Digital Commons Network^™

Proportionality Lost? The Rise Of Enforcement-Based Equity In The Deportation System And Its Limitations, Jason A. Cade

Scholarly Works

This article briefly explains and critiques the legal framework that has made enforcement discretion the primary means of injecting proportionality and fairness into the modern deportation system. The article provides an overview of shifting approaches to this enforcement discretion under the Obama and Trump administrations, and describes some of the key Supreme Court jurisprudence interpreting this framework.

Criminal Law As Family Law, Andrea L. Dennis

Scholarly Works

The criminal justice system has expanded dramatically over the last several decades, extending its reach into family life. This expansion has disproportionately and negatively impacted Black communities and social networks, including Black families. Despite these pervasive shifts, legal scholars have virtually ignored the intersection of criminal, family, and racial justice. This Article explores the gap in literature in two respects. First, the Article weaves together criminal law, family law, and racial justice by cataloging ways in which the modern criminal justice state regulates family life, particularly for Black families. Second, the Article examines the depth of criminal justice interference in …

Green Home Standards: Information And Incentives, James Smith

Scholarly Works

The “green building” movement began in the United States during the 1990s. In its early stages, reformers focused on minimizing adverse environmental impacts from major public, institutional, and commercial buildings. Private-sector organizations developed voluntary standards to promote green building practices, the most prominent being LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design). More recently, widespread interest in residential green building has developed. Several organizations having developed voluntary green home standards. A standard promulgated by the federal government, the Energy Star Certified Home, has achieved substantial market success during the past decade. This article describes and assesses the Energy Star Home and …

Chevron In The Circuit Courts, Kent H. Barnett, Christopher J. Walker

Scholarly Works

This Article presents findings from the most comprehensive empirical study to date on how the federal courts of appeals have applied Chevron deference—the doctrine under which courts defer to a federal agency’s reasonable interpretation of an ambiguous statute that it administers. Based on 1,558 agency interpretations the circuit courts reviewed from 2003 through 2013 (where they cited Chevron), we found that the circuit courts overall upheld 71% of interpretations and applied Chevron deference 77% of the time. But there was nearly a twenty-five-percentage-point difference in agency-win rates when the circuit courts applied Chevron deference than when they did not. Among …

Adjudicating Religious Sincerity, Nathan Chapman

Scholarly Works

Recent disputes about the “contraception mandate” under the Affordable Care Act and about the provision of goods and services for same-sex weddings have drawn attention to the law of religious accommodations. So far, however, one of the requirements of a religious accommodation claim has escaped sustained scholarly attention: a claimant must be sincere. Historically, scholars have contested this requirement on the ground that adjudicating religious sincerity requires government officials to delve too deeply into religious questions, something the Establishment Clause forbids. Until recently, however, the doctrine was fairly clear: though the government may not evaluate the objective accuracy or plausibility …

Who Has Standing To Sue The President Over Allegedly Unconstitutional Emoluments?, Matthew I. Hall

Scholarly Works

Three pending lawsuits challenge President Trump's practice of accepting payments and other benefits from foreign governments through his businesses as violative of the Foreign Emoluments Clause. They also allege that the President's practice of accepting payments and benefits from state or federal governmental units violates the Domestic Emoluments Clause. These actions raise interesting questions about the meaning of two little-discussed provisions of the Constitution. But before reaching the merits the courts will first have to grapple with issues of justiciability - in particular, with the question whether plaintiffs have "standing" to bring their claims in federal court. This article explains …

“New Judgment” And The Federal Habeas Statutes, Thomas V. Burch

Scholarly Works

Prisoners love to file habeas petitions. Maybe a little too much. That is why Congress drafted the federal habeas statutes to preclude prisoners from filing “second or successive” petitions attacking their judgments. This essay explains the shortcomings of how some courts have assessed that meaning, and it proposes a straightforward test for determining when a new judgment exists.

Environmental Law, Eleventh Circuit Survey, Travis M. Trimble

Scholarly Works

In 2016, the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit addressed, for the second time, whether the Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) acted arbitrarily when it issued Nationwide Permit 21 (NWP 21), which authorizes dredge and fill activities by surface mining operations and applies differing standards to grandfathered operations and new operations. The court held that the Corps did not, and it upheld the permit. Also, the Eleventh Circuit held that the National Park Service did not act improperly under the Wilderness Act when it reduced the number of acres it considered to be eligible for designation as …

Which Supreme Court Cases Influenced Recent Supreme Court Ip Decisions? A Citation Study, Joseph S. Miller

Scholarly Works

The U.S. Supreme Court has decided an increasing number of intellectual property cases — especially patent cases — over the last several terms. Which prior cases influence the stated reasoning in these recent Supreme Court IP cases? A handful of citation studies of supreme courts in the U.S., both state and federal, conducted over the last 40 years suggest that the Court would most often cite its own prior cases; that it would cite its more recent cases more often than its older cases; and that a small number of its prior cases would receive a large share of the …

Different Lyrics, Same Song: Watts, Ferguson, And The Stagnating Effect Of The Politics Of Law And Order, Lonnie T. Brown

Scholarly Works

This Article critically examines the Watts riots and their aftermath in comparison to the Ferguson situation, and demonstrates how little progress America has made in a span of fifty years in the area of race relations. More importantly, the Article points to the politics of “law and order” as the primary culprit for this static social condition.

Decriminalizing Childhood, Andrea L. Dennis

Scholarly Works

Even though the number of juveniles arrested, tried and detained has recently declined, there are still a large number of delinquency cases, children under supervision by state officials, and children living in state facilities for youth and adults. Additionally, any positive developments in juvenile justice have not been evenly experienced by all youth. Juveniles living in urban areas are more likely to have their cases formally processed in the juvenile justice system rather than informally resolved. Further, the reach of the justice system has a particularly disparate effect on minority youth who tend to live in heavily-policed urban areas.

The …

The Wrong Decision At The Wrong Time: Utah V. Strieff In The Era Of Aggressive Policing, Julian A. Cook

Scholarly Works

On June 20, 2016, the United States Supreme Court held in Utah v. Strieff that evidence discovered incident to an unconstitutional arrest of an individual should not be suppressed given that the subsequent discovery of an outstanding warrant attenuated the taint from the unlawful detention. Approximately two weeks later the issue of aggressive policing was again thrust into the national spotlight when two African-American individuals — Alton Sterling and Philando Castile — were killed by policemen in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and Falcon Heights, Minnesota, respectively, under questionable circumstances. Though connected by proximity in time, this article will demonstrate that these …

The Forest And The Trees: What Educational Purposes Can A Course On Christian Legal Thought Serve?, Randy Beck

Scholarly Works

In this short essay, I want to consider the educational purposes a course in Christian legal thought might serve. How could having such a course in the curriculum help accomplish the goals of legal education? One can understand why a law school with a Christian identity would want to offer this sort of course. Such law schools embrace a theology that helps adherents make sense of the world, including the world of human law. The less obvious question I want to consider is why a law school that does not subscribe to a particular theological understanding of the world (or …

Industry Lobbying And "Interest Blind" Access Norms At International Organizations, Melissa J. Durkee

Scholarly Works

The standard approach of many international organizations (IOs) to non-governmental associations makes no formal distinctions between nonprofit private sector groups, known as trade or industry associations, and public interest groups. Thus, most IOs offer accreditation and access to both kinds of group on equal terms, without differentiating between them. I call this approach “interest blind” and use this short essay to examine its origins and consequences. Specifically, the approach has resulted in robust participation in international governance by industry and trade lobbying groups, which can affect the quality of deliberation at IOs and of the information that international officials and …

The Grand Jury: A Shield Of A Different Sort, R. Michael Cassidy, Julian A. Cook

Scholarly Works

According to the Washington Post, 991 people were shot to death by police officers in the United States during calendar year 2015, and 957 people were fatally shot in 2016. A disproportionate percentage of the citizens killed in these police-civilian encounters were black. Events in Ferguson, Missouri; Chicago, Illinois; Charlotte, North Carolina; Baton Rouge, Louisiana; and Staten Island, New York - to name but a few affected cities - have now exposed deep distrust between communities of color and law enforcement. Greater transparency is necessary to begin to heal this culture of distrust and to inform the debate going forward …

Teaching The Law Of American Health Care, Elizabeth Weeks, Nicole Huberfeld, Kevin Outterson

Scholarly Works

In writing our casebook, The Law of American Health Care, we started from scratch, rethinking the topics to include and themes around which to organize them. Like many health law professors, we were schooled in and continued to propound the traditional themes of cost, quality, access, and choice. While those concerns certainly pervade many areas of health care law, our casebook's overarching themes emphasize different issues, namely: federalism, individual rights, fiduciary relationships, the modem administrative state, and market regulation. These new themes, we believe, better capture the range of issues and topics essential for the new generation of health lawyers. …

An Analysis Of 2013 Program Evaluation Proposals For The School Leadership Preparation Program, Karen Sanzo

Educational Leadership & Workforce Development Faculty Publications

This article presents a content analysis of the 2013 School Leadership Program (SLP) grants. SLP projects provide a unique opportunity for participants in the field to explore innovative leadership preparation and development and their impact on program participants, schools, school districts, and students. The article begins with an overview of the SLP, the changing field of leadership preparation, and current research in the field. Findings then reveal a range of evaluation tools, methods, and data, the presence of myriad evaluators participating in the projects, and little focus on external dissemination of program evaluation methods beyond the scope of the projects. …

The Mental Health Benefits Of Having Dogs On College Campuses, Trenton Adams, Catherine Clark, Victoria Crowell, Kolleen Duffy, Margaret Green, Selena Mcewen, Allison Wrape, Frank Hammonds

Modern Psychological Studies

College can be a stressful time for many, especially those dealing with problems like stress, anxiety, and depression. While colleges and universities typically offer counseling services, many students who could benefit do not take advantage of them. Research suggests that animals may play an important role in some forms of treatment for conditions such as anxiety, stress, and depression. A recent trend on college campuses is to offer opportunities to interact with dogs and other animals as a way to relieve stress and help individuals deal with other psychological issues. In this paper, we discuss the current research regarding using …

Rings, Rungs, And Rugs: Harmony Hammond’S Floor Pieces And Wrapped Sculptures (1973-1984), Gina R. Barnhill

University Honors Theses

Harmony Hammond has spent decades making art in a range of styles, techniques, and drawing on multiple influences. One main influence could be her queer identity, which was established in the early 1970s. If this is the case, where is it evident? How did her personal life affect her artistic career? I propose that her sexual identity is directly related to the way she made art, and that the people she was associated with helped her explore this identity in her work.

"To Be Novelized": An Investigation Of Autofiction & How It Operates In Gwenaelle Aubry's No One, Ava Dean

University Honors Theses

This thesis seeks to identify and understand the neologism "autofiction" through literary theory and the employment of this genre in Gwenaelle Aubry's No One.

How Do Acts Of Terror Affect Public Discourse Concerning Immigration? A Media Analysis Surrounding The Pulse Nightclub Shooting, Braedon Lehman

University Honors Theses

This article aims to examine how terrorist attacks influence public discourse concerning immigration, both in bias and in overall amount of discussion by conducting a quantitative and qualitative content analysis study on the Pulse Nightclub shooting. I will ultimately try to contribute to the research question: how do acts of terror affect public discourse concerning immigration? I will draw from a wealth of other content analysis articles with particular reference to studies on the effect of differing terms for immigrants affecting public opinion such as Merolla, Karthick Ramakrishnan, and Haynes 2013. This study is split into two parts and specifically …

Exploring The Function Of Exon 7 In Drosophila Cacophony In Relation To Als, Jasmine E. Ahrar

University Honors Theses

Defects in the TAR DNA-binding protein named TDP-43 are known to be involved with many neurodegenerative diseases, including ALS. TBPH, a TDP-43 Drosophila orthologue is used to explore the specifics of those defects. This protein is known to have many cellular roles, one of them being a regulator for splicing. TBPH null flies have shown that the region coding for the voltage gated calcium channel cacophony is a potential target for splicing, directly producing a greater number of transcripts that lack exon 7. In this report, the phenotype of adult flies that lack exon 7 is explored. These mutants are …

A Biological Comparison Of Two Sites: An Ecological Approach Using Community Ecology Metrics Based On Insect Faunal Composition, Kennedy J. Martin

University Honors Theses

Two natural sites in the Portland urban area, River View Natural Area (RVNA) and Powers Marine Park (PMP), were sampled to assess their insect faunal composition with the intention of determining whether the areas are sufficiently similar ecologically that they could potentially be managed as a single unit. The two areas were compared using community ecology metrics based on their respective invertebrate fauna. The results suggested that RVNA and PMP had statistically different ecological communities. The Shannon Diversity Index for PMP was 0.303, and 0.819 for RVNA. The Horn Index of Community Overlap suggested a 93.46% overlap based on these …

Using Cultural Relevancy To Promote African American Brain Health, Miya Walker

University Honors Theses

African Americans are disproportionately more likely than older whites to develop Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias (ADOD). Despite these disparities, there is difficulty in motivating African Americans to engage in activities suitable to maintaining cognitive health (walking, social engagement, physical activity). The Sharing History through Active Reminiscence and Photo-imagery (SHARP) walking program (Croff, PI) combines these proactive activities in a culturally relevant way to create a motivational force to preserve cognitive health. SHARP engaged 19 African Americans aged 55 and older on 72 themed, 1-mile walks over 6 months in Portland, Oregon’s historically Black neighborhoods. This study examines participant responses …

Making Makeup: A Recipe Book For All-Natural Cosmetics, Jessica Arlich

University Honors Theses

In the past five years, there has been increasing demand for organic consumables in the United States every year by mainstream culture. Also, with the prevalence of the Internet, people can find resources to make almost anything. Do-it-yourself culture is huge. The marriage of these two facts allowed me to explore my thesis topic.

The goal of my thesis project was to create a book of recipes for all-natural cosmetics, similar to a cookbook. I engaged in lots of research and experimentation to create my own recipes. I used modern layout with a humanist typeface and brush-script to emphasize the …

How Does The 12-Step Model Of Recovery Benefit And Complicate Harm Reduction Strategies For Substance Abusing Adolescent Youth?, Matthew Matteini

University Honors Theses

Alongside harm reduction strategies, the abstinence-based 12-step model of recovery has become an increasingly prominent means of addressing substance abuse among American adolescent youth. These two different models of recovery are commonly being implemented in tandem with one another as a means of treating substance abuse for adolescent youth. Despite the common occurrence of dual implementation, there has been limited research into the impact these modalities have upon one another. Using a narrative review, this study utilizes existing literature to highlight key means through which the 12-step model of recovery works as both an asset and a hindrance to harm …

Small Business Valuation: Deviations From Textbook Methods, Paul Hampshire

University Honors Theses

This paper's purpose is to review existing literature from an undergraduate perspective on the process of small business valuation and the differences between the textbook valuation methods covered in typical undergraduate and graduate finance courses. Potential investors or buyers likely have more financial expertise and access to resources, so this information is largely geared towards owners of businesses with less than 20 employees who are interested in valuing their own business. To that end, a simple model for determining the discount rate in DCF analysis is proposed. A live example of adjustments from textbook methods also provides evidence of the …

Aerobic And Anaerobic Exercise: Analyzing The Benefits Of Different Forms Of Exercise For Adults Diagnosed With Type 2 Diabetes, Mark A. Yakubovich

University Honors Theses

This paper explores multiple published articles that will consider the effects of aerobic and anaerobic exercise performed by adult individuals diagnosed with type 2 diabetes mellitus. It will also explore the benefits of combining both forms of exercise and how each compare in terms of glycemic control. This paper will specifically be looking at the benefits of exercise on type 2 diabetes mellitus. I acknowledge that a combination of both exercise and nutrition is optimal for individuals with type 2 diabetes, but this paper is solely looking at the effects of exercise. I will be analyzing the methods used in …

Arabic Diglossia Within Palestinian-Arab Folk Narratives, Jordan M. Martinez

University Honors Theses

The preservation of Palestinian folktales is a way to restore and preserve Palestinian culture in result to the declining state and displacement of Palestinian populations into other regions of the Arabic World (Muhawi and Kanaana 1989). Some academics have acknowledged that the translation of folklore and other similar tales have contributed to a growing consideration of foreign cultures and the overall understanding by non-native sources (Klaus Roth 1998) (Kanaana 2005). Throughout this paper, I analyze the work put forth by Ibrahim Muhawi and Sharif Kanaana and their success in transcribing and translating a collection of folk narratives in their original …

Spotify, Piracy And Patronage: How Consumers Make Decisions Regarding Musical Consumption In The Streaming Age, Joseph K. Drevets

University Honors Theses

This study analyzed how consumers evaluate online music streaming services through a discrete choice survey. A multinomial logit model was applied to estimate how important varying levels of price, artist welfare, and advertisements were to consumers’ willingness to pay (WTP) for a monthly subscription service to a digital music catalogue. The survey was administered online, with 100 total valid samples. Respondents viewed the morality of copying and distributing copyrighted digital music as different from the physical theft of private property. The most important factors in deciding a respondent’s WTP for service were: the welfare of the artists who list their …