Law Commons^™

Moving Beyond Lassiter: The Need For A Federal Statutory Right To Counsel For Parents In Child Welfare Cases, Vivek S. Sankaran

Journal of Legislation

No abstract provided.

The New York Court Of Appeals' Expansion Of The Definition Of The Term “Parent” Leaves Future Questions Unanswered, Ilana Sharan

Journal of Law and Policy

On August 30, 2016, the New York Court of Appeals in Brooke S.B. v. Elizabeth A.C.C., expanded the definition of the term “parent,” overruling the twenty-five-year-old bright line rule that limited standing to seek custody or visitation to traditional parents. In 1991, the New York Court of Appeals decided Alison D. v. Virginia M. where they defined “parent” to include only people who have a biological or adoptive relationship with the child, reasoning that the typical family consisted of a husband and wife. In many cases subsequent to Alison D., the court attempted to alleviate the harsh application this rule …

No “Gift” Giving Here: The Inadequate Gifted Education Programs In New York State And The Need For Gifted Education Reform, Jamie M. Kautz

Journal of Law and Policy

Gifted Education is a topic that is often not at the forefront of educational issues throughout federal and state discussions and legislative actions. However, while there are a large number of students in classrooms across the country who are “gifted,” the number of individual states with comprehensive gifted programs within their public school districts is small. As a result, gifted programming is limited and gifted students are not guaranteed any sort of academic assistance beyond that of a standard classroom curriculum for their designated grade levels. More importantly, in the majority of states, including New York, the legal protections offered …

Cutting Off The Umbilical Cord–Reflections On The Possibility To Sever The Parental Bond, Tali Marcus

Journal of Law and Policy

Parenthood is a status comprising exclusivity relating to the rights and responsibilities concerning the child. The rights and obligations imbued in the parental status are evident first and foremost during the child’s minority. Nonetheless, the status has legal meaning and implications that extend beyond the child’s minority and carry on throughout adulthood. By defining parenthood and assigning parental status, the law establishes legal as well as social responsibility towards the child and a bond for life. This article questions the eternal aspect of parenthood and aspires to initiate discussion pertaining to the social and legal conventions that pose parenthood as …

Addressing Utah’S School To Prison Pipeline, Tyler B. Bugden

Utah Law Review

Utah’s STTP problem needs to be resolved. Zero tolerance policies, the limited constitutional rights of students, the police power of school administrators, the injection of SROs into our schools without clear job responsibilities and training, and the imbalance of power between students and state actors all contribute to Utah’s biased STPP. To address the STPP, researchers encourage: the expansion of legal protections for juveniles; the re-training of SROs and employment contracts that clearly define SROs’ responsibilities; the use of restorative justice practices and other evidence-based alternatives to the juvenile justice system; and reforming the discretionary power of state actors to …

How To Combat Prenatal Substance Abuse While Also Protecting Pregnant Women: A Legislative Proposal To Create An Appropriate Balance, Kyle Kennedy

Arkansas Law Review

“Substance abuse in pregnancy is associated with a number of adverse outcomes for the woman, fetus, and neonate.” A recent study indicated that approximately 5.9% of pregnant women between the ages of fifteen and forty-four use illicit drugs. Prenatal illicit drug use has escalated over the past decade, causing an increase in “maternal and neonatal complications, neonatal abstinence syndrome, and health care costs.” Following alcohol and marijuana, methamphetamine is the most commonly abused drug.4 By 2006, admissions for treatment of methamphetamine abuse among pregnant women had increased to twenty-four percent of federally-funded treatment admissions, up from eight percent in 1994.

Parameters Of Child Protective Services In The Commercial Sexual Exploitation Of Minors, Taliah Ahdut

Seattle University Law Review

The purpose of this Note is to critique the current paradigm in place for resolving the sex trafficking of youth in Washington and compare it to the current model utilized in Minnesota. The Minnesota model should be used to provide a framework for Washington to revise its current model because Washington’s current model allows for sexually exploited youth to be funneled in and out of the criminal justice system, limiting the chances for trafficked victims to reach out to members of the community for assistance. These changes could ultimately increase the opportunities for trafficked youth and position them in the …

An Exposition Of The Effectiveness Of And The Challenges Plaguing Maine's Juvenile Drug Treatment Court Program, Jason E. Rayne

Maine Law Review

Since 1989, trial courts across the United States have been developing and implementing the drug court model. Drug courts are treatment-based programs that are considered less adversarial than traditional methods of adjudication. By early in the new millennium, drug courts had “achieved considerable local support and [had] provided intensive, long-term treatment services to offenders with long histories of drug use and criminal justice contacts, previous treatment failures, and high rates of health and social problems.” Drug courts were developed in part to quell the trend of prison overcrowding associated with America’s increased “war on drugs” during the 1980s. Courts were …

Stories Told And Untold: Confidentiality Laws And The Master Narrative Of Child Welfare, Matthew I. Fraidin

Maine Law Review

In most states, child welfare hearings and records are sealed or confidential. This means that by law, court hearings and records may not be observed. The same laws and court rules also preclude those who are authorized to enter and watch from discussing anything learned or observed in a closed courtroom or from a sealed court record with anyone not involved in the case. It is the restriction on speech—on telling stories about child welfare—with which this Article is concerned. I will argue in this Article that the insights of narrative theory and agenda-setting studies help us understand the damaging …

"Sweet Childish Days": Using Developmental Psychology Research In Evaluating The Admissibility Of Out-Of-Court Statements By Young Children, Lynn Mclain

Maine Law Review

Young children are frequently precluded from testifying at trial on the grounds of incompetency because they cannot answer questions about abstract concepts regarding “truth” and “lies.” In this situation, should the child’s earlier, out-of-court statements disclosing the abuse and identifying the abuser also be inadmissible? The stakes are huge. If young children cannot testify, and their out-of-court statements are precluded, they simply become safe prey, unprotected by the judicial system. The pivotal question becomes, are there procedures that can ensure fairness both to children and to their alleged abusers? This article argues that a child’s testimonial incapacity at trial ought …

Looking At Justice Through A Lens Of Healing And Reconnection, Annalise Buth, Lynn Cohn

Northwestern Journal of Law & Social Policy

No abstract provided.

Panel Discussion: Expanding Our Conception Of Justice

Northwestern Journal of Law & Social Policy

No abstract provided.

The Problem With Inference And Juvenile Defendants, Jenny E. Carroll

Florida State University Law Review

Much of criminal law relies on proof by inference. The value of evidence frequently lies in what it suggests as much as what it shows. An outstretched hand in a dark alley is either an illicit drug deal or a handshake; a semi-coherent moan is either encouragement of, or resistance to, a sexual advance; shouted words to "fuck up" a school principal could be either a promise of harm to come or meaningless bravado. In criminal law, fact finders untangle not only what happened, but why it happened, or perhaps more accurately, what the defendant's state of mind was when …

Juveniles Make Bad Decisions, But Are Not Adults & Law Continues To Account For This Difference: The Supreme Court’S Decision To Apply Miller V. Alabama Retroactively Will Have A Significant Impact On Many Decades Of Reform And Current Debate Around Juvenile Sentencing, Danielle Petretta

Pace Law Review

In January 2016, the Supreme Court made a monumental decision, reflecting the notion that juveniles are not adults. For years, courts have been grappling with the notion that juveniles are not adults. The Supreme Court has finally published an opinion that will have extreme implications on the juvenile justice system.

Part I of this Note will discuss the birth of the juvenile justice system. Part II of this Note will briefly introduce the recent oral argument heard before the Supreme Court regarding whether the Supreme Court will apply Miller v. Alabama retroactively or non-retroactively. Part III will discuss the history …

Juvenile False Confessions: Juvenile Psychology, Police Interrogation Tactics, And Prosecutorial Discretion, Marco Luna

Nevada Law Journal

No abstract provided.

You Are Now Entering The School Zone, Proceed With Caution: Educators, Arbitration, & Children’S Rights, Raquel Muniz

Arbitration Law Review

No abstract provided.

Appealing To Empathy: Counsel's Obligation To Present Mitigating Evidence For Juveniles In Adult Court, Beth Caldwell

Maine Law Review

Media representations of youth as “superpredators” and “monsters” fuel public fear of juvenile offenders. These depictions infiltrate public consciousness and promote widespread misconceptions about the prevalence of youth crime and the nature of juvenile delinquents. In public discourse, youth who break the law are characterized as hardened criminals who will continue to prey upon innocent victims unless they are incarcerated. However, a closer examination of the life stories of young people who commit serious crimes reveals histories characterized a lawyer’s job is to uncover these stories and to tell them in a compelling way. The effective presentation of mitigating information …

Pushing The Limits: Reining In Ohio's Residency Restrictions For Sex Offenders, Taurean J. Shattuck

Cleveland State Law Review

The danger to children posed by convicted sex offenders living near schools, parks, and bus stops has been greatly exaggerated by the media. In turn, many state legislatures have attempted to find solutions to this perceived problem, imposing sanctions that seem to keep the "problem" at bay. A relatively new approach prevents those convicted of sex crimes from living within a certain distance of places where children congregate. Ohio is one of the states that has adopted this approach. The problem with this approach, however, is that imposing such restrictions on all individuals convicted of certain crimes imposes barriers to …

Inconsistencies In Combatting The Sex Trafficking Of Minors: Backpage’S Deceptive Business Practices Should Not Be Immune From State Law Claims, Jacqueline Hackler

Seattle University Law Review

Under federal law, the CDA has created a loophole for pimps and johns to exploit minors through the Internet. This Note uses Backpage as an example of how interactive computer services consistently evade liability under the current language of the CDA, and examines the need for an amendment to the language of the CDA. This Note argues that an interactive computer service should be held responsible under state law if it helps create the content, thus becoming an “information content provider” under the CDA. Part I provides the groundwork for what sex trafficking is and its relationship to prostitution. Additionally, …

The New Unconstitutionality Of Juvenile Sex Offender Registration: Suspending The Presumption Of Constitutionality For Laws That Burden Juvenile Offenders, Spencer Klein

Michigan Law Review

In Smith v. Doe, the Supreme Court held that Alaska’s sex offender registration and notification statute did not constitute punishment and was therefore not susceptible to challenge under the Ex Post Facto Clause. In reaching that conclusion, the Court looked to the seven factors articulated in Kennedy v. Mendoza-Martinez. To evaluate those factors, the Court applied a presumption of constitutionality, conducting the sort of narrow factual inquiry characteristic of rational basis review. Since Smith, courts have disagreed as to whether sex offender laws are punitive when applied to juveniles, and the Supreme Court has not yet addressed …

Reforming The Juvenile Justice System: Rehabilitation And Key Factors That Influence Juvenile Crime, Caitlyn Kenville

3690: A Journal of First-Year Student Research Writing

Overview: Aaron Phillips, a man from Pennsylvania, has been in prison for over three decades for a crime he committed when he was seventeen years old. When Aaron was seventeen, he and his friend stole and elderly man’s wallet and pushed him down in the process. Although the man was injured, he was up and walking after his injury. About two and a half weeks after the incident, the elderly man died from cardiac arrest, after having surgery to repair his fractured hip along with a separate intestinal surgery. Aaron was convicted of felony murder and tried as an adult. …

Kids Will Be Kids: Time For A "Reasonable Child" Standard For The Proof Of Objective Mens Rea Elements, Christopher M. Northrop, Kristina R. Rozan

Maine Law Review

In a line of recent cases that have rocked the world of juvenile law, the Supreme Court relied on the latest brain science research with the timeless knowledge of parents to state forcefully and repeatedly that children are more impetuous, more vulnerable to outside pressures, less depraved, and less culpable for their actions than adults are. Yet criminal statutes refer to the “reasonable person” standard, which does not take into account the age of the accused as the benchmark for guilt or innocence. In doing so, we hold children to an irrelevant and arguably unfairly demanding behavioral ideal, and criminalize …

Agree To Disagree: Moving Tennessee Toward Pure No-Fault Divorce, Evan Wright

Lincoln Memorial University Law Review Archive

This Note addresses Tennessee's no-fault divorce statute. Currently, married couples are forced to either agree on all issues or prove at least one fault ground. This author contends that the current law imposes an unnecessary burden on litigants, which wastes precious resources that Tennessee families could use for more productive purposes. Moreover, pure no-fault states have not seen a disproportionate rise in divorce rates. Last, pure no-fault divorce better reflects current societal trends and the evolving effect of religious affiliation on how a younger generation defines morality.

Systemic Governmental Recalcitrance In Regulating Confidentiality Under The Child Abuse, Prevention & Treatment Act (Capta): A Case Study, William Wesley Patton

Journal of Legislation

In 2003, Congress amended the Child Abuse, Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA) to provide states with more flexibility in designing open child dependency hearings. The Federal Children’s Bureau has interpreted those amendments as a congressional waiver of CAPTA confidentiality in open court proceedings, and there-fore, currently tens of millions of abused and neglected children no longer have federal protection from being re-traumatized by disclosure of confidential CAPTA child welfare case information. This article demonstrates that the Children’s Bureau’s statutory interpretation is inconsistent with congressional intent and that states are still mandated to reasonably prevent the republication of confidential data by …

A Meaningful Opportunity For Release: Resentencing Hearings For Juvenile Offenders Sentenced To Life Without Parole Following Aiken V. Byars, Robert M. Dudek

South Carolina Law Review

No abstract provided.

Exploring The Parameters Of A Child's Right To Redemption: Some Thoughts, Katherine Hunt Federle

South Carolina Law Review

No abstract provided.

Random If Not Rare: The Eighth Amendment Weaknesses Of Post-Miller Legislation, Kimberly Thomas

South Carolina Law Review

No abstract provided.

Handcuffing A Third Grader? Interactions Between School Resource Officers And Students With Disabilities, Elizabeth A. Shaver, Janet R. Decker

Utah Law Review

The expansion of police involvement at schools has had serious implications for students with disabilities. By enacting IDEA, Congress recognized that these students deserve special protections and entitlements. In the most recent amendments to this federal law, Congress included important guidelines regarding functional behavioral assessments (FBAs) and behavior intervention plans (BIPs) to outline how school personnel must respond to undesired behavior of students with disabilities. Recognizing the special behavioral needs of students with disabilities is one way to reduce the current reality where students with disabilities are suspended, expelled, restrained, and secluded at much higher rates than their peers.

Although …

Noncitizen Youth In The Juvenile Justice System: The Serious Consequences Of Failed Confidentiality By Ice Referral, Erin Mower Adams

BYU Law Review

No abstract provided.

Good, Bad And Wrongful Juvenile Sex: Rethinking The Use Of Statutory Rape Laws Against The Protected Class, Anna High

Arkansas Law Review

This article considers the question of whether statutory rape laws can and should be used against members of the class they were designed to protect. Many commentators have argued that meaningfully consensual sex among similarly situated and sufficiently mature teenagers should be beyond the scope of strict liability rape laws, but the question becomes more fraught in the context of the “contested outer limits” of adolescent sexuality—sexual contact among children and adolescents that offends social norms, leads to harmful outcomes or appears to be exploitative. What are the implications of using statutory rape laws against minors to target “bad sex”? …