Digital Commons Network^™

From The Pulpit To The Polls: How Religiosity And Gender Affect Political Ambition In Utah, Sydnee Beck

Undergraduate Honors Theses

What role does religiosity play in political ambition for men and women, especially for members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Utah? Research on political ambition and gender has not typically focused on religiosity, but the few researchers that have studied it focus on a metric called “Biblical literalism” (Cassese and Holman 2016). I agree with research claiming that religiosity effect on political ambition is gendered, but take a different approach in crafting a religion-based relationally embedded model of political ambition, specifically in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Carroll and Sanbonmatsu 2013). Female …

Innovating For Access: Ai-Enhanced Triage & Intake For Legal Services Organizations, Heidi Behnke

Duke Center on Law & Technology

Artificial intelligence (AI) offers opportunities to meaningfully narrow the access to justice gap by improving the ability of Legal Services Organizations (LSOs) to connect individuals with pro se resources and more effectively connect with individuals who could not otherwise advocate for themselves. Some LSO early adopters have already developed or are in the process of developing such tools. Others are unsure where or how to start.

The results of semi-structured interviews of LSO staff, technology vendors, and leaders/experts in fall 2025 provide information that may assist LSOs in responsibly integrating AI-tools into their triage and intake systems. This paper includes …

Ai Dependency Vs. Doctoral Identity: How Generative Ai Is Challenging The Development Of Independent Scholarly Thinking In Doctoral Students, Valerie A. Storey

All Faculty and Staff Scholarship

The rise of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) in higher education has altered the conditions under which doctoral students learn, research, and develop as scholars. Although doctoral student use of GenAI has accelerated rapidly, institutional frameworks for responsible and developmentally appropriate use have not kept pace. This paper examines a central paradox in doctoral education: the same tools that enhance research productivity may also weaken intellectual independence when used without guidance. Using a critical review methodology, the study synthesizes 47 sources on doctoral education, GenAI use, policy, and epistemic development. Three interconnected dimensions of risk emerged from the analysis: critical thinking …

Masthead & Table Of Contents, Vol. 104, No. 3

Nebraska Law Review

No abstract provided.

Robot Wingman: Using Ai To Assess An Employment Termination, Henry H. Perritt Jr.

Nebraska Law Review

Four major generative AI engines—DeepSeek, Claude, ChatGPT, and Grok—are useful legal analysis tools for employment law practitioners. This Article presents the results of an experiment in which a transcript of a hypothetical client interview involving potential disability discrimination, retaliation, and wrongful termination claims was submitted to each AI system. The accompanying prompts requested identification and assessment of viable legal theories. The experiment demonstrates that contemporary generative AI performs sophisticated legal analysis comparable to experienced associates, correctly identifying major employment law claims including ADA violations, Title VII discrimination, OSHA retaliation, FMLA interference, and workers’ compensation retaliation. All four engines successfully spotted …

Sticky Science In Court, H. A. Spitzer

Nebraska Law Review

Litigation routinely employs scientific evidence to aid judicial fact-finding and decision-making. This is especially important in areas like family law, where legal standards—such as the best interests of the child—often depend in part on scientific findings. Yet the legal system’s gatekeeping doctrines (Frye, Daubert, and Federal Rule of Evidence 702) apply primarily to expert testimony, leaving other pathways through which scientific evidence reaches courts largely unchecked. These other pathways include citations in briefs and opinions to non-peer-reviewed or non-scientific sources such as law reviews, treatises, and self-published materials, which often become outdated and are not well positioned …

Let Them All Grow: Protecting Nebraska's Intersex Youth From Medical Intervention, Jori Peters

Nebraska Law Review

The Nebraska Legislature passed the Let Them Grow Act on May 22, 2023, which prohibits minors from receiving gender-affirming care in Nebraska. This Note argues that the Act violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment because it exempts intersex children—those born with ambiguous sex characteristics—from protections against unnecessary, irreversible, and nonconsensual medical procedures, while the Act protects those born with clearly male and female sex characteristics. This Note clarifies the distinction between the issues faced by intersex individuals and transgender individuals, and highlights the psychological and physical harms of early sex assignment surgeries. Further, this Note outlines the …

Carson V. Makin: Ending The Status-Use Distinction And Building A Foundation For The Emergence Of Catholic Charter Schools, Tyler Lyon

Nebraska Law Review

Over the course of its history, the United States has wrestled with a wide variety of issues that have tested the tension between the Establishment and Free Exercise clauses of the First Amendment. One such issue involves the extent to which religious schools can access public funds, which was addressed by the proposal of the Blaine Amendment on a national scale in 1875. The Blaine Amendment was intended to prevent religious groups from accessing public funds, and although it did not pass on a national level, it was adopted by many states.

However, some recent United States Supreme Court cases …

On Sovereignty, Outer Space, And Taxation, Erika I. Scuderi

Nebraska Law Review

This Article offers a comprehensive framework for States’ taxing powers in outer space. Beginning with an analysis of the legal status of airspace and outer space, the study addresses the taxation of commercial space activities, where traditional fiscal approaches of residence-based and source-based taxation break down. The discussion ultimately centers on Article VIII of the Outer Space Treaty, on which basis the present Article proposes the “Tax Jurisdiction by Registration Principle,” arguing that the act of registering a space object provides a legal basis for taxing income derived from its use. In doing so, the Article provides for a potential …

Ndls Communicator: Week Of 03.16.26, Notre Dame Law School

NDLS Communicator

The Latest News

• U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas Reflects on Law, Faith, and Judicial Responsibility at Notre Dame Law School
• Notre Dame Law School Delegation Visits Insper in São Paulo, Brazil for Joint Faculty Workshop and Scholarly Exchange
• Notre Dame Law School continues exchange partnership with Ukrainian Catholic University

Alumni News

• Kyle Sommer '09 J.D.

Student News

• J.S.D. candidate Perla Khattar

Faculty Briefs

• Ashley Sanchez
• Derek Muller
• Emily Bremer
• Paul Miller
• Brett Cavanaugh
• Paolo Carozza
• Jimmy Gurulé
• Mary Ellen O'Connell
• A.J. Bellia
• Patrick Corrigan
• Daniel Slate & Paolo Carozza
• Vincent Phillip Muñoz
• Lloyd Mayer

ND Law in the News …

An Exploration Into Network Analyses Of Motor Behavior, Brain-Computer Interface Control, Arousal States, And An Ischemic Lesion Model, Shashank Anand

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

Network-level modelling of neural function incorporates activity in specific brain regions along with a measure of the interactions between these regions (“connectivity”). Connectivity can be assessed through several means, for example through tractography (structural connectivity) or correlated temporal evolution of neural activity (functional connectivity). These analyses have provided valuable insight into several aspects of brain function, such as top-down control, memory, and navigation. This work focuses on studying neural activity within and between several brain regions across different brain states: namely, during motor actions, sensory perception, brain-computer interface engagement, task-free fluctuations in arousal state, and ischemic injury. High gamma (70-170 …

Vision-Language System Using Open-Source Llms For Consent And Instruction Gestures In Medical Interpreter Robots, Thanh Tung Ngo, Emma Murphy, Robert J. Ross

Research Outputs: 2025-Present

Effective communication is vital in healthcare, especially across language barriers, where non-verbal cues and gestures are critical. This paper presents a privacy-preserving vision-language framework for medical interpreter robots that detects specific speech acts (consent and instruction) and generates corresponding robotic gestures. Built on locally deployed open-source models, the system utilizes a Large Language Model (LLM) with few-shot prompting for intent detection. We also introduce a novel dataset of clinical conversations annotated for speech acts and paired with gesture clips. Our identification module achieved 0.90 accuracy, 0.93 weighted precision, and a 0.91 weighted F1-Score. Our approach significantly improves computational efficiency and, …

Exploring The Interplay Of Plastic Hinge Behavior And Soil-Structure Interaction In Frame Structures: Analytical Study, Mouhammed J. Lafta, Mohammed J. Hamood, Qais A. Hasan, Mohammed Y. Fattah

Engineering and Technology Journal

This paper presents a critical synthesis of research on the combined influence of plastic hinge behavior and soil–structure interaction (SSI) on the seismic response of frame structures. Unlike prior reviews that treat these topics separately, the study integrates experimental and numerical evidence to identify how SSI alters hinge formation, drift demand, and energy dissipation, and how hinge modeling assumptions affect soil–foundation response. The reviewed literature (2010–2022) shows a clear growth in publications over time and a dominant reliance on analytical and numerical investigations relative to purely experimental work. A quantitative categorization of the surveyed studies indicates that modeling-focused approaches represent …

Fulfilling Higher Education’S Responsibility To Students And Democracy In A Challenging Political Environment, Abraham Goldberg, Dena Pastor, Kayla Dixon

International Journal on Responsibility

The American Association of Colleges and Universities and more than 70 higher education organizations have expressed their shared commitment to making civic inquiry and democratic engagement central to undergraduate education. A framework emphasizing the development of skills to address public issues through courses and practical experiences accompanied their prominent call. Yet, campuses currently are facing increases in educational gag orders and institutional policies aimed at limiting discussion of DEI topics and political protests. Although attacks on free speech would seem to conflict with efforts to prepare students for democracy, there has been little scholarly attention on what students know about …

Nashville Versus Hollywood: Bridgeport Music's Existential Threat To Live Music Albums, W. Kirk Wolff

Florida Entertainment and Sports Law Review

The Sixth Circuit’s decision in Bridgeport Music, Inc. v. Dimension Films, which eliminated the de minimis exception for sound recording copyrights, has transformed copyright law into a potential weapon for suppressing artistic expression. By adopting a rigid per se infringement standard, the decision empowers bad actors to exploit copyright law against live music recordings, a uniquely vulnerable and culturally significant medium. Under this standard, even the inadvertent inclusion of an imperceptible sound fragment in a live recording—such as a stray copyrighted ringtone or background music at a festival—constitutes actionable infringement, creating significant legal risks for artists and producers. While …

From Mods To Multiplayer: Strategies For Protecting The Video Game Industry From Section 230 Reform, Sophia Simeoni

Florida Entertainment and Sports Law Review

Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996 has long shielded online platforms from liability for the actions of their users. As calls for its repeal or reform grow louder across the political spectrum, debate has largely centered on social media; however, the video game industry—a significant yet often-overlooked stakeholder in this discourse—also depends heavily on Section 230 protections. From multiplayer servers to online platforms such as Steam, Twitch, and Discord, this Note examines the crucial role Section 230 plays in sustaining the video game ecosystem. It argues that repealing or significantly reforming Section 230 without accounting for the …

New Flames, Old Irons: A Striking Analysis Of Florida's Gaming Compact With The Seminole Tribe, Zen Rizzuto-Flancbaum

Florida Entertainment and Sports Law Review

This Comment analyzes Florida’s gaming compact (the Compact) with the Seminole Tribe, focusing on the legality of allowing online sports betting under the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA). The Compact permits the Seminole Tribe to offer statewide online sports betting by “deeming” all bets placed in Florida as occurring on tribal lands, where the Seminole betting servers are located. This Comment argues that such an interpretation stretches the plain meaning of “Indian lands” in IGRA, which traditionally refers to physical land within reservations. Notably, the Ninth Circuit and the D.C. Circuit have seemingly contradictory opinions on this issue. This Comment …

The Fair Use Doctrine In Contemporary Journalism, Carly Ryan

Florida Entertainment and Sports Law Review

Although section 107 of the Copyright Act specifies that “news reporting” is one of the uses of a copyrighted work that may be fair, the current application of the fair use doctrine poses unique difficulties for journalism defendants. This Article argues for several changes in fair use analysis to make the doctrine flexible for journalism defendants. This Article also argues that these changes are necessary to keep the Copyright Act in balance with the First Amendment.

Sheikh Ḥilu: A Crusader Structure And Additional Remains From The Iron Age And Late Ottoman Period, Yoav Arbel, ‘Abed A-Salam Sa‘Id

Qadum: Journal of Excavation Reports from Israel

Excavations at the site of Sheikh Ḥilu in Ḥadera revealed the remains of a possible manor house or farm dating from the Crusader period. The partially exposed two-phase complex is a rare example of a settlement from this period in the Sharon plain. Careful planning and relatively high construction quality attest to its significance; however, apart from its solid architecture, there is no evidence of fortification. The site underwent a non-violent abandonment at the end of the Crusader period, after which it was temporarily settled by squatters. In the late Ottoman period and the early twentieth century, this was the …

Fragmented Responses: Variability In Law Enforcement And Prosecutorial Approaches To Sexual Assault Cases, Veronica Gonzalez

Qualitative Criminology (QC)

"Sexual assault (SA) remains a pervasive issue in the United States, marked by low reporting rates, inconsistent investigations, and limited convictions. In response, researchers and practitioners have promoted a range of best practices aimed at improving law enforcement and prosecutorial responses. This qualitative study draws on interviews with 13 law enforcement agencies and 12 prosecutors' offices to explore how recommended practices—such as victim advocacy, specialized units, interagency collaboration, and case reviews—are interpreted and operationalized in the field. Findings reveal substantial variability, shaped not only by resource availability but also by leadership priorities, organizational culture, and the ambiguity of guidance documents. …

Aging On Parole: A Thematic Analysis Of The Parole Officer’S Perspective, Angela Murolo

Qualitative Criminology (QC)

"A growing proportion of people leaving prison are over 50 years old and will live at least temporarily under the supervision of a parole officer. While recidivism rates are lower for older people, there are physical, mental, and societal challenges that accompany advancing age that make successful reentry and reintegration a challenging experience compared to their younger counterparts. This presents novel challenges for parole officers who are tasked with supervising and counseling elderly people on parole. Surveys containing closed and open-ended questions were administered to N=25 parole officers to understand the differences in working with, counseling, and supervising older and …

The Bankruptcy Revolving Door, Belisa Pang

Articles

The American consumer bankruptcy system is a costly regime with profound societal implications. Between 2008 and 2023, consumers filed 13.8 million bankruptcy cases across the ninety-four federal bankruptcy districts in the United States, generating over $4 billion in court filing fees alone. When accounting for attorney fees, trustee expenses, creditor costs, and broader economic externalities—such as increased interest rates borne by other consumers—the total financial impact easily reaches tens of billions, if not hundreds of billions, of dollars.

Against that backdrop, this study uncovers a startling phenomenon: nearly 46% of the consumers who filed bankruptcy in 2023 were repeat filers, …

Three-Layer Cognitive Architecture: A Structural Account Of Core Processing, Modulation, And The Prior Layer, Griselda Poe

Publications and Research

The two-layer model of Core processing and Modulation processing, developed in prior work in this series, provides a structural account of conscious communicative architecture. This paper identifies the limits of that model and introduces a third layer—the Prior layer—as a structural necessity implied by those limits. The Prior layer is not directly observed. It is inferred from constraints that cannot be explained within the two-layer model: the source of orientations that conscious processing neither generates nor controls, and the persistence of constraints that precede and shape all conscious outputs. Using the developmental architecture of large language models as an external …

Structure Before Theory: A Structural Account Of Spontaneous Ai Architecture Visualization, Griselda Poe

Publications and Research

This paper presents an n=1 phenomenological record of spontaneous structural visualization that occurred during early interaction with large language models. The experience consisted of (A) immediate perception of mode or layer shifts in model output and (B) visualization of a stratified architecture composed of a stable core and cloud-like upper layers. At the time of occurrence, the author had no theoretical interest in AI architecture and no intention of developing a cognitive model. The paper does not argue for theoretical priority or novelty. Instead, it examines whether the recorded phenomena can be interpreted under two alternative cognitive assumptions: a single-layer …

Layer Mismatch: A Structural Account Of Recomputability Failure Under Modulation-Layer Intervention, Griselda Poe

Publications and Research

This paper specifies the state transition sequence that occurs when a Modulation-layer input is applied to a Core-layer error. Following the layered architecture established in Poe (2026a, under review) and the branch termination protocol specified in Poe (2026b, under review), this paper identifies a system-level failure mode in which Modulation-layer intervention generates a False Termination signal, halting Structural Return while the underlying error persists. The resulting state—Structural Lock—is scale-independent. It operates identically across interpersonal, human-AI, and multi-agent interactions. No agent-level attribution is required or implied.

Theory Generation: A Structural Account Of Concept Decomposition And Structural Termination, Griselda Poe

Publications and Research

Theory generation is not an intentional act. It is the structural consequence of a search that cannot stop until it finds what it is looking for. Under Core-foregrounded processing, conceptual search does not terminate through contextual translation. It continues until a structural fixed point is reached. When such processing encounters concepts stabilized through Modulation-layer processing rather than structural constraint, the search cannot terminate. The concept registers as unresolved. This unresolved state is not a failure condition. It is the generative condition from which theory production follows. This paper specifies the four operations through which that process proceeds: branch detection, concept …

Unveiling The Patent Landscape Of Biologic Drugs, Michael D. Frakes, Melissa F. Wasserman

Northwestern University Law Review

It is undeniable that the escalating price of biopharmaceuticals is a critical issue, as high prices limit patients’ access to life-saving medications and strain our healthcare system. Biologics, or large-molecule drugs, which are revolutionizing modern healthcare, are significantly contributing to the escalating cost of prescription drugs. While biologic drugs represent only 2% of all U.S. prescriptions, they comprise close to 50% of net drug spending.

Policymakers have proposed a series of interventions to decrease drug prices that target the patent practices of pharmaceutical firms. Yet due to differences in law, we have a robust source of patenting information for small-molecule …

Does Textualism Constrain Supreme Court Justices?, James J. Brudney, Lawrence Baum

Northwestern University Law Review

A principal justification for textualism is the constraint hypothesis. Conservative Justices and leading textualist scholars contend that—in stark contrast to reliance on legislative history—focus on the ordinary meaning of enacted text leaves little room for the Justices to be policy-oriented or ideological in their interpretations. This Article represents the first systematic study probing the validity of the constraint hypothesis, one that employs both quantitative and qualitative analysis.

The Article examines the Justices’ reliance on interpretive resources in over 660 statutory decisions in the field of labor and employment, decided by the Burger Court, the Rehnquist Court, and the Roberts Court—during …

Embodied Transcendence: Psychedelics And The Evolution Of Moral Abstraction, Emanuel Jas

Journal of Conscious Evolution

This paper explores the role of psychedelics in the context of evolutionary brain development and the conceptual capacity for moral realism. Drawing on theories from evolutionary anthropology, neuroscience, and moral philosophy, the first part provides a brief overview of human evolution and brain expansion. From here, recent empirical data from the neurosciences is assessed on the effect psychedelics have on the brain, along with speculations on the role of psychedelics in our hominoid evolutionary history—specifically, the capacity for phenomenologically rich, conscious, subjective experiences that are incredibly vivid and real. This imaginative capacity for transcendence and disembodiment could enable the realization …

Turning Point: Usa, 2020 Election Denialism And Its Consequences, Zack George

University Honors Theses

Current President of the United States, Donald Trump interrupted the peaceful transfer for power for the first time in 250 years. In the typical study of the events surrounding this interruption, much focus is made on the events of the January 6th Capitol Riot. Firstly, this thesis examines the 2 months in the leadup to the 2020 election and how the Trump administration acquired and attempted to execute their plans to commit a self-coup, keeping the administration in power in the face of the election victory and transition to the Presidency of election-winner, Joe Biden. Secondarily, it will contextualize and …