Digital Commons Network^™

Jane Crow Constitutionalism, Evan D. Bernick

College of Law Faculty Publications

On June 24, 2022 The United States Supreme Court issued its decision on Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization; overturning Roe v. Wade, and destroying fifty years of precedent to protect the constitutional right to abortion in the United States. This overturning sets a dangerous, new precedent that reinforces the State’s control of reproduction, and criminalizes a woman’s right to choose, with very few exceptions. In states like Mississippi, Black women are already experiencing the highest rates of maternal mortality, incarceration, and poverty.

This article posits that Dobbs operates to maintain a racialized and gendered underclass, and names this phenomenon …

The Women Of Justice: Narratives Of Women Attorneys In California During The 1960s And 1990s, Sarah Zion

Master's Theses

This thesis interviews two women attorneys who have not previously shared their stories to relate their experience of going to law school and entering the field after graduation. The study of women lawyers and their stories is not a new topic, however, there is a focus in the scholarship to only explore the tales of the women who reached the big firsts, such as first female lawyer or first female judge. By providing interviews of women who have not reached these big accomplishments, the field gains a more rounded understanding of the history of female lawyers. The two women interviewed …

Jane Crow Constitutionalism, Evan D. Bernick

Northern Illinois University Law Review

On June 24, 2022 The United States Supreme Court issued its decision on Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization; overturning Roe v. Wade, and destroying fifty years of precedent to protect the constitutional right to abortion in the United States. This overturning sets a dangerous, new precedent that reinforces the State’s control of reproduction, and criminalizes a woman’s right to choose, with very few exceptions. In states like Mississippi, Black women are already experiencing the highest rates of maternal mortality, incarceration, and poverty.

This article posits that Dobbs operates to maintain a racialized and gendered underclass, and names this phenomenon …

Integration & Transformation: Incorporating Critical Information And Literacy And Critical Legal Research Into Advanced Legal Research Instruction, Courtney Selby

Northern Illinois University Law Review

Today’s law students exist in an information ecosystem where access to information is plentiful. Between the open web and the proliferation of databases offering countless research resources, retrieving potentially relevant search results is relatively easy. The struggle for our students is filtering through seemingly endless search results to find the best resources for the legal problem at hand. For many of us, the summer of 2020 was a watershed moment, not because of the pandemic, but because of the brutal murder of George Floyd. Make no mistake, there was a genuine need for CIL and CLR in our legal research …

Reinvest In Us: Reimagine The Role Of Police In The U.S., Jamil Davis

College Honors Program

In America, we must question and understand what is “law and order.” Over centuries, America developed a racialized slave-class politically and socially through power and force. Police are the foot soldiers of maintaining law and order as Slave Patrols evolved into the State Police. In my thesis, I discuss how their efforts in traffic enforcement enable a dominant class to target and enslave the oppressed class. Traffic control leads to 18 million interactions a year which is 34 people a minute. The numbers of interactions along with persistent practices regarding discrimination cause police to be a social liability. When bad …

If The Gop Won’T Do It, Democrats Will Have To Block Trump’S Nomination For Them, Bruce Ledewitz

Newspaper Columns

Collected biweekly contributions to the Pennsylvania Capital-Star, a nonpartisan, nonprofit news site.

Individual Rights Vs. Collective Value In Paragraph 218: The Role Of Political Tradition In The Development Of German Abortion Policy, Annie Morgan

CISLA Senior Integrative Projects

No abstract provided.

Un País Invertido: The Current Immigration Regime Of Colombia, Magdalena Hendrickson

Honors Theses

Throughout its turbulent history, Colombia has seen drastic changes in structure and administration. From military coups to shaky coalitions, the country’s infamous instability has long forced its citizens to find better prospects elsewhere. However, with the rise of the Maduro administration in Venezuela, Colombia faced a massive new flow of migrants and was forced to rectify current circumstances without properly addressing its internal issues beforehand. Despite its historical status as a nation of emigrants, Colombia marks a new norm for the rest of the globe. As new issues like climate change and increased armed conflict grow worldwide, countries on the …

Gender Disparities Present Within The Legal Profession, Olivia M. Sanders

Honors Theses

This thesis investigates the problem of gender disparities present within the legal profession in order to discover their causes and ways to mitigate them. Currently, there are a variety of gender disparities in the legal profession. Women are paid less than their male counterparts, are exposed to sexual harassment and violence more often, and receive fewer leadership opportunities, to name just a few of these disparities. While these disparities are documented in larger firms, little data exists on the extent of such issues in smaller firms, especially in the southeastern United States. Accordingly, I interviewed eight individuals with their juris …

Differences In French Law Pertaining To Refugees From Former Colonies: A Case Study Of North Africa And Indochina, Lauren Bergin

Honors Theses

Colonial relations between colonizer and colonized are an interesting yet often understudied part of the legal field. This thesis will focus on these links within the relationship between France and two of its former colonies: North Africa and Indochina. In order to discover more information on these relationships, I take a historical approach focusing on legal documents, debates, and decrees, both from the French government and international bodies and representatives such as the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. The resulting discoveries show that French legal documents were far more concerned with North Africa compared to Indochina, both regarding asylum …

Removing A Log From The Nation’S Eye: A National Self-Analysis Of The Domestic Terrorism Question, Katherine R. Doan

Helm's School of Government Conference - 2021-2024

Terroristic values are easy to be ascribed to foreign enemies, but it is far more difficult to admit that domestic citizens could be extremist to the point of being labeled a terrorist. Terrorists are not born; they are made. The following research focuses on the commonalities of upbringing in known domestic terrorists within the United States of America that may reveal noticeable similarities in education, radicalization, and identity. The criminal justice system has yet to discover a perfect method of administering retribution to terrorists. While they have broken the law, their intentions and results are not the same as an …

Asking For It: Gendered Dimensions Of Surveillance Capitalism, Jessica Rizzo

Emancipations: A Journal of Critical Social Analysis

Advertising and privacy were once seen as mutually antagonistic. In the 1950s and 1960s, Americans went to court to fight for their right to be free from the invasion of privacy presented by unwanted advertising, but a strange realignment took place in the 1970s. Radical feminists were among those who were extremely concerned about the collection and computerization of personal data—they worried about private enterprise getting a hold of that data and using it to target women—but liberal feminists went in a different direction, making friends with advertising because they saw it as strategically valuable.

Liberal feminists argued that in …

School Of Law Commencement: May 6, 2023, University Of North Dakota

UND Commencement Programs

UND School of Law Commencement program from May 6, 2023.

The Pgh Synagogue Shooting Case Should’Ve Been Heard In Pa. Court, Bruce Ledewitz

Newspaper Columns

Collected biweekly contributions to the Pennsylvania Capital-Star, a nonpartisan, nonprofit news site.

Comment: The Unjust Side Of Civil Asset Forfeiture In Illinois: Innocent Victims And Corrupted Incentives, Sarah Farwick

Northern Illinois University Law Review

Under the broad scope of modern civil asset forfeiture, law enforcement agencies routinely deprive citizens of their property without ever formally charging them with a crime. This system diminishes the ideal values of American justice, yet the Supreme Court has long held that civil asset forfeiture is constitutional, leaving prospects of judicial reform unlikely. Therefore, it is crucial that individual states take action to protect their citizens by abolishing the use of civil asset forfeiture. In 2017, the Illinois General Assembly attempted to reform its civil asset forfeiture system, but upon close analysis and application of the statute, it is …

Are Third Parties Creating A Loophole For Police Investigations?, Alexandria N. Short

Northern Illinois Law Review Supplement

This article discusses the current case law and statutory law related to the privacy of information collected by third parties. At times, we see the private sector and law enforcement working together to solve crimes. However, that may not always be a good thing. This article offers a solution to these problems of uncertainty by suggesting a uniform code to regulate the private sector, or, in the alternative, a change to the Fourth Amendment that encompasses a more modern interpretation of the information that law enforcement should have access to.

Renegotiating The Colorado River Compact: How A One Size Fits All Approach Has Led To A State Centric Future, And How The Commerce Clause Can Solve It, Erica Porvaznik

Northern Illinois University Law Review

While equitable division of water supplied by the Colorado River has been dictated by the Colorado River Compact for over one hundred years, this agreement has only served to create an inequal, power dynamic amongst all the states and parties to the Compact.

The current provisions controlling the apportionment and usage of the water are set to expire in 2026. Therefore, there is a path forward for the water to be divided in a new way, specifically, by Congress. I argue that Congress should assume authority over the Colorado River and apportion the water under their Commerce Clause power, as …

Comment: Instilling Ordered Procedure In Assessing Motions For Reduced Sentences Under Section 404 Of The First Step Act, Michael C. Vega

Northern Illinois University Law Review

This Comment discusses the lack of ordered procedure in assessing motions brought pursuant to § 404 of the First Step Act of 2018. For nearly a quarter century, federal cocaine sentencing subjected crack-cocaine offenses dealing in one-hundredth the quantity of drug to the same statutory penalty as powder-cocaine offenses. This disparate treatment of drug offenses impacted primarily African Americans. The Fair Sentencing Act of 2010 reduced the disparity but applied only prospectively. Section 404 of the First Step Act made certain provisions of the Fair Sentencing Act retroactive. In the ensuing years, the federal courts have disagreed on the precise …

Comment: Copyright Registration: Fourth Estate Implications For Photographers In The Modern World, Izabella Kanoza

Northern Illinois University Law Review

In 2019, the Supreme Court has settled a long-standing split issue among the Circuit Courts. The issue revolved around the interpretation of the word “registration” with the Copyright Office in order for a copyright owner to be able to initiate a copyright infringement lawsuit. However, the now settled precedent has presented challenges to the ever-evolving internet world and those who use it to create, advertise, and share their digital content. Digital photographers, specifically, have found this registration requirement inefficient when it comes to sharing their work on social media platforms, such as Instagram or Facebook, where copyright infringement in the …

The Right To Social Expungement, Itay Ravid

Faculty Publications

In recent years, policy makers advancing criminal legal reform have engaged
in attempts to correct years of harsh and expansive use of criminal laws. Two
main parallel trends dominate these attempts. One is forward-looking—the
decriminalization of many activities currently punishable by the criminal legal
system. The second is backward-looking, and related—expungement and vacatur
reforms that aim to allow individuals to start fresh.

While these latter efforts are intended to erase the criminal stain from official
criminal records, the non-official domain gained less traction, leading to an
absurd reality in which news stories about individuals’ criminal histories remain
accessible in the …

The Nature Of Monitoring The Constitutionality Of Laws And Regulations In The Kingdom Of Bahrain, Ayman Atallah Ahmad Hammouri, Mahmoud Sabry Abd El-Aziz Ebrahim

Information Sciences Letters

The study aims to explain the reality of control over the constitutionality of laws and regulations in the Kingdom of Bahrain, in terms of the form of this control and the bodies entrusted with moving this control in addition to the effects that result in the two cases of previous and subsequent control over the constitutionality of laws and regulations. It is known that the Bahraini constitutional legislator started with central control. On the constitutionality of laws and regulations in the sense of giving jurisdiction to a single court entrusted with the task of conducting this oversight, and this body …

Is The End Just The Beginning? Nil Changes And The New World Of Intercollegiate Athletics, Jordan Allen

Lincoln Memorial University Law Review Archive

Since the beginning of the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s (“NCAA”) formation, student-athletes have been prohibited from profiting off their name, image, and likeness (“NIL”). After years of lawsuits, the United States Supreme Court narrowly sided with student-athletes in _NCAA v. Alston_, holding that the NCAA violated the law by limiting the education-related benefits that schools could offer to student-athletes. While this holding was important, the most significant aspect of this opinion derives from Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s concurrence, which stated that the NCAA is not above the law. The release of this opinion created a ripple effect in which many states …

Federal Action To Cure State Inaction: Protecting Consumers From The Perils Of Payday Lending, Gabriel Martin

Lincoln Memorial University Law Review Archive

The United States thrives under its unique brand of federalism, allowing states to become laboratories of democracy, tailoring their innovations to meet the needs of constituents. Yet, when state governments are unable or unwilling to take action, it is incumbent upon the federal government to establish a baseline. The rather recent rise of payday loans presents a case study that illustrates a scenario where state innovation, or lack thereof, produced vastly disparate laws among the states. While some states take more consumer-friendly approaches to combat the adverse outcomes of payday loans, a majority of states have done little to quell …

Regulating Rape Within The Virtual World, Chandler Horne

Lincoln Memorial University Law Review Archive

As virtual reality applications become more accessible to the general public, the opportunity for immoral user interactions has shifted from possible to probable. While although virtual reality applications have revolutionized the tech industry, they have also initiated an evolution of virtual crimes, such as virtual rape. Virtual rape refers to when a virtual user exploits their avatar to rape the avatar of another virtual user. When virtual rape occurs, user rapists are often left unpunished, and user victims are often left without recourse. This paper examines how rapes occurring within virtual reality applications can be adjudicated under real-world laws. Specifically, …

From Paper To Prison: How A Rapper's Bars Can Land Them Behind Bars, Sean Freeland

Lincoln Memorial University Law Review Archive

The United States judiciary has historically treated some criminal defendants worse than others. This paper seeks to shed light on the current shortcomings of the judiciary as it relates to lyricists. Specifically, prosecutors are targeting rap artists on trial for various crimes by seeking to admit their rap lyrics as propensity evidence. This paper is divided into three parts. First, it aims to examine a small aspect of free speech in America and points out its various problems. Further, this paper identifies a solution that should make admitting art as evidence more difficult for prosecutors; as such, the second part …

Has The "Cyber-Marketplace Of Ideas" Gone Rogue?, Matthew J. Blaney

Lincoln Memorial University Law Review Archive

To this day, First Amendment jurisprudence protects the rights of speakers whose views the overwhelming majority of people may find distasteful or discomforting—at least offline, that is. The internet and social media, however, present a complex case for whether or not to regulate hate speech online.Social media has done a tremendous deal of good in the world—including serving as the foundation for promoting awareness of police brutality and the #MeTooMovement. Nevertheless, social media has seen a tsunami of hate since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, and the situation is only escalating. And worst of all, the social media platforms …

Mere Touches With Massive Ramifications: An Analysis Of _Torres V. Madrid_ And Its Potential Effects On Police And Section 1983 Plaintiffs, Dalton Parks

Lincoln Memorial University Law Review Archive

Since its inception, the Supreme Court has often struggled to interpret what constitutes a seizure under the Fourth Amendment. While what constitutes a search under the Fourth Amendment has two sturdy foundations in _Katz v. United States_ and _United States v. Jones_, the same cannot be said for seizures, specifically seizures of persons. In 2021, the Court attempted to remedy the situation and craft a workable seizure definition in _Torres v. Madrid_. Instead of building on existing precedent and creating stability in the law, the majority in _Torres_ muddied the seizure waters further when they disregarded more than half a …

Trial By Media: Where Fact & Fiction Co-Exist In High-Profile Cases, Sophie Fielder

Lincoln Memorial University Law Review Archive

Media presence in any U.S. courtroom has long included a debate between the First and Sixth Amendments of the U.S. Constitution, especially within high-profile criminal trials. However, while most federal courts choose to disallow live streaming of trials, state courts continue to vary on the levels of media involvement within their courtrooms. Furthermore, parties involved in civil trials receive less constitutional protection; as such, we’ve seen the media’s presence run wild within the last couple of years, turning respected courtrooms into entertainment circuses and exposing jurors to influential media more than ever. In a world not only consumed by technology …

The War Story As Essential Pedagogy: Construction, Telling, And Use, Michael P. Maslanka

Lincoln Memorial University Law Review Archive

"The War Story as Essential Pedagogy: Construction, Telling, and Use” deals with an unexplored area of law school instruction, namely, how to translate the practical and practice-based experiences of full-time law school professors and law school adjunct professors into useful classroom lessons that students are empowered to carry with them into their legal careers. The article addresses the resistance to any instructional method other than the Socratic dialogue, outlines those objections and responses, and explains why war stories are valuable instructional tools. The article asserts that war stories are an untapped natural resource, present in abundance at all law schools, …

The Views Aired At Pitt Debate Were Ugly. It Was Still Right To Let It Happen, Bruce Ledewitz

Newspaper Columns

Collected biweekly contributions to the Pennsylvania Capital-Star, a nonpartisan, nonprofit news site.