Law Commons^™

Exploring Anti-Racism In The First Year Legal Writing Classroom, Amanda K. Maus Stephen

Presentations

The Legal Writing Institute hosted a series of one-day workshops at various law schools, including at SU, where the theme of the workshops was "Teaching Values in the Legal Writing Classroom." This presentation explores assignments and activities that legal writing professors can use to introduce and reinforce ant-racism as a critical professional value.

The Dark Side Of Due Process: Part Iii, How To Use Irreverent Double-Talk To Speak Back To Bad Men, Joshua J. Schroeder

St. Mary's Law Journal

Most American lawyers take for granted that the common law established almost all the ordinary causes of action we know today. As Joseph Story’s Commentaries acknowledged, the common law is the basis of the entire U.S. system of law. Common law struggled with feudal and canon forms and eventually transformed them for the benefit of ordinary people even in the face of the most heinous travesties of the English and American past.

The Witch Judges of Salem, Massachusetts and the Parliament of Saints in England did not prevail through despotic radicalism to demolish the common law through codification. Legal positivism …

Determinism V. Free Will & Genetic Evidence Of Addiction In Plea Bargaining And Sentence Mitigation: Conversion Of Incarceration To Probation And Rehabilitation Based On Genetic Addiction Risk Severity (Gars) Test, Kenneth Blum, Paul Mullen, Richard Green

St. Mary's Law Journal

In this Article, Dr. Kenneth Blum and his team present the case of a presently abstinent, thirty-five year old alcoholic (“AG”) who has several convictions for DWI. AG has undergone and continues to be engaged in out-patient substance abuse treatment. He entered treatment before adjudication and was mandated by the court to continue treatment to assist in maintaining sobriety. Treatment included the administration of the Genetic Addiction Risk Severity (“GARS”) Test.

AG was facing a probable five-year sentence for his fifth DWI conviction in Bexar County, Texas. However, because AG’s genetic risk results indicated a genetically induced dopamine dysfunction, hypodopaminergia, …

The Paradox Of Plenty: Why Guyana’S Local Content Law Needs A Reality Check, Vivian M. Williams

Publications and Research

The effectiveness of coercive local content requirements to the development of resource rich developing countries is an area attracting increasing global attention. Local content requirements are especially popular in the extractive sector though empirical studies show that they do not fulfill their intended purpose. Now recognized as the world's fastest growing economy after becoming an oil producing country, Guyana has passed a local content law. The real concern is not merely whether local content requirements fail to fulfill their objectives but whether they create market distortions that lead to the resource curse. This issue was addressed by Baruch's Adjunct Assistant …

Subsidiarity & Vulnerability Theory: A Case Study For Deepening The Relationship Between Catholic Social Teaching And The Responsive State, Nathaniel Romano

Catholic University Law Review

Religion and religious voices have long had a role to play in shaping community norms and values and public policy; this role continues in contemporary America. Yet, legitimate questions arise about the extent of this role and its place in a pluralist and democratic state. These questions are particularly pronounced when religion is perceived as partisan, a situation that seems apparent in contemporary America. Hoping to combat this perception, this paper explores the relationship between Catholic Social Teaching and Vulnerability Theory, aiming to show how religious values can inform legal theory across the political spectrum. This paper surveys both Catholic …

The Times They Are A-Changin’?: #Metoo And Our Movement Forward, Terry Morehead Dworkin, Cindy A. Schipani

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Social movements like #MeToo have gained public traction like never before. In this Article, we place those developments within their historical context and chart a path forward. First, we provide a history of the prior unsuccessful attempts to ratify an Equal Rights Amendment, and we discuss that effort’s current legal status and prospects. Then, we briefly review the history of sexual harassment law. Having outlined this historical context, we move to contemporary developments. We describe actions that state legislatures and local municipalities have taken to address the concerns raised by the #MeToo movement. Finally, we discuss how inflection points can …

Unending Reform: Police Resistance To Consent Decrees And Federal Monitors, Finn Mayock

Journal of Law and Policy

The murder of George Floyd and the subsequent protests that engulfed the United States in 2020 reignited public attention towards the violent and discriminatory practices of police departments across the country. While methods of reforming these institutions were debated with new vigor, the federal courts have been quietly overseeing efforts to obtain constitutionally compliant policing in numerous cities for decades. Using legal tools such as consent decrees and monitors, the Department of Justice has enlisted the assistance of federal courts to ensure that police practices are in congruence with the Constitution. As pervasive police violence against black and brown people …

What Counts As ‘Racist Enough?’: A Clearer Standard For New Trials When Jurors Demonstrate Racial Bias, Priyadarshini Das

Journal of Law and Policy

The no-impeachment rule, Federal Rule of Evidence 606(b), necessitates that jurors keep their deliberations secret. However, in the 2017 Supreme Court case Peña-Rodriguez v. Colorado, the Court created a racial bias exception to the no-impeachment rule. This exception allows jurors to notify the court when “one or more jurors made statements exhibiting overt racial bias that cast serious doubt on the fairness and impartiality of the jury’s deliberations and resulting verdict.” This Note argues that this standard is too narrow because it fails to consider several situations of racial bias, like implicit bias. The ineffectiveness of this exception is demonstrated …

Liberty And Justice For Y’All: Allowing Legal Paraprofessionals To Practice Law To Reduce The Effects Of Legal Deserts In Rural Georgia, Amanda Claxton

Mercer Law Review

The lack of attorneys in rural America is not merely a social or cultural problem—it is a legal problem that officers of the courts cannot continue to ignore. Legal deserts are geographical areas where legal services are widely unavailable. Particularly in rural Georgia, legal deserts are a substantial issue. Attorneys and nonprofit organizations have attempted to ease the detrimental effects of legal deserts in a variety of ways; for various reasons, those efforts have been insufficient, and rural counties struggle to attract lawyers. Still, there is one method of resolving legal deserts that Georgia has yet to attempt: creating an …

“A Change Is Gonna Come:” Developing A Liability Framework For Social Media Algorithmic Amplification, Amy B. Cyphert, Jena T. Martin

UC Irvine Law Review

From the moment social media companies like Facebook were created, they have been largely immune to suit for the actions they take with respect to user content. This is thanks to Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, 47 U.S.C. § 230, which offers broad immunity to sites for content posted by users. But seemingly the only thing a deeply divided legislature can agree on is that Section 230 must be amended, and soon. Once that immunity is altered, either by Congress or the courts, these companies may be liable for the decisions and actions of their algorithmic recommendation systems, …

Democracy's Forgotten Possessions: U.S. Territories' Right To Statehood Through Constitutional Liquidation, Joshua Stephen Ebiner

Notre Dame Law Review

This Note argues that the Territories must be granted statehood consistent with the equal footing doctrine. This thesis does not challenge Congress’s power to acquire or govern territory, or its constitutional authority to admit (and place reasonable conditions on the admission of) territory into the Union as states. These matters have long been settled through constitutional practice. Neither does this thesis suggest that acquired territory must be immediately annexed into the Union, since there are valid reasons to delay such a decision. Instead, the claim is that permanently inhabited territories that have longstanding, constitutionally significant relationships with the United States …

Optimizing Disaster Preparedness Planning For Minority Older Adults: One Size Does Not Fit All, Omolola E. Adepoju, Luz E. Herrera, Minji Chae, Daikwon Han

Faculty Scholarship

By 2050, one in five Americans will be 65 years and older. The growing proportion of older adults in the U.S. population has implications for many aspects of health including disaster preparedness. This study assessed correlates of disaster preparedness among community-dwelling minority older adults and explored unique differences for African American and Hispanic older adults. An electronic survey was disseminated to older minority adults 55+, between November 2020 and January 2021 (n = 522). An empirical framework was used to contextualize 12 disaster-related activities into survival and planning actions. Multivariate logistic regression models were stratified by race/ethnicity to examine the …

Designing For Justice: Pandemic Lessons For Criminal Courts, Cynthia Alkon

Faculty Scholarship

March 2020 brought an unprecedented crisis to the United States: COVID-19. In a two-week period, criminal courts across the country closed. But, that is where the uniformity ended. Criminal courts did not have a clear process to decide how to conduct necessary business. As a result, criminal courts across the country took different approaches to deciding how to continue necessary operations and in doing so many did not consider the impact on justice of the operational changes that were made to manage the COVID-19 crisis. One key problem was that many courts did not use inclusive processes and include all …

Brief For Petitioners, Gonzalez V. Google, 143 S.Ct. 1191 (2023) (No. 21-1333), Eric Schnapper, Robert J. Tolchin, Keith L. Altman

Court Briefs

QUESTION PRESENTED: Section 203(c)(1) of the Communications Decency Act immunizes an “interactive computer service” (such as YouTube, Google, Facebook and Twitter) for “publish[ ing] ... information provided by another” “information content provider” (such as someone who posts a video on YouTube or a statement on Facebook). This is the most recent of three court of appeals’ decisions regarding whether section 230(c)(1) immunizes an interactive computer service when it makes targeted recommendations of information provided by such another party. Five courts of appeals judges have concluded that section 230(c)(1) creates such immunity. Three court of appeals judges have rejected such immunity. …

American Voter Turnout: The Influence Of Education Levels On Voter Participation, Jack Thomas Bunzel-Hardie

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

This study is intended to explore the relevant relationship between mistrust in government officials and voter turnout. Within a research article such as this, it is important to distinguish the dependent and independent factors from one another so as not to get them confused. This article identifies the growing sense of mistrust that many Americans feel towards their government officials as the independent factor while examining the relationship that voter turnout has with that growing fear, therefore making that the dependent variable. While this issue has been studied in the past there have been many new events taking place and …

Algorithmic Governance From The Bottom Up, Hannah Bloch-Wehba

BYU Law Review

Artificial intelligence and machine learning are both a blessing and a curse for governance. In theory, algorithmic governance makes government more efficient, more accurate, and more fair. But the emergence of automation in governance also rests on public-private collaborations that expand both public and private power, aggravate transparency and accountability gaps, and create significant obstacles for those seeking algorithmic justice. In response, a nascent body of law proposes technocratic policy changes to foster algorithmic accountability, ethics, and transparency.

This Article examines an alternative vision of algorithmic governance, one advanced primarily by social and labor movements instead of technocrats and firms. …

Predictors Of College Student Support Toward Colin Kaepernick’S National Anthem Protests, Brooke Coursen, Nicole Peiffer, Sakira Coleman, Philip Lucius

VA Engage Journal

Racial discrimination and inequality have perpetuated within the U.S. since its inception. In 2016, Colin Kaepernick initiated the national anthem protests to oppose the oppression of people of color in America. This study was developed in 2018 to identify social determinants of health underlying discriminatory beliefs and behaviors. The objective was to investigate the impacts of college students’ race, gender, political ideology, socio-economic status [SES], NFL interest, patriotism, and general protest support on support for the national anthem protests. We administered paper-and-pencil surveys across locations on the James Madison University campus using a convenience sample. There were 408 participants included, …

Integrating Doctrine And Diversity Speaker Series: Teaching Diversity Skills In Bar Tested Classes, Roger Williams University School Of Law

School of Law Conferences, Lectures & Events

No abstract provided.

Qualified Immunity: A Legal Fiction That Has Outlived Utility, S. Rafe Foreman

Ohio Northern University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Bulletproof Vests & Lawsuit Threats: The Need For Renovation Of Law Enforcement Qualified Immunity, Natalie T. Frandsen

Ohio Northern University Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Role Of Ethics And Morality In Law: Similarities Anddifferences, Haxhi Xhemajli

Ohio Northern University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Conflicting Interests In Name And Pronoun Policies In K-12 School, Manni Jandernoa

SLU Law Journal Online

The year 2022 has brought a record number of proposed antitransgender legislation throughout the country. With an expanding amount of youths identifying as transgender and/or nonbinary, schools are continuing to grapple how to support these students while complying with the law. In this article, Manni Jandernoa discusses individual conflicting interests involved with respect to the application or lack of school name and pronoun policies.

Moral Nuisance Abatement Statutes, Scott W. Stern

Northwestern University Law Review

On May 19, 2021, Texas enacted S.B. 8—also known as the Texas Heartbeat Act—which prohibits almost any abortion of a fetus once a heartbeat can be detected, effectively banning abortions after only six weeks of pregnancy. Just as controversially, S.B. 8 also specifies that it is enforceable exclusively through private civil actions, and it allows any private person to sue anyone who “performs,” “induces,” or “knowingly . . . aids or abets the performance or inducement of an abortion,” seeking injunctive relief and statutory damages of $10,000 per violation. The passage of S.B. 8 immediately led to calls for, and …

Law School News: From Classroom To Courtroom 11-10-2022, Michelle Choate

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

Before Yesterday We Could Fly: Reimagining Law For The Afro-Future, Norinda Brown Hayat, Roger Williams University School Of Law

School of Law Conferences, Lectures & Events

No abstract provided.

The Promise And The Peril: Artificial Intelligence And Employment Discrimination, Keith E. Sonderling, Bradford J. Kelley, Lance Casimir

University of Miami Law Review

Artificial intelligence (“AI”) is undeniably transforming the workplace, though many implications remain unknown. Employers increasingly rely on algorithms to determine who gets interviewed, hired, promoted, developed, disciplined, or fired. If appropriately designed and applied, AI promises to help workers find their most rewarding jobs, match companies with their most valuable and productive employees, and advance diversity, inclusion, and accessibility in the work- place. Notwithstanding its positive impacts, however, AI poses new perils for employment discrimination, especially when designed or used improperly.

This Article examines the interaction between AI and federal employment antidiscrimination law. This Article explores the legal landscape including …

Three Kinds Of Fault: Understanding The Purpose And Function Of Causation In Tort Law, Marin R. Scordato

University of Miami Law Review

Causation is a concept of enormous importance in the law. In just the last two years, the United States Supreme Court has explicitly considered its importance and meaning on at least three occasions, in areas of the law as diverse as specific personal jurisdiction, Title IX, and Section 1981. It has also been the subject of sustained scholarly examination and debate.

In no area of the law is causation as foundational and omni- present as in tort law, and in no sphere within tort law is it more prevalent than in its dominant cause of action, negligence. Unsurprisingly then, the …

The Higher-Cost Problem: How The Case Act Addresses The History Of Inequity In The American Copyright Regime, Michael Newell

University of Miami Law Review

The legislative history of copyright law in the United States and its judicial interpretation resulted in a complex web of statutes and doctrine theoretically meant to further the constitutional goal of “promot[ing] the Progress of Science and the useful Arts.” But because of its complexity, enforcing rights against infringers in federal court became prohibitively expensive for most. The American copyright regime simultaneously allowed the music industry to unfairly profit from the creativity of the under-resourced—particularly, musicians of color.

This Note discusses the disparate impact of the American copyright regime. Then, the Note discusses the Copyright Alternatives in the Small-Claims Enforcement …

Let The Exceptions Do The Work: How Florida Should Approach Environmental Regulation After Cedar Point Nursery V. Hassid, Olivia Johnson

University of Miami Law Review

For nearly fifty years, courts distinguished between per se physical takings and regulatory takings. Yet, in 2021, the Supreme Court signaled a change of course with the monumental Cedar Point Nursery v. Hassid decision. The ruling challenges the government’s ability to mandate anything that impacts private property. In the face of environmental catastrophe and increasing pressure to assuage our climate crisis, how can governments respond without triggering a takings challenge?
Chief Justice Roberts in his majority decision may have left the door cracked open for governments to work around the Cedar Point Nursery ruling. By looking at the legacy of …

Managing Mass Tort Class Actions: Judicial Politics And Rulemaking In Three Acts, Toby S. Goldbach

University of Miami Law Review

Judges take part in a variety of non-adjudicative tasks that shape the structure of litigation. In addition to their managerial functions, judges sit as administrative heads of court. They participate in civil justice reform projects and develop procedures for criminal and civil trials. What norms and principles ought to guide judges in this other work? In their casework we expect judges to be neutral and fair, setting aside politics and rationally following the law. Indeed, this article will demonstrate that there is good reason to insist on these qualities in both judges’ case-related and broader court-related reform activities. To test …