Digital Commons Network^™

The Excessive Fines Clause In The Federal Courts: A Quarter-Century Of Narrowing, Michael O'Hear

Texas A&M Law Review

The Eighth Amendment prohibits “excessive fines,” but what exactly does “excessive” mean? The question has taken on some urgency in recent years as American legislatures have sharply increased the economic penalties associated with criminal convictions. In 1998, in United States v. Bajakajian, the Supreme Court for the first time established a test of sorts to determine whether an economic penalty is “excessive” in violation of the Eighth Amendment. The test was not without its ambiguities but offered some potentially robust protection against the rising tide of fines, fees, forfeiture, and restitution. However, the promise of Bajakajian has been undermined …

Education Policy Committee Minutes March 6, 2025, Utah State University

Educational Policies Committee

• Approval of Minutes - February 6, 2025
• Subcommittee Reports
• Curriculum Subcommittee
• Academic Standards Subcommittee
• General Education Subcommittee
• Other Business
• Adjourn: 3:15 pm

A Mixed Methods Outcome Evaluation On Mixed Methods Research (Mmr) Competencies, Su-I Hou

International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education

Mixed Methods Research (MMR) is growing rapidly, globally, and continues to develop across disciplines. A competency-based course design can better help develop mixed methods research scholars with competency-based learning outcomes. MMR-specific guidance, which informs meaningful design features for competency-based learning outcomes in graduate programs, has been scarce. The overarching aim of the study was to conduct a mixed methods evaluation of an innovative MMR course among doctoral students on MMR competency outcomes. This study examined five cohort groups of doctoral students enrolled in an MMR course during 2016–2020 (n=54) and provided a research-tested MMR tool that is sensitive to detect …

Calling On Congress: Use The Spending Clause To Keep Juveniles In Juvenile Court, Erin Fitzgerald

Pepperdine Law Review

Recently, juvenile justice reformers have had great success in expanding the reach of the juvenile court. Over the last two decades, many states have raised their age of majority, bringing older teens and young adults under the jurisdictional umbrella of the juvenile court. Likewise, many states have amended their transfer statutes, making transferring juveniles from juvenile court to adult criminal court more difficult. The success of these reforms is largely due to the relentless work of dedicated juvenile justice advocates and scholars. The “raise-the-age” movement and work to limit juvenile transfers has undoubtedly helped to retain more youthful offenders within …

Kennedy V. Louisiana And The Future Of The Eighth Amendment, Alexandra L. Klein

Pepperdine Law Review

In 2023, Florida passed a law permitting the imposition of the death penalty for the rape of a child under twelve. Tennessee enacted a similar law in 2024. These laws conflict with Kennedy v. Louisiana, a 2008 decision in which the Supreme Court held that imposing the death penalty for the rape of a child violated the Eighth Amendment’s Cruel and Unusual Punishments Clause because it was inconsistent with the evolving standards of decency. Legislators in Florida and Tennessee have expressed their hope that the Supreme Court will overrule Kennedy v. Louisiana. These laws, which resemble state attempts to undo …

Institutional Racism In The Discretionary Legalization Of Marijuana, Gary D. Brinker, Haoyang Liu

Times Talk Archive & ADP Projects

Dr. Gary Brinker and Haoyang Liu will present their research on a conceptthey call “discretionary legalization of marijuana.” Critical race researchershave found strong evidence that many police officers practice“discretionary arrest,” for example pulling drivers over for being black andconducting unjustified searches, while only pulling white drivers over forviolations and ignoring any evidence of marijuana use. Their research showsthat the states with larger African-American populations, particularly thosesuspected of practicing discretionary arrest, are less likely to legalizerecreational marijuana, supporting this theory.

True Experimental Research Design, Mustafa Demir

Open Educational Resources

This assignment, created by Mustafa Demir of the Law and Police Science Department at John Jay College, tasks students with designing a randomized controlled trial (RCT) to evaluate the impact of body-worn cameras (BWCs) on police use-of-force incidents in a city of the student's choice. Students must gather setting and demographic data from open data sets, such as those available from the Census Bureau, to inform their research design.

The Road To Slow Deportation, Elana Fogel, Kate Evans

Duke Law Journal

Traffic stops are the most common form of police-initiated contact with members of the public. The sheer volume of traffic stops combined with their use as a pretext to surveil Black and Latiné communities has generated substantial scholarship and movements for police reform. Yet this commentary assumes that the subjects of traffic stops are U.S. citizens. At the same time, scholarship on the intersection of criminal and immigration law and the convergence of their enforcement methods focuses on traffic stops as the immediate entry point for removal proceedings. This Article addresses the gap in literature by describing the experience of …

2025-03-05 Student Stars Shine In First Annual “Dancing With Rha” Competition, Tristan Scott

The Spectator Online

https://s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/barrow.production.bepress.com/24621964_2025-06-12-1759968000/files/2025-03-05%20Student%20Stars%20Shine%20in%20First%20Annual%20%E2%80%9CDancing%20With%20RHA%E2%80%9D%20Competition%20%E2%80%93%20The%20Spectator.pdf?AWSAccessKeyId=AKIAYVUS7KB2IXSYB4XB&Signature=HoKFILGVuEtTBnLtvmrA2yE5HYw%3D&Expires=1752343199

The Masters Program: A Model For Teaching Adolescents Soft Skills For Career Readiness, Jewrell Rivers

National Youth Advocacy & Resilience Conference

This workshop will introduce conference participants to the MASTERS Program, a model for teaching adolescents soft skills for career readiness. Participants will engage in small group discussions, simulation activities and interactive exercises to fulfill learning objectives. Participants will be provided with guidance on how to implement the MASTERS Program at their school for preparing students for success in the workplace.

The Association Between Gambling And Academic Performance Among Undergraduate College Students: A Scoping Review Protocol, Hannah K. Allen, Tonya Knight, Becky Hall, Melissa Dennis

Review Protocols

This review seeks to synthesize the current research available and identify gaps in the literature on the association between gambling and academic performance among undergraduate college students. This scoping review will apply a PCC framework (participants/population, construct, context) (Peters et al., 2020) and will have the following primary research question:

1. What is known from the literature about the association between gambling and academic performance among undergraduate college students?

Community-Driven Policy Solutions To Police Accountability, Rashawn Ray

Brookings Scholar Lecture Series

George Floyd’s death shifted public opinion as 76% of Americans agreed that incidents such as the killing of Floyd are signs of racism within law enforcement. While police reforms such as implicit bias training and body-worn cameras gained public support, they insufficiently address the structural, cultural, and organizational components of policing that can obstruct accountability and contribute to racial disparities in policing. In this lecture, Brooking Senior Fellow Rashawn Ray presents interview, survey, social media, and virtual reality data with police officers, activists, and civilians, and demonstrates state- and city-level databases on police reform legislation. Ray posits that evidence-based policy …

The Link March 4, 2025, Access To Justice Institute

The Link Newsletter

No abstract provided.

The Healing Potential Of The Use Of Racial Socialization By School Counselors For African American Students, Vameker Banks

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

African American adolescents experience racial discrimination incidents more frequently than their peers from other racial backgrounds. Racial socialization (RS) has been proven to be effective in assisting African American youth in coping with racial stressors. School counselors play a crucial role in supporting African American youth dealing with race-related stress (RRS). Research has focused on the use of RS among African American parents and children, yet there is a research gap regarding the use of RS among school counselors. Further research is necessary to explore how school counselors implement RS to help students cope with and respond to stressful discriminatory …

Model Explanations For Gender And Ethnicity Bias Mitigation In Ai-Generated Narratives, Martha Otisi Dimgba

Dissertations and Theses

Large Language Models (LLMs) are increasingly utilized in diverse applications, ranging from professional content creation to decision-making systems. However, their outputs often amplify the biases present in their training data, perpetuating stereotypes and reinforcing societal inequities, particularly regarding gender and ethnicity. Such biases can cause tangible harm, especially for underrepresented groups, and require awareness and effective mitigation strategies.

This work explores gender and ethnicity representation in narratives created by generative AI describing 25 occupational fields defined by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. We examine three large language models (LLMs)--Llama 3.1 70B Instruct, Claude 3.5 Sonnet, and GPT 4.0 Turbo. …

Hemp And Marijuana: The Necessity Of Lab Testing For Fair Prosecutions, Jessica Aycock

Pace Law Review

This Article examines the evidentiary and ethical challenges prosecutors nationwide face in distinguishing between hemp and marijuana under current federal and state laws. Following the legalization of hemp under the federal 2018 Farm Bill, the legal distinction between hemp and marijuana now hinges on the concentration of delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). This distinction requires quantitative lab testing to be established. Without quantitative lab testing, prosecutors cannot accurately determine THC levels, making it challenging, if not impossible, to meet the burden of proof required for marijuana possession convictions. This Article argues that the absence of testing raises evidentiary and ethical concerns that …

Adult Sexual Grooming: A Systematic Review, Christin Aletky, Bonita Sharma, Jose Carbajal, Tia Eubank

Journal of Social Work in the Global Community

Grooming is the manipulation and intimidation of people into acts that may appear consensual but are in fact exploitative and harmful, activities they would not have chosen otherwise. Different legal definitions and shifting social perspectives on consent complicate efforts to determine whether a given behavior is a result of informed consent or a response to grooming behaviors. Most studies on grooming and sexual assault focus on adults grooming and abusing children—research on adults grooming other adults is scarce. Therefore, the purpose of our study is to conduct a systematic review of current research on the grooming of adults. We used …

Guardians Or Bystanders? Examining School Shooting Responses In The Southern United States, Andre L. Tompkins Ed.D.

Journal of Educational Research and Practice

School shootings challenge educational safety, demanding effective leadership strategies. The Robb Elementary School shooting in Uvalde, Texas, which claimed the lives of 19 children and 2 teachers, heightened concerns about campus vulnerabilities, urging administrators to prioritize student protection. I performed a qualitative study interviewing principals, teachers, parents, and community leaders to examine their experiences addressing campus threats. The findings revealed three themes: (1) ineffective leadership affects campus safety, (2) prompt actions enhance trust in leadership, and (3) connecting with others enhances safety. In this study, I spotlight the crucial role that proactive leadership plays in building the coalitions needed to …

The Utah Statesman, March 3, 2025, Utah State University

The Utah Statesman

Weekly student newspaper of Utah State University in Logan.

The Rider (2025-03-03), Rebeca Salinas

The Rider Archives

Vol. 10, No. 21

The Continuing Risk Of Forensic Error And Fraud, Michael J. Saks

Seton Hall Journal of Legislation and Public Policy

No abstract provided.

Compensation For The Convicted Innocent In New Jersey: Problems And Recommended Solutions, D. Michael Risinger, Lesley C. Risinger

Seton Hall Journal of Legislation and Public Policy

No abstract provided.

Towards An Innocence-Centered Post‐Conviction Regime In New Jersey, Lesley C. Risinger, D. Michael Risinger

Seton Hall Journal of Legislation and Public Policy

No abstract provided.

Oer Learning In Disguise Toolkit, Alessandra Early, Nicole Mckenna

Open Educational Resources

The OER Learning in Disguise Toolkit, created by Doctors Alessandra Early and Nicole McKenna, is a series of learning materials that ask students to apply key criminal justice concepts to arenas like social media or popular culture, emphasizing media literacy, active reading, and creative thinking. The toolkit includes an introduction; five assignment descriptions (each divided into an instructor-facing section with notes on how to explain the assignment, and a student-facing section with the sample assignment description); one in-class activity; and an appendix with additional readings and materials.

Smart Resolutions: Exploring The Role Of Artificial Intelligence In Alternative Dispute Resolution, Nadia Ahmad

Cleveland State Law Review

Artificial intelligence (AI) has had a significant impact on most industries, including the legal landscape. Effective AI incorporation has removed barriers to access to justice, resolving issues such as backlogged court systems and inadequate resources for pursuing claims. Similarly, the expediency and cost-effectiveness associated with alternative dispute resolution (ADR) have established ADR as a mainstay in most countries to enhance legal accessibility. It was inevitable that AI and ADR were integrated to efficiently deliver justice.

Most automated ADR systems implemented thus far have been with human intervention. As machine learning develops, there are efforts to completely automate ADR, and this …

Developmental Neurobiology And Miller V. Alabama: To What Extent Do Juvenile Brains Change?, Christos D. Strubakos J.D., Ph.D.

Cleveland State Law Review

This article delves into the profound complexities surrounding juvenile violent offenders. The landmark Supreme Court decision in Miller v. Alabama ruled that mandatory life without parole for juveniles is unconstitutional, citing developmental neuroscience that suggests adolescent brains are more amenable to rehabilitation because of their ongoing development. However, this article posits the ruling overlooks critical nuances in brain development. Emerging research indicates some juvenile offenders may exhibit persistent neurological profiles, like structural and functional brain changes, which do not resolve with age, challenging the assumption all young offenders can be rehabilitated as they mature. Through an in-depth analysis of contemporary …

Diabetes Behind Bars: Dissecting Diabetic Deliberate Indifference And Delivering Inmates A More Workable Standard Under The Fourth Amendment, Maggie J. Malloy

Cleveland State Law Review

This Note examines the inadequacies of the current Eighth Amendment framework in safeguarding the constitutional rights of diabetic inmates. It contends that the subjective element of the two-pronged Eighth Amendment claim—often used to assess deliberate indifference—leads to unfair and inconsistent outcomes. To address these shortcomings, this Note draws inspiration from the objective analysis employed in Fourth Amendment excessive force claims, specifically referencing the Supreme Court’s decision in Graham v. Connor. This new framework eliminates the subjective element, and instead replaces it with three objective factors courts should consider when evaluating Eighth Amendment violations related to diabetic medical care. Through …

Annual Comprehensive Financial Report, Nashville And Davidson County, Tennessee For The Year Ended June 30, 2024, Davidson County (Tenn.). Department Of Finance.

Tennessee County Audit Reports

No abstract provided.

Faculty Senate Agenda March 3, 2025, Utah State University

Faculty Senate & Faculty Senate Executive Committee

• 3:00 Call to Order
• Approval of Minutes - February 3rd minutes
• 3:05 University Business
• 3:20 Faculty Senate Business
• 3:35 Information
• EPC Report - February 3, 2025
• Emergency/Risk Survey
• 3:45 Report
• School of Graduate Studies
• Professional Responsibilities (PRPC)
• Parking and Transportation
• 4:00 New Business
• 4:05 Old Business
• Adjourn: 4:30

An Innocence‐Centered View Of New Jersey’S Post‐Conviction Jurisprudence: A Symposium - The History Of New Jersey’S State Constitutional Guarantee Against Suspension Of State Habeas Corpus And Its Unconstitutional Suspension In 2009, D. Michael Risinger, Lesley C. Risinger

Seton Hall Journal of Legislation and Public Policy

No abstract provided.