricia M. González-Sánchez, Stephanie Farrington, John K. Reed

Faculty Scholarship

Previously the algal community of Cuban mesophotic coral reef ecosystems (MCEs) has not been characterized quantitatively. The objective of this study was to explore the distribution of macroalgae around Cuba and their depth profiles within the mesophotic zone (30−150 m). Data on the algal community were obtained in 2017 during 43 ROV (remotely operated vehicle) dives around Cuba’s shelf. Scientists specializing in algal taxonomy watched the live ROV video on board the ship and recorded algal presence every ~5—10 min in a database. Algae were identified to the lowest possible taxa, and algal presence/absence was analyzed in 20 m depth …

When Is Free Speech “Beyond” The Constitution?, Abner S. Greene

Faculty Scholarship

The constitution of a nation without a state action doctrine might limit private restriction or compulsion of speech just as it limits the state. In such a nation, “free speech beyond the constitution” might not be a particularly meaningful concept. In the United States, however, the First Amendment’s free speech clause limits only what the federal, state, and local governments may do. As a nonconstitutional policy matter, it might or might not be a good idea for the government to impose First Amendment- like restrictions on private actors or for private actors to voluntarily impose First Amendment-like restrictions on themselves. …