Law Commons^™

Going Forward: The Role Of Affirmative Action, Race, And Diversity In University Admissions And The Broader Construction Of Society, Steven W. Bender

Seattle University Law Review

The third annual EPOCH symposium, a partnership between the Seattle University Law Review and the Black Law Student Association took place in late summer 2023 at the Seattle University School of Law. It was intended to uplift and amplify Black voices and ideas, and those of allies in the legal community. Prompted by the swell of public outcry surrounding ongoing police violence against the Black community, the EPOCH partnership marked a commitment to antiracism imperatives and effectuating change for the Black community. The published symposium in this volume encompasses some, but not all, the ideas and vision detailed in the …

After Affirmative Action, Meera E. Deo

Seattle University Law Review

This is a time of crisis in legal education. In truth, we are in the midst of several crises. We are emerging from the COVID pandemic, a period of unprecedented upheaval where law students and law faculty alike struggled through physical challenges, mental health burdens, and decreased academic and professional success. The past few years also have seen a precipitous drop in applications to and enrollment in legal education. Simultaneously, students have been burdened with the skyrocketing costs of attending law school, taking on unmanageable levels of debt. And with the Supreme Court decision in SFFA v. Harvard, we are …

Sffa V. Harvard College: Closing The Doors Of Equality In Education, Ediberto Roman

Seattle University Law Review

The United States Supreme Court’s recent combined decision ending affirmative action in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard College and Students for Fair Admissions v. University of North Carolina was hailed in conservative circles as the beginning of “the long road” towards racial equality. Others declared that “the opinion may begin the restoration of our nation’s constitutional colorblind legal covenant.” Another writer pronounced, “Affirmative action perpetuated racial discrimination. Its end is a huge step forward.” A Washington-based opinion page even declared: “[T]he demise of race-based affirmative action should inspire renewed commitment to the ideal of equal opportunity in America.” Despite …

Pacific Islands And The U.S. Military: The Legal Borderlands Of The Environmental Movement, Sonia Lei

Seattle University Law Review

Climate change remains an urgent, ongoing global issue that requires critical examination of institutional polluters. This includes the world’s largest institutional consumer of petroleum: the United States military. The Department of Defense (DoD) is a massive institution with little oversight, a carbon footprint spanning the globe, a budget greater than the next ten largest nations combined, and overly generous exemptions to environmental regulations and carbon reduction targets. This Comment examines how this lack of accountability and oversight plays out in the context of three Pacific islands that have hosted U.S. military bases for decades. By considering the environmental impact of …

Can Policing Be Purged Of White Supremacy? A First Amendment Inquiry, Jessica Tilton

Mitchell Hamline Law Journal of Public Policy and Practice

No abstract provided.

Usurping Authority: Illinois Sheriffs Declare Law Unconstitutional, Jason M. Cieslik

Loyola University Chicago Law Journal

In January of 2023, Illinois signed the Protect Illinois Communities Act into law. The law’s passage caused concern for those who were strong proponents of the Second Amendment. The law prohibited the possession, ownership, distribution, and sale of assault weapons. As a result, approximately ninety Illinois county sheriffs issued statements opposing the law as an infringement of one’s right to bear arms. Furthermore, many of the county sheriffs stated that they would not enforce the law because it was unconstitutional. In most states, the office of county sheriff is created through the state constitution. A county sheriff’s duties, including enforcement …

Prisons As Laboratories Of Antidemocracy, Brandon Hasbrouck

Scholarly Articles

Prisons are woefully ineffective as tools to protect society from violence and exploitation, yet America’s prison population exploded in the twentieth century. On the outside, this devastated Black communities, Black opportunities, Black economic power, and Black voting power. Yet a similarly insidious development came from inside prison walls: prison administrators honed antidemocratic techniques for constraining and oppressing incarcerated persons, techniques that would later be deployed against the ostensibly free population. Jeffrey Bellin’s Mass Incarceration Nation provides a robust analysis of the ways state and federal policies have combined to create an explosion in the scope of American prisons in the …

The Procedural Justice Industrial Complex, Shawn E. Fields

Indiana Law Journal

The singular focus on procedural justice police reform is dangerous. Procedurally just law enforcement encounters provide an empirically proven subjective sense of fairness and legitimacy, while obscuring substantively unjust outcomes emanating from a fundamentally unjust system. The deceptive simplicity of procedural justice – that a polite cop is a lawful cop – promotes a false consciousness among would-be reformers that progress has been made, evokes a false sense of legitimacy divorced from objective indicia of lawfulness or morality, and claims the mantle of “reform” in the process. It is not just that procedural justice is a suboptimal type of reform; …

Restorative Justice As A Democratic Practice, Daniel S. Mcconkie Jr.

Loyola University Chicago Law Journal

Our criminal justice system, to be truly democratic, should be more responsive to those most affected by it, and this calls for significant participation from citizens. Unfortunately, the state-centered, professionalized criminal justice system marginalizes citizens at every stage, depriving them of a voice and power. Instead, the system should embody and encourage criminal justice citizenship, which refers to the rights and privileges of ordinary people to participate directly in certain aspects of the criminal justice system and to deliberate in some of its workings. Such citizenship is indispensable to democracy, or rule by the people.

Restorative justice, especially where it …

Reprieves Return: Minnesota's Decision To Awaken The Reprieve, Mary Fee, Monica Shaffer

Mitchell Hamline Law Review

No abstract provided.

Boiling Behind Bars: Exploring The Hidden Toll Of Extreme Heat On Mental Health In Texas Prisons, Sandra K. Miller

Social Work Theses

The State of Texas supports the largest prison system in the US and held 132,859 people in 100 units scattered across the state as of December 2023. Approximately 70% of Texas prison beds are not air conditioned, despite the state’s reputation for dangerously hot, humid summers. The State has officially recorded temperatures inside Texas prison facilities as high as 120 degrees with heat index values of over 150. Although there is a growing body of research on the negative physiological and psychological consequences of extreme heat among the general public, little is known about the physical and emotional toll of …

Exploring The Factors That Influence Female Offending In The U.S. And Mexico, Dana Villasenor

CMC Senior Theses

Hollywood has painted a picture of the criminal woman as a sexy, sneaky, and often psychotic female fatale. This is because men run Hollywood. Much like movies, research on why women offend had historically focused on men as their stellar. However, towards the turn of the century and with the disproportionate rise in female incarceration, literature caught up to the fact that women and men do not experience the same socialization, standards, or reality and, therefore, have different reasons for and ways of offending. This research explores those reasons for women in the U.S. and Mexico and paints the picture …

Antisocial Innovation, Christopher Buccafusco, Samuel N. Weinstein

Faculty Articles

Innovation is a form of civic religion in the United States. In the popular imagination, innovators are heroic figures. Thomas Edison, Steve Jobs, and (for a while) Elizabeth Holmes were lauded for their vision and drive, and seen to embody the American spirit of invention and improvement. For their part, politicians rarely miss a chance to trumpet their vision for boosting innovative activity. Popular and political culture alike treat innovation as an unalloyed good. And the law is deeply committed to fostering innovation, spending billions of dollars a year to make sure society has enough of it. But this sunny …

Constitutionalizing Racism, Jonathan Feingold

Faculty Scholarship

Unreasonable is Devon Carbado at his best. Through accessible prose, carefully crafted hypotheticals, effective visualizations, and some cross-examination (for the reader), Carbado reintroduces us to the Fourth Amendment. In arresting detail, Unreasonable" exposes how the Supreme Court has turned the Fourth Amendment against “the people”—and specifically, against people racialized as Black. Part of the “Bill of Rights,” the Fourth Amendment was adopted to protect “the right of the people” from police overreach. Yet over the past half-century, the Supreme Court has systematically repositioned the Fourth Amendment as a weapon of police power. Or as Carbado argues: whereas many assume …

Criminal Law's Hidden Consensus, Steven Arrigg Koh

Faculty Scholarship

American criminal law is facing a crisis of meaning. On one hand, the “traditional school” invokes the archetype of the violent criminal—a murderer, rapist, or thief—who must be prosecuted and punished. On the other hand, the “critical school” invokes the archetype of the low-level drug offender, sentenced to a draconian prison term for mere possession of low levels of marijuana. On this account, the criminal legal system is itself systemically pathological, perhaps even warranting abolition. Like ships passing in the night, the two schools appear irreconcilable. This Article helps break this impasse and builds toward a justification for criminal law …

A Reasonable And Well-Reasoned Teaching Tool In Unreasonable Times, Jasmine Gonzales Rose

Faculty Scholarship

Devon Carbado’s most recent book, Unreasonable: Black Lives, Police Power, and the Fourth Amendment, is a must-read for anyone studying or concerned with criminal procedure or policing. Unlike some of Professor Carbado’s other work, the brilliance of this book is not necessarily new conceptualizations or theorizations—for which he is well known—but rather centers on accessible pedagogy. If you have studied race and policing, you are not likely to find a new case, study, or reference to scholarship in the book. But, you are going to understand anti-Black racism, policing, the Fourth Amendment, and their intersections better than you did …

Gang Accusations: The Beast That Burdens Noncitizens, Mary Holper

Brooklyn Law Review

This article examines evidence that the government presents in deportation proceedings against young men of color to prove that they are gang members. The gang evidence results in detention, deportation, adverse credibility decisions, and denial of discretionary relief. This article examines the gang evidence through the lens of the law’s use of presumptions and the corresponding burdens of proof at play in immigration proceedings. The immigration burden allocations allow adjudicators to readily accept the harmful presumption contained in the gang evidence—that urban youth of color are criminals and likely to engage in violent crime associated with gangs. The article seeks …

Unclear Guidelines From The Sentencing Commission And A Prejudiced Warden Result In (Un)Compassionate Release, Mary Trotter

Journal of the National Association of Administrative Law Judiciary

Congress first developed compassionate release in 1984, granting federal courts the authority to reduce sentences for “extraordinary and compelling” reasons. Compassionate release allows the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) and inmates to apply for immediate early release on grounds of “particularly extraordinary or compelling circumstances which could not reasonably have been foreseen by the court at the time of sentencing.” Questions remain about how the BOP and the courts grant compassionate release and whether the courts apply the compassionate release guidelines consistently. The uncertainty is due to the lack of clarity from the USSC to define “extraordinary or compelling circumstances,” …

Twisted Machines: Police Pursuit Policy And Accountability, Madeline Hedrick

Journal of the National Association of Administrative Law Judiciary

Part I of this comment will examine the cultural and legal approach to high-speed pursuits exemplified in Los Angeles—the national center of televised car chases. Part II will unpack the thorny judicial doctrine of qualified immunity and evaluate how it impacts the incentives and accountability of police pursuits. Part III will examine who pays for the lawsuits that survive qualified immunity and the role insurance companies have in the facilitation of police reform. In Part IV, this comment will examine the qualified immunity bills in New Mexico and Colorado, the nationwide example they set, and the pushback they have received. …

Consent Searches And Underestimation Of Compliance: Robustness To Type Of Search, Consequences Of Search, And Demographic Sample, Roseanna Sommers, Vanessa K. Bohns

Articles

Most police searches today are authorized by citizens' consent, rather than probable cause or reasonable suspicion. The main constitutional limitation on so-called “consent searches” is the voluntariness test: whether a reasonable person would have felt free to refuse the officer's request to conduct the search. We investigate whether this legal inquiry is subject to a systematic bias whereby uninvolved decision-makers overstate the voluntariness of consent and underestimate the psychological pressure individuals feel to comply. We find evidence for a robust bias extending to requests, tasks, and populations that have not been examined previously. Across three pre-registered experiments, we approached participants …

The Federal Government's Role In Local Policing, Farhang Heydari, Barry Friedman, Rachel Harmon

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

For far too long, the federal government has failed to exercise its constitutional authority to mitigate the harms imposed by local policing. Absent federal intervention, though, some harmful aspects of policing will not be addressed effectively, or at all. States and localities often lack the necessary capacity and expertise to change policing, and many states and localities lack the will. This Article argues for federal intervention and describes what that intervention should look like.

The Article begins by describing three paradigmatic areas of local policing that require federal intervention to create real change: excessive use offorce, racial discrimination, and the …

Who Owns Children’S Dna?, Nila Bala

Michigan Law Review

In recent years, DNA has become increasingly easy to collect, test, and sequence, making it far more accessible to law enforcement. While legal scholars have examined this phenomenon generally, this Article examines the control and use of children’s DNA, asking who ultimately owns children’s DNA. I explore two common ways parents—currently considered “owners” of children’s DNA— might turn over children’s DNA to law enforcement: (1) “consensual” searches and (2) direct-to-consumer testing. My fundamental thesis is that parental consent is an insufficient safeguard to protect a child’s DNA from law enforcement. At present, the law leaves parents in complete control of …

Dignity, Deference, And Discrimination: An Analysis Of Religious Freedom In America’S Prisons, Elyse Slabaugh

BYU Law Review

The free exercise of religion often presents a complex reality in prison. Over the years, the standard of scrutiny for free exercise claims has not only been easily alterable but also unclear and inconsistent in its application. Recent legislation, such as RLUIPA and RFRA, has significantly improved the state of religious freedom in prisons. However, two U.S. Supreme Court decisions on RLUIPA—Cutter v. Wilkinson and Holt v. Hobbs—have led to some confusion among lower courts regarding the level of deference that should be afforded to prison officials. Although Holt demonstrated a hard look approach to strict scrutiny, it did nothing …

Perlindungan Hukum Bagi Pembeli Terhadap Gugatan Pembatalan Jual Beli Tanah Oleh Para Ahli Waris Penjual, M Waldi Ali Soraya, Lauditta Humaira ,S.H.,M.Kn.

Lex Patrimonium

In the implementation of the Sale and Purchase Binding Agreement Deed, a dispute may occur. For example, if the land being sold is an inheritance. For example, one of the sellers does not approve of the sale and purchase, or the land is sold by someone who is not an heir. Of course the buyer will be disadvantaged. The aim of the research is to find out the legal provisions governing the unilateral cancellation of the PPJB, to explain the determination of unlawful acts and to analyze the legal protection for buyers in land sale and purchase agreements which are …

When A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Sentences: A Call To Reword Federal Sentencing Of Non-Production Child Pornography Offenses In The United States, Lucy T. Shephard

Buffalo Law Review

No abstract provided.

Just Transition Career Planning For Seafarers: Challenges And Opportunities For Sustainable Shipping, Sergii Kazantsev

World Maritime University Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Elusive Catch: Domestic Challenges Encountered By The Philippines In Ratifying The Cape Town Agreement Of 2012, Gerico John Vincent Magbojos

World Maritime University Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Restrictive Pursuit Policies And Rising Violent Crime, Ryan Kelly

Master of Arts in Criminal Justice Leadership

Consequences can be a driving factor for why citizens follow laws in the United States. Financial and physical freedom is valued. Citizen’s behavior may change if police officers threaten to take these things away for breaking laws. Policymakers today are working to restrict when law enforcement officers can chase criminals for breaking the law. Suppose the ability of law enforcement to hold criminals accountable is restricted. Would this not lead a reasonable person to believe that criminals may think they are free to commit crimes? This paper will cover current trends in violent crime in both the United States and …

Table Of Contents, Seattle University Law Review

Seattle University Law Review

Table of Contents

Private Patrolling At The Boundaries Of Public Duty, Kathleen M. Naccarato

Northwestern University Law Review

In the shadow of contemporary debates over police functions, funding, and accountability, a new form of preventative policing has proliferated. Improvement districts, most commonly associated with downtown revitalization efforts, increasingly served a new purpose—crime control. Communities dissatisfied with public police services have found that they may leverage improvement district tax revenues to hire off-duty police officers to patrol their neighborhoods. This trend has not been without controversy. Critics have contended that these semiprivate, semipublic police patrols create a two-tier system of public safety, allowing wealthy residents to privately purchase powers that belong to the public as a whole.

This Note …