Digital Commons Network^™

Hidden In Plain Sight: The Dangers Of Environmental Protections Waivers, Olivia Stevens

Indiana Law Journal

When enacting both statutory and regulatory environmental protections, Congress and various agencies have recognized that emergency situations could arise that would require flexibility in the application and enforcement of those protections. Incorporating waivers into such protections provides that flexibility. However, the current state of waivers leaves them vulnerable to abuse. In this Note, I explore how a lack of procedural and substantive safeguards allows the inappropriate use of waivers to further administrative agendas in a way that poses serious risks to both environmental and human health. I then suggest remedial measures available to Congress that would strengthen environmental protections while …

What’S The Deference? Interpreting The U.S. Sentencing Guidelines After Kisor, Liam Murphy

Vanderbilt Law Review

For more than three decades, the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines have constrained the punishment doled out by federal judges, limiting discretion that was once nearly unlimited and bringing standardization to the penological decisionmaking process. For twice as long, the Supreme Court has constrained judges in a different way—by requiring that administrative agencies receive deference when they interpret the meaning of their own regulations. At the convergence of these two domains sits “commentary,” or interpretive notes the U.S. Sentencing Commission appends to the otherwise congressionally approved Guidelines. In Stinson v. United States, the Court made clear that commentary should be reviewed and …

The Dignitary Confrontation Clause, Erin L. Sheley

Faculty Scholarship

For seventeen years, the Supreme Court’s Confrontation Clause jurisprudence has been confused and confusing. In Crawford v. Washington (2004), the Court overruled prior precedent and held that “testimonial” out-of-court statements could not be admitted at trial unless the defendant had an opportunity to cross-examine the declarant, even when the statement would be otherwise admissible as particularly reliable under an exception to the rule against hearsay. In a series of contradictory opinions over the next several years, the Court proceeded to expand and then seemingly roll back this holding, leading to widespread chaos in common types of cases, particularly those involving …

Embracing Crimmigration To Curtail Immigration Detention, Pedro Gerson

Faculty Scholarship

Immigration advocates have long objected to both the constitutionality and conditions of immigration detention. However, legal challenges to the practice have been largely unsuccessful due to immigration law’s “exceptionality.” Placing recent litigation carried out against immigration detention during the COVID-19 pandemic within the context of the judiciary’s approach to immigration, this Article argues that litigation is an extremely limited strategic avenue to curtail the use of immigration detention. I then argue that anti-immigration detention advocates should attempt to incorporate their agenda into criminal legal reform and decarceration efforts. This is important for both movements. Normatively, immigration detention raises comparable issues: …

Corporate Gaslighting: Can Isolated Training Help? A Narrative Study, Jade Singleton

Doctor of Education (EdD)

The purpose of this narrative study is to investigate whether isolated anti-corporate gaslighting training, leveraging vignettes, could be of value to organizations. Findings responded to three research questions: (1) How do participants identify when the vignette shifts into corporate gaslighting territory? (2) What perceptions do Learning & Development professionals have of the training experience? (3) What do participants believe the usefulness of this isolated training is for organizations like theirs? Study participants were three professionals across Learning & Development and Human Resource roles. After the anti-corporate gaslighting training session, administering vignette testing, and finally interviewing the group to gauge their …

Slowing Down Accelerated Approval: Examining The Role Of Industry Influence, Patient Advocacy Organizations, And Political Pressure On Fda Drug Approval, Stephanie Diu

Fordham Law Review

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has been revered as the gold standard in pharmaceutical safety and efficacy review since the 1960s. More recently, partly in response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic and the pressing need for new treatments, the FDA established an accelerated approval process to hasten the review of new drug applications so that drugs could be approved and brought to market as soon as possible. Although accelerated approval has led to the availability of new treatments for patients with few other options, this Note argues that, today, the FDA grants accelerated approval too hastily and may be …

Estimation Of Radium-226 Concentrations In Produced Water From Shale Gas, Tight Gas And Conventional Hydrocarbon Wells, Richard Frank Haaker

Mathematics & Statistics ETDs

This study examined data from the United States Geological Survey Produced Water database, version 2.3 (USGS DB) and built models to estimate the concentration of radium-226 in produced water given the values of other predictor variables. The dataset had only about 254 observations that were useable. Although the USGS DB had up to 190 possible attributes, it also had extreme rates of missingness, and many of the candidate variables were highly correlated. Multiple imputation techniques were employed using the Mice, Hmisc, and RMS packages for the R language to deal with the missing data. A multiple linear regression and two …

The Political Economy Of Foreign Sovereign Immunity, Maryam Jamshidi

UC Law Journal

The Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (“FSIA”) prohibits civil litigation against foreign states, their agencies, and instrumentalities unless one of several enumerated exceptions to immunity applies. The most important of these exceptions is for the commercial activity of foreign sovereigns. While underappreciated, various capitalist interests have comported with and been furthered by the FSIA. Applying a political economy lens, this Article demonstrates how the statutory framework for private litigation against foreign sovereigns has aligned with interests and prerogatives associated with particular stages of capitalist development—as evidenced by the historical evolution of foreign sovereign immunity doctrine and the FSIA’s eventual passage; the …

Thirteenth Amendment Echoes In Fourteenth Amendment Doctrine, Christopher W. Schmidt

UC Law Journal

This Article argues that to better understand the historical development of Fourteenth Amendment antidiscrimination doctrine, we should look to the Thirteenth Amendment. The Fourteenth Amendment was drafted in response to debates over the meaning of the Thirteenth Amendment; it was widely understood at the time of ratification as building upon the constitutional commitments embodied in the Thirteenth Amendment; and assumptions about liberty and equality more commonly associated with the Thirteenth Amendment have had a recurring, if underappreciated, influence on judicial interpretations of the Fourteenth Amendment.

I trace these Thirteenth Amendment influences on the Fourteenth Amendment from Reconstruction to some of …

Identifying And Countering Fake News, Mark Verstraete, Jane R. Bambauer, Derek E. Bambauer

UC Law Journal

Fake news presents a complex regulatory challenge in the increasingly democratized and intermediated on-line information ecosystem. Inaccurate information is readily created by actors with varying goals, rapidly distributed by platforms motivated more by financial incentives than by journalistic norms or the public interest, and eagerly consumed by users who wish to reinforce existing beliefs. Yet even as awareness of the problem grew after the 2016 U.S. presidential election, the meaning of the term “fake news” has become increasingly disputed and diffused. This Article first addresses that definitional challenge, offering a useful taxonomy that classifies species of fake news based on …

Avatars And Derivative Works: Harmonizing The Interests Of Creators And Consumers, Reina Shinohara

UC Law Journal

As we spend more of our days online, we are seeing a shift in content moving towards a progressively simulated reality. The virtual worlds of video games and other online communities have become a norm for many, with an influx of creative content derived from those spaces being widely shared and enjoyed by millions across the country. As instances of works featuring virtual worlds and our virtual representations within those worlds become more frequent, it becomes imperative that there be a clear delineation on what protections govern those expressions within and concerning those virtual spaces. Can an avatar be copyrighted? …

Dropping The Other Shoe: Personal Jurisdiction And Remote Technology In The Post-Pandemic World, Jenny Bagger

UC Law Journal

As the question of how new technology factors into the personal jurisdiction analysis remains unresolved, the vast increase in the reliance on remote technology that the COVID-19 pandemic spurred urges a definitive answer. Even when the pandemic comes to its end, the shift it caused towards remote interactions and the question of how these interactions affect personal jurisdiction will continue as society enters the post-pandemic world. The now-outdated Internet-specific test that lower courts created more than twenty years ago has caused more confusion than clarity and no longer suits the technology of a rapidly evolving society. As the new norm, …

Trust Issues: Using States' Public Trust Doctrines To Advance Environmental Justice Claims, Alicia Muir

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

The primary purpose of this Note is to evaluate a new method one could use to bring an environmental justice claim. This Note suggests that the solution can be found within the reinvigorated public trust doctrine. Instead of pursuing environmental justice claims on the federal level, plaintiffs could utilize the sleeping giant that is states’ public trust doctrines. Pennsylvania courts, the pioneers of this new path, held that its public trust should be evaluated using private trust law principles. By interpreting state-created public trusts through the lens of private trust concepts, citizens in a number of states are capable of …

Unreasonable: A Strict Liability Solution To The Ftc’S Data Security Problem, James C. Cooper, Bruce H. Kobayashi

Michigan Technology Law Review

For over two decades, the FTC creatively employed its capacious statute to police against shoddy data practices. Although the FTC’s actions were arguably needed at the time to fill a gap in enforcement, there are reasons to believe that its current approach has outlived its usefulness and is in serious need of updating. In particular, our analysis shows that the FTC’s current approach to data security is unlikely to instill anything close to optimal incentives for data holders. These shortcomings cannot be fixed through changes to the FTC enforcement approach, as they are largely generated by a mismatch between the …

Sgk1 Is Essential For Meiotic Resumption In Mammalian Oocytes, Edgar Del Llano, Rajan Iyyappan, Daria Aleshkina, Tomas Masek, Michal Dvoran, Zongliang Jiang, Martin Pospisek, Michal Kubelka, Andrej Susor

Faculty Publications

In mammalian females, oocytes are stored in the ovary and meiosis is arrested at the diplotene stage of prophase I. When females reach puberty oocytes are selectively recruited in cycles to grow, overcome the meiotic arrest, complete the first meiotic division and become mature (ready for fertilization). At a molecular level, the master regulator of prophase I arrest and meiotic resumption is the maturation-promoting factor (MPF) complex, formed by the active form of cyclin dependent kinase 1 (CDK1) and Cyclin B1. However, we still do not have complete information regarding the factors implicated in MPF activation. In this study we …

Juvenile Solitary Confinement And The Eighth Amendment, Taylor R. Graves

Honors Thesis

This literature review examines the practice of juvenile solitary confinement, applies the United States Supreme Court’s Eighth Amendment jurisprudence, argues that the practice should be declared unconstitutional as a violation of the Eighth Amendment, and calls for a categorical ban. The Cruel and Unusual Punishment Clause of the Eighth Amendment states, “nor [shall] cruel and unusual punishments [be] inflicted.” U.S. Const. amend. VIII. Juvenile solitary confinement is cruel and unusual, in violation of the Eighth Amendment, because juveniles are different. The United States Supreme Court has long recognized that juveniles should not be held to the same standards of …

Racist History And The Second Amendment: A Critical Commentary, Patrick J. Charles

Cardozo Law Review

No abstract provided.

In Defense Of Felon-In-Possession Laws, Dru Stevenson

Cardozo Law Review

No abstract provided.

Instructor Selection And Use Of Virtual Field Experiences In College Geoscience Course, Kristen Foley

Masters Theses

Virtual Field Experiences (VFEs) are a growing supplement and gateway to traditional fieldwork in the geosciences. With VFEs becoming more accepted for use in college geoscience courses, how instructors find and choose VFEs for their students is critical to creating greater accessibility and future resources. VFEs that are not easily accessed by instructors may go unused, and the effort put into making them would have been wasted. This phenomenological descriptive study utilized five focus groups of college geoscience instructors in the United States. Each 1-to-1.5-hour focus group session of 3-7 participants took place on video conferencing software, which was recorded …

Uplifting Voices: Implementing A Heritage-Based Civil Rights Program In The United States Forest Service, Amanda Jo Campbell Crawford

Masters Theses

The United States Forest Service holds in public trust hundreds upon thousands of historically significant sites. For decades, the management of these special places has focused on basic site identification and protection to meet legal compliance measures for Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act. Standard practices within the agency led to cultural sites being identified on the ground in a cursory fashion, but with little research or follow up into the history of the site of the people that had created and occupied it. Sites reflecting the identity, history, or material culture of People of Color were especially …

Treasures From Rowan University Archives And Special Collections, Sara A. Borden

Library Workshops

Learning objectives:

• Participants will learn what primary sources are in a university archives and special collections
• Participants will examine and learn details from historic Rowan University artifacts such as: maps; incunabula and rare books; one-of-a-kind manuscripts detailing southern New Jersey history; and other incredible treasures from the region, the nation, and the world held in the collections
• Participants will understand that archives contain materials that are not only useful for work in humanities and social sciences but archives hold documents and objects of interest to those in STEM studies as well as other fields

Description:

This virtual workshop will clear …

Never Mind Betrayal: America’S Indifference To The Kurds Is A Strategic Blunder, Jonathan Honigman

Journal of Strategic Security

Although they have proven themselves to be loyal and capable U.S. partners, America has refused to endorse either independence for Iraqi Kurds or autonomy for Syrian Kurds. That policy has been academically underscored by several Realism-based concepts including an offshore balancing approach to the Middle East. This paper argues that America can adjust to new realities in the region without having to forsake its worthwhile Kurdish partnerships. I first compare and contrast the costs of American support for Kurds and then refute the notion that Kurdish independence in Iraq or autonomy in Syria would cause instability or be nonviable. I …

"Blood Must Flow:" The Arkansas Militia Wars Of 1868-1869, Eric Johnson

Tenor of Our Times

“Blood Must Flow: The Arkansas Militia Wars of 1868-1869” analyzes a period of particular political and racial violence during Arkansas Reconstruction. The Arkansas Militia Wars consisted of two phases. The first was an outbreak of political and racial violence that swept over much of the state in the months leading up to the presidential elections in the fall of 1868. This period coincided with the emergence of the Ku Klux Klan in Arkansas, and much of the violence was perpetuated by Klansmen. The second phase began the day after the election concluded, when Governor Powell Clayton declared martial law in …

A House Divided: How Hitler Exploited The Politics Of Weimar Germany, Luke T. Ziegler

Tenor of Our Times

The Nazis, one of the most hated organizations in modern history, came to power during the government of the Weimar Republic. In between the two World Wars, the ineffectual Weimar government ruled Germany. During the Weimar period, Germany experienced incredible economic hardship, revolts, and political discontent. Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party used the Weimar culture and political system to take control of the nation. The Republic’s political disunity and lack of shared common belief allowed Hitler to worm his way into the Reich Chancellery and institute one of the most destructive governments of the last century. Hitler capitalized on …

Fostering Equity And Accountability In Georgia’S Criminal Legal System Through Conviction Integrity Reforms, E. Addison Gantt, Meagan R. Hurley

Mercer Law Review

An often-quoted excerpt from Berger v. United States sums up the role of a prosecutor in the criminal legal system. The context is the federal system, but it applies across the board. It begins by explaining the duty of a prosecutor: to represent the sovereign, “whose obligation to govern impartially is as compelling as its obligation to govern at all; and whose interest, therefore, in a criminal prosecution is not that it shall win a case, but that justice shall be done.”2 Then, it turns to the real-world application of that role, instructing that prosecutors should present their cases with …

Click It Or Ticket, But Don’T Admit It? How Unrestrained Drivers And Passengers Take Us For A Ride, E.R. Wright

Mercer Law Review

While the COVID-19 crisis has forced societies and governments to confront new challenges and answer new questions, it has also renewed and reignited longstanding debates about the extent of individuals’ obligations to each other. In particular, the American body politic is once again embroiled in conflict over the reach of an individual’s personal choices and the extent to which consideration of the potentially harmful effects of our choices on others should shape individual behaviors. Today, this fight centers on public health measures intended to reduce the spread and severity of COVID-19, such as masking, distancing, and vaccination. Debates rage over …

From Bostock To Adams: Following The Expansion Of Rights For Transgender Students In Public School Settings, William A. White, M. Chase Collum

Mercer Law Review

Since before the turn of the twenty-first century, it is undeniable that classrooms across the country have undergone a multitude of changes. In 2020, schooling continued through a global pandemic—forcing teachers and students alike to improvise, adapt, and overcome challenges both in the classroom and in their own homes. Now that teachers and students are attempting to return to “normal,” federal courts across the country have passed down a number of decisions that will impact students’ return to the classroom. Specifically, the Supreme Court of the United States’ landmark decision in Bostock v. Clayton County, Georgia, (Bostock) …

The Possibility Of Special Verdicts By Court-Martial Panels, Christopher D. Carrier

Montana Law Review

No abstract provided.

Whither Rationality, Shi-Ling Hsu

Scholarly Publications

No abstract provided.

"Covenant Theology: Biblical, Theological, And Historical Perspectives"[Review]/Waters, Guy Prentiss, J. Nicholas Reid, And John R. Muerther, Eds., Felix H. Cortez

Andrews University Seminary Studies (AUSS)

This is a book review by Felix H. Cortez.