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Full-Text Articles in Law

Fathers, Foreskins, And Family Law, Dena S. Davis Apr 2009

Fathers, Foreskins, And Family Law, Dena S. Davis

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

In the United States, a custodial parent has the right and responsibility to make medical decisions for one's child. But does that right encompass consenting for a surgical procedure for which there is little or no medical justification? What if the noncustodial parent opposed the procedure? And when is a child old enough to make the decision for him- or herself? How should a physician respond when asked to perform a surgical procedure when the decision is enmeshed in family controversy? These and other questions are considered in Boldt, a recent family law case decided by the Supreme Court of …


Moral Ambition: The Sermons Of Harry A. Blackmun, Dena S. Davis Jan 2006

Moral Ambition: The Sermons Of Harry A. Blackmun, Dena S. Davis

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

Justice Harry A. Blackmun died on March 4, 1999 at the age of 90. The public funeral was held on March 9, at the huge and impressive Metropolitan Memorial United Methodist Church, on Nebraska Avenue in Washington, D.C. Among the many speakers at this "Service of Death and Resurrection" was the Rev. Dr. William A. Holmes, senior pastor at the Church, speaking on "The Churchmanship of Harry Blackmun." Dr. Holmes talked movingly of a man who was intimately involved in the affairs of his church. Among the Justice's many contributions, Holmes noted a sermon that Blackmun had once preached on …


Tumbling Towers As Turning Points: Will 9/11 Usher In A New Civil Rights Era For Gay Men And Lesbians In The United States?, Susan J. Becker Jan 2003

Tumbling Towers As Turning Points: Will 9/11 Usher In A New Civil Rights Era For Gay Men And Lesbians In The United States?, Susan J. Becker

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

This article examines the events of 9/11, and the potential resultant shifts in attitude, policies, and laws in the United States, through the lens of civil rights extended to gay and lesbian citizens. It seeks, but does not purport to definitively discover, the true meaning of the phrase "life will never be the same." It asks, but does not purport to fully answer, whether historians a century or two hence will look back on 9/11 as the turning point when the United States began to fulfill its promise of liberty to all people, or whether this date will be earmarked …


Constitutional Classifications And The "Gay Gene", Susan J. Becker Jan 2002

Constitutional Classifications And The "Gay Gene", Susan J. Becker

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

In this essay the author discusses the use of genetic information to classify individuals for purposes of the law, and more specifically, the impact of the so-called “gay gene” on legal classifications.


Second-Parent Adoption By Same-Sex Couples In Ohio: Unsettled And Unsettling Law, Susan J. Becker Jan 2000

Second-Parent Adoption By Same-Sex Couples In Ohio: Unsettled And Unsettling Law, Susan J. Becker

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

Ohio law regarding second-parent adoptions remains unsettled. Section II of this article provides an overview of Ohio adoption law. Section III presents the case of In re Jane Doe, starting with the decision of the lesbian couple to jointly bring a child into this world, and continuing with the efforts of both mothers to obtain legal recognition for the de facto parent's status through adoption, and the legal strategies employed by the mothers' attorneys, also addressed are the court-appointed Guardian Ad Litem (GAL), the social science data supplied by the amicus curiae to help the court reach a fully informed …


The Stolen Museum: Have United States Art Museums Become Inadvertent Fences For Stolen Art Works Looted By The Nazis In Word War Ii?, Barbara Tyler Jan 1999

The Stolen Museum: Have United States Art Museums Become Inadvertent Fences For Stolen Art Works Looted By The Nazis In Word War Ii?, Barbara Tyler

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

This Article begins with some historical background surrounding the Nazi pillaging of several family collections which may have found their way into American museums. The Article then focuses on what legal and equitable doctrines should be employed in the search for justice in ownership of art works in the United States. The Article advocates that American lawmust prevail. It must be modified to reject the due diligence rule for replevin. Replevin maintains that good intentions alone cannot abrogate the doctrine of bona fide purchaser: a thief can never pass clear title to stolen property to any subsequent transferee no matter …


Court-Created Boundaries Between A Visible Lesbian Mother And Her Children, Susan J. Becker Oct 1997

Court-Created Boundaries Between A Visible Lesbian Mother And Her Children, Susan J. Becker

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

This essay identifies some of the boundaries and obstacles imposed by the courts on a "visible" lesbian mother striving to maintain a healthy relationship with her children. The term "visible" is used to describe a mother whose lesbian sexuality has been revealed to a court empowered with defining her future contact with her children. The primary focus here is on children who were conceived through a heterosexual relationship, and where a heterosexual parent, grandparent, or other person is challenging the lesbian mother's right to custody of, or visitation with, her own children. Court created boundaries are identified and discussed in …


Reap What You Sow, Gordon J. Beggs Jan 1996

Reap What You Sow, Gordon J. Beggs

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

Unfortunately, with the adoption and revision of formal ethics codes, moral teaching has virtually disappeared from American legal ethics. Law professors, generally, do not consider it their responsibility to teach morality, and our profession today lacks a common moral standard. The Judeo-Christian principles expressed in Proverbs, however, provide a timely challenge to lawyers by advocating values that include justice, purity, mercy, honesty and civility.


Being Out And Fitting In, Susan J. Becker Jan 1996

Being Out And Fitting In, Susan J. Becker

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

The author discusses her experience as a law professor and a member of the gay and lesbian community.


Proverbial Practice: Legal Ethics From Old Testament Wisdom, Gordon J. Beggs Jan 1995

Proverbial Practice: Legal Ethics From Old Testament Wisdom, Gordon J. Beggs

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

The Old Testament book of Proverbs supplied foundational moral values for our nation's legal ethics. With the adoption and revision of formal codes, moral teaching has virtually disappeared from legal ethics. This essay suggests that the wisdom of Proverbs offers a timely challenge to the character of the legal profession by advocating values which include justice, purity, mercy, humility, honesty, candor, truthful testimony, and civility.


The Prevalence Of Social Science In Gay Rights Cases: The Synergistic Influences Of Historical Context, Justificatory Citation, And Dissemination Efforts, Patricia J. Falk Jan 1994

The Prevalence Of Social Science In Gay Rights Cases: The Synergistic Influences Of Historical Context, Justificatory Citation, And Dissemination Efforts, Patricia J. Falk

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

Disjunctive legal change is often accompanied by a period of frantic activity as the competing forces of stasis and evolution vie for domination. Nowhere is the battle for legal change likely to be more sharply joined than when the findings of modern science, in their varied and multifarious forms, are pitted directly against prevailing moral or societal precepts. One of the latest incarnations of this trend is the battle over the legal recognition of gay "rights." In recent history, the courts have been inundated by gay litigants seeking the rights and protections already afforded other discrete groups within society. In …


The Purposes Of The University In The First Quarter Of The Twenty-First Century, David R. Barnhizer Jan 1992

The Purposes Of The University In The First Quarter Of The Twenty-First Century, David R. Barnhizer

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

This article examines the history of universities, the role of the new university in American society, and the mission of the modern university.


Wayward Children And The Law, 1820-1900: The Genesis Of The Status Offense Jurisdiction Of The Juvenile Court, Peter D. Garlock Jan 1979

Wayward Children And The Law, 1820-1900: The Genesis Of The Status Offense Jurisdiction Of The Juvenile Court, Peter D. Garlock

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

Since the United States Supreme Court's decision in In re Gault in 1967, in which due process rights were extended to juvenile delinquency proceedings which might result in commitment of youths to reformatory institutions, numerous courts, legislatures, and private study commissions have been re-examining the rights and obligations of young people in contemporary American society. In this ongoing debate over juvenile jurisprudence, perhaps no issue has provoked as much controversy as the question of whether juvenile courts should continue to exercise jurisdiction over juvenile "status offenses"--those unique forms of deviant behavior which are illegal only for minors. It is not …


Book Review, Peter D. Garlock Jan 1975

Book Review, Peter D. Garlock

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

The author reviews Thorns and Thistles: Juvenile Delinquents in the United States, 1825-1940.