Digital Commons Network^™

Is Tax “Law”?, Luís C. Calderón Gómez

Fordham Law Review

Although taxation remains a hotly contested issue in debates by both politicians and political theorists—over the optimal size of government, distributive (and sometimes corrective) justice, or even the legitimacy of current private property arrangements—taxation has been largely ignored by legal theorists, to the detriment of both tax law and legal theory. This Article argues that tax law, driven by its battle against tax evasion, is in deep conflict with widely accepted conceptions of “legality”—that is, the qualities that make a rule distinctively and normatively “law.” This matters because legality is a key buttress in jurisprudential and political theory accounts that …

False Conflict: Colorblindness And Section 2 Of The Voting Rights Act, W. Kerrel Murray

Fordham Law Review

If friends and foes of section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 agree on one thing, it is the irrepressible conflict between section 2’s attention to race and constitutional colorblindness. They’re wrong. Rightly understood, section 2’s design is remarkably compatible with colorblind constitutionalism’s letter and spirit.

To show how, this Article first returns to section 2’s origins and the preexisting approach its text codifies. That approach had an underappreciated ethos: When intentional discrimination’s effects sufficiently distort a political system, an electoral rule’s results might impugn its unconstitutionality, even if the rule had been adopted without discriminatory purpose. Drawing …

Minimal Success: The Consequences Of Mandatory Minimums In Youth Sentencing, Maya Chrobot

Fordham Law Review

In New York State, children as young as thirteen can be processed as adults and sentenced to mandatory minimum sentences. Mandatory minimum sentences require judges to sentence the defendant to a statutorily set minimum term of imprisonment. Practitioners, judges, and researchers question the efficacy of mandatory minimum sentences, finding that they are ineffective at deterring crime, decreasing bias in sentencing, and increasing community safety. Additionally, there is clear evidence about the damaging effects of incarceration on young adults. Instead of functioning as rehabilitative punishment, incarceration leads young adults to experience poor mental and physical health outcomes upon release, and they …

Interrogation Of Regents And Administrative Reliance Interests In The Context Of Vacillating Immigration Policy, Sarah Engelberg-Nolan

Fordham Law Review

Arbitrary and capricious review under the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) operates as an important agency-accountability tool when invoked as intended. But the recent U.S. Supreme Court case Department of Homeland Security v. Regents of the University of California and subsequent lower federal court cases have opened the floodgates to a more searching and potentially activist review. In Regents, the Court held that the administration of President Donald J. Trump could not rescind the discretionary immigration program Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) in the manner the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) attempted, in part because DHS failed to …

Teaching Legal Research Students To Be The "Human In The Loop", Julie Tedjeske Crane

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Unnoticed Witnesses Of History: First-Hand Accounts Of Ukrainian Women In South Carolina During Russia's Invasion Of Ukraine, Madeline R. Fyock

Senior Theses

Language and other cultural symbols have become widely contested in post-Soviet Ukraine, especially after Russian President Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion in February 2022. The conflict prompted many in Ukraine and its diaspora to re-negotiate and affirm Ukrainian national identity through language, traditions, and culture. The ways in which national identity is signaled in Ukraine has been widely studied in the wake of 2022, but less research has investigated how similar trends are occurring in migratory contexts, where conflict and displacement play crucial roles in identity construction. This study examines the ways that Ukrainian immigrant women in South Carolina signal their …

Can Argentina Overcome The Lithium Natural Resource Curse? A Case Study Into Argentina's Institutional Framework For Lithium Supply Chain Development And Innovation, Colby Greene

Senior Theses

Through the analysis of the natural resource curse, the development of institutional frameworks in societal contexts, the nature of natural resource-based industry value chains, and value creation through institutions and value chains, all in the context of Argentina’s lithium industry, this paper finds that Argentina has failed to implement the necessary institutions and promote proper policy to promote value addition and real economic growth through the conduit of the development of the lithium industry, yet it is not actively a victim of the natural resource curse. In the hierarchical nature of mining value chains, Argentina has permitted their vast lithium …

The Implications Of Semiconductor Export Controls On The Innovation Activity Of Domestic Manufacturers, Mary C. Compton

Senior Theses

This thesis examines the domestic innovation effects of the October 2022 U.S. semiconductor export controls, focusing on the tradeoff between national security objectives and firm-level competitiveness. By restricting exports of advanced chips and semiconductor manufacturing equipment to China, these controls may limit cross-border revenue opportunities and natural channels of knowledge transfer. However, the innovation response of affected firms is theoretically ambiguous: reduced access to foreign markets may depress revenues and lead firms to scale back R&D expenditures as a percentage of gross revenue, thus dampening innovation intensity, or, alternatively, firms may sustain or even increase R&D allocations to overcome trade …

A Guide To Environmentally Sustainable Filmmaking In South Carolina, Christina Vera Dobrowolski

Senior Theses

The entertainment industry has a massive environmental impact. This information is not new in the filmmaking world, as multiple mainstream efforts exist to curb the material-intensive production of live action films and TV. One of these efforts is the use of voluntary sustainable guidelines, which serve as tools that outline sustainable best practices and resources that can help achieve them. However, current guidelines often lack practicality— focusing more on altruism rather than core economic factors that ultimately drive filmmaking. This project aims to address that gap for filmmakers in South Carolina by offering a website featuring attainable, state-specific resources for …

We're All Ramblers, Here: American National Identity As Articulated Through The Sounds And Stories Of Bluegrass Music, Greyson M. Sherman

Senior Theses

This creative thesis argues that bluegrass music, through its multicultural origins and its central "Rambler" archetype, articulates a distinctly American negotiation between freedom and rootedness — one that extends far beyond the genre's narrow popular image. Drawing on musicological scholarship and cultural history, the paper first recovers bluegrass's suppressed origins in the convergence of West African, Anglo- Celtic, and broader European traditions, complicating narratives that position the genre as exclusively white and Appalachian. It then introduces the Rambler — the restless, longing figure who haunts bluegrass lyrically and structurally — as both a product of that history and a metaphorical …

The Racial Implications For Black Claimants At The Federal Arbitration Act's Centennial, Michael Z. Green

Faculty Scholarship

On February 12, 1925, when President Calvin Coolidge signed into law an Act to make arbitration agreements "valid, irrevocable, and enforceable," no person could have expected that this new statute would ever apply to claims by Black litigants. A century later, that law, now referred to as the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA), has evolved to encompass disputes involving a broad array of claimants and processes where businesses enforce pre-dispute agreements to arbitrate. In examining whether Black claimants (businesses, consumers, and importantly, workers) may benefit from using arbitration, this Article investigates how the FAA, as enacted, never intended to address their …

Inexcuseable? Building An Artificial Intelligence Microexpert On Contract Excuse Doctrine, Mark Edwin Burge

Faculty Scholarship

This article details and advocates for a general methodology for creating a "microexpert" grounded in a user-defined set of legal sources and widelyaccessible tools for integrating generative artificial intelligence (AI) into legal analysis. The study focuses particularly on background contract excuse doctrines of impossibility, impracticability, and frustration of purpose, which are collectively a methodologically challenging area of law to rationalize due to factintensive variables that undermine their predictability. Particular challenges include assessing the foreseeability of the event that led to the contract's nonperformance, the extent of the hardship or burden on the party seeking excuse, and the purpose of the …

Building Teacher Capacity To Support Newcomer Multilingual Learners In Upper Elementary Classrooms, Grace Getchell-Ochoa

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

As classrooms become more linguistically diverse, many teachers are working with newcomer multilingual learners and questioning how best to support their learning and engagement. This capstone project explored the question: How can a web-based resource platform enhance teachers’ knowledge and practices for interacting with and engaging newcomer multilingual learners in upper-elementary classrooms? The purpose of this project was to create a practical and accessible resource that helps bridge the gap between research and classroom practice. This project was influenced by research on language development, structured student interaction, and culturally and linguistically responsive teaching (Alvarez et al., 2023; Umansky et al., …

Evolving Approaches To Teaching Secondary English Language Arts In The Age Of Artificial Intelligence, Timothy Crepeau

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

Centered on the question of how to foster academic integrity while maintaining accountability for AI-assisted plagiarism in secondary English language arts (ELA) education, this project responds to the growing reality that students can outsource core cognitive tasks—reading, analysis, and writing—to AI tools. Informed by key influences from neuroscience and educational research, particularly studies on neural plasticity, the reading brain, and cognitive offloading, the project draws on scholarship by Collins, Wolf, and contemporary AI-in-education theorists. These influences underscore the central premise that meaningful learning is not merely demonstrated through output, but developed through the neurological processes activated by sustained cognitive effort. …

Pathways To Inclusive Playgrounds For Children Of All Abilities, Stephanie Gainor

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

Meaningful play is essential for the well-being and development of children; however, both visible and invisible barriers continue to exclude many children with diverse needs from the opportunity to engage in meaningful play activities in their local communities. The purpose of this capstone project was to explore how community advocacy can be supported for more inclusive playground environments and to develop accessible resources to guide these efforts. Since World War II, growing awareness and commitment from communities has led to critical progress in the design of public playgrounds for children of all abilities to engage in meaningful participation in community …

From Viewing To Thinking: Developing Learner's Critical Thinking Skills By Engaging In Philosophical Discussions Through Films, Andrew Barnhart

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

This capstone presents the idea that having learners discuss philosophical ideas that have been introduced to them through films and readings, with films serving as the primary vehicle for introducing those ideas, has the potential to help them think critically. Philosophy helps learners to logically reason, which leads them to critically think. However, the research found that if educators over-rely on textbooks, it may cause learners to become passive learners who do not critically think about the ideas they are learning. To remedy this, the project created for this capstone is a guidebook that helps educators use film, primary literary …

Fingerprinting Voice Commands Of Vpn-Protected Smart Speakers, Xiaoguang Guo, Keyang Yu, Qi Li, Dong Chen

Computer Science Faculty Research and Publications

Extensive recent research has shown that it is surprisingly easy to infer Amazon Alexa voice commands over their network traffic data. To prevent these traffic analytics (TA)-based inference attacks, smart home owners are considering deploying virtual private networks (VPNs) to safeguard their smart speakers. In this work, we design a new machine learning-powered attack framework—VoiceAttack that could still accurately fingerprint voice commands on VPN-encrypted voice speaker network traffic. We evaluate VoiceAttack under 5 different real-world settings using Amazon Alexa and Google Home. Our results show that VoiceAttack could correctly infer voice command sentences with a Matthews Correlation Coefficient (MCC) of …

Augmented Advocacy: Ethical Constraints And Regulatory Gaps In Ai-Driven Legal Practice, Molly M. Rowlands

West Virginia Law Review

The rapid advancement of artificial intelligence (“AI”) and particularly generative AI (“Gen AI”) is reshaping the legal profession in unprecedented ways. AI-powered tools enhance efficiency, improve accuracy in legal analysis, and expand access to justice by automating research, contract review, litigation support, and predictive analytics. However, these benefits come with significant ethical, regulatory, and procedural challenges, including competency concerns and AI “hallucinations,” data confidentiality risks, algorithmic bias, and the environmental impact of AI-driven computing. This Note critically examines the evolving role of AI in legal practice and evaluates the inadequacies of existing regulatory frameworks—such as Rule 11 of the Federal …

Canadians And The American Proposal, Michael Lee

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Plasmoid Vortex System Retrofit A Sustainability And Efficiency Study On Internal Combustion Engines, Walker Hall

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

The thesis addresses the persistent inefficiency and environmental degradation caused by internal combustion engines in modern vehicles, a major issue as the automotive industry faces increasing pressure to reduce fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. Internal combustion engines, which power most cars today, convert only about 20-30% of fuel energy into useful work, with the remainder lost as heat and exhaust waste, including carbon monoxide (CO), carbon dioxide (CO₂), hydrocarbons (HC), and nitrogen oxides (NOx). This inefficiency contributes to global carbon emissions, with transportation accounting for approximately 29% of U.S. greenhouse gases in 2021 [1]. As regulatory standards tighten (e.g., …

Clothing, Comportment, And Court Femininity In Domenico Ghirlandaio's Portraits Of Elite Florentine Women (C. 1475-1490), Emmerson Stephens

Art History Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines a focused group of Domenico Ghirlandaio’s portraits of women from the Medici–Tornabuoni–Sassetti circle in Florence (c. 1475–1490), arguing that these works construct, rather than simply represent, an ideal of courtly femininity. Situating portraiture within systems of social regulation, it demonstrates how comportment, dress, and visual conventions disciplined the female body. Clothing functioned as a material technology that structured posture, gesture, and movement, shaping how women appeared both socially and pictorially.

Through analysis of panel portraits and fresco cycles, particularly in the Tornabuoni Chapel, the study shows how controlled formats, gestures, and surfaces produced figures that embody modesty, …

Low-Complexity Structured Neural Networks And Their Usage In Image And Signal Processing, Adam Kuzmicki

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

Conventional neural networks face significant challenges due to high computational costs, large parameter counts, and reliance on backpropagation, which restricts their application in resource-constrained and real-time settings. To address these challenges, this thesis proposes three structured neural network (NN) architectures grounded in the theories of sparse and self-contained factorizations of transforms, with applications to image compression, reconstruction, classification, encryption, and also adaptive wideband multi-beam beamforming. The first neural network architecture, named DCTrix-Net, replaces conventional spatial con- volution with highly sparse factorization of the discrete Cosine transform (DCT) complemented by Toeplitz-structured weight initialization, achieving at least 97% FLOP reduction over CNNs, …

Who Then Can Be Saved? A Discussion Of Views Within The Christian Tradition Concerning The Salvation Of The Non-Christian, Logan A. Davis

Honors Theses

This thesis argues that, contrary to popular conception, the Christian Tradition is not strictly exclusivist in its understanding of salvation or in its assessment of the fate of the non-Christian but rather displays a rich diversity of views. Both the Christian Tradition and the Christian scriptures are characterized by a certain ambiguity on this issue; although a definitive answer may exist, it is not easily identifiable. Given this ambiguity, the study presents a representative spectrum of theological positions within the Christian Tradition and analyzes their respective treatments of the salvation of the non-Christian. In doing so, it seeks to provide …

Sticks And Blackstone: Regulatory Takings And The Definition Of Property, Maryann Herman

West Virginia Law Review

When private property is subject to regulation, courts sometimes find that it effects a taking requiring just compensation under the U.S. Constitution. This Article explains that what is deemed a regulatory taking can depend on the definition of property the court applies. There are two predominant ways property is defined: either as a bundle of rights or as a person’s dominion over a thing. The bundle of rights, or bundle of sticks, definition conceives of property as a collection of various, discrete rights held by a property owner and others in relation to a thing. These rights can be disaggregated …

Community Lawyering In Coal Country: Empowering Those Who Power America, Gregory Robertson

West Virginia Law Review

Despite the intense and prolonged efforts of thousands of activists in the 1960s and 1970s to obtain safer working conditions for coal miners, pneumoconiosis rates, disease that develops as a result of inhalation of particle material, is on the rise. The Supreme Court’s decision in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo has shaken the ground upon which administrative agencies’ ability to promulgate rules to protect miners rests. This Note profiles a handful of attorneys, archetypes of community lawyering, who advocated for Appalachian coal miners during the height of the Black Lung Movement and continue to do so today. Through conversations with …

Individualized Cannabis Reparations, Scott Bloomberg

Faculty Publications

This Article makes an argument that should be obvious. The best way for governments to right the wrongs of cannabis prohibition is to give money to people with cannabis offenses. Nonetheless, this straightforward reform has been consistently overlooked, dismissed, or minimized by policymakers and scholars alike, eschewed in favor of other social equity programs that do not right those wrongs nearly as effectively. Governments have indeed invested hundreds of millions of cannabis tax dollars in social equity licensing programs and community reinvestment initiatives. These programs-while often worthwhile-do not benefit the vast majority of people with past cannabis offenses. Governments should …

Behind The Suit: How Recovering A Biblical Worldview And Implementing Spiritual Formation Practices Can Improve The Mental Health Crisis In The Legal Profession, Makayla G. Johnson

Senior Honors Theses

A Biblical worldview is the foundation upon which the United States government and legal system is built, however in recent years the understanding of a Biblical Worldview has been in decline. This shift has had a profound impact on the legal field, causing a loss of purpose and meaning in the profession, which research asserts has in part caused many mental health issues found in the legal field. With this in mind, the following study will include information regarding the extent to which the implementation of spiritual formation practices, when practiced specifically by those in the legal profession, could impact …

Order And Orthodox: The Influence Of Ecclesiastical Courts On The Federal Rules Of Civil Procedure And A Biblical Worldview, Rachel Auld

Senior Honors Theses

When analyzing the English history of American civil procedure, one could stop at the common law; however, England had two distinct courts at the time of the American Revolution: King’s courts and Ecclesiastical courts. At this time, the Ecclesiastical courts governed religious and moral issues including divorce, defamation, and probate. As a result, the Ecclesiastical courts had separate procedures from the common law King’s courts. America adopted the Ecclesiastical courts’ legal fields, and in turn, aspects of the Ecclesiastical court procedure. This thesis addresses the influence of the Ecclesiastical courts on the modern American Federal Rules of Civil Procedure by …

Beyond The Barn: An Analysis Of The Agritourism Expansion Opportunities At Butcher Family Farm, Sarah Thomas

Senior Honors Theses

Agritourism is a rapidly expanding industry full of business opportunities. From wedding barns to pumpkin patches, agritourism comprises a niche intersection of agricultural business and experiential tourism. Heavily contested definitionally over a period of years, agritourism is a continually emerging source of business for a variety of locations across the US and global economy. This unique industry is composed of a conglomerate of elements and enterprises that vary widely. One agritourism segment that has undergone the most development is family owned and operated farms, such as Butcher Family Farm in Washington, West Virginia. Standing as the perceived focal point of …

Plasmons Enable Ultralow Threshold Solid-State Triplet Fusion Upconversion With A 2d Sensitizer, Seamus S. Lowe, Satya P. Butler, John E. Anthony, Saien Xie, Barry P. Rand

Chemistry Faculty Publications

Solid-state triplet–triplet annihilation (TTA) upconversion has significant potential for application in light harvesting, optoelectronic devices, and bioimaging. However, the high optical powers required to achieve efficient upconversion have inhibited its adoption. In this work, we demonstrate plasmon-enhanced near-infrared (NIR)-to-blue TTA upconversion in a monolayer WSe2/organic heterojunction. Under far-field excitation, the device reaches a threshold of 19 mW/cm2 and an external quantum efficiency (EQE) of 0.17% with an anti-Stokes shift of 1.1 eV. Plasmon excitation lowers the threshold to 0.9 mW/cm2 and improves the EQE to 3.6%. We attribute the plasmon enhancement to surface plasmon polariton (SPP) near-field enhancement and dark-exciton …