Law Commons^™

Death By Committee: Reviving Federal Environmental Justice Legislation To Mitigate Disproportionate Impacts On Vulnerable Communities, Sara Babcock

Pace Environmental Law Review

This Note proposes legislation that provides an avenue for protecting the right to a clean and healthy environment by requiring agencies to consider vulnerable communities before initiating large-scale federal projects. Part I lays out the emergence of environmental justice issues in the United States, including its turning point. Part II introduces both successful and failed attempts at federal environmental justice legislation and analyzes why federal environmental justice legislation continuously fails. Part III dis- cusses how executive environmental justice action becomes pointless to the overall progression of environmental justice and examines President Biden’s progress in the first year of his presidency. …

Good Initiative, Bad Judgement: The Unintended Consequences Of Title Ix's Proportionality Standard On Ncaa Men's Gymnastics And The Transgender Athlete, Jeffrey Shearer

Pace Intellectual Property, Sports & Entertainment Law Forum

Title IX fails to provide the tools or guidelines necessary to equalize opportunities for all student athletes in the collegiate setting despite the government’s continuous effort to explain the law. This failure is because judicial precedent has largely developed around the binary proportionality test of compliance. Title IX was originally intended to equalize educational opportunities for male and female students in order to remedy past discrimination in our society. However, the application of Title IX has frequently created fewer opportunities in athletics due to the unintended relationship between the proportionality standard and the social phenomenon that is the commercialization of …

Human Rights, Economic Justice And U.S. Exceptionalism, Natasha Lycia Ora Bannan

Pace International Law Review

On April 5, 2019, PILR held their triennial symposium titled: Revisiting Human Rights: The Universal Declaration at 70. As a reflection of the event, a few panelists composed contribution pieces reflecting on the topic.

Environmental Injustice/Racism In Flint, Michigan: An Analysis Of The Bodily Integrity Claim In Mays V. Snyder As Compared To Other Environmental Justice Cases, Joshua V. Berliner

Pace Environmental Law Review

This Note examines the merits of the “bodily integrity” claim that the Flint residents have alleged in Mays (but does not discuss any claims asserted in Earley, the case Mays was consolidated with on appeal), and asserts that they should be successful on this claim on remand, assuming that the facts alleged in the Flint residents’ complaint are true. This Note outlines the alleged facts and then discusses the existing case law on bodily integrity claims generally, both in the non-environmental justice and environmental justice fields. Following is an explanation of the specific bodily integrity claim the Flint residents have …

No More Tiers? Proportionality As An Alternative To Multiple Levels Of Scrutiny In Individual Rights Cases, Donald L. Beschle

Pace Law Review

This article will explore how the explicit adoption of proportionality analysis as a single analytical tool might lead, not only to a more coherent approach to individual rights cases, but will also bring together aspects of the current multiple analytical tiers in a way that allows full consideration of both the individual rights and the social values present in these cases. Part I of this article will give a brief overview of the history of the creation and application of the various tiers of analysis used by the United States Supreme Court and explore how the once-sharp difference in those …

The Devil You Don’T Know: Implicit Bias Keeps Women In Their Place, Michele N. Struffolino

Pace Law Review

While men’s claims of gender bias in the family law system are acknowledged, this article focuses on how bias, whether implicit or explicit under the guise of unconscious attitudes or behavior, continues to place women at a systemic disadvantage. Although implicit bias also impacts outcomes in child abuse and neglect actions involving the state, the focus of this article is the impact of implicit bias in actions between women and men in the family courts, in particular those issues involved in the dissolution of the relationship and the family unit. First, the emergence of implicit social cognition theory will be …

Assessing Students' Civil Rights Claims Against School Resource Officers, Kerrin C. Wolf

Pace Law Review

Police officers stationed in public schools, commonly referred to as school resource officers (SROs), have become commonplace in the United States over the past twenty-five years. Their primary responsibility is to maintain order and safety in schools, but they also serve as counselors and mentors for students, and teach classes related to drug and alcohol abuse, gang avoidance, and other topics. SROs’ presence in schools raises important legal questions because they interact with students on a daily basis and are directly involved in schools’ efforts to control student behavior through school discipline and security. Additionally, a series of Supreme Court …

Fourth & Inches: Marking The Line Of Athletes’ Free Speech (A Colin Kaepernick Inspired Discussion), Ryan J. Mcginty

Pace Intellectual Property, Sports & Entertainment Law Forum

This note addresses the ongoing controversial stance that was ignited when Colin Kaepernick refused to stand for the playing of the national anthem in protest of what he deems are wrongdoings against African Americans and minorities in the United States. The scope of this note does not surround Kaepernick himself, but rather the professional NFL football player in general. Specifically, players are entitled to the full rights of free expression and free speech as human beings and public figures, up and until the line where that right is abused on the field or “on the job,” thereby threatening an increase …

Campus Misconduct Proceeding Outcome Notifications: A Title Ix, Clery Act, And Ferpa Compliance Blueprint, James T. Koebel

Pace Law Review

This Article analyzes and attempts to bring order to the interaction of Title IX and OCR’s current guidance thereunder, the Clery Act and its recent Campus SaVE Act amendments, and FERPA when an institution provides a complainant, respondent, or member of the general public notice of the outcome of a misconduct proceeding for any offense defined under those laws. This Article is limited in scope and does not address all confidentiality issues that may arise during a postsecondary misconduct investigation or hearing, such as the disclosure of investigative reports. Part I briefly summarizes Title IX, the Clery Act, and FERPA …

The Negative Ramifications Of Hate Crime Legislation: It’S Time To Reevaluate Whether Hate Crime Laws Are Beneficial To Society, Briana Alongi

Pace Law Review

Supporters of hate crime legislation suggest that the primary reason for the codification of hate crime laws is “to send a strong message of tolerance and equality, signaling to all members of society that hatred and prejudice on the basis of identity will be punished with extra severity.” However, hate crime laws may actually be accomplishing the opposite effect of tolerance and equality because they encourage U.S. citizens to view themselves, not as members of our society, but as members of a protected group. The enactment of hate crime legislation at the federal and state levels has led to unintended …

You Have The Right To Be Confused! Understanding Miranda After 50 Years, Bryan Taylor

Pace Law Review

Part I of this article briefly explores the background and historical context that ultimately led to the Miranda decision. As the late Dr. Carl Sagan once said, “you have to know the past to understand the present.” Understanding the circumstances and cases leading up to Miranda helps in the overall application of Miranda to cases of today. Part II addresses whether a statement should be allowed into evidence and provides a practical working approach to conduct a Miranda analysis. This innovative approach provides a step-by-step process in determining the admissibility of statements pursuant to Miranda and its progeny. This process …

Unequal Access To Justice: Solla V. Berlin And The Unprincipled Evisceration Of New York’S Eaja, Armen H. Merjian

Pace Law Review

Solla is noteworthy not merely in light of the baleful effects of its ruling, but because of its reasoning: it is categorically wrong. The decision wholly elides a cornerstone and settled principle of New York welfare law, namely, that in the administration of public assistance, the municipalities act as the agents of the State, while blatantly violating the most fundamental of agency principles, namely, that a principal is vicariously liable for the actions of its agent acting within the scope of its authority. Indeed, this principal/agent relationship is established both by statute and by decades of uniform state and federal …

Protecting Diversity In The Ivory Tower With Liability Rules, Ting Wang

Pace Law Review

The two sides of the debate over race-based affirmative action in higher education tell two distinct stories – one of diversity’s benefits and the other of affirmative action’s burdens. In Grutter v. Bollinger, 539 U.S. 306 (2003), the Supreme Court found the benefits to be so compelling to society that they were deemed to outweigh the burdens. Voters in Michigan and other states found otherwise and the Court in Schuette v. Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action, 572 U.S. — (2014) upheld their right to ban race-conscious admissions. Paradoxically, since the use of race as a “plus factor” by selective universities …

Death By Bullying: A Comparative Culpability Proposal, Audrey Rogers

Pace Law Review

This article explores the possibility and advisability of imposing homicide charges against bullies, a controversial approach because of the serious causation questions it poses. Nonetheless, there is precedent for holding a person criminally culpable for a victim’s suicide. A notorious case involved the head of the Ku Klux Klan who was convicted of murder after the woman he raped killed herself by swallowing poison, “distracted by pain and shame so inflicted upon her.” Some may see her shame as analogous to gay teens who commit suicide after being bullied about their sexual orientation. But perhaps the law should not demand …

Abuse And Harassment Diminish Free Speech, Anita Bernstein

Pace Law Review

Owen Fiss focused on “the robustness of public debate” to conclude on his last page: “The autonomy protected by the First Amendment and rightly enjoyed by individuals and the press is not an end in itself, as it might be in some moral code, but is rather a means to further the democratic values underlying the Bill of Rights.”

This article embraces the same values but more conservatively. Whereas Fiss defended state-sponsored coercion, I leave the government mostly outside the descriptions and arguments presented here. Scholars have sought to apply the law—of crimes, torts, intellectual property, and statutory allotments and …

Neither Panacea, Placebo, Nor Poison: Examining The Rise Of Anti-Unemployment Discrimination Laws, Seth Katsuya Endo

Pace Law Review

Since 2009, the unemployment rate in the United States has remained above eight percent, which means that more than twelve million individuals have been looking for work at any given time. With so many affected individuals, unemployment has become an issue of public concern, particularly as stories describing employers refusing to consider currently unemployed candidates for job opportunities have proliferated. In response to these trends, about twenty states and the federal government have passed, or are considering, legislation designed to prohibit employers from discriminating against individuals based on their employment status.

The goal of this Article is to survey the …

Discriminatory Retaliation: Title Vii Protection For The Cooperating Employee, Megan E. Mowrey

Pace Law Review

No abstract provided.

Down But Not Out: How School Districts May Utilize Race-Conscious Student Assignments In The Wake Of Parents Involved In Community Schools V. Seattle School District No. 1, Michael A. Stevens

Pace Law Review

No abstract provided.

Multistable Figures: Sexual Orientation Visibility And Its Effects On The Experiences Of Sexual Minorities In The Courts, Todd Brower

Pace Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Cost Of Good Intentions: Why The Supreme Court's Decision Upholding Affirmative Action Admission Programs Is Detrimental To The Cause, Leslie Yalof Garfield

Pace Law Review

No abstract provided.