Digital Commons Network^™

Seeking Alternatives To Marijuana Prohibition, Rachel Kiesel

Honors Program Theses

Marijuana legality is a highly controversial social issue. Although our society continues to be bombarded by negative images of drugs and crime in the media, cultural perceptions regarding marijuana have been changing over the past few years. Today, many people are more accepting of marijuana use than ever before. As a result of these shifting attitudes, several states have taken the initiative to pass new legislation on regulating marijuana with reduced restrictions.

Long Overdue: Utah’S Incomplete Approach To Eyewitness Identification And Suggestions For Reform, Steven J. Joffee

Utah Law Review

On January 17, 1985, Ronald Cotton, a twenty-two-year-old black man, was convicted of rape and sentenced to life in prison. That evening, his alleged victim, Jennifer Thompson, “toasted her victory with champagne.” Approximately six months earlier, in July of 1984, when Thompson was a twenty-two-year-old college student, a black male had broken into Thompson’s apartment, “held a knife to her throat, and forced her to submit to sexual intercourse.” During the course of the horrific attack, Thompson vowed to stay alert so that she could later help police catch her attacker and put him away forever. At one point during …

The Supreme Court's Post-Racial Turn Towards A Zero-Sum Understanding Of Equality, Helen Norton

Publications

The Supreme Court--along with the rest of the country--has long divided over the question whether the United States has yet achieved a 'post-racial" society in which race no longer matters in significant ways. How, if at all, this debate is resolved carries enormous implications for constitutional and statutory antidiscrimination law. Indeed, a post-racial discomfort with noticing and acting upon race supports a zero-sum approach to equality: if race no longer matters to the distribution of life opportunities, a decision maker's concern for the disparities experienced by members of one racial group may be seen as inextricable from its intent to …

Summum, The Vocality Of Public Places, And The Public Forum, Timothy Zick

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Regulating Charities In The Twenty-First Century: An Institutional Choice Analysis, Lloyd Hitoshi Mayer, Brendan M. Wilson

Journal Articles

For more than fifty years scholars, practitioners, and government officials have debated whether the federal government, the state governments, or the charitable sector itself can best ensure that charity leaders fulfill their fiduciary duties. The dramatic growth of this sector, recent highly publicized governance scandals, and a push in Congress and the IRS for more federal involvement in this area have now brought this issue to a head. This article lays a foundation for resolving the dispute by developing an institutional choice framework for considering and comparing the various available options. Applying that framework, the article concludes that the best …

Another Blow To Tribal Sovereignty: A Look At Cross-Jurisdictional Law-Enforcement Agreements Between Indian Tribes And Local Communities, Andrew G. Hill

American Indian Law Review

No abstract provided.

Lawyering And Learning In Problem-Solving Courts, Paul Holland

Faculty Articles

The introduction of Drug Courts and other problem-solving courts has brought significant change to the American criminal justice system. This change has required lawyers working in these courts to re-examine their role and to re-consider and re-calibrate the nature of their interactions and relationships with their clients and all of the other actors in the system. This article looks beyond the rhetorically charged debate that has marked these changes and offers instead a close examination of the actual experience of lawyers, judges, and most importantly, defendant-participants, in these courts. This examination demonstrates that many of the traditional values embedded in …

On (Cr)Edibility: Why Food In The United States May Never Be Safe, Denis Stearns

Faculty Articles

Most critiques of regulation are premised on the concepts of “free markets” and “market failures” as justifying, or not, the need for government interventions and control of the marketplace. Using the market for food as an example, this article questions not only the possibility of a buyer being a free actor when buying food, but also whether it is meaningful to speak in terms of a “free” market at all. One centerpiece of this questioning is the author’s coining of the term “(cr)edibility” to stand for the twinned ideas of credibility and edibility as defining the nature of all commercial …

Same-Sex Family Equality And Religious Freedom, Ira C. Lupu, Robert W. Tuttle

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

In the spring of 2009, the legislatures of Connecticut, Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont became the first in the U.S. to enact laws recognizing the legality of same-sex civil marriage. The legislation in all four states included provisions designed to protect the freedom of clergy and religious communities that do not want to recognize same-sex marriage. The legislation in several of the states also included provisions designed to insulate religious organizations from obligations that might arise from the legalization of same-sex marriage – for example, with respect to adoption or the provision of housing to married couples. Despite academic and …

Outsourcing Criminal Prosecution?: The Limits Of Criminal Justice Privatization, Roger A. Fairfax Jr.

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

In an era of scarce public resources, many jurisdictions are being forced to take drastic measures to address severe budgetary constraints on the administration of criminal justice. As prosecutors’ offices around the nation are being scaled back and enforcement priorities are being narrowed, one conceivable response is the outsourcing of the criminal prosecution function to private lawyers. Indeed, prosecution outsourcing currently is utilized in surprising measure by jurisdictions in the United States. This Article, prepared for the University of Chicago Legal Forum Symposium on Crime, Criminal Law, and the Recession, argues that the outsourcing trend in criminal justice – seen …

Regulatory Blowout: How Regulatory Failures Made The Bp Disaster Possible, And How The System Can Be Fixed To Avoid A Recurrence, Robert L. Glicksman

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

The BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is destined to take its place as one of the greatest environmental disasters in the history of the United States, or for that matter, of the entire planet. Like so many other disasters on that list, it was entirely preventable.

BP must shoulder its share of the blame, of course. Similarly, the Minerals Management Service (MMS) – since reorganized and rebranded – has come under much deserved criticism for its failure to rein in BP’s avaricious approach to drilling even where it was unable to respond to a worst-case scenario in …

The Role Of Probation And Parole Officers In The Collaborative Response To Sex Offenders, Brian K. Payne, Matthew Demichele

Sociology & Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

The article presents the curriculum for training community corrections professionals on how to deal with low-level/low-risk sex offenders, with emphasis on the role of various agencies in the collaborative response system. The role of probation and parole officers as the sex offender's external conscience is explained as well as the duties of law enforcement officers in responding to sex offenses. Jail staff may become involved by being court staff, prison staff and treatment staff.

Open Source Drug Development: A Path To More Accessible Drugs And Diagnostics?, Emily Marden

Minnesota Journal of Law, Science & Technology

No abstract provided.

Dwi Source Code Motions After Underdahl, David Liebow

Minnesota Journal of Law, Science & Technology

No abstract provided.

Spatially Heterogeneous Estimates Of Fire Frequency In Ponderosa Pine Forests Of Washington, Usa, James T. Kernan, Amy E. Hessl

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Many fire history studies have evaluated the temporal nature of fire regimes using fire interval statistics calculated from fire scars. More recently, researchers have begun to evaluate the spatial properties of past fires as well. In this paper, we describe a technique for investigating spatio-temporal variability using a geographic information system (GIS). We used a dataset of fire-scarred trees collected from four sites in eastern Washington, USA, ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa C. Lawson) forests. The patterns of past fires recorded by individual trees (points) were converted to two-dimensional representations of fire with inverse distance weighting (IDW) in a GIS. …

A Little Unwell: Madness In The World Of Tennessee Williams, Sarah Lynn Dickey

Honors Theses

Tennessee Williams is a prolific playwright and an American literary icon. He is second only to Shakespeare in the amount of scholarly analyses of his work. Although I am writing my thesis in a crowded field, I am pursuing a fresh topic by studying madness in Williams' works, specifically the subcategories of Eccentrics/Acutes and Chronics - a construct put forth in the novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey. By applying Cuckoo's Nest and other texts involving madness to Tennessee Williams’ plays, I will explore the character of the mad individual, the impact of society upon the …

The Courts Must Stay Open: Continuity Of Operations Plans For The Courts, Nanci Tullis

Research Papers

No abstract provided.

Administering The Second Amendment: Law, Politics, And Taxonomy , Nicholas J. Johnson

Faculty Scholarship

This article anticipates the post-McDonald landscape by assessing the right to arms in the context of several state regulations and the arguments that might be employed as challenges to them unfold. So far, the core test for determining the scope of the individual right to arms is the common use standard articulated in District of Columbia v. Heller. Measured against that, standard firearm regulations fit into three categories. The first category contains laws that are easily administered under the common use standard. The second category – and the primary focus of this article – consists of laws that can be …

Setting The Rules Of Play: Network Video Game Policies And Regulations In China, Zixue Tai

Iowa Journal of Communication

By situating online game regulations against the backdrop of the grand scheme of Internet information control, this paper offers a comprehensive, in-depth overview of the regulatory framework wherein the Chinese online video game industry operates. The topics analyzed include the bureaucratic regulatory structure, the ground rules for Web cafes operations, the complicated set of controversial market entry conditions and qualifications for online game distribution services as well as the multitude of concerted official measures and state-centered initiatives with the intent to foster particular genres of patriotic, morally-uplifting game titles and to build a core list of national production clusters.

Benchmarking And Evaluating The Comparative Efficiency Of Urban Paratransit Systems In The United States: A Data Envelopment Analysis Approach, Hokey Min, Thomas E. Lambert

Faculty and Staff Scholarship

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990 encouraged public transit authorities to reassess the way they serve aging populations and physically handicapped individuals requiring door-to-door services. As the demand for paratransit services rose dramatically the last few years due to a growing number of aging baby-boomers and injured Iraq-Afghanistan War veterans, many public transit authorities have been faced with the dilemma of meeting the growing demand while controlling costs in times of ongoing budget crises. To help public transit authorities better cope with such a dilemma, this paper evaluates the comparative operating efficiency of 75 selected paratransit agencies in …

Keynote Address: Enhancing The Justice Mission In The Exercise Of Prosecutorial Discretion, Ellen Yaroshefsky

Hofstra Law Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Self -Blood Pressure Monitoring, Stage Of Change, Medication Adherence, Self -Efficacy And Blood Pressure Control In Hypertensive Workers, Tonya Breaux-Shropshire

All ETDs from UAB

No abstract provided.

Choosing One: Resolving The Epidemic Of Multiples In Assisted Reproduction, Theresa Glennon

Villanova Law Review (1956 - )

No abstract provided.

Self-Blood Pressure Monitoring, Stage Of Change, Medication Adherence, Self-Efficacy And Blood Pressure Control In Hypertensive Workers, Tonya Lynn Breaux-Shropshire

All ETDs from UAB

ABSTRACT According to the World Health Organization, hypertension is the leading cause of death in the world and it is one of the primary reasons patients seek health care. Prior to 2010, uncontrolled blood pressure (BP) rates were approximately 18%, despite the fact that prescribed medical treatment is available to adequately control patients' BP. It has been established that medication adherence is a major factor in controlling BP, and self-BP monitoring is highly recommended by the national guideline to improve blood pressure control. However, information related to assessing hypertensive patients' readiness to engage in health care treatment and self-monitoring is …

Pre-Disaster Planning For Transportation Infrastructure Recovery, Stephanie Victoria Watson

All ETDs from UAB

The US is dependent upon a functioning transportation network for many aspects of daily life, and those aspects that become largely important during times of disaster. For example, emergency medical response is a crucial activity that relies upon a functioning transportation network during regular daily operations as well as during times of emergency. The US has experienced several natural and manmade devastating events within the past decade including the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, Hurricanes Ivan, Katrina and Rita, and record flooding in Tennessee. When disasters occur, the potential of disrupting various infrastructures either individually or simultaneously exists. During a …

Cognitive-Behavioral Intervention To Enhance Communication Skills For Cancer Patients, Heather Prayor-Patterson

All ETDs from UAB

Introduction: With nearly 12 million Americans living with or having a history of cancer, the patient-doctor communication process is especially important for this population. Cancer patients are often dissatisfied with the quality of the information they receive regarding their treatment, side effects, symptom control, and the quality of the relationship with their healthcare provider. A patient's self-efficacy during patient-doctor interactions influences the level of trust in his/her doctor, satisfaction with care, and the type of information exchanged. Studies have focused on intervening in patient communication, but there are limitations in the literature, including a focus on improving self-efficacy, addressing communication …

The Story Of Bob Jones University V. United States: Race, Religion, And Congress' Extraordinary Acquiescence, Olatunde C.A. Johnson

Faculty Scholarship

On May 25, 1983, the Supreme Court ruled 8-1 that the United States Internal Revenue Service (IRS) had authority to deny tax-exempt status to Bob Jones University, Goldsboro Christian School, and other private and religious schools with racially discriminatory educational policies. The Court relied on the statute’s broad purpose and placed significant weight on Congress’ failure to enact legislation to overturn the IRS policy. A complete account of the legislative history, provided here, both supports and undercuts the Court’s opinion. More importantly, this story provides an account of the dynamic interaction among a Supreme Court critical of racial integration, a …

Street Stops And Broken Windows Revisited: The Demography And Logic Of Proactive Policing In A Safe And Changing City, Jeffrey A. Fagan, Amanda Geller, Garth Davies, Valerie West

Faculty Scholarship

This chapter examines the development of “order maintenance policing” in New York City. It studies the stop-and-frisk activities of New York City police officers by examining temporal and spatial patterns of stops from 1999, 2003, and 2006. Findings reveal that stop rates have increased by 500 percent since 1999 despite little change in crime rates Stop activity was greatest in poor and minority communities, and stop patterns were more closely tied to demographic and social conditions than to disorder or crime. The efficiency of stops, measured as “hit rates,” dropped considerably, with the sharpest declines occurring in minority neighborhoods. Overall, …

Preserving Human Potential As Freedom: A Framework For Regulating Epigenetic Harms, Fazal Khan

Scholarly Works

Epigenetics is a rapidly evolving scientific field of inquiry examining how a wide range of environmental, social, and nutritional exposures can dramatically control how genes are expressed without changing the underlying DNA. Research has demonstrated that epigenetics plays a large role in human development and in disease causation. In a sense, epigenetics blurs the distinction between “nature” and “nurture” as experiences (nurture) become a part of intrinsic biology (nature). Remarkably, some epigenetic modifications are durable across generations, meaning that exposures from our grandparents’ generation might affect our health now, even if we have not experienced the same exposures. In the …

The Contradictions Of Juvenile Crime & Punishment, Jeffery Fagan

Faculty Scholarship

Juvenile incarceration in the United States is, at first glance, distinctly different from its adult counterpart. While some juvenile facilities retain the iconic aesthetic of adult incarceration – orange jumpsuits, large cellblocks, uniformed guards, barbed wire, and similar heavy security measures – others have trappings and atmospherics more reminiscent of boarding schools, therapeutic communities, or small college campuses. These compact, benign settings avoid the physical stigmata of institutional life and accord some autonomy of movement and intimacy in relations with staff. They also give primacy to developmentally appropriate and therapeutic interventions.