Digital Commons Network^™

Passwords And Keys Under The Dmca: A Call For Clarification From The Courts Or Congress, Lindsey M. Shinn

UC Law Journal

While the DMCA was passed to protect copyrighted content in the digital age, the cases interpreting the statutory terms "circumvention" and "authorization" are inconsistent. The courts have staked out two poles on what does and does not constitute circumvention under the DMCA: aftermarket parts that run items like garage doors do not circumvent, but code that allows an unanticipated device to play a CD is a circumvention. This Note explores the surprising consequences of carrying the reasoning of each of these lines of cases to their logical conclusions. The most unsettled area naturally falls in the middle-in the cases of …

Introduction: The Second Amendment After Heller, Hastings Law Journal

UC Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Heller, High Water (Mark)? Lower Courts And The New Right To Keep And Bear Arms, Brannon P. Denning, Glenn H. Reynolds

UC Law Journal

In the wake of District of Columbia v. Heller, lower courts have entertained a number of challenges to myriad federal, state, and local gun-control laws. Not surprisingly, given language in Heller seemingly intended to forestall some claims, courts have not, to date, invalidated federal or state gun-control laws that fall short of D.C.'s near-prohibition on private gun ownership. While the lower court cases to date confirm our earlier predictions that lower courts would not run wild with Heller, it is not clear that Heller was a purely symbolic victory either. Governments now find themselves legislating in the shadow of Heller; …

Heller, Citizenship, And The Right To Serve In The Military, Elizabeth L. Hillman

UC Law Journal

District of Columbia v. Heller could prove a turning point not in the law governing the right to keep and bear arms, but governing the right to serve in the military. Heller's reasoning, notwithstanding the Court's efforts to constrain its analysis from reaching a right to serve, should lead to a reconsideration of military service as a broadly-held and long-recognized constitutional right. Because of the political meaning of military service and the changes that have altered the role and make-up of the military in the United States, the Second Amendment ought to be read, in the wake of Heller, as …

Supply Restrictions At The Margins Of Heller And The Abortion Analogue: Stenberg Principles, Assault Weapons, And The Attitudinalist Critique, Nicholas J. Johnson

UC Law Journal

Through a consideration of the assault weapons question, this Article engages the criticism that District of Columbia v. Heller provides an insufficient standard for resolving many questions that emerge under the newly-clarified Second Amendment. After arguing that assault weapons might enjoy threshold protection under Heller's common-use test, the Article shows how the principles grounding the Supreme Court's abortion jurisprudence are especially suited for resolving aspects of the question that Heller does not explicitly answer. Particularly, this Article shows how constitutional protection of the best methodology for preserving life or health-advanced by the liberal wing of the Court in abortion jurisprudence-is …

Second Amendment Limitations And Criminological Considerations, Don B. Kates, Clayton E. Cramer

UC Law Journal

Criminological studies which identify perpetrator characteristics are unanimous in finding that almost all murderers fall into three categories: (i) the mentally disturbed, and/or (2) adults with criminal records, and/or (3) juveniles with juvenile records. Many murder perpetrators exhibit two or all three characteristics. Thus laws such as the ones Heller invalidated that seek to disarm the general population have minimal value and deprive victims of the means of self-defense.

The Second Amendment does not guarantee: (i) weapons of indiscriminate destructiveness such as cannons, (2) any right of violent felons or of other felons whom legislatures reasonably identify as likely to …

The Good Faith Exception As Applied To Illegal Predicate Searches: A Free Pass To Institutional Ignorance, Andrew Z. Lipson

UC Law Journal

The Supreme Court recently clarified the scope of the good faith exception to the exclusionary rule in Herring v. United States. The Court's decision, however, did not address whether the good faith exception should apply to illegal predicate searches. Illegal predicate searches are searches where a police officer misapplies the law and conducts an illegal search that yields evidence later used to obtain a search warrant. There is currently a circuit split on the application of the good faith exception to situations where there has been an illegal predicate search. Some circuits have held that even though the searching officer …

Four Exceptions In Search Of A Theory: District Of Columbia V. Heller And Judicial Ipse Dixit, Carlton F. W. Larson

UC Law Journal

This Symposium Essay examines the Supreme Court's Second Amendment decision in District of Columbia v. Heller. Specifically, the Essay examines four exceptions to the right to bear arms that the Court specifically approved: (i) laws disarming felons, (2) laws disarming the mentally ill, (3) laws prohibiting the possession of firearms in sensitive places, and (4) laws regulating the commercial sale of firearms. The Essay argues that these exceptions cannot be completely justified on originalist grounds, at least under the form of originalism that the Court is likely to employ. The Court's approach seems to require specific historical justifications for the …

Heller And Nonlethal Weapons, Craig S. Lerner, Nelson Lund

UC Law Journal

Two important opinions in the past decade, both written by Justice Antonin Scalia, have sought to apply originalist jurisprudence to constitutional issues raised by technologies that were unknown at the time of the founding. In Kyllo v. United States, the Court held that using sense-enhancing technology to obtain information about the interior of a home, even without a physical intrusion, constitutes a Fourth Amendment search, at least if the technology is not "in general public use." This rule appropriately preserves the privacy that could only have been violated by a trespass in 1791. In District of Columbia v. Heller, the …

The Passion Over Perpetua: A New Approach To The Passio Perpetuae Et Felicitatis, Eric Poche

LSU Master's Theses

Although the Passio Santarum Perpetuae et Felicitatis has received much scholarly attention in the past twenty years, it has been used primarily as a source of information on the martyr Perpetua. Other aspects of the account, such as its Montanist theology and its unique portrayal of women have been largely ignored by scholars interested in tearing it apart for relavent information on Perpetua. The Passio contains three distinct portions, each produced by a member from the religious community of Carthage in the early third-century C.E. It therefore serves as a unique historical window into early Christian North Africa, displaying a …

Second Amendment Decision Rules, Calvin Massey

UC Law Journal

In District of Columbia v. Heller, the Supreme Court determined that the Second Amendment protects an individual right to bear arms for self-defense. That right is a constitutional operative rule: We know it exists but we have little idea of its boundaries. Constitutional decision rules, whether they be tiered scrutiny, multi-factor analytical tests, categorical rules, or something else, function to enable courts, lawyers, and citizens to understand the dimensions of any given right. Because the Court has announced a new constitutional operative rule without providing much guidance concerning the applicable constitutional decision rules, this Essay is an effort to identify …

The Bill Of Rights And The States Revisited After Heller, Michael Kent Curtis

UC Law Journal

In this Article, Professor Curtis discusses textual and historical support for application of the Bill of Rights to the States, the mess the Supreme Court made of application in its early cases, and the implication of application for the right to bear arms. Finally, he notes the likely irony of application of the Second Amendment to the states by "conservative" Justices. Application will be ironic in light of harsh past criticism of application by so many who characterized themselves as "conservative." After application, the emerging and very difficult issue will be the deference the Court gives to state and local …

Closing The Tax Gap: Encouraging Voluntary Compliance Through Mass-Media Publication Of High-Profile Tax Issues, Elizabeth Branham

UC Law Journal

In 2001, the IRS estimated the gross tax gap was approximately $345 billion dollars. Each dollar not collected represents lost revenue for the federal government, the collection of which would be contributed to federally-funded public works. Within the tax gap, underreporting of individual income represented over half of uncollected revenue. Among that group of noncompliant taxpayers, most are generally not subject to third-party reporting and are therefore capable of choosing to file or to evade. This Note discusses the impact of high-profile tax prosecutions on social norms and values as an avenue to address and encourage voluntary compliance.

Why Didn't The Supreme Court Take My Advice In The Heller Case - Some Speculative Responses To An Egocentric Question, Sanford Levinson

UC Law Journal

There were a number of argumentative routes by which the Supreme Court could have reached the same basic result as was announced in the Heller case, i.e., the invalidation of the de facto prohibition of private handgun ownership in the District of Columbia. One of them was adoption of the approach suggested by Solicitor General Paul Clement (though he explicitly suggested remanding the case back to the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia for consideration in light of a somewhat different standard of review, that could have easily led to the same outcome). The brief that he submitted …

The Procedural Annihilation Of Structural Rights, Steven G. Gey

UC Law Journal

For several years, the Supreme Court has been systematically erecting obstacles to the litigation of constitutional claims in federal court. Although this trend toward limiting federal court authority affects all types of constitutional claims, including those involving traditional individual constitutional rights, the most serious effect is on what can be called "structural rights." The term "structural rights" describes constitutional provisions that are designed to protect the basic nature of democratic government. These provisions constrain the power of the elected branches of government, preserve citizen autonomy, and otherwise ensure that political winners in the democratic process do not use their power …

Collective Confusion: Flsa Collective Actions, Rule 23 Class Actions, And The Rules Enabling Act, Daniel C. Lopez

UC Law Journal

This Note explores the procedural contours of hybrid actions: Combined state law optout Rule 23 class actions and Fair Labor Standards Act opt-in collective actions in one lawsuit. The Note contains four parts. Part I examines the history of the FLSA, the Portal-to-Portal Act of 1947, and Rule 23. Part II provides a brief procedural guide to the collective action and class action certification processes. Part III surveys published federal court cases and ultimately posits that hybrid actions violate the Rules Enabling Act. Finally, Part IV urges Congress to abolish collective actions by repealing § 2I6(b) of the FLSA. In …

"Trap"Ing Roe In Indiana And A Common-Ground Alternative, Dawn E. Johnsen

Articles by Maurer Faculty

Public discourse over abortion overwhelmingly focuses on whether the Supreme Court will overrule Roe v. Wade and states will again ban abortion. But at least since 1992, when the Court in Planned Parenthood v. Casey reaffirmed Roe's "central holding," certain moderate- sounding abortion restrictions - sometimes framed as reasonable compromise regulations - have posed a greater threat to women's reproductive health and liberty. This Essay examines one increasingly popular form of restriction: laws that regulate providers of abortion services in the name of advancing women's health, without actual health justification. Little-noted efforts to enact such restrictions in Indiana, during the …

The Hangman's Noose And The Lynch Mob: Hate Speech And The Jena Six, Jeannine Bell

Articles by Maurer Faculty

Taking the hangman's noose hanging in Jena, Louisiana in 2006 as a starting point, this Article begins by placing the hanging of a noose in historical context. The Article then proceeds to explore contemporary manifestations of noose hanging in the workplace, in schools and other settings. The Article examines noose hangings that occurred around the country since the display in Jena to explore the social meaning of a noose. Also examined are media constructions of noose hanging and the perception that some Blacks targeted by noose hanging have had of these incidents. The article concludes with a victim based reasonable …

Rethinking Consideration In The Electronic Age, Robert A. Hillman, Maureen A. O'Rourke

UC Law Journal

Our fast-paced age of electronic agreements that ostensibly govern transactions as diverse as downloading software, ordering goods, and engaging in collaborative development projects raises questions regarding the suitability of contract law as the appropriate legal framework. While this question arises in many settings, we focus here on the free and open source software (FOSS) movement because of the maturity and success of its model and the ubiquity of its software. We explore in particular whether open source licenses are supported by consideration, and argue that they are, and that open source licenses are contracts. We further argue that a contractual …

"No-Prejudice" No More: New York And The Death Of The No-Prejudice Rule, Eric Tausend

UC Law Journal

States differ in how they treat situations where an insured has not timely notified its insurer after an accident, claim, or loss. While the majority of states apply the "noticeprejudice" rule (which requires an insurer to show that the late notice prejudiced it before it can disclaim coverage), a minority of states apply the common law "noprejudice" rule, which allows an insurer to disclaim coverage after late notice, regardless of whether it has been prejudiced. Until recently, New York State was one of the most zealous adherents to the no-prejudice rule, rigidly applying it and ignoring the often inequitable results. …

Choice Of Law In Cross-Border Torts: Why Plaintiffs Win And Should, Symeon C. Symeonides

UC Law Journal

This Article is the first comprehensive study of how American courts have resolved conflicts of laws arising from cross-border torts over the last four decades. This period coincides with the confluence of two independent forces: (i) a dramatic increase in the frequency and complexity of cross-border torts generated by the spectacular expansion of cross-border activity now known as globalization; and (2) the advent of the American choice-of-law revolution, which succeeded in demolishing the old regime in forty-two U.S. jurisdictions, but failed to replace it with anything resembling a unified system.

One of the findings of the Article is that, despite …

Transparency, 2009, Eugene R. Fidell

UC Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Leadership Survival And The Process Of Economic Integration, Schuyler Richard Porche

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The central contribution of this dissertation to political science is explaining the role of leadership survival theory in shaping the political process of initiation, broadening, deepening, and failure of economic integration agreements by nation states. The empirical research involves the creation of a dataset recording changes in economic integration for the period 1950-1999 and utilizing advanced quantitative methods to study the process. Most existing research focuses on the initiation of trade agreements. I demonstrate that the process of economic integration agreements among polities is shaped by iterated political interaction at both the domestic and international levels. The critical test in …

Michael Martin And The Moral Argument For God's Existence, Robert Keith Loftin

LSU Master's Theses

Theism, that is, belief in the existence of God, has, over the last forty or so years, been making a quiet comeback. Whereas for several decades the “death of God” was heralded—culminating, perhaps, with Time magazine’s April 8, 1966, title: “Is God Dead?”—philosophers are once again vigorously debating the rationality of theistic belief. Emerging from amid this renaissance is an increasing number of publications treating the various so-called “theistic proofs” or arguments for God’s existence. These arguments are part of the project of natural theology, that is, the project of establishing the rationality of theistic belief apart from appeal to …

Populations Of Vibrio Vulnificus And Vibrio Parahaemolyticus In Breton Sound And Barataria Bay, Brian William Matherne

LSU Master's Theses

Vibrio vulnificus and Vibrio parahaemolyticus are halophilic gram-negative bacteria that are found in warm coastal waters. These two species are the leading cause of fatal shellfish poisoning. The objective of this study was to determine the population dynamics of V. vulnificus and V. parahaemolyticus as impacted by temperature and salinity in Breton Sound and Barataria Bay of Louisiana. Water samples were collected from each water body along s salinity gradient transect monthly from September 2007 through July 2009. Furthermore, from March 2008 through July 2009 sediment and live oyster samples were collected exclusively from the Breton Sound. The population of …

Slab-On-Girder Prestressed Concrete Bridges: Linear And Nonlinear Finite Element Analysis And Experimental Load Tests, Marcio Costa Araujo

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

“A diaphragm is a transverse stiffener, which is placed between girders in order to maintain section geometry”, (AASHTO, 2002). Intermediate diaphragms, usually placed at the midspan or third points of a bridge, are thought to contribute to the overall distribution of live loads in bridges. Cast-in-place concrete intermediate diaphragms were investigated in this study in order to assess their load distribution effectiveness in prestressed concrete I-girder bridges. Finite element packages (Ansys and GT STRUDL) were used to perform the analyses for multiple bridge configurations, including a parametric study of span length, girder spacing, and concrete strength. It was found that …

Certification: Implications For Sustainable Forest Management And Timber Export Trade In Ghana, Abraham Baffoe

LSU Master's Theses

Forestry is a major contributor to the Ghanaian economy and has the potential to increase its contribution if a number of challenges are overcome. Over the past 15 years, Ghana has modified its forest policies, laws, and regulations, but still faces serious challenges with illegal logging and unsustainable forest management. At the same time, Ghana’s major wood product trading partner, the European Union (EU), is requesting that Ghana, under the Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA), ensures that wood products from Ghana to the EU are legally produced. Additionally, several EU wood product importers have requested their suppliers in Ghana to meet …

Global Positioning System In Curved Space-Time And Other Applications Of General Relativity, Argenis Daniel Da Silva

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

In this work, we present some applications of the theory of General Relativity. First, we show a numerical scheme to account for relativistic effects in the Global Positioning System. Then, a couple of applications of astrophysical interest are worked out. These are the study of the gravitational collapse of stars and the dynamical evolution of a three-dimensional Einstein-Klein-Gordon field.

Regulation Of Adipose Tissue Metabolism By Nfkb P65 In Transgenic Mice, Tianyi Tang

LSU Master's Theses

Inflammation has been widely reported to regulate adipocyte functions in adipose tissue. Our early study suggests that NFkB signaling pathway is activated by inflammation and involved in inhibition of insulin sensitivity in adipocytes. NFkB was found to inhibit PPARg function through several possible mechanisms in 3T3-L1 adipocytes. To test this possibility in vivo, we increased the NFkB activity in adipocytes in transgenic mice by expression of NFkB p65 subunit under the aP2 gene promoter. The phenotype study shows that the food intake, physical activity and development are similar in the two groups. The reproductivity was not different in the two …

An Investigation Of Creative Potential In High School Musicians: Recognizing, Promoting, And Assessing Creative Ability Through Music Composition, Elizabeth Menard

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Student attitudes and teacher perceptions regarding creativity, composition, and its assessment possibilities were investigated using mixed-method techniques in two differing high school music programs. A Talented Music Program, providing accelerated instruction to gifted musicians (with composition instruction) and a typical performance based band program (composition never taught) were examined. Students participated in a six-week composition program. Final compositions were evaluated by differing judging groups: teachers, students, and expert composers. Data were collected through interviews, observations, attitude surveys, student and teacher journals, and composition assessment. Analysis of teacher perceptions revealed themes indentifying challenges to creativity development in high school classrooms: tradition …