Digital Commons Network^™

Invoking Federal Common Law Defenses In Immigration Cases, Fatma Marouf

Faculty Scholarship

This Article argues that we should take a deeper look at the applicability of federal common law defenses in immigration cases. In the rare cases where noncitizens attempt to raise common law defenses, such arguments tend to be dismissed offhand by immigration judges simply because removal proceedings are technically civil, not criminal. Yet many common-law defenses may be raised in civil cases. Additionally, immigration proceedings have become increasingly intertwined with the criminal system. After examining how judges already rely on federal common law to fill in gaps in the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), this Article proposes three categories of …

Extradition And Trial Delays: Recent Developments (And Lessons?) From Canada, Robert Currie, Laura Ellyson

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

Extradition – the formal rendition of criminal fugitives between states – is well-known to be a time-consuming process that often has impacts, minor or major, on the ability of states to complete prosecution in a timely manner. Thus, the extradition process can sometimes be at odds with the right to trial within a reasonable time, which is part of the overall package of fair trial rights enshrined in international human rights law. In Canada, this right is implemented by paragraph 11(b) of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. In recent years Canadian courts have developed a series of principles …

Harmless Constitutional Error: How A Minor Doctrine Meant To Improve Judicial Efficiency Is Eroding America's Founding Ideals, Ross C. Reggio

CMC Senior Theses

The United States Constitution had been in existence for almost two hundred years before the Supreme Court decided that some violations of constitutional rights may be too insignificant to warrant remedial action. Known as "harmless error," this statutory doctrine allows a court to affirm a conviction when a mere technicality or minor defect did not affect the defendant's substantial rights. The doctrine aims to promote judicial efficiency and judgment finality. The Court first applied harmless error to constitutional violations by shifting the statutory test away from the error's effect on substantial rights to its impact on the jury's verdict. Over …

The War On Drugs In Contrast To The War On Big Pharma: Contextualizing Shifts In Drug Policy During The Opioid Crisis, Alexandra Carter

CMC Senior Theses

New drug epidemics often unleash punitive campaigns to end them- highlighted by the 1980’s drug wars. However, the opioid crisis has been met with public-health driven policies, like clean needle programs and community-based substance abuse therapy. This thesis asks why policy responses to the opioid crisis are so different than those of the War on Drugs.

First, as the cost of the drug war became clearer, policy makers across the political spectrum became less inclined to wage a new punitive war against opioids, especially as public-health responses proved to be more effective while also less costly.

Second, the demographics of …

Civilly Disobedient: Justifying Juror Misconduct, Grace K. Wilson

CMC Senior Theses

A fair, unbiased jury that follows the courts instructions is a crucial aspect of the American criminal justice system, mandated by both the California and United States Constitution. When jurors violate judicial instructions, it can jeopardize the impartiality of a case. Despite this, little research has been completed on what individual differences are indicative of greater willingness to commit jury misconduct. Misconduct can occur when jurors fail to follow judicial instructions in circumstances that a reasonable person may be tempted to disobey. This study explores potential individual differences that correlate with a greater likelihood of excusing and even committing juror …

Responding Restoratively To Student Misconduct And Professional Regulation – The Case Of Dalhousie Dentistry, Jennifer Llewellyn

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

The 2015 restorative justice process at Dalhousie University’s Faculty of Dentistry is a case study that reveals the connection at conceptual and practical levels between restorative justice and responsive regulation as common expressions of relational theory and practice. Their relationship is clearest when, as in this case, issues are understood in their full contexts and circumstances require a widening of the circle of issues and parties. At this scale the complexity of the situation and the need for responsive interventions capable of supporting and sustaining a just relationship is revealed.

When Law Frees Us To Speak, Jonathon Penney, Danielle Citron

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

A central aim of online abuse is to silence victims. That effort is as regrettable as it is successful. In the face of cyber harassment and sexual privacy invasions, women and marginalized groups retreat from online engagement. These documented chilling effects, however, are not inevitable. Beyond its deterrent function, law has an equally important expressive role. In this article, we highlight law’s capacity to shape social norms and behavior through education. We focus on a neglected dimension of law’s expressive role—its capacity to empower victims to express their truths and engage with others. Our argument is theoretical and empirical. We …

Legal Ethics And Canada's Military Lawyers, Andrew Martin

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

English Abstract: Military lawyers—lawyers who are legal officers in the Canadian Forces— are virtually ignored in the Canadian legal literature. This article assesses what appear to be the most striking potential legal ethics issues facing military lawyers. Several of these issues arise because military lawyers are both lawyers and military officers at the same time, and therefore face two sets of obligations that interact in complex ways. Some issues, however, arise because of the special practice contexts of military lawyers, for example, advising military commanders on the law of armed conflict. As context for this discussion, the article examines the …

Celebrating 30 Years Of The Indigenous Blacks & Mi’Kmaq Initiative: How The Creation Of A Critical Mass Of Black And Aboriginal Lawyers Is Making A Difference In Nova Scotia, Naiomi Metallic

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

Drawing on my own experience as alumni of the Indigenous Blacks & Mi’kmaq Initiative at the Schulich School of Law at Dalhousie University—one of the only dedicated access program in a Canadian law school for Black and Aboriginal students—I argue that such programs create optimal conditions for fostering greater awareness of critical race issues within the legal profession. The reason for this is that such programs create a critical mass of Black and Aboriginal law students and alumni, who support and encourage each other and, as a result, acquire confidence and skill in raising, and educating others about, critical race …

Remarks On Prosecutorial Discretion And Immigration, Shoba Wadhia

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Snowball Effect Of Crime And Violence: Measuring The Triple-C Impact, Michal Gilad, Abraham Gutman, And Stephen P. Chawaga

Fordham Urban Law Journal

No abstract provided.

“Equality And Privacy By Design”: A New Model Of Artificial Intelligence Data Transparency Via Auditing, Certification, And Safe Harbor Regimes, Shlomit Yanisky-Ravid & Sean K. Hallisey

Fordham Urban Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Undoing The Bail Myth: Pretrial Reforms To End Mass Incarceration, Insha Rahman

Fordham Urban Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Barbers, Caregivers, And The “Disciplinary Subject”: Occupational Licensure For People With Criminal Justice Backgrounds In The United States, Alec C. Ewald

Fordham Urban Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Diary Of A Civil Public Defender: Critical Lessons For Achieving Transformative Change On Behalf Of Communities, Runa Rajagopal

Fordham Urban Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The “White” To Bear Arms: How Immunity Provisions In Stand Your Ground Statutes Lead To An Unequal Application Of The Law For Black Gun Owners, Victoria Bell

Fordham Urban Law Journal

No abstract provided.

A Bias-Free Predictive Policing Tool?: An Evaluation Of The Nypd's Patternizr, Molly Griffard

Fordham Urban Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Consequential Sex: #Metoo, Masterpiece Cakeshop, And Private Sexual Regulation, Melissa Murray

Northwestern University Law Review

The last sixty years have ushered in a tectonic shift in American sexual culture, from the sexual revolution—with its liberal attitudes toward sex and sexuality—to a growing recognition of rape culture and sexual harassment. The responses to these changes in sexual culture have varied. Conservatives, for their part, bemoan the liberalization of sexual mores and the rise of a culture where “anything goes.” And while progressives may cheer the liberalization of attitudes toward sex and sexuality and the growing recognition of sexual harassment and sexual assault, they lament the inadequacy of state efforts to combat sexual violence. Although these responses …

Targeting Poverty In The Courts: Improving The Measurement Of Ability To Pay Fines, Meghan M. O'Neil, J.J. Prescott

Articles

Ability-to-pay determinations are essential when governments use money-based alternative sanctions, like fines, to enforce laws. One longstanding difficulty in the U.S. has been the extreme lack of guidance on how courts are to determine a litigant’s ability to pay. The result has been a seat-of-the-pants approach that is inefficient and inaccurate, and, as a consequence, very socially costly. Fortunately, online platform technology presents a promising avenue for reform. In particular, platform technology offers the potential to increase litigant access, reduce costs, and ensure consistent and fair treatment—all of which should lead to more accurate sanctions. We use interviews, surveys, and …

Juror Gender And Confession Evidence: An Exploratory Study Of Effects On Empathy And Trial Outcomes For Juvenile Defendants, Cynthia J. Najdowski, Jennifer N. Weintraub

Psychology Faculty Scholarship

Objectives: We explored how relations among juror gender, confession evidence, and empathy impacted verdicts for a juvenile defendant accused of a serious crime. Methods: Jury-eligible women and men (N = 128) participated in a mock trial involving a girl defendant who had either maintained her innocence, confessed voluntarily, or confessed under coercion. Participants reviewed case materials, received juror instructions, and reported their verdict and empathy for the girl defendant. A manipulation check ensured participants attended to details surrounding the confession and participants were grouped by whether they perceived the confession as voluntary or coerced. A logistic regression analysis examined main …

Biblical Principles For Political Engagement: Worldview, Issues, And Voting, David Closson

Christian Worldview

Without doubt, we live in a time of acute political polarization. These divisions are inevitably exacerbated during campaign season with the barrage of candidate advertisements, Robo-calls, 24-hour cable TV coverage, and campaign literature. Moreover, the toxic tone and extreme partisanship in politics can be discouraging. Thus, it is no surprise that withdrawing from the political process has become a temptation for many Christians. After all, if God is sovereign and controls the heart of the king (Prov. 21:1), do we really need to get involved in the messy world of politics? Because political engagement can be divisive, shouldn’t Christians abandon …

From The Basketball Court To Federal Court: Perils Of The Prosecutorial Approach To Wire Fraud In The Ncaa Basketball Cases, Paul Tuchmann

Center for the Advancement of Public Integrity (Inactive)

Three similar criminal cases involving college basketball are currently progressing through the Southern District of New York. The first to go to trial, United States v. James Gatto, Merl Code, and Christian Dawkins, No. 17 Crim. 686, culminated in a guilty verdict on October 24, 2018, with all three defendants found guilty on charges of wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud.

The United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York alleged that the Gatto defendants participated in a scheme in which the defendants—former Adidas employees Gatto and Code, as well as aspiring sports agent …

Oversight And Enforcement Of Public Integrity – A City-By-City Study: Nashville, Berit Berger, Edward Popovici, Rosie Fatt, Benjamin Bleibert

Center for the Advancement of Public Integrity (Inactive)

Nashville’s identity, at least to an outsider’s eye, is inextricably linked to its musical heritage. But quite apart from its lyrical inclinations, Music City USA also has history of corruption scandals, countered by grassroots efforts of its citizenry to push for a more open and transparent government. The recent corruption charges against ex-Mayor Megan Barry and the “Do Better” law passed at the end of 2018 perfectly exemplify these dueling motifs of corruption and public integrity activism.

Nashville was founded in 1779 under the name of Fort Nashborough. In 1806, Nashville was granted a charter by the Tennessee legislature and …

Canadian Corruption And The Snc-Lavalin Affair, Center For The Advancement Of Public Integrity

Center for the Advancement of Public Integrity (Inactive)

On February 7, 2019, The Globe and Mail published a report alleging that Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, together with his aides and cabinet officers, had attempted to improperly influence former Attorney General Jody Wilson-Raybould in the Canadian Justice Department’s prosecution of Montreal construction firm SNC-Lavalin. SNC-Lavalin is a major company, which employs thousands of workers and reported 10 billion Canadian Dollars in revenue in 2018. The charges against them centered around allegations that they had made numerous bribes to Libyan officials from 2001-2011 in order to secure contracts. Due to these charges, SNC-Lavalin faces a potential ban on bidding …

New Faculty Handbook (2019), Minnesota State University Moorhead

Faculty Handbooks

No abstract provided.

Annual Report 2019, Nebraska Center For Justice Research, University Of Nebraska At Omaha, Ryan E. Spohn

Reports

The Nebraska Center for Justice Research (NCJR) was established in 2014 with a mission to develop and sustain criminal justice research capacity internal to the State of Nebraska. Our goal is to assist the Legislature, justice agencies, practitioners, foundations, and stakeholders with research and evaluation to reduce recidivism, promote the use of evidence-based practices, and improve public safety. This annual report summarizes the activities and financial status of NCJR in the 2018-2019 fiscal year. In this past year, NCJR once again crafted our Adult Justice in Nebraska report to provide a foundation of data trends in areas such as law …

Deputizing Family: Loved Ones As A Regulatory Tool In The “Drug War” And Beyond, Matthew B. Lawrence

Faculty Articles

Many laws use family members as a regulatory tool to influence the decisions or behavior of their loved ones, i.e., they deputize family. Involuntary treatment laws for substance use disorder are a clear example; such laws empower family members to use information shared by their loved ones to petition to force their loved ones into treatment without consent. Whether such deputization is helpful or harmful for a patient’s health is a crucial and dubious question discussed in existing literature, but use of family members as a regulatory tool implicates important considerations beyond direct medical impacts that have not been as …

Sharkfests And Databases: Crowdsourcing Plea Bargains, Kay L. Levine, Ronald F. Wright, Nancy J. King, Marc L. Miller

Faculty Articles

In this Essay, we dive deeper into this final dimension to discuss the influence of professional networks on plea negotiations. In particular, we examine the effects of crowdsourcing tactics in the negotiation setting. We describe, for example, what happens when lawyers bargain in public, benefitting from an audience that provides information about past practices and deals. And then we speculate about what might happen if that audience were instead a widely shared database that documents plea practices in the jurisdiction. We offer a few preliminary thoughts about the potential influence of such techniques, as we are not in a position …

Shareholders United?, Andrew K. Jennings

Faculty Articles

Securities regulation has a way of crossing into other lanes. What public companies do is substantive regulation. How they govern themselves while doing it-or more importantly, how they disclose it-is securities regulation. So it is no surprise that the perennial concern over regulating money in politics should also become a question of federal securities regulation. The Shareholders United Act (the "Act")-passed by the House of Representatives as part of House Bill 1, an early, major piece of legislation in the 116th Congress-does just that. The Act would require that before engaging in political spending, public companies poll shareholders on how …

A Comprehensive Assessment Of Crisis In Individuals With Intellectual Disabilities And Its Implications For Physical Therapy, Kathleen Sutton

Theses and Dissertations--Rehabilitation Sciences

Advancements in medicine, policy, and societal attitudes have improved life expectancy, socialization, and participation for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). However, inconsistent or a lack of services may drive healthcare utilization toward expensive emergency care services. This can negatively impact health outcomes and disrupt physical therapy treatment plans, limiting their effectiveness and further placing individuals with IDD at risk for crisis episodes. Because of its subjective nature, quantifying crisis is challenging using current definitions. Rehabilitation professionals are often active members of the care team for individuals with IDD, however no evidence currently exists regarding how the profession can …