Digital Commons Network^™

Arresting Assembly: An Argument Against Expanding Criminally Punishable Protest, Allison Freedman

Faculty Scholarship

ARRESTING ASSEMBLY: AN ARGUMENT AGAINST EXPANDING
CRIMINALLY PUNISHABLE PROTEST
ALLISON M. FREEDMAN

ABSTRACT

In recent years, public protests have shed light on societal inequities that had previously gone unheard. Yet instead of responding to protesters’ concerns, many state legislators are attempting to silence disenfranchised groups by introducing hundreds of “anti-protest” bills. This is a recent phenomenon and one that is accelerating—the largest wave of “anti-protest” bills was introduced on the heels of the most robust protest movement in recent history, Black Lives Matter during the summer of 2020.

Although it is clear that legislators are attempting to tamp down public …

Why The Actual Malice Test Should Be Eliminated, John M. Kang

Faculty Scholarship

Under traditional common law, a plaintiff could recover damages for libel if she could prove that the defendant had published a factual statement about the plaintiff that tended to injure the plaintiff’s reputation. The plaintiff, at most, was required to show negligence to recover damages for libel. While the amount of money that any given plaintiff could recover in damages was uncertain, one thing was clear: the First Amendment would not protect libel. In 1964, in New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, the Supreme Court radically upended this received view of libel as unprotected speech. According to Sullivan, …

Keeping All The Lights On: A Roadmap To Affordable, Universal Electricity Service In The Clean Energy Transition, Gabriel Pacyniak

Faculty Scholarship

The COVID-19 pandemic, the ongoing reckoning with structural racism, and an emerging focus on justice in the clean energy transition have combined to spotlight utility disconnections and the related issues of energy access, affordability, and security. Recent empirical scholarship has demonstrated that electricity disconnections of lower-income people are relatively common, disproportionately affect people of color, and cause significant harm. This Article describes how a number of U.S. states are fashioning an emerging policy model that makes significant progress toward truly affordable and accessible electricity service for all. It also describes how these state actions are consistent with U.S. utility law …

Katz Or Dogs? Why The Katz Reasonable Expectation Of Privacy Test Is More Applicable To Advancing Technology Than A Test Applied To Dog Sniffs, Blade M. Allen

Student Published Scholarship

Most often, when law enforcement agencies or governments use a person’s DNA or genetic information, they do so in the pursuit of justice. That said, there are privacy concerns that arise when the government or police have open access to any person’s DNA or genetic information, especially through the Internet. This article attempts to present an argument for a reasonable expectation of privacy (REP) in a person’s genetic information or DNA as well as other forms of advancing technology. It begins with a history of the US Supreme Court’s interpretations of the Fourth Amendment to the US Constitution, continues with …

Suppressing Aluminum/Silica Exchange Reaction Between High Aluminum Steel And Mold Flux During Continuous Casting Process, Kuanysh Nurbekuly Yermukhanbetov

Masters Theses

"Mold flux plays one of the critical roles in continuous casting of steel. It performs five primary functions: thermal and chemical insulation, lubrication between the steel strand and mold, absorption of inclusions, and promotion of even heat flux. The aluminum/silica exchange reaction occurring between steel and mold flux during the continuous casting process poses significant challenges in the steel industry. This reaction can lead to various defects in the cast product and adversely affect its surface quality, as well as downstream processing.

In this work, effectiveness of two approaches, namely slag dopant additions and electrochemical techniques, in suppressing the exchange …

Sentiment Strength And Topic Recognition In Sentiment Analysis, Esi A.R. Adeborna

Masters Theses

"Current sentiment analysis methods focus on determining the sentiment polarities (negative, neutral or positive) in users’ sentiments. However, in order to correctly classify users’ sentiments into their right polarities, the strengths of these sentiments must be considered. In addition to classifying users’ sentiments into their correct polarities, it is important to determine the sources and topics under which users’ sentiments fall. Sentiment strength helps as to understand the levels of customer satisfaction toward products and services. Sentiment topics on the other hand, helps to determine the specific product/service areas associated with user sentiments. This paper proposes two sentiment analysis approaches. …

A Hybrid Framework For Critical Infrastructures Interdependency Modeling, Simulation, And Analysis, David Corder Hinton

Masters Theses

"Flow system models, also known as flow network models, encompass vastly complex, ever-expanding problem sets which comprise the foundation for maintenance, operation, and improvement of critical infrastructures around the world. The stable operation of these vast critical infrastructures is fundamental to the continued advancement of modern society. These infrastructures are tightly interdependent and vulnerable to interruption by both natural circumstance and malicious targeting. This necessitates representation of such critical infrastructures and their multi-domain interdependencies in defense focused constructive and virtual simulation environments as a matter of national interest and security. By breadth exploration of the problem space, this work body …

Optimizing The Placement Of Multiple Uav--Lidar Units Under Road Priority And Resolution Requirements, Zachary Michael Osterwisch

Masters Theses

"Real-time road traffic information is crucial for intelligent transportation systems (ITS) applications, like traffic navigation or emergency response management, but acquiring such data is tremendously challenging in practice because of the high costs and inefficient placement of sensors. Some modern ITS applications contribute to this problem by equipping vehicles with multiple light detection and ranging (LiDAR) sensors, which are expensive and gather data inefficiently; one solution that avoids vehicle-mounted LiDAR acquisition has been to install elevated LiDAR instruments along roadways, but this approach remains unrefined. The eventual development of sixth-generation (6G) wireless communication will enable new, creative solutions to solve …

The First Woman Dean Of A Texas Law School: Barbara Bader Aldave At St. Mary's University, Vincent R. Johnson

Faculty Articles

Long-time St. Mary's law professor Vincent Johnson details the arrival and tenure of Barbara Bader Aldave as Dean of St. Mary's University School of Law.

A Quarter Century Of Challenges And Progress In Education, And An Agenda For The Next Quarter Century, Albert H. Kauffman

Faculty Articles

As a native Texan who attended intentionally segregated Texas public schools, then an effectively segregated Texas public law school, litigated many cases against discrimination in Texas education, and now teaches Texas education law, I have what I think to be informed opinions on where we have been, where we are going, and what we should do next. I will briefly describe our sad history of discrimination in segregation, school finance, testing, higher education, and lack of responsiveness to newer issues in education at all levels. I will then summarize some of our ongoing challenges and some possible approaches that I …

Idaho's Law Of Seduction, Michael L. Smith

Faculty Articles

Seduction is a historical cause of action that permitted women's fathers to bring suit on their daughters' behalf in sexual assault and rape cases. This tort emerged long ago when the law's refusal to recognize women's agency left this as the only means of recovering damages in these cases. As time went on, the tort evolved, and women were eventually permitted to bring lawsuits for seduction on their own behalf. Today, most states have abolished seduction, along with other torts permitting recovery for damages arising from intimate conduct. One could be easily forgiven for thinking that such an archaic tort …

Originalism, Common Good Constitutionalism, And Transparency, Michael L. Smith

Faculty Articles

A theory of interpretation that is more transparent tends to be preferable to less transparent alternatives. Increased transparency tends to promote the values of constraint, democratic legitimacy, and an understanding of what the law is. Under a transparency rubric, originalism, as a standard of interpretation, performs better than common good constitutionalism. Originalism provides a better defined (though still imperfect) basis for determining the correctness of claims about what the Constitution means. Common good constitutionalism's reliance on morally and politically loaded terminology makes it elusive as a standard of interpretation which tends to match the desires of the interpreter. At the …

A Vague, Overconfident, And Malleable Approach To Constitutional Law, Michael L. Smith

Faculty Articles

In New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, Inc. v. Bruen, the Supreme Court overturned a century-old firearms licensing scheme that required people seeking concealed carry permits to demonstrate that they had a special need for self-defense. The Court did so by applying a “historical tradition” approach to determine the scope of Second Amendment protection. Under this approach, where the Second Amendment’s plain text covers an individual’s conduct, a law restricting that conduct must be consistent with “the Nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation.” At first glance, the historical tradition approach may seem objective and easier than an empirical analysis …

Seismic Shifts: Post-Covid Legal Education And The Profession, Zoe Niesel

Faculty Articles

The 2020-2021 COVID-19 pandemic created significant upheaval in the legal profession. Courts closed, cases were delayed, and law firms and other legal institutions rapidly moved their employees and operations to a virtual forum. And among this disruption, law schools made unprecedented changes to their curricula and pedagogy as students attended classes over Zoom, through asynchronous means, or in a hybrid fashion that split their learning between in-person and online. These rapid developments have sparked new discussions regarding the future of legal education. Specifically, law schools and the American Bar Association (ABA) are now re-examining their approach to determine the appropriate …

The Uniform Commercial Code Survey: Introduction, Jennifer S. Martin, Colin P. Marks, Wayne Barnes

Faculty Articles

The survey that follows highlights the most important developments of 2022 dealing with domestic and international sales of goods, personal property leases, payments, letters of credit, documents of title, investment securities, and secured transactions. Along with the usual descriptions of interesting judicial decisions in these areas, which are highlighted in the survey, there has also been important legislative progress. The 2022 Amendments to the Uniform Commercial Code ("U.C.C.") (the "2022 Amendments") have been adopted in eight states and introduced in nineteen plus the District of Colombia.

The First Amendment, Discrimination, And Public Accommodations At Common Law,, Adam J. Macleod

Faculty Articles

This Article explains the different rights and duties of each class of public accommodation. And it shows how common-law adjudication, especially the jury trial, resolves public accommodation disputes in a principled way while avoiding zero-sum definitions of civil rights. The Article does not aspire to settle conclusively controversies over the relative scopes of First Amendment liberties and nondiscrimination laws. Not every jurist agrees that history, background legal principles, and foundational legal norms and institutions are important or helpful to determine the boundaries between civil and constitutional rights. And some public accommodation laws do more than merely restate common-law doctrines. But …

The Right To Immigrate: A Comparative Analysis Of Immigration System In The United States And Mexico, Roberto Rosas, Valeria Montalvo

Faculty Articles

This article highlights the immigration systems of Mexico and the United States. To address the different aspects of the migratory phenomenon, the article carefully observes the circumstances that determine the irregularity of migrants in Mexico and the United States, as well as the legal system that governs them depending on their migratory status. In addition to a comprehensive review of immigrant rights in Mexico and the United States, this article advocates for national legislation be brought in line with international human rights treaties, for there to be real protection of the economic, social and cultural rights of the most vulnerable …

The Marriage Nullity Process In The Reform Of Pope Francis With Special Reference To The Processus Brevior (Book), Roberto Rosas, Yeshica Umaña

Faculty Articles

Marriage in the Church is considered the greatest symbol of mystical life and has been instituted by God, representing the sacrament of the spousal union of Christ with the Church. Multiple canons include the Church's requirements and regulations for marriage since its institution as a sacrament. The last marital reform was introduced in the 18th century by Pope Benedict XIV and remained as legal norm until Pope Francis announced the publication of a new reform for the annulment of marriages within the Church on August 15, 2015.

Despite reactions against maintaining strictness in favor of marriage, Pope Francis emphasized that …

Defunding C.O.P.S.: Conditioning Federal Funding To State And Local Law Enforcement Agencies Upon The Implementation Of A Program That Screens Its Current And Future Officers For White Supremacist Affiliations, Jerron R. Wheeler

Faculty Articles

This Article calls upon Congress to protect its citizens where state and local legislators will not. Although Congress is limited in its ability to regulate local policing, the United States Constitution does provide authority for some congressional reform and oversight into matters of state and local law enforcement through Article 1, Section 8. Congress can (and has before) conditioned the receipt of federal funds over states' conformity to federal standards or programs. This Article proposes that the millions of dollars in federal grants sent to state and local police organizations be conditioned upon each organization's compliance with a program designed …

Review Of John B. Denton: The Bigger-Than-Life Story Of The Fighting Parson And Texas Ranger, By Mike Cochran, William C. Yancey

History Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Interpretive And Relational Work Of Financial Innovation: A Resemblance Of Assurance In Islamic Finance, Aaron Z. Pitluck

Faculty Publications – Sociology and Anthropology

What social forces shape the trajectory of novel, moralized forms of finance such as social finance, green finance, or Islamic banking and finance? More broadly, how do agents mobilize arguments and organize each other to create any form of financial innovation? This article addresses both questions by contributing an ethnography of a novel financial innovation pseudonymously named Sukuk Illumination, an internationally traded moral alternative to a corporate bond. This article’s findings both elaborate and subsume existing functionalist and critical explanations of financial innovation. The central argument is that we can better understand what causes financial innovation and the trajectory that …

"How Exactly Does It Get Done Here?" Conducting Cross-Jurisdictional Research With Judges And Court Staff, Paula Hannaford-Agor

Faculty Publications

The legal, political, and organizational environment in which judges and court staff work affects their performance in significant ways. To ensure that researchers control for these effects, it is critical that they take sufficient time in the research design phase to identify relevant factors that might complicate their analyses or distort the interpretation of research findings. This article highlights common challenges of multijurisdictional research, including inconsistent use of terminology, differing organizational structures and procedures, and exogenous factors such as court governance, policymaking authority, funding, and local court culture. It also offers guidance to researchers on identifying and integrating these factors …

Exploration And Synthesis Of Half-Heusler And Disordered Ternary Intermetallic Single Crystals, Md Fahel Bin Noor

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

Due to their distinct physical and chemical characteristics, half-Heusler compounds are intermetallic materials that have undergone substantial research. The general formula for these compounds is XYZ, where X and Y are transition metals and Z is a p-block element. Thermoelectricity is among the half-Heusler compounds' most exciting potential uses, but additional possible applications include spintronics, magnetic refrigeration, and superconductivity, among others. Recently, half-Heuslers (and Heuslers) have emerged as candidates for catalysts for hydrogenation. The CoNbSn half-Heusler compound, as well as another unique intermetallic ternary compound, the disordered Mn_4-xCr_xAl₁₁, were successfully grown as single crystals …

Gender Representation In Children's Media And Preschool-Aged Girls’ Internalized Beliefs About Gender, Jessica Lindsey Kanne Atkins

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

The current study examines patterns of gender representation through three categories (distribution, presentation, and stereotyped behaviors) in children’s media and how these patterns relate to preschool-aged girls’ internalized beliefs about gender. Both historical and presently available children’s media tends to display high levels of stereotypical gender representation. By preschool age, children have already developed distinctions between boys and girls, and hold internalized beliefs regarding gender. The objective of the current study is to examine the relationship between these two factors. To accomplish this, preschool-aged girls were interviewed to assess their internalized beliefs about gender. Their caregivers completed questionnaires related to …

Distribution Patterns Of Allorhizobium Vitis In Missouri Vineyards And Non-Vineyard Soils, Jacquelyn M. Wray

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

Crown gall disease causes significant economic loss to the grape and wine industry. Preventive strategies are most effective for mitigating the loss of grapevines in vineyards, as there is no known cure for this disease. The bacterium Allorhizobium vitis carrying a tumor-inducing (Ti) plasmid is the causative agent. A. vitis bacteria live systemically in the grapevine before causing visible symptoms and can survive in residual plant tissues and soil for more than two years. Diagnostic methods have been developed to detect A. vitis bacteria in grapevines and soil. However, more reliable, specific, and high-throughput diagnostics are still needed for screening …

Community Engagement In Precision Medicine Research: Organizational Practices And Their Impacts For Equity, Janet K Shim, Nicole Foti, Emily Vasquez, Stephanie M Fullerton, Michael Bentz, Melanie Jeske, Sandra Soo-Jin Lee

Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy Staff Publications

Background: In the wake of mandates for biomedical research to increase participation by members of historically underrepresented populations, community engagement (CE) has emerged as a key intervention to help achieve this goal.

Methods: Using interviews, observations, and document analysis, we examine how stakeholders in precision medicine research understand and seek to put into practice ideas about who to engage, how engagement should be conducted, and what engagement is for.

Results: We find that ad hoc, opportunistic, and instrumental approaches to CE exacted significant consequences for the time and resources devoted to engagement and the ultimate impacts it has on research. …

Isolated Cardiac Paraganglioma Encasing Right Coronary Artery With Evidence Of Succinyl Dehydrogenase Gene Mutation: Successful Management Using Multimodality Imaging, Naveen Garg, Shashank Pandey, Shiva Madan, Subhash Yadav, Gurango Majumdar, Neeraj Jain, Manoj Jain

The Texas Heart Institute Journal

This report involves a young woman with isolated cardiac paraganglioma that was diagnosed using 68Gallium-labeled [1,4,7,10-tetraazacyclododecane-1,4,7,10-tetraacetic acid]-1-NaI3-octreotide positron emission tomographic scintigraphy. For the preoperative evaluation, multimodality imaging accurately described the anatomic location of the tumor and its relationship with the surrounding tissues. The patient underwent successful surgical resection of the tumor along with right coronary artery bypass grafting. The 2-month follow-up scintigraphy was normal. Next-generation sequencing evaluation revealed a novel germline mutation for the succinate dehydrogenase subunit B gene.

Understanding Tailoring To Support The Implementation Of Evidence-Based Interventions In Healthcare: The Customise Research Programme Protocol, Sheena M Mchugh, Fiona Riordan, Claire Kerins, Geoff Curran, Cara C Lewis, Justin Presseau, Luke Wolfenden, Byron J Powell

2020-Current year OA Pubs

Although there are effective evidence-based interventions (EBIs) to prevent, treat and coordinate care for chronic conditions they may not be adopted widely and when adopted, implementation challenges can limit their impact. Implementation strategies are "methods or techniques used to enhance the adoption, implementation, and sustainment of a clinical program or practice". There is some evidence to suggest that to be more effective, strategies should be

Ritual, Spectacle, And Theatre In Late Medieval Seville (Chapter 1), Christopher B. Swift

Publications and Research

From the fall of Islamic Išbīliya in 1248 to the conquest of the New World, Seville was a nexus of economic and religious power where interconfessional living among Christians, Jews, and Muslims was negotiated on public stages. From out of seemingly irreconcilable ideologies of faith, hybrid performance culture emerged in spectacles of miraculous transformation, disciplinary processionals, and representations of religious identity. Ritual, Spectacle, and Theatre in Late Medieval Seville reinvigorates the study of medieval Iberian theater by revealing the ways in which public expressions of devotion, penance, and power fostered cultural reciprocity, rehearsed religious difference, and ultimately helped establish Seville …

Applying Hybrid Effectiveness-Implementation Studies In Equity-Centered Policy Implementation Science, Yuka Asada, Aimee Kroll-Desrosiers, Jamie F Chriqui, Geoffrey M Curran, Karen M Emmons, Debra Haire-Joshu, Ross C Brownson

2020-Current year OA Pubs

Policy implementation science (IS) is complex, dynamic, and fraught with unique study challenges that set it apart from biomedical or clinical research. One important consideration is the ways in which policy interacts with local contexts, such as power and social disadvantage (e.g., based on ability, race, class, sexual identity, geography). The complex nature of policy IS and the need for more intentional integration of equity principles into study approaches calls for creative adaptations to existing implementation science knowledge and guidance. Effectiveness-implementation hybrid studies were developed to enhance translation of clinical research by addressing research questions around the effectiveness of an …