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Vol. 46, No. 2, Spring 2026: Table Of Contents, Northern Illinois University Law Review

Northern Illinois University Law Review

Table of Contents and Masthead for Volume 46, Issue 2 of the Northern Illinois Law Review

A Thumb On The Scales: How The Court Creates Presumptions To Change The Law, John Leubsdorf

Northern Illinois University Law Review

In four major recent decisions, the Supreme Court deployed the same technique: it created a presumption in favor of the result it preferred and then concluded that the losing party could not rebut that presumption. This invocation of presumptions enabled the majority to reach the result it preferred, while maintaining the appearance of balance and leaving open the possibility of different rulings in future cases. The asserted grounds for erecting the Court’s presumptions-notably history and governmental structure-likewise combined the appearance of objectivity with the reality of choice. Judicial presumptions are not new, but the current Court deploys them on a …

From Taboo To Treatment: A Trip Through A State-Based Roadmap To Psychedelic Rescheduling, Logan P. Doughty

Northern Illinois University Law Review

Psychedelics, a class of psychoactive substances that profoundly alter perception, mood, and cognition, show significant promise as a treatment option for mental health conditions such as depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder. However, under the current regulatory framework of the Controlled Substances Act, these substances remain classified as Schedule I, the most restrictive category of federal control. This classification has made research and clinical access nearly impossible, largely due to the Drug Enforcement Administration’s insistence on randomized control trial evidence to satisfy the evidentiary standard of “currently accepted medical use” (CAMU). This evidentiary burden reflects more than a veneer of …

Are They Really Safe? The Impact Of The Safe-T Act On Victims Of Crimes, Brianna Reed

Northern Illinois Law Review Supplement

Within the past few years, Illinois has gone through a bail reform that has changed how a defendant’s pretrial custody status is determined. This reform has negatively impacted victims, resulting in more safety risks, judicial interpretation, and a decrease in resources. These issues are emerging as practitioners work with victims constantly and information becomes more available to the public. This Article, based in part on interviews with attorneys and victims’ services advocates, proposes remedies that legislators and counties can adopt to help balance the rights of defendants and victims. Some of these remedies include modifying the legislation, adopting different procedures, …

Mischaracterizing Officer Self-Defense Doctrine In Use Of Force Cases Will Have Catastrophic Effects On Fourth Amendment Analysis, Caleb Sook Yoon

Northern Illinois Law Review Supplement

As raised in Barnes v. Felix, the moment of threat doctrine was coined by the Fifth Circuit’s majority and concurring opinions written by Judge Higginbotham as being a test that only looks to the preceding moments that led to officers’ use of deadly force. This is a mischaracterization of the officer self-defense doctrine under the “totality of the circumstances” test established by Graham v. Connor when evaluating police use of force. Unfortunately, this mischaracterization has been reinforced by SCOTUS during oral arguments and through SCOTUS’s ruling. As the Supreme Court has remanded the case back to the district courts, this …

The Eviction Caste System, Allison Freedman

Faculty Scholarship

The United States is facing a dire housing crisis, and most Americans agree that housing is a universal necessity. Yet under current Supreme Court jurisprudence, housing is not a fundamental right, and individuals facing housing insecurity from an eviction are generally not members of a suspect class. This is because eviction is often viewed as an individual problem and a symptom of poverty, which the Supreme Court has repeatedly affirmed is not a suspect classification. This Article disrupts the superficial narrative that eviction is an individualistic symptom of poverty, and instead views evictions from a systemic and historical perspective. It …

Model Stormwater Standards 2026, Unh Stormwater Center

UNH Stormwater Center

The purpose of post-construction stormwater management standards is to provide reasonable guidance for the regulation of stormwater runoff to protect local natural resources from degradation and prevent adverse impacts to adjacent and downstream land, property, facilities, and infrastructure. These standards regulate discharges from stormwater and runoff from land development projects and other construction activities to control and minimize increases in stormwater runoff rates and volumes, soil erosion, stream channel erosion, and nonpoint source pollution associated with stormwater runoff.

Scaling Of Thermal Conductivity In The Eliot Formation, Ryan Todd Siegel

Master's Theses and Capstones

Heat flow governs the performance of geothermal energy systems, and thermal conductivity is the primary material property controlling subsurface heat transfer. This study investigates heat flow through media with spatially variable thermal conductivity within the heterogeneous Eliot Formation, a metamorphic unit extending across the coastal region of northeast New England. The objective of this work is to develop an approach for scaling thermal conductivity from core-scale measurements to field-scale values representative of geothermal borefield systems.Divided bar thermal conductivity testing, petrographic analyses, geological observations, and existing literature were integrated to construct a MODFLOW model that captures the heterogeneous thermal behavior of …

Performing The American Dream: Passing And Identity In The Great Gatsby (1925) And Passing (1929), Olivia O'Sullivan

Master's Theses

In this thesis, I explore how Jay Gatsby, protagonist in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, and Clare Kendry, protagonist in Nella Larsen’s Passing, pass in order to achieve their American Dream. Both characters rely on carefully crafted identities to gain social mobility and access to worlds that would otherwise be out of their reach through the people they surround themselves with, their clothing, their mannerism, and even their intimate relationships. Throughout my close reading and analysis, I determine that Jay Gatsby and Clare Kendry’s attempts to pass to achieve the American Dream are futile, which demonstrates the idea that …

Monazite And Xenotime U-Pb Geochronology And Thermometry Of The Blue Ridge And Inner Piedmont Of North Carolina, Nicholas E. Powell, J. Ryan Thigpen, Brandon M. Spencer, Arthur J. Merschat, David P. Moecher, Calvin A. Mako, Robert D. Hatcher, Harold H. Stowell, Andrew Kylander-Clark

Earth and Environmental Sciences Faculty Publications

The southern Appalachian orogen preserves a complex distribution of metamorphism and deformation varying in timing, magnitude, and spatial extent. These complexities give rise to disparate interpretations for southern Appalachian tectonic evolution, which complicates the testing and interpretation of tectonic models in this system. New monazite (Mnz) and xenotime (Xtm) laser ablation split stream (LASS) analyses alongside Mnz-Xtm thermometry in the orogenic core in the eastern Blue Ridge (EBR), western Inner Piedmont (WIP), and Cat Square terranes (CST) of North Carolina yield new constraints that define distinct pro- and retrograde metamorphic events. The EBR preserves two prograde thermal events: the Taconic …

Nonmarriage? Rethinking Religious Marriage In Modern States, Shahar Lifshitz

Cardozo Law Review

This Article examines the civil regulation of religious marriage in liberal democracies. While legal scholarship has extensively explored nonmarital intimate relationships, it has paid comparatively little attention to couples who regard themselves as married under religious law without corresponding civil status, as well as couples who remain religiously married following a civil divorce. These arrangements, prevalent among religious minorities such as Orthodox Jews and Muslims, often generate significant legal and personal harms, including exclusion from civil protections, economic vulnerability, and constrained exit from intimate relationships.

This Article develops a structured analytical framework grounded in three liberal perspectives. The individual-rights perspective …

Saying What The Law Might Be? Courts, Geofence Warrants, And The Fourth Amendment Labyrinth, Ciara Lavin

Cardozo Law Review

Since 2016, Google has received thousands of geofence warrant requests from law enforcement, requesting Google to scan through its vast database of users to identify who and what devices entered into, or exited out of, a set of coordinates in a specified period of time. Several cases began making their way through the federal courts to delineate the legality of such warrants—with challenges spanning the vast amount of data they search, their relative accuracy, and whether they comported with the Fourth Amendment. Then, in the summer of 2024, two federal appellate courts handed down decisions just weeks apart: the Fourth …

Growing Older Across Time And Space: The Impact Of Various Forms Of Capital On Social Support Networks Among Older Vietnamese Migrants, Hien Thi Nguyen, Lukasz Krzyzowski, Loretta Baldassar

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Much has been written about the important role of social support networks (SSNs) for the well-being of older adults, encompassing their social, emotional and practical needs. Less is known about what happens to the SSNs of older people when they migrate, and even fewer studies have examined the impact of different forms of capital on these networks. Drawing on ethnographic interviews and participant observation with 22 older Vietnamese migrants in Australia (2020–21), this paper explores the influence of different forms of social, cultural, economic and symbolic capital on their SSNs. Data analysis comprised egocentric social network analysis of the connections …

Parenthood And Mental Health Among University Populations In Sub-Saharan Africa: A Cross-Sectional Study, Tuwani A. Rasengane, Ngozika Esther Ezinne, Antor Ndep, Nnamdi John Eseme, Susarah Maria Richter, Kingsley E. Agho, Ebele Gertrude Ejidike, Michael Agyemang Kwarteng, Kelechukwu Enyinnaya Ahaiwe, Nnaemeka Meribe, Obed Adonteng-Kissi, Edith Daniel-Nwosu, Mchillary Ogiemudia Osamudiamen, Ike Onyebuchi Oforbuike, Grace Obumneke Ogbonna, Isaura Ilorena D.Alva Brito Dos Santos, Okechi Ulumma Amaechi, Ugochukwu E. Uzuegbu, Khathutshelo Percy Mashige, Uchechukwu Levi Osuagwu

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Background and Aims: This study examined the association between parenthood status and psychological well-being among university staff and students in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Methods: A cross-sectional, web-based survey was conducted across 22 universities in four SSA countries using convenience sampling. A total of 1189 university staff and students, including parents and non-parents, participated. Mental health outcomes were assessed using the Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scales (DASS-21). Multinomial logistic regression models were used to examine associations between parenthood status and mental health outcomes after adjusting for sociodemographic and contextual factors. Results: Participants with children had lower odds of moderate depression (adjusted …

Role Of Allied Health Professions In Falls Prevention For Community-Dwelling Older Adults: A Scoping Review, Amy Lawton, Nicholas Tripodi, Rebecca Wospil, Breanna M. Wright, Hylton B. Menz, Suzanne Martin, Daniel R. Bonanno, Corey Linton, Andisheh Bastani, Andrew Ross, Rees Thomas, Daniel Corcoran, Timothy Mcnamara, Danielle Baxter, Brett Vaughan, Rebecca Lane, Jack Feehan

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Objective: Falls among community-dwelling older adults are prevalent and have serious individual, societal and economic consequences. Allied health professionals provide key falls prevention interventions yet their representation in current clinical practice guidelines is inconsistent. Increased recognition of allied health roles and delivering context-specific guidelines for falls care could help to address workforce gaps and optimise care approaches. This scoping review explored the roles of the allied health professions in falls prevention screening, assessment and intervention for community-dwelling older adults. Design: Scoping review, using the Joanna Briggs Institute methodology for scoping reviews. Data sources: PubMed, CINAHL, Scopus, Cochrane, Web of Science …

Red Teaming: Evaluating And Revising Attack Ideas Using Ai Prompts, Alexis D'Amato, Emma Theobald, Jack Rygg, Samuel Hunter, Joel Elson, Meg Shercliffe

Reports, Projects, and Research

In a red teaming exercise where participants used AI to evaluate and revise attack ideas against an adversarial group, results reveal that prompts involve multiple phases of the creative problem-solving process. During the exercise, participants were given a threat scenario and time with an unconstrained AI tool to evaluate an idea and generate a revised one. Input messages from the AI tool were collected and analyzed. In doing so, participants used AI prompts related to three core phases of the creative problem-solving process: information gathering, idea generation, and idea evaluation. This reveals that AI is used for various purposes, above …

Reclaiming Fiduciary Duty: Esg, Wall Street Fee Minimalism, And The Case For Pension Divestment, Thomas Murray, R. Alexander Acosta

SMU Law Review Forum

This Article examines two forces that have distorted the fiduciary obligations of American pension trustees: (1) ESG activism by the dominant index fund managers and (2) the fee-minimalism argument those same managers have deployed to discourage divestment. Part I establishes the legal architecture of fiduciary duty under ERISA and trust law, centering on the independent duties of loyalty and prudence. Part II traces the history of how ESG considerations migrated from the periphery of investment practice to institutional orthodoxy through the influence of investment consultants, global coalitions, and Department of Labor subregulatory guidance. Part III documents how ESG stewardship by …

The Privacy Paradox: How Does Concern About Privacy Impact Actions In The Digital Age?, Julia Laduke

Honors Theses

The privacy paradox occurs when people claim to care about their digital privacy, but do not take actions to keep their data from being spread across the internet. This study examines college students, being primarily Generation Z, and their concerns and actions regarding digital privacy and security. A survey of 15 college students, 7 in humanities and 8 in STEM, was used to analyze their thoughts and concerns about their digital privacy. This survey also asked whether they took actions concerning their privacy, and if so, what tools they used to protect it. The results show that about 50% of …

Calibrating Human Trust In The Age Of Generative Ai: An Examination Of Ethical And Social Challenges, Abigail M. Mondido

Honors Theses

Generative AI (GenAI), a set of AI technologies with the ability to generate original, human-like outputs, is beginning to transform the way that information is distributed, composed, published, obtained, analyzed, and consumed. GenAI has seen massive adoption by internet users, businesses, and organizations in recent years despite the persistence of major ethical concerns and social implications. In particular, existing research has identified multiple critical trust-related issues associated with AI in general, including widespread mistrust and distrust, overreliance on AI, and a lack of trustworthiness of AI. There remains a need for a broader understanding of these issues as they relate …

Belonging, Governance, And The Future Of The Nation: Rethinking Citizenship In Tribal Nation Communities, Meadow Carroll

Honors Theses

Tribal citizenship is often framed as a question of identity or legal status, but it functions more fundamentally as a structure of governance that determines who participates in political life and whether nations can sustain themselves over time. This study compares the citizenship frameworks of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes and the Cherokee Nation to examine how different enrollment criteria shape political participation, demographic continuity, and institutional capacity. Drawing on tribal constitutions, enrollment materials, governance records, and voter participation data, the analysis demonstrates that citizenship systems produce measurable differences in how tribal governments function in practice. Systems based on fixed …

Post-Dobbs: Observed Maternal And Infant Health Outcomes, Erin P. Yenawine

Honors Theses

This research investigates how the variance in abortion legislation and access across the United States has impacted infant and maternal health. This builds upon previous research identifying a relationship between abortion policy and quantity of births, (Myers et al., 2025; Bell et al., 2025) abortion policy and infant and maternal health pre-Dobbs (Gardner, 2024), and an emerging body examining the health outcomes post-Dobbs for mothers and infants (Gemmill et al., 2025; Gressler & Lewis, 2025). Scholars indicate that primary contributors to increases in infant mortality may be the continuation of pregnancies with congenital abnormalities and compounded barriers of access to …

Creative Nonfiction Essays, Colby S. Langley

Honors Theses

To write about the present with any authority requires a keen eye for the past. To write from our lives into meaningful creative nonfiction requires a firm understanding that experience is the composite of life experience blending into the current moment. The writing is then drawn irreversibly towards emotion: indulgent and oppressive. The extremity of emotion dictates the difficulty of transcribing the experience onto the page, and violence is a source of both extreme emotion and experience. It is important to note that I am primarily considering personal violence for this essay, while societal and institutional violence have their own …

A Narrative Of The Plague Doctor And How Its Historical Context Translates To The Modern View Of The Plague Doctor, Callie P. Johnston

Honors Theses

The Plague Doctor was once a historical figure who practiced medicine primarily on those infected with the bubonic plague. The plague doctor, as a historical figure and physician, has been transformed in modern culture and media. Originally perceived as a harbinger of both hope and death, the Plague Doctor has undergone a historical transformation from a masked physician to a more stylized character that appears in modern media, digital art, toys, costumes, video games, and popular culture. This thesis examines the evolution of the Plague Doctor from its historical role as a plague physician to its current iconography as a …

How Do Community Gardens Contribute To A Thriving National Park City: A Case Study Of Chattanooga, Tennessee, Ansley B. Barry

Honors Theses

On April 3, 2025, Chattanooga, Tennessee became the first National Park City (NPC) in North America. With a long, industrial history, Chattanooga has made quite the pivot from being widely renowned for its low air quality and particulate pollution to being recognized as the Best Outdoor City in the US by Outdoor magazine. The goals emphasized by the National Park City campaign are creating a city-wide common interest of community-led sustainability efforts. While the initiative highlights many important initiatives to make the city more sustainable and resilient, community gardens are noticeably left out of the conversation. This paper argues that …

Red, White, And Broke: A Call For Accountability In Government, Mary A. Scott

Honors Theses

This study examines the scale of waste, fraud, and abuse in U.S. federal spending. The purpose of this research is to clarify how fiscal management in the federal government is intended to operate versus how it actually functions. Using a combination of conceptual analysis, existing literature, case-based evidence, and data analysis, findings suggest that the persistence of oversight failures arises from weak implementation, limited enforcement authority of oversight bodies, and an emphasis on recovery rather than prevention practices. This study contributes to the broader discussion of public finance by providing an accessible framework to understand why the foundational federal principle …

The Law Of Healthcare Administration, 11th Ed., Sallie Sanford, J. Stuart Showalter

Books

The Law of Healthcare Administration, 11th Edition,aims to provide future healthcare leaders with the most accurate, engaging, and practical guide to this complex area of law. Its extensively revised 15 chapters include coverage of the American legal system, medical malpractice law, tax exempt standards, fraud and abuse investigations, abortion regulation, healthcare initiatives undertaken by the second Trump administration, and more.  Its new case law examples involve not only hospitals and physicians but also other institutional providers (such as community health centers and nursing homes) and individual allied health professionals (such as pharmacists and nurse practitioners).

Marketing The Library: Engaging Law Students With Dynamic Displays, Lisa A. Gooden, Ariel Newman

Faculty Works

Academic law libraries increasingly serve as dynamic, student-centered spaces that extend beyond traditional collections. This article explores practical and creative approaches to marketing library resources through engaging, low-cost displays and interactive experiences. Drawing on initiatives at the University of Missouri–Kansas City School of Law Library, the authors highlight strategies for introducing students to multiple formats of legal study aids, promoting faculty scholarship through institutional repositories, and fostering a welcoming library environment with interactive and frequently refreshed displays. Examples include multimodal displays that integrate print and digital resources, the use of QR codes and design tools to showcase faculty research, and …

A Creative Climate Framework For Developing Leaders Who Can Navigate Complexity, Uncertainty, And Change Now And Over Time, Christa M. Heydt-Hernandez

Creativity and Change Leadership Graduate Student Master's Projects

As organizational environments grow increasingly volatile and complex, leaders face a widening gap in the skills hardest to cultivate in adults: creative thinking, systems thinking, and human-centered design thinking. Yet leadership development has prioritized culture over climate, overlooking a more direct lever for change. This project argues the gap is fundamentally developmental: the skills most demanded of today's leaders are best introduced across childhood, adolescence, and early adulthood—long before the workplace—through what the author terms the Long Game of Leadership Development. In response, this project introduces the Creativity Steward™ framework, a longitudinal model grounded in developmental psychology, creative climate research, …

The 5i’S Framework Of Creative Self-Leadership, Maggie Cubbler

Creativity and Change Leadership Graduate Student Master's Projects

The purpose of this Master of Science in Creativity and Change Leadership project is to establish a framework for Creative Self-Leadership (CSL) development. Viewed through a gendered lens, the framework addresses how women's intrapersonal processes—the 5I's of introspection, interoception, intuition, imagination, and intrinsic motivation—are often compromised by sustained environmental and systemic pressure, and proposes practices designed to restore and strengthen these internal guides.

By recalibrating these intrapersonal processes toward accurate self-knowledge, CSL employs the science of creativity to lead women in their own quest for change, agency, and resilience while remaining cognizant of the dynamic between her and her environment.

Techno-Imagination: Elevating Creativity Through Xr And Ai, Christopher Spitzer

Creativity and Change Leadership Graduate Student Master's Projects

Techno-Imagination: Elevating Creativity Through XR and AI explores the history of creativity and computing technology, supported by research and academic literature, and looks at the possibilities of a convergence between the two. In parallel, a brief biographical story of the author shares how a passion for creativity emerged, along with a growing interest in science and technology—specifically extended reality—which ultimately came together in the creation of this master’s project. The project also highlights how the Creative Problem Solving (CPS) process was used alongside AI bots and twenty research-based creative thinking skills in developing the business model canvas. Finally, the outcome …