Law Commons^™

Swipe Right Into A Disciplinary Hearing: How The Use Of Dating Apps Could Earn An Attorney More Than A Bad First Date, Zachary S. Aman

Catholic University Journal of Law and Technology

The Model Rules of Professional Conduct seek to police the conduct of attorneys. Each jurisdiction adopts its own rules of professional conduct to apply to the attorneys licensed within it. Notably, the model rules prohibit any sexual relationship between the attorney and client unless that relationship precedes the attorney-client relationship. Traditionally, defining a "sexual relationship" was simple, particularly if the attorney and client engaged in sexual intercourse. The introduction of dating apps, however, has blurred the line.

This article outlines the inherent risks of attorneys using dating apps at a time when most newly-licensed attorneys make up the majority of …

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 …

Transparency And Reliance In Antidiscrimination Law, Steven L. Willborn

Catholic University Law Review

All antidiscrimination laws have two structural features – transparency and reliance – that are important, even central, to their design, but have gone largely unnoticed. On transparency, some laws, like the recent salary-ban laws, attempt to prevent the employer from learning about the disfavored factor on the theory that an employer cannot rely on an unknown factor. Other laws require publication of the disfavored factor, such as salary, on the theory that it is harder to discriminate in the sunlight. Still other laws are somewhere between these two extremes. The Americans with Disabilities Act, for example, limits but does not …

Limiting The Boundaries Of Assisted Reproductive Technology And Physiological Autonomy, George P. Smith Ii

Scholarly Articles

This essay examines, critically, the wide successes of assisted reproductive technology (ART). With these successes have come concerns regarding its potential advancement of the boundaries of fecundity and of new levels of physiological freedom. One particular advancement involves efforts to utilize a phenomenon of nature termed parthenogenesis, or asexual reproduction. The potential for adapting this occurrence as a form of assisted reproduction is of particular interest for members of the LGBTQ community, holding great promise for embryo research and regenerative medicine. Parthenogenetic embryos could be derived from unfertilized human eggs and, thus, blunt--if not resolve--ethical concerns over experimentation on human …

Zarda And Sexual Orientation Expression: A New High For Title Vii Interpretation, Nico Ramos

Catholic University Law Review

Under current federal law, a majority of jurisdictions decline to extend Title VII protections based on sexual orientation; however, a growing number of circuits have reversed precedent and held that Title VII prohibits discrimination sexual orientation discrimination. The Second Circuit’s en banc decision in Zarda v. Altitude Express reached the conclusion that sexual orientation discrimination is as a cognizable claim under Title VII because in order to discriminate against a person sexual orientation, you naturally first have to take their gender into account. The Supreme Court granted certiorari and has now heard oral arguments.

Part I of this note provides …

Split Over Sex: Federal Circuits And Executive Agencies Split Over Sexual Orientation Discrimination Under Title Vii, Darria Turner

Catholic University Law Review

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 expressly prohibits employment discrimination on the basis of an individual’s sex. Since its enactment, neither Congress nor the Supreme Court has definitively stated whether sex discrimination based on sexual orientation is protected under Title VII. Though the judicial interpretation of sex has evolved, courts have routinely held that the protections of Title VII do not extend to claims based on sexual orientation discrimination. As three circuits faced these claims, a split was created in the circuits as well as in the two agencies tasked with the enforcement of Title VII. This …

Alternative Restrictions Of Sex Offenders' Social Media Use & The Freedom Of Speech, Norah M. Sloss

Catholic University Journal of Law and Technology

No abstract provided.

Scrutiny Of The Venire, Scrutiny From The Bench: Smithkline Beecham Corp. V. Abbott Laboratories And The Application Of Heightened Scrutiny To Sexual Orientation Classifications, Parker Williams

Catholic University Law Review

In SmithKline Beecham Corp. v. Abbott Laboratories, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals applied heightened scrutiny to a sexual orientation classification. Through SmithKline, the Ninth Circuit became one of the first federal circuit courts to do so explicitly; and by unequivocally applying a more exacting standard than rational basis, it furthered the framework developed in cases such as Romer v. Evans, Lawrence v. Texas, and United States v. Windsor. This Note asserts that SmithKline is a significant victory for the advancement of LGBT rights, as evidenced by its use to strike down several same-sex marriage bans …

Substantive Due Process As A Two-Way Street: How The Court Can Reconcile Same-Sex Marriage And Religious Liberty, Mark L. Rienzi

Scholarly Articles

Last month, the potential conflict between same-sex marriage and religious liberty prompted death threats, arson threats, and the temporary closure of a small-town pizzeria in Indiana. The restaurant’s owner had admitted to a reporter that she could not cater a hypothetical same-sex wedding because of her religious beliefs (even though she otherwise serves gay customers in her restaurant). Threatened with violence over her unpopular religious belief, the owner was forced to close the restaurant, uncertain if she could ever reopen.

Leading up to oral argument in the same-sex marriage cases, it was reasonable to wonder whether the Indiana episode was …

Single Gender Marriage: A Religious Perspective, Raymond C. O'Brien

Scholarly Articles

This Article will offer a religious perspective which is a response to the legal arguments in favor of single-gender marriage. Three arguments will be made: first, that the religious perspective identified and associated with the Roman Catholic tradition offers a fundamental basis for family life that has been proven to be beneficial to society as a whole, and to the message of revelation consigned to Christians by Jesus Christ; second, inasmuch as the religious perspective is being contradicted by judicial interpretation rather than through legislative process, a tyranny of judicial activism has and is subverting a public policy consensus; and …

Domestic Partnership: Recognition And Responsibility, Raymond C. O'Brien

Scholarly Articles

A domestic partnership is a business or political recognition of two adults seeking to share benefits normally conferred upon married couples. To date, partnerships have conferred benefits only; the most logical progression is for partnerships to include responsibilities of support, commitment and obligation within the economic partnership construct of emerging family law. When this occurs, heterosexual couples may lack incentive, but homosexual couples will achieve surer due process recognition regardless of same-sex marriage litigation.