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The Rise And Fall Of The Miranda Warnings In Popular Culture, Ronald L. Steiner Dec 2010

The Rise And Fall Of The Miranda Warnings In Popular Culture, Ronald L. Steiner

Ronald L. Steiner

The U.S. Supreme Court’s June 2000 decision in Dickerson v. United States was probably the first criminal procedure decision celebrated with an editorial in Broadcasting & Cable magazine. Noting that Chief Justice William Rehnquist opinion relied on the warnings’ well-established place in popular culture, the editorial acknowledged that, “[n]ext to the pledge of allegiance, the Miranda rights may be the most familiar common litany of the baby-boomer generation, thanks to TV.” Professors Richard Leo and George Thomas have similarly observed “suspects are likely to have heard Miranda so many times on television that the Miranda warnings may have a familiar, …


Understanding The Prop 8 Litigation: The Scope Of Direct Democracy And Role Of Judicial Scrutiny, Ronald Steiner Dec 2008

Understanding The Prop 8 Litigation: The Scope Of Direct Democracy And Role Of Judicial Scrutiny, Ronald Steiner

Ronald L. Steiner

Once the California Supreme Court decision is handed down, the precise contours of the battle over Proposition 8 and marriage equality will change, but nothing on the political horizon will make moot many of the fundamental issues direct democracy raises for California and the nation. A special and enduring element of the Prop 8 controversy is the role of judicial review in the scrutiny of the results of ballot propositions. A slice of conventional wisdom seems to suggest that the results of plebiscites should be nearly immune from judicial review. On the other hand, many political and legal scholars are …


A Commentary On The Old Saw That Same-Sex Marriage Threatens Civilization, Ronald L. Steiner Dec 2008

A Commentary On The Old Saw That Same-Sex Marriage Threatens Civilization, Ronald L. Steiner

Ronald L. Steiner

Discussions of same-sex marriage frequently entertain the notion that civilization is somehow at stake were a society to award legal sanction to it, and to gay rights more generally. Typically, those who express concern for negative civilizational consequences have in mind Western civilization, and more specifically Christian civilization. This civilizational concern will often be amplified by the implication that opposite-sex, or opposite-sex monogamous marriage is a timeless human universal. Any other marital regime is presumed to be an aberration, most likely the result of grave moral depravity of a sort supposedly facilitated by the modern rights-based society. This chapter subjects …


Policy Oscillation In California's Law Of Premises Liability, Ronald L. Steiner Jan 2007

Policy Oscillation In California's Law Of Premises Liability, Ronald L. Steiner

Ronald L. Steiner

The expansion of tort liability beginning in the middle of the 20th century, and the reaction against that expansion as the century came to a close, constitutes a clear demonstration of the nostrum that tort law is “public law in disguise.” Adjudication of private disputes became a battleground of public policy preferences as to how risks and compensation should be distributed so as to serve societal interests such as fairness, efficiency, and personal autonomy. This article studies examines in detail a critical battleground in a key state, the revolution and counter-revolution in premises liability in California, as a paradigm case. …