Law Commons^™

Bail Reform And Intimate Partner Violence In Maine, Mac Walton

Maine Law Review

The bail reform movement is leading to pretrial practice changes across the country, largely aimed at reducing pretrial detention rates or uncoupling pretrial detention from money. These reforms often include expanding or formalizing the role of actuarial risk assessment tools in bail determinations. Maine has not enacted bail reforms to expressly reduce pretrial detention, but since 2015, Maine courts have been using a risk assessment tool in bail decisions in intimate partner violence cases. Analysis of risk assessment practices in Kentucky and New Jersey, in comparison with the particular considerations in IPV cases, can inform Maine’s current bail system and …

Felon Jurors In Vacationland, James M. Binnall

Maine Law Review

Maine is the only jurisdiction in the United States that places no limitations on a convicted felon’s juror eligibility. Instead, Maine screens prospective felon-jurors using their normal jury selection procedures. In recent years, scholars have suggested that meaningful community engagement can help facilitate former offenders’ reintegration and criminal desistance. From that theoretical posture, a number of empirical studies have explored the connection between participation in the electorate and the reentry of former offenders. Those studies suggest that voting has the potential to prompt pro-social changes among former offenders. Still, to date, no research has focused on jury service as a …

How A Bill Becomes A Law In Maine: Governor Lepage, The State Legislature, And The 2015 Opinion Of The Justices On The Veto Question, Connor P. Schratz

Maine Law Review

The battle between Governor Paul LePage and the Maine legislature in the summer of 2015 was one of the most contentious – and strangest – in state history. Hanging in the balance were over sixty pieces of legislation that the Governor insisted had been vetoed, and which senators and representatives of both parties claimed had become law. To resolve the issue, the Governor turned to the state Supreme Court, which unanimously decided in favor of the legislators in a nonbinding “Opinion of the Justices.” This case note explores that opinion, and comes to the conclusion that while the Court arrived …

Maine's Battle In America's Other Drug War: Pharmaceutical Research And Manufacturers Of America V. Walsh, Lynsey Mitchel

Journal of the National Association of Administrative Law Judiciary

No abstract provided.

Researching Initiatives And Referenda: A Guide For Maine, Christine I. Dulac

Faculty Publications

This article discusses the history of the initiative and referendum process in Maine, including the steps needed to get an initiative or referendum on the State ballot. Part II of this paper discusses the early history of the initiative and referendum processes in Maine. Part III discusses recent use of initiatives in Maine. Part IV discusses the basics of the initiative and referendum processes in Maine, including a discussion of the differences between the People's Veto and a referendum, both used in Maine as mechanisms for the people to vote on whether a particular piece of legislation should take effect. …

Stormwater Utility Fees: Considerations & Options For Interlocal Stormwater Working Group (Iswg), New England Environmental Finance Center

Economics and Finance

Stormwater utilities are a concept whose time seems to have arrived. Established by relatively few communities in the 1970s as a method of funding flood control measures, stormwater utilities now exist in over 400 municipalities and counties throughout the United States. During the next 10 years, their numbers are expected to swell dramatically – by one estimate to over 2,000 by the year 2014.

The reasons for this growth are multifold. Federal stormwater regulations passed in the 1980s (Phase I of the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System Program, or NPDES), motivated many larger communities to seek alternative funding sources and …

The Tension Between The Need And Exploitation Of Migrant Workers: Using Msawpa's Legislative Intent To Find A Balanced Remedy, Mark J. Russo

Michigan Journal of Race and Law

This Comment concludes that the recent Maine federal district cases represent an irreconcilable spike in a national and international trend to afford more protection to a vulnerable class whose resources are the object of urgent demand. However, the search for a proper remedial weight in the balance between migrant worker protection and the provision of competitive farm labor is not a new problem.

The Federal Bankruptcy Act And Its Effect On State Insolvency Laws, Evans Holbrook

Articles

Since Sturgis v. Crowninshield, 4 Wheat. 122, it has been clear that State Insolvency Laws were valid (within certain well-defined limits) during the non-existence of a Federal Bankruptcy Act, and that upon the enactment of a Federal Bankruptcy Act the State laws were superseded and suspended so far as they were in conflict with the Federal legislation. The difficulty has been in determining when there was such conflict, and it has arisen in various ways. For instance, the Federal Bankruptcy Act permits any natural person to become a voluntary bankrupt, but provides that no involuntary proceedings shall be taken against …