Law Commons^™

"Exceedingly Unpersuasive” - Discrimination, Transgender Students, And School Bathrooms, Mark Dorosin

Journal Publications

This Article is organized chronologically, in an effort to more effectively reflect the nearly identical fact patterns, timelines, and intersecting opinions of these cases. Part I provides the factual background of both cases. Part II summarizes the substantial preliminary litigation in Grimm; Part III examines the district court ruling in Adams; Part IV analyzes the summary judgment ruling in Grimm. Part V covers Adams’ first appellate ruling; Part VI discusses the Fourth Circuit’s ruling in Grimm three weeks later, and Part VII considers the aftermath of that decision. Parts VIII and IX explore the second panel ruling in Adams and …

A Warrant Requirement Resurgence: The Fourth Amendment In The Roberts Court, Benjamin Priester

Journal Publications

Over many years, the United States Supreme Court has developed an extensive body of precedent interpreting and enforcing the provisions of the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures by law enforcement agents conducting criminal investigations. Commonly called the "warrant requirement," one key component of this case law operates to deem some police investigatory techniques to be unconstitutional unless they are conducted pursuant to a search warrant issued in advance by a judge. The terms of the doctrine and its exceptions also authorize other investigatory actions as constitutionally permissible without a search warrant. The …

Enforcing The Right To Public Education, Areto A. Imoukuede

Journal Publications

This paper suggests that although each state within the United States currently recognizes a right to public education, the states do not provide meaningful and consistent judicial enforcement of the right. Recognizing a federal fundamental right to public education would be a step towards ensuring meaningful and consistent judicial enforcement of the right.

Can They Do That?: The Limits Of Governmental Power Over Medical Treatment, Paul Jerome Mclaughlin Jr.

Library Faculty Publications

The government’s power over health care is strongest when health care treatments and precautions to protect the public welfare, such as quarantines and vaccinations, are at issue. Governmental power over health care decisions weakens when an individual’s health care decisions are in question. When health care decisions would only affect the individual making them, the government’s power is even less. This article argues that government agents must be cautious in making health care determinations for others and that they should aim to protect an individual’s right to self-determination so long as those choices do not pose a threat to the …

Leveraging Academic Law Libraries To Expand Access To Justice, Paul Jerome Mclaughlin Jr.

Library Faculty Publications

Academic law libraries are in a unique position to help citizens gain access to the court system and legal information. By creating clinics that focus on helping pro se patrons find and complete legal forms, academic law libraries would not only benefit their schools but also the justice system.

"Fowl" Practice Of Humane Labeling: Proposed Amendments To Federal Standards Governing Chicken Welfare And Poultry Labeling Practices, Latravia Smith

Alumni Works

Chickens raised specifically for meat production are the world’s most intensively farmed land animals. Yet, the existing legal frameworks that regulate the production and labeling of poultry products in the United States allow poultry producers to mistreat chickens, falsely distinguish poultry products, and defraud conscious consumers. This article proposes unique opportunities to improve poultry welfare in the United States’ agricultural industry and offers methods to ensure the accurate labeling of poultry products.

Chimpanzees In Court: Limited Legal Personhood Recognition For Standing To Challenge Captivity And Abuse, Davidson Anestal

Alumni Works

No abstract provided.

Copyright To The Rescue: Should Copyright Protect Privacy?, Deidre Keller

Journal Publications

While some courts have held that “[i]t is universally recognized . . . that the protection of privacy is not the function of our copyright law,” the remedies afforded copyright owners make pursuing copyright claims an attractive option to privacy plaintiffs. Copyright remedies include the removal of digital copies from the internet and the destruction of physical copies. The extent to which copyright ought to protect privacy interests has been considered in various jurisdictions recently but has not been treated comprehensively by contemporary legal scholars in the United States. This piece seeks to undertake that treatment.

Part II of this …

Gun Rights And The New Lochnerism, Areto A. Imoukuede

Journal Publications

This Article examines the Supreme Court's recent Second Amendment cases as applications of the same libertarian bias that has undermined constitutional law's fundamental rights doctrine. The concept of a libertarian bias that is based in a New Lochnerism was previously introduced in both The Fifth Freedom and The New Due Process. The analysis here demonstrates that the recently revised doctrine regarding the Second Amendment and gun rights is driven by the current Supreme Court ("Court") hostility towards government regulation in a manner that is akin to what was seen during the Lochner Era. Regrettably, this Article is timely and is …

Virgil Hawkins: Educator & Civil Rights Activist, Hardaway Law Firm, Virgil Hawkins Historical Society, Virgil Hawkins Bar Association Of Polk County, Black Filmmakers Of Central Florida, Kathleen High School Video And Tv Production Team, Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. Mu Zeta Lambda Chapter

Oral Histories, Presentations, and Videos

Virgil Darnell Hawkins was an African-American trailblazer. Through and by way of his unrelenting effort to become a Florida lawyer, the Jim Crow laws, that once kept Florida's African Americans from attending the white public universities and colleges, were eventually abolished. This paved the way for the end of discrimination in Florida's schools of higher learning and opened the way for African Americans to attend state universities and colleges.

This program and presentation honor Mr. Virgil Darnell Hawkins.

The Real Homeland Security Gaps, Areto A. Imoukuede

Journal Publications

This Article reveals the real security gaps in FPS and suggests that the enormous delegation of FPS's vital security functions to private contractors should be treated as an unconstitutional delegation of an inherently governmental function. However, the current constitutional doctrine regarding inherently governmental functions is so weak that even this obvious example of a vital security function that ought to be performed by government fails to satisfy the current constitutional standard for being inherently governmental. Part II presents the FPS federal infrastructure mission and the real homeland security gaps created by post 9/11 policies that have undermined FPS security capabilities. …

Sinclair's Nightmare: Slapp-Ing Down Ag-Gag Legislation As Content-Based Restrictions Chilling Protected Free Speech, Jeffrey Vizcaino

Student Works

Over a century after its publication, Upton Sinclair’s 1906 novel, The Jungle, remains one of the most impactful pieces of investigative literature ever published. During 1904, in an effort to expose the heinous working conditions of Chicago’s meat packing industry, Sinclair went under disguise as a factory worker for seven weeks. While Sinclair’s purpose for The Jungle was to propel federal reform against inhumane work conditions, it was the first-hand depiction of the callous slaughtering and unsanitary processing of meat products which led to national uproar. Gaining the attention of national political leaders, including President Theodore Roosevelt, The Jungle …

A Civil Rights Act For The 21st Century: The Privileges And Immunities Clause And A Constitutional Guarantee To Be Free From Discriminatory Impact, Mark Dorosin

Journal Publications

As the nation reflects on the fiftieth anniversaries of the various civil rights legislation of the 1960s' and considers the challenges that remain for fully addressing our history of racial discrimination, segregation, and suppression, we must begin with a very fundamental question: What is the harm that we are seeking to address, and how effectively do our current civil rights laws work towards achieving that goal? Given our collective success in addressing some of the most egregious intentional discrimination, as well as the intransigent, and evolving nature of institutional racism, it is time for a new Civil Rights Act that …

Unintended Lawlessness Of Stand Your Ground: Justitia Fiat Coelum Ruat, Ann Marie Cavazos

Journal Publications

This paper will examine Florida's Stand Your Ground law by analyzing the origins and purpose of the law, vis-a-vis comparative analysis, and by discussing the application of this law. It will compare the stories of victims and further dissect the necessity and benefits of the Stand Your Ground laws, and examine in particular how it has affected the citizens of Florida and the nation. This Article will examine unforeseen outcomes derived from the enactment of a law meant for the common good and will further discuss how the Castle Doctrine evolved into the current Stand Your Ground laws. It will …

Green Energy In Indian Country As A Double-Edged Sword For Native Americans: Drawing On The Inter-American And Colombian Legal Systems To Redefine The Right To Consultation, Diana Coronel David

Student Works

Energy is a key component in the redress of climate change evils and the United States has one of the highest per capita energy consumption in the world. The federal government’s goal is to reduce the country’s dependence on oil and double its wind and solar electricity generation by 2025. The development of renewable energy projects is to a great extent tied to Indian Country. This is highly important for Indian tribes as an empowering mechanism. Such projects could represent new sources of income for tribes whose traditional subsistence-based lifestyles have been impacted by climate change. Renewable energy projects in …

"Fuck Your Breath": Black Men And Youth, State Violence, And Human Rights In The 21st Century, Jeremy I. Levitt

Journal Publications

This polemical essay was written at the behest of Black men and youth, and it is dedicated to African American women who relentlessly fight to safeguard the rights and well-being of Black men, even when in the process their maltreatment and welfare are grossly overlooked and forgotten. Bree Newsome's courageous and necessary removal of the confederate flag in the South Carolina State House is a prime example of such fearless activism. Joanne Deborah Chesimard aka Assata Shakur's-a former leader of the revolutionary organization known as the Black Liberation Armyascendency to the FBI's Most Wanted Terrorist list is another tragically intoxicating …

Downstream Inundations Caused By Federal Flood Control Dam Operations In A Changing Climate: Getting The Proper Mix Of Takings, Tort, And Compensation, Robert Haskell Abrams, Jacqueline Bertelsen

Journal Publications

The 2012 United States Supreme Court case Arkansas Game & Fish Commission v. United States presented the Court with a claim that the property of a landowner downstream of a flood control dam was taken without compensation as a result of non-permanent inundations of low lying portions of that parcel caused by a change in the dam's pattern of releases. The Court held that, "government-induced flooding temporary in duration gains no automatic exemption from Takings Clause inspection" and must, instead, be tested according to the Court's usual precedents governing temporary physical invasions and regulatory takings. The Federal Circuit held a …

Education Rights And The New Due Process, Areto A. Imoukuede

Journal Publications

This Article argues for a human dignity-based, due process clause analysis to recognize the fundamental duty of government to provide high quality, public education. Access to public education is a fundamental duty, or positive fundamental right because education is a basic human need and a constituent part of all democratic rights. In The Fifth Freedom, I argued that there is a fundamental duty under the U.S. Constitution to provide public education and that the reason a fundamental right to public education has not been recognized is because of a profound confusion regarding fundamental rights as duties.' The Court is biased …

“What He Said.” The Transformative Potential Of The Use Of Copyrighted Content In Political Campaigns —Or— How A Win For Mitt Romney Might Have Been A Victory For Free Speech, Deidre Keller

Journal Publications

In January 2012 Mitt Romney’s campaign received a cease-and-desist letter charging, among other things, that its use of news footage concerning Newt Gingrich’s ethics problems in the House of Representatives constituted a violation of NBC’s copyright. This is just the latest such charge and came amidst similar allegations against the Gingrich and Bachmann campaigns and in the wake of similar allegations against both the McCain and Obama campaigns in 2008. Such allegations have plagued political campaigns as far back as Reagan’s in 1984. The existing literature is nearly devoid of a consideration of such uses as political speech protected by …

Shelby V. Holder: Brief Of Professor Patricia A. Broussard And Famu College Of Law Students As Amici Curiae In Support Of Respondents, Patricia A. Broussard, Sabrina Collins, Stacy Hane, Akunna Olumba

Amicus Briefs

Shelby County, Alabama v. Eric H. Holder, Jr., In the Supreme Court of the United States, Brief of Professor Patricia A. Broussard, Sabrina Collins, Stacy Hane, Akunna Olumba and Named Students and Organizations of Florida A & M University College of Law as Amici Curiae in Support of Respondents

Parallel Investigations Between Administrative And Law Enforcement Agencies: A Question Of Civil Liberties, Shiv Narayan Persaud

Journal Publications

No abstract provided.

Is Color Blind Justice Also Culturally Blind? The Cultural Blindness In Justice, Shiv Narayan Persaud

Journal Publications

As diverse ethnic groups continue to experience numeric growth and societal grounding in America, their advocacies for culturally competent representation within the legal system cannot be ignored or underplayed. Undoubtedly, some professions such as mental and physical health, and their related sectors, have developed and continue to integrate cultural competencies into their respective practices. Others such as the legal profession seem to lag in their advocacies and promotion of culturally competent practices.

In the criminal justice system, where discretionary legal decision-making authority is commonplace and may grossly affect the civil liberties of the citizenry, a paucity of standards requiring cultural …

Electronic Discovery And The Constitution: Inaccessible Justice, Jennifer M. Smith

Journal Publications

Computers are the cynosure of American society. As a result, most information is stored electronically and only a small amount of information ever becomes a paper document. This explosion of electronically stored information has affected every aspect of society, including the court system. Litigation is drastically different than a few years ago due to this onset of electronically stored information. The discovery of electronically stored information in litigation has become known as electronic discovery. For many, electronic discovery is expensive and complicated, and thus, litigants are settling frivolous cases to avoid the costs and complexities of engaging in discovery to …

The Fifth Freedom: The Constitutional Duty To Provide Public Education, Areto A. Imoukuede

Journal Publications

This Article explains why there is a fundamental duty for the government to provide public education under the U.S. Constitution. Numerous scholars and public officials have written on the need to overrule San Antonio v. Rodriguez or adopt alternative approaches to recognizing a right to public education either judicially or by way of constitutional amendment. This Article identifies a consistent and systemic reluctance by the Court to meaningfully enforce positive rights, which are the duties that the government owes to the people. In doing so, it explores the consistent recognition throughout American history that education is a fundamental duty of …

Beware Of Wooden Nickels: The Paradox Of Florida's Legislative Overreaction In The Wake Of Kelo, Ann Marie Cavazos

Journal Publications

This article addresses Florida's reaction to the United States Supreme Court decision in Kelo v. City of New London. In Kelo, the Court provided a more expansive view of "the public use" of the Fifth Amendment Takings Clause to include taking property from one private owner and transferring it to a corporation or non-private citizen when the transfer is deemed by the lawmakers to be in the public good or for a public purpose. Florida, together with several other states, concluded that such eminent domain takings, while constitutionally permissible, offend the states' sense of fair play as it relates to …

A Hypothetical Postulate For The Polemic Of Extraordinary Rendition Vis-A-Vis The Paradigm Of Asymmetric Warfare, John C. Duncan, Jr.

Journal Publications

This article presents a controversial hypothetical approach to a side of the polemic regarding extraordinary rendition. War is not always controlled by rules, fairness, or ethics. The United States would prefer the foregoing if forced to go to war, but the enemy may not follow the same approach. As a result, the United States becomes hampered by unilaterally self-imposed rules and standards. Conceivably, we could fail to achieve our military objective because of the enemy's adherence to a very different approach and beliefs regarding warfare. Were we to have the privilege of fighting under relatively similar rules with the other …

Reaction To: Wealth, Poverty, And The Equal Protection Clause, Patricia A. Broussard

Journal Publications

No abstract provided.

Public Nuisance Suits For The Climate Justice Movement: The Right Thing And The Right Time, Randall S. Abate

Journal Publications

The climate justice movement seeks to provide relief to vulnerable communities that have been disproportionately affected by climate change impacts. Public nuisance litigation for climate change impacts is a new and growing field that could provide the legal and policy underpinnings to help secure a viable foundation for climate justice in the United States and internationally. By securing victories in the court system, these suits may succeed where the domestic environmental justice movement failed in seeking to merge environmental protection and human rights concerns into an actionable legal theory. This Article first examines the nature and scope of the climate …

A Critical Consideration Of Executive Orders: Glimmerings Of Autopoiesis In The Executive Role, John C. Duncan Jr

Journal Publications

The United States Constitution is a parsimonious document, meant to retain the dynamic processes of the three branches of government within their respective spheres and overarching principles, beyond which it offers the latitude necessary for the developing nation to adapt to future contingencies. The Congress and the President are the governing institutions of two of those branches, to which agility is essential as a matter of survival. The most agile tool that the President has is the executive order. There is no statutory authority for the federal executive order or any other source that describes its legal effect, as such, …

Correcting Mismatched Authorities: Erecting A New "Water Federalism", Robert H. "Bo" Abrams

Journal Publications

In the United States water law is a subset of property law that controls the use and allocation of the water resource. Water law was, and remains, state law; nothing in the Constitution purports to change that. The scope of federal sovereignty at the time of nationhood did not include even the possibility of playing a major role in regulating resources because the national government was not a significant landholder. The twentieth century changed water federalism dramatically. In the twentieth century, even while laws and rhetoric respected the division of authority favoring the states, the real power over water in …