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Full-Text Articles in Law
Preference-Based Federalism, Marquan Robertson
Preference-Based Federalism, Marquan Robertson
St. Mary's Law Journal
No abstract provided.
Answering The Call: A History Of The Emergency Power Doctrine In Texas And The United States, P. Elise Mclaren
Answering The Call: A History Of The Emergency Power Doctrine In Texas And The United States, P. Elise Mclaren
St. Mary's Law Journal
During times of emergency, national and local government may be allowed to take otherwise impermissible action in the interest of health, safety, or national security. The prerequisites and limits to this power, however, are altogether unknown. Like the crises they aim to deflect, courts’ modern emergency power doctrines range from outright denial of any power of constitutional circumvention to their flagrant use. Concededly, courts’ approval of emergency powers has provided national and local government opportunities to quickly respond to emergency without pause for constituency approval, but how can one be sure the availability of autocratic power will not be abused? …
Privacy Lost: Comparing The Attenuation Of Texas's Article 1, Section 9 And The Fourth Amendment., Kimberly S. Keller
Privacy Lost: Comparing The Attenuation Of Texas's Article 1, Section 9 And The Fourth Amendment., Kimberly S. Keller
St. Mary's Law Journal
The Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution requires that all searches and seizures be reasonable. Article I, Section 9 of the Texas Constitution mirrors its federal counterpart, requiring reasonableness in regard to intrusive governmental action. In examining these texts, both the federal and state provisions are comprised of two independent clauses: (1) the Reasonableness Clause, which prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures; and (2) the warrant clause, which provides that warrants may issue only upon a showing of probable cause. Both the federal and Texas constitutions include explicit language regulating the government’s right to intrude on a person’s privacy. This …
Fair Labor Standards Act And Sovereign Immunity: Unlocking The Courthouse Door For Texas State Employees., Melinda Herrera
Fair Labor Standards Act And Sovereign Immunity: Unlocking The Courthouse Door For Texas State Employees., Melinda Herrera
St. Mary's Law Journal
Unless Texas expressly waives its Eleventh Amendment sovereign immunity, its state employees will not have similar legal recourse and protection as those available to private employees. As in many other states, a party may not sue the State of Texas without its consent. Thus, in the absence of constitutional or statutory provisions to the contrary, a state may claim sovereign immunity against any suit brought by a private party in both federal and state court. As a result, the Eleventh Amendment effectively precludes private individuals from suing a state in both federal and state court for violating a federal statute …
Splitting The Atom Or Splitting Hairs - The Hate Crimes Prevention Act Of 1999 Note., Andrew M. Gilbert, Eric D. Marchand
Splitting The Atom Or Splitting Hairs - The Hate Crimes Prevention Act Of 1999 Note., Andrew M. Gilbert, Eric D. Marchand
St. Mary's Law Journal
Problems of bias-motivated violence plague our nation and threaten to erase the progress made during the civil rights era. Recent statistical surveys conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) indicate the number of hate crimes has generally increased over the past few years. In 1996, over 11,000 individuals were victims of hate crimes—five percent more than reported the previous year. Hate crimes are not only injurious to the individual victim, but also fracture surrounding communities and create disharmony among citizens. As a result, some states implemented legislation in the 1980s to deter hate-motived crimes and a few states have …
Federalism Revisited: The Supreme Court Resurrects The Notion Of Enumerated Powers By Limiting Congress's Attempt To Federalize Crime Comment., Larry E. Gee
St. Mary's Law Journal
This Comment argues the federal system must be preserved and the Supreme Court should build upon the interpretation of the Commerce Clause in United States v. Lopez to reinstate the Framers’ vision of federalism. The social justifications for the Court’s expansive construction of the Commerce Clause during the past sixty years no longer existed to justify the Gun-Free School Zones Act of 1990. Part II of this Comment traces the background of Commerce Clause jurisprudence, focusing on social justifications for traditional rubber stamping of Congress’s broad exercises of power. Part III reviews the Fifth Circuit’s reasoning in deeming the Gun-Free …
Expert Witness Fees In Federal Diversity Cases., Wade P. Webster
Expert Witness Fees In Federal Diversity Cases., Wade P. Webster
St. Mary's Law Journal
Even with the increasing complexity of litigation and the increased utilization of expert witnesses to provide expensive evidence on narrow scientific and technical issues, Congress still limits compensation of expert witnesses to only forty dollars per day, the same rate as ordinary fact witnesses. The justification for the low rate is that the witness fee statute was not intended by Congress to compensate witnesses fully for their lost time and income. Presumably this same reasoning also applies to expert witnesses. The problem with this reasoning, unlike law witnesses who may be compelled by subpoena, individual litigants must pay the fees …