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Full-Text Articles in Law

There Is No Bruen Step Zero: The Law-Abiding Citizen And The Second Amendment, Jeff Campbell May 2023

There Is No Bruen Step Zero: The Law-Abiding Citizen And The Second Amendment, Jeff Campbell

University of the District of Columbia Law Review

In District of Columbia v. Heller, 1 the Supreme Court transformed Second Amendment law by adopting an originalist approach in gun-rights cases. Breaking from its previous cases, the Court recognized an individual right to bear arms, at least within the home.2 The Court’s method, while not fully specified, focused on history to determine the meaning of the Second Amendment. 3 But despite the abrupt change in the law, the anticipated revolution never really came. Lower courts turned away nearly every challenge to existing gun laws, sometimes by declining to extend Heller outside the home,4 sometimes by finding that the laws …


Justice Ginsburg's Journey To Dissents And Influence On Reproductive Rights, Songo Wawa May 2023

Justice Ginsburg's Journey To Dissents And Influence On Reproductive Rights, Songo Wawa

University of the District of Columbia Law Review

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s advocacy for gender equity, evidenced by her nationally famous dissents, began long before her 27 years on the Supreme Court. Prior to becoming a Supreme Court Justice, Attorney Ginsburg’s early experiences of gender inequity led to her advocacy for women’s rights as a law professor and as co-founder of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Women’s Rights Project. 1 Attorney Ginsburg’s legal strategy encompassed her pragmatic approach to voicing her opinions about gender equality. 2 In Gonzales v. Carhart, both her dissent announcement and written dissent demonstrated Justice Ginsburg’s commitment to women’s reproductive autonomy.3 Without Justice Ginsburg’s …


John Fitisemanu, Et. Al. V. United States Of America, Et. Al., And The American Samoa Government And The Hon. Aumua Amata, Rafael Cox Alomar May 2020

John Fitisemanu, Et. Al. V. United States Of America, Et. Al., And The American Samoa Government And The Hon. Aumua Amata, Rafael Cox Alomar

Court Briefs

No abstract provided.


Financial Oversight And Management Board For Puerto Rico V. Aurelius Investment, Llc, Rafael Cox Alomar Aug 2019

Financial Oversight And Management Board For Puerto Rico V. Aurelius Investment, Llc, Rafael Cox Alomar

Court Briefs

No abstract provided.


John Fitisemanu, Et. Al. V. United States Of America, Et. Al., Rafael Cox Alomar Apr 2018

John Fitisemanu, Et. Al. V. United States Of America, Et. Al., Rafael Cox Alomar

Court Briefs

No abstract provided.


Navigating The Unknown: Why Scotus Ought To Again Affirm That Achieving True Diversity In Higher Education Is A Compelling Interest That Satisfies Strict Scrutiny When It Rehears Fisher, Kenrick Frank Roberts Mar 2016

Navigating The Unknown: Why Scotus Ought To Again Affirm That Achieving True Diversity In Higher Education Is A Compelling Interest That Satisfies Strict Scrutiny When It Rehears Fisher, Kenrick Frank Roberts

University of the District of Columbia Law Review

On June 29th, 2015, the Supreme Court agreed to once again hear oral arguments in Fisher. This decision is troubling to supporters of Affirmative Action policies because of the Court's indistinguishable motivation for hearing the case a second time. This Note argues that theCourt must continue to allow race-based considerations in higher education admissions policies. Part I takes a look at the beginnings of affirmative action and the effects of past discrimination on the educational attainment of minorities. Part II charts the case law related to affirmative action in higher education. Part III tracks how the meaning of narrowly-tailored has …


Mirandizing Terrorism Suspects? The Public Safety Exception, The Rescue Doctrine, And Implicit Analogies To Self-Defense, Defense Of Others, And Battered Woman Syndrome, Bruce Ching Jan 2015

Mirandizing Terrorism Suspects? The Public Safety Exception, The Rescue Doctrine, And Implicit Analogies To Self-Defense, Defense Of Others, And Battered Woman Syndrome, Bruce Ching

Journal Articles

This article argues that in creating the public safety exception to the Miranda requirements, the Supreme Court implicitly analogized to the criminal law doctrines of self-defense and defense of others. Thus, examining the justifications of self-defense and defense of others can be useful in determining the contours of the public safety exception and the related "rescue doctrine" exception. In particular, the battered woman syndrome -- which is recognized in a majority of the states and has been successfully invoked by defendants in some self-defense cases -- could provide a conceptual analogue for arguments about whether law enforcement officers were faced …


When Enough Is Enough: Location Tracking, Machine Learning And The Mosaic Theory, Renee Mcdonald Hutchins, Steve Bellovin, Tony Jebara, Sebastian Zimmeck Jan 2014

When Enough Is Enough: Location Tracking, Machine Learning And The Mosaic Theory, Renee Mcdonald Hutchins, Steve Bellovin, Tony Jebara, Sebastian Zimmeck

Journal Articles

Since 1967, when it decided Katz v. United States, the Supreme Court has tied the right to be free of unwanted government scrutiny to the concept of reasonable expectations of privacy.1 An evaluation of reasonable expectations depends, among other factors, upon an assessment of the intrusiveness of government action. When making such assessment historically the Court considered police conduct with clear temporal, geographic, or substantive limits. However, in an era where new technologies permit the storage and compilation of vast amounts of personal data, things are becoming more complicated. A school of thought known as “mosaic theory” has stepped into …


The Anatomy Of A Search: Intrusiveness And The Fourth Amendment, Renee Mcdonald Hutchins May 2010

The Anatomy Of A Search: Intrusiveness And The Fourth Amendment, Renee Mcdonald Hutchins

Journal Articles

For more than two months beginning in late December of 2005, police officers in New York State continuously monitored the location and movements of Scott Weaver's van using a surreptitiously attached global positioning system ("GPS") device, known as a "Qball."' The reason Weaver was targeted for police surveillance has never been disclosed. 2 In addition, law enforcement made no attempt to justify the heightened scrutiny of Weaver by seeking the pre-authorization of a warrant from a neutral magistrate.3 Rather, for sixty-five days, the police subjected Weaver to intense surveillance without oversight, interruption, or explanation. 4 More than a year after …


Tied Up In Knotts? Gps And The Fourth Amendment, Renee Mcdonald Hutchins Jan 2007

Tied Up In Knotts? Gps And The Fourth Amendment, Renee Mcdonald Hutchins

Journal Articles

Judicial and scholarly assessment of emerging technology seems poised to drive the Fourth Amendment down one of three paths. The first would simply relegate the amendment to a footnote in history books by limiting its reach to harms that the framers specifically envisioned. A modified version of this first approach would dispense with expansive constitutional notions of privacy and replace them with legislative fixes. A third path offers the amendment continued vitality but requires the U.S. Supreme Court to overhaul its Fourth Amendment analysis. Fortunately, a fourth alternative is available to cabin emerging technologies within the existing doctrinal framework. Analysis …


Maintaining An Accusatorial System Of Justice: The States' Refusal To Follow The Supreme Court's Sanctioning Of Official Police Deception In Moran V. Burbine, John F. Terzano Mar 1998

Maintaining An Accusatorial System Of Justice: The States' Refusal To Follow The Supreme Court's Sanctioning Of Official Police Deception In Moran V. Burbine, John F. Terzano

University of the District of Columbia Law Review

Ours is the accusatorial as opposed to the inquisitorial system. Such has been the characteristic of Anglo-American criminal justice since it freed itself from practices borrowed by the Star Chamber from the Continent whereby an accused was interrogated in secret for hours on end. Under our system society carries the burden of proving its charge against the accused not out of his own mouth. It must establish its case, not by interrogation of the accused even under judicial safeguards, but by evidence independently secured through skillful investigation.... Protracted, systematic and uncontrolled subjection of an accused to interrogation by the police …


Hurdling The Police Coercion Requirement: State Alternatives To Colorado V. Connelly, Ronald G. Woodman Jr. Mar 1998

Hurdling The Police Coercion Requirement: State Alternatives To Colorado V. Connelly, Ronald G. Woodman Jr.

University of the District of Columbia Law Review

No abstract provided.


Oregon V. Elstad Revisited: Urging State Court Judges To Depart From The U.S. Supreme Court's Narrowing Of Miranda, Claudia R. Barbieri Mar 1998

Oregon V. Elstad Revisited: Urging State Court Judges To Depart From The U.S. Supreme Court's Narrowing Of Miranda, Claudia R. Barbieri

University of the District of Columbia Law Review

Imagine an average young man on the threshold of adulthood, living in a medium-sized town in a middle-class family. Still in his early years, he gets into a little local trouble and one day finds the police at his door. They ask him questions about a burglary. He panics, and as he racks his brain for some scrap of legal knowledge that might get him out of this frightening situation, he admits that he knows about the crime, stating he was there. The police become more persistent, telling him they know about his involvement, asking him if he wants to …


Johnson V. De Grandy: Mixed Messages On Equal Electoral Opportunity Under Section 2 Of The Voting Rights Act, Brenda Wright Mar 1995

Johnson V. De Grandy: Mixed Messages On Equal Electoral Opportunity Under Section 2 Of The Voting Rights Act, Brenda Wright

University of the District of Columbia Law Review

Johnson v. De Grandy' is Florida's contribution to the burgeoning Supreme Court jurisprudence addressing the redistricting which followed the 1990 Census.2 That round of redistricting has been heavily influenced by Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which Congress amended in 1982 to prohibit election practices that deny minorities an equal opportunity to participate in the political process andelect candidates of their choice to office.3 Because the composition of election districts may have a powerful impact on the ability of racial or ethnic minorities to elect candidates of their choice to office, 4 redistricting is among the practices …


Between Skylla And Charybdis: The Eleventh Circuit Rushes Toward Disaster In Tucker V. Kemp, Marshall Dayan Jun 1986

Between Skylla And Charybdis: The Eleventh Circuit Rushes Toward Disaster In Tucker V. Kemp, Marshall Dayan

Antioch Law Journal

In January 1983, the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit decided the case of Hance v. Zant. Establishing a stringent standard apparently in line with the Supreme Court's requirement of heightened reliability in capital cases, the Eleventh Circuit reversed Hance's death sentence. The court held, inter alia, that the prosecutor's inflammatory closing argument at the end of the sentencing phase of the trial was violative of the eighth and fourteenth amendments. Six months later, in a group of four other death penalty cases, the United States Supreme Court dismissed challenges to the sentencing process.2 The Court held …


Equal Protection For Illegitimate Children: The Supreme Court's Standard For Discrimination, Martha T. Zingo Mar 1985

Equal Protection For Illegitimate Children: The Supreme Court's Standard For Discrimination, Martha T. Zingo

Antioch Law Journal

Between 1968 and 1980 the Supreme Court decided twenty cases' involving statutory classifications based on illegitimacy. The Court's decisions have determined whether discrimination against those individuals deemed illegitimate by law2 constitutes a denial of equal protection. When these decisions are analyzed it seems apparent that the Court was experiencing some difficulty in determining the appropriate constitutional test to apply to illegitimacy statutes. It is not surprising that the Court's various rulings appear inconsistent. The purpose of this article is to examine the Supreme Court's inconsistent decisions in its equal protection analysis of laws affecting illegitimate children. To accomplish this goal, …