Law Commons^™

As A Matter Of Fact: Reasserting The Role Of Basic Facts In Veterans Court Jurisprudence, Jeffrey D. Parker

Saint Louis University Law Journal

Unique to legal literature, this article outlines the most basic and unsexy nature of fact finding at the lowest tribunal – what is decided by a lower tribunal after weighing the different stories and conflicting evidence, and after deciding which story to believe or which evidence has more value. While legal holdings and precedents are much more engaging to the legal mind, such legal “holdings” are heavily dependent upon the basic facts found for support. A legal rule without supporting facts is mere dicta, while a legal rule squarely derived from the facts forms a legal precedent.

This article identifies …

Table Of Contents

Saint Louis University Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Covid-19 And Public Accommodations Under The Americans With Disabilities Act: Getting Americans Safely Back To Restaurants, Theaters, Gyms, And “Normal”, Frank Griffin

Saint Louis University Law Journal

COVID-19 permanently changed the way places of public accommodation like restaurants, theaters, medical facilities, arenas, gyms, and many other proprietors of mainstream American activities must operate in order to accommodate people with newly-defined, COVID-19-related disabilities under Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The required modifications will affect all patrons and employees of these establishments. Under the ADA, places of public accommodation are barred from discriminating against people with disabilities in the full and equal enjoyment of goods, services, and facilities. Infectious diseases like tuberculosis and HIV have been categorized as disabilities under the ADA, and COVID-19 is …

As The Revolving Door Turns: Government Lawyers Entering Or Returning To Private Practice And Conflicts Of Interest, Douglas R. Richmond

Saint Louis University Law Journal

Government lawyers regularly leave public service for private law practice—often through the same revolving door that launched their public careers. The law firms they join or to which they return welcome them because of the experience they gained, and the expertise they developed, while in the government. The challenge for former government lawyers and their law firms is recognizing and managing conflicts of interest that sometimes arise out of lawyers’ government service. To address the special conflict of interest concerns that emerge from the revolving door of government service, the ABA formulated Model Rule 1.11. With a single exception, Model …

Why Are Over 98% Of The Applications For Debt Discharge Under The Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program Being Denied?, Greg Scott Crespi

Saint Louis University Law Journal

On October 1, 2017, student loan borrowers who had taken out federal Direct Loans first became eligible for debt forgiveness under the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program after completing the required ten years of qualified public service employment. But as of March 31, 2020, over ninety-eight percent of the more than 188,000 applications for debt relief that had been filed and fully processed under this program have been denied. The later-adopted Temporary Expanded Public Service Loan Forgiveness program also has a strikingly high ninety-four percent plus denial rate for the over 29,000 applications for debt relief filed and processed as …

Reversing Progress: The Trafficking Of Cuban Baseball Players Continues After Cancellation Of Mlb-Fcb Agreement 103, Van Degregorio

Saint Louis University Law Journal

In December of 2018, Major League Baseball (“MLB”) signed an agreement with the Cuban Baseball Federation that would forever change how the MLB acquires its Cuban talent. The agreement established a formal process of immigration from Cuba to the United States for professional baseball players, replacing the decades-old practice of smuggling players into the United States with the help of dangerous human trafficking organizations. In April of 2019, during its decision to revert back to the traditional foreign policy strategy with Cuba, the Trump Administration scrapped the deal in its entirety, bringing the process back to square one. This Note …

Leveling The Playing Field For Remote Sellers: Missouri’S Response In A Post-Wayfair World, Hannah Hope

Saint Louis University Law Journal

The case of South Dakota v. Wayfair opened the door for states to tax remote sellers who did not have a physical presence in the state. In its wake, states have scrambled to implement an economic nexus and start collecting revenue. The results widely vary, from states that have essentially implemented the exact criteria that was seemingly approved by the Court in Wayfair—such as sales and transaction thresholds—to states with no threshold at all. Then there is Missouri, which has so far failed to introduce an economic nexus, despite the millions in revenue it is missing out on.

This …

Death Is Certain But Probate Is Optional: How To Transfer Wealth And Dodge Creditors Using A Revocable Trust, Zackary C. Nehls

Saint Louis University Law Journal

This article explores the impact on creditors of two common methods of wealth transfer at death in the state of Missouri: the revocable inter vivos trust and the traditional probate estate administration process. In the former, the trustee will administer the property in the trust in accordance with its terms, thus circumventing the probate process for the assets placed in the trust. In the latter, a personal representative is appointed to manage the decedent’s final affairs through the probate courts in accordance with probate rules. The trustee and the personal representative play very similar roles but are held to different …

Masthead

Saint Louis University Law Journal

No abstract provided.

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Saint Louis University Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Covid-19 And Law Teaching: Guidance On Developing An Asynchronous Online Course For Law Students, Yvonne M. Dutton, Seema Mohapatra

Saint Louis University Law Journal

Most law schools suspended their live classroom teaching in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and quickly transitioned to online programming. Although professors can be commended for rapidly adapting to an emergency situation, some commentators have nevertheless suggested that the emergency online product delivered to students was substandard. Based on our own experiences in designing and delivering online courses, we caution against embracing a broad-reaching, negative conclusion about the efficacy of online education. Indeed, much of this emergency online programming would be more properly defined as “emergency remote teaching,” as opposed to “online education.” Online education requires professors to …

Some Thoughts On The Corona Semester, Shivangi Gangwar

Saint Louis University Law Journal

The COVID-19 pandemic presented educators across the world with a unique set of challenges. In this Article, I reflect on my experience of transitioning to the online medium mid-semester without much preparation. I compare the vastly dissimilar experiences of conducting classes “physically” and remotely, highlighting the difficulties I experienced in translating to the online realm, and the pedagogical methods I usually employed while teaching Contract law to first-year students.

Teaching Tiger King, F. E. Guerra-Pujol, Christiana Champnella, Benjamin Mayo, Morgan Travers, Antonella Vitulli

Saint Louis University Law Journal

When our home institution moved all instruction online in response to the pandemic, we began redesigning our business law survey course from scratch. Specifically, we decided to use the popular docuseries Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem, and Madness to explore the legal and ethical environments of business with our undergraduate students. We deliberately chose this surprise-hit television show in order to make our online course as relevant, timely, and engaging as possible. The remainder of the paper will describe the contents of each module of the course, explore their relation to Tiger King, and explain the logic of our …

Adaptable Design: Building Multi-Modal Content For Flexible Law School Teaching, Agnieszka Mcpeak

Saint Louis University Law Journal

This essay discusses ways to build course content that can easily toggle between face-to-face and online modes of instruction. It is meant as a quick, practical guide for law professors faced with challenging teaching circumstances due to COVID-19 and campus closures, but with long-term applicability as law schools continue to expand online and hybrid course offerings. This idea for “adaptable design” is based largely on my own experience moving face-to-face courses online. I try to avoid delving too much into technical definitions and pedagogical theory, instead focusing on personal experience and examples. Although COVID-19 has created an immediate need for …

From A Distance: Providing Online Academic Support And Bar Exam Preparation To Law Students And Alumni During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Antonia Alice Badway Miceli

Saint Louis University Law Journal

At its core, an academic support program’s mission is to help students improve their academic performance. But academic support programs also serve a broader purpose. They serve as a bridge between students, faculty, and staff, supporting faculty in their curriculum and course development and nurturing the connections between members of the law school community. They often develop and improve relations with alumni through bar exam preparation efforts. And, sometimes, they are even involved in the recruiting of new students. Through all of these interactions with students, faculty, staff, and alumni, academic support programs foster a sense of community within the …

What Works In Online Teaching, Margaret Ryznar

Saint Louis University Law Journal

This Article offers lessons from an empirical study of an online Trusts & Estates course. Over three semesters, approximately 280 law students responded to a survey on what works well for them in this online course and what does not. Their top three answers in each category may help serve as guidance for faculty creating online courses.

Legal Education In A Pandemic: A Crisis And Online Teaching Reveal Who My Students Are, Sonia M. Suter

Saint Louis University Law Journal

The COVID-19 pandemic upended things for everyone across the world in so many ways, including at universities and law schools. In switching to online teaching in the mid-semester last spring and continuing to teach first-year law students online this past fall, I have witnessed the strength and compassion of my students even in the face of the challenges of the pandemic, online learning, and political unease in our country. I have been heartened and bolstered by their deep commitment to building community with one another.

Five Truths Learned After A Dozen Years Of Asynchronous Online Teaching, Kenneth R. Swift

Saint Louis University Law Journal

In this article the author reflects on his more than twelve years of teaching asynchronous online law school courses and shares some of his beliefs about the value and limits of asynchronous teaching. The article addresses some surprising strengths of asynchronous online courses, including how black letter case law may be more effectively taught in the online format. Additionally, the article discusses how the asynchronous online format provides opportunities to excel for students with different abilities and personalities.

The article also addresses some potential limitations in the asynchronous online format, including the challenges inherent in student group work and collaboration. …

Missouri’S Path Towards “A Meaningful Opportunity For Release.” Should Remedying Unconstitutional Sentences Permit Judicial Review Of Parole Board Decisions?, Kristen S. Spina

Saint Louis University Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Fourth Amendment Limits Of Internet Content Preservation, Orin S. Kerr

Saint Louis University Law Journal

Every year, hundreds of thousands of Internet accounts are copied and set aside by Internet providers on behalf of federal and state law enforcement. This process, known as preservation, ordinarily occurs without particularized suspicion. Any government agent can request preservation of any account at any time. Federal law requires the provider to set aside a copy of the account just in case the government later develops probable cause and returns with a warrant needed to compel the account’s disclosure. The preservation process is largely secret. With rare exceptions, the account owner will never know the preservation occurred.

This Article argues …

The Real Problem With Katz Circularity, Raff Donelson

Saint Louis University Law Journal

The Fourth Amendment protects people against “unreasonable searches” by police. To operationalize this protection, courts must have a workable definition of a search. Since 1967, the Supreme Court has used the two-step Katz test as a primary measure of when a search has occurred. Under Katz, a court will find that something has been subject to search when (1) the individual in question has a subjective expectation of privacy in that thing and (2) such an expectation of privacy would be reasonable. From early on, commentators have decried the Katz test as circular and have urged courts to adopt …

Dye In The Cracks: The Limits Of Legal Frameworks Governing Police Use Of Big Data, Sarah Brayne

Saint Louis University Law Journal

Computational procedures increasingly inform how we work, communicate, and make decisions, raising sociolegal questions about how data are used by police and what the consequences are for laws governing police activity. Legal scholars have begun analyzing the implications of big data policing, yet their work to date is largely theoretical. In this article, I draw on ethnographic fieldwork conducted with the Los Angeles Police Department (“LAPD”) to ground legal debates about police use of big data in empirical detail. The article opens with a brief description of the fieldwork and findings on how the police use big data for dragnet …

Balancing Public Health And Privacy: Lessons From Digital Contact Tracing For Covid-19 Vaccination Tracking Efforts, Carmel Shachar

Saint Louis University Law Journal

The COVID-19 pandemic has brough the tension between individual privacy and public health initiative to the fore, in part because many of the solutions to the challenges of the pandemic proposed are digital. The first year of the pandemic has revealed that the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act is both too restrictive of traditional public health activities but also underprotective of important categories of health data. The failure of digital contact tracing applications to make a difference in combatting the pandemic during its early stages also illustrates the tension between individual privacy and public health surveillance. In order to …

At A Covid Crossroads: Public Health, Patient Privacy, And Health Information Confidentiality, Stacey A. Tovino

Saint Louis University Law Journal

This essay summarizes and assesses the various bulletins, guidance documents, and notices of enforcement discretion released by the federal Department of Health and Human Services regarding the application of the HIPAA Privacy Rule to the COVID-19 pandemic. Among other topics and actions, these authorities address the application of the HIPAA Privacy Rule to the use and disclosure of protected health information for public health activities, waive the application of certain HIPAA Privacy Rule requirements during the COVID-19 pandemic, and announce enforcement discretion regarding certain covered entities’ non-compliance with particular provisions within the HIPAA Privacy Rule. These authorities overwhelmingly, and appropriately, …

Data Privacy: One Universal Regulation Eliminating The Many States Of Legal Uncertainty, Tiffany Light

Saint Louis University Law Journal

Although privacy has been around for quite some time, it has picked up speed within the last fifty years or so. Triggered by the advancements in technology that make the collection, storage, and use of data commonplace in today’s data-driven world, new privacy regulations and data protection standards have begun to spread like wildfire across the globe. Consumers continue to advocate for their right to privacy as they face the privacy paradox—the desire to protect one’s own privacy, while at the same time being forced to give it up as the cost of doing business in our data driven world. …

Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act Litigation In Federal Courts: Evaluating The Standing Doctrine In Privacy Contexts, Michael Mcmahon

Saint Louis University Law Journal

Biometric technology, used to identify individuals based on their unchangeable and unique attributes such as fingerprints or facial geometry, has become commonplace in modern life. In Illinois, the use of biometric information by private organizations is regulated by the Illinois Biometric Privacy Act (“BIPA”), which came into effect in 2008 as the nation’s first state biometric information privacy statute. BIPA is unique in that it includes a private right of action and provides for recovery of liquidated damages where the statute is violated, which has resulted in plaintiffs bringing steadily increasing numbers of class-action suits under the law. This note …

The International Convention On The Elimination Of All Forms Of Racial Discrimination: An Analysis Of Article 4’S Implementation On Hate Speech In The United States, Japan, And Germany, Chioma Chukwu-Smith

Saint Louis University Law Journal

In 2017, white supremacists gathered in Charlottesville, Virginia to protest the removal of Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s statue from a public park. The “protesters” chose to voice their concerns by carrying tiki torches and spewing racist chants. The encounter began with hateful speech and ended in bloodshed and death. This is one example of how the United States, along with several other democracies, has been confronted with the question of how far they should go in limiting extreme forms of hateful, discriminatory expression.

In various countries around the world, hate speech, at its worst, has resulted in political extremism …

Table Of Contents

Saint Louis University Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Duty To Correct Another’S Material Misrepresentations: A Contextual Approach For Analyzing Fraudulent Behavior Under Rule 10b-5, Jenna Koleson

Saint Louis University Law Journal

Section 10(b) of the 1934 Securities and Exchange Act is the broadest anti-fraud provision within securities laws and is enforced through Rule 10b-5, which makes it unlawful for any person, in connection with the purchase or sale of any security, to defraud, misrepresent material facts, omit material facts, or engage in any practice which operates as fraud or deceit upon any person. In promulgating Section 10(b) and Rule 10b-5, Congress, and the SEC by way of Congressional authority, designed these laws to encompass the infinite variety of devices by which undue advantage could be taken of investors and corporations. Another …

Fake News & International Criminal Law, Sara L. Ochs

Saint Louis University Law Journal

In a decade defined by fake news, nations have weaponized disinformation to attack political, legal, and social systems throughout the world. Specifically, in recent years, government leaders have spread fake news about the International Criminal Court (“ICC”) in efforts to turn public opinion against the ICC and deter its attempts to investigate and prosecute controversial cases. Given the ICC’s reliance on state party cooperation, not only does this use of fake news hamper the Court’s likelihood of successfully prosecuting crimes that are of most concern to the international community, but it also promotes a version of history that denies victims …