Law Commons^™

Political Factors And Enforcement Of The Nursing Home Regulatory Regime, Philip C. Aka, Lucinda M. Deason, Augustine Hammond

Journal of Law and Health

This study analyzes the influence of political factors, oversight, and nursing home affiliation or ownership status on the enforcement of the nursing home regulatory regime, signified by the Nursing Home Reform Act ("NHRA") and its progeny. Specifically speaking, it measures, using the statistical technique of regression analysis, factors that account for variations across states in the number of deficiencies (or violations of quality standards) cited by nursing home inspectors across the states. This work is a first of its kind, an analysis not government-related, by a set of public administration scholars that systematically studies the influence of political forces on …

Making Language Access To Health Care Meaningful: The Need For A Federal Health Care Interpreters' Statute, Alvaro Decola

Journal of Law and Health

This Note will argue that there are strong public policy, and legal and equity considerations for Congress to enact a federal statute to address the inadequacies of the current policies and regulations pertaining to language access to health care. The issue has become a significant one throughout the United States, given the influx of LEP (Limited English Proficiency) Americans navigating the health care system. Part II of this writing discusses the existing federal laws dealing with language access and the hurdles faced by LEP individuals in bringing legal action, because of existing case law on the subject. Part II also …

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder In The Military: The Need For Legislative Improvement Of Mental Health Care For Veterans Of Operation Iraqi Freedom And Operation Enduring Freedom, Madeline Mcgrane

Journal of Law and Health

This Note argues that legislation requiring improved mental health treatment for veterans of OIF (Operation Iraqi Freedom) and OEF (Operation Enduring Freedom) is necessary to protect American service members from the dangers of mental illness. In order to prevent crimes and suicides committed by veterans of OIF and OEF as a result of undiagnosed PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder), the United States Congress should enact legislation imposing requirements on all branches of the military that: 1) mandates screening of all veterans at risk for PTSD upon their return from deployment; 2) ensures veterans are provided with adequate and timely mental healthcare; …

Off The Roads & Out Of The Courts: Enter A Technology Fix For Drunk Driving, Nora J. Pasman-Green

Journal of Law and Health

For years, scholars, scientists, policymakers, and public advocacy groups have been exploring and debating whether AIIDs (alcohol ignition interlock devices) would effectively prevent someone from driving drunk. AIIDs measure blood alcohol content (BAC), which is the underlying scientific evidence of driving impairment. Indeed, the technology supporting AIIDs has steadily improved. Progress toward a consensus that identifies and ranks the potential goals that can be achieved with the AIID technology is slowly crystallizing. AIIDs have their found into way into legislation, both nationally and internationally, particularly legislation aimed at repeat offenders. And, installing AIIDs as standard equipment on vehicles has, indeed, …

Nursing The Primary Care Shortage Back To Health: How Expanding Nurse Practitioner Autonomy Can Safely And Economically Meet The Growing Demand For Basic Health Care , Michael B. Zand

Journal of Law and Health

This article first discusses the history and educational requirements of the Nurse Practitioner profession. It then discusses the policy reasons why Nurse Practitioners should, and do, play an important role in the country's health care delivery system. The core of the article deals with the legal issues surrounding the NP's scope of practice including the need for collaborative agreements with physicians, authority to prescribe drugs, and identification. Finally the article discusses how NPs fit into the health insurance scheme and their liability for malpractice.

I Am Textualism , Stephen Durden

Cleveland State Law Review

Until every person seeking to interpret the Constitution recognizes that constitutional interpretation is a quintessentially human endeavor, based on human assumptions and human reasoning, I will remain to protect those who seek to hide their predilections, their personal choices. I will continue to change as time passes. My form will continue to change to meet the needs of those who seek my cloak of objectivity and seek to redefine and improve me. I am a human invention created to pretend that constitutional interpretation is not a human endeavor. I am what each disciple wants. I am what each disciple needs. …

Municipal Predatory Lending Regulation In Ohio: The Disproportionate Impact Of Preemption In Ohio's Cities, Brett Altier

Cleveland State Law Review

Whether in the case of predatory lending or other issues that will differ from location to location, municipalities should continue to protect their cities by exercising their power under the Home Rule Amendment to enforce regulations not in direct conflict with Ohio law. Even though the Framers of the Home Rule Amendment intended to protect municipal power by ensuring that only those ordinances in actual conflict would be voided, Ohio courts have denied municipalities their Home Rule police power by applying a conflict by implication test, contributing to the housing crisis still plaguing Ohio's cities. While Ohio courts have made …

The Mystery Of Life In The Laboratory Of Democracy: Personal Autonomy In State Law, Adam J. Macleod

Cleveland State Law Review

This article attempts to carve a path between the two sides in this autonomy war. It begins by bringing into dialogue with each other four of the most influential legal philosophers of our day: Joseph Raz, Ronald Dworkin, John Finnis, and Robert George. Each of these four scholars makes bold and instructive claims about the value and limits of personal autonomy. The article then examines several different areas of state law where one might expect a principle of autonomy to be implicated, and articulates six important lessons that one can glean from state law about the relationship between personal autonomy …

Learning Disabilities And The Ada: Licensing Exam Accommodations In The Wake Of The Ada Amendments Act Of 2008, M. Patrick Yingling

Cleveland State Law Review

This Article argues that the courts must be cognizant of Congress' intention to broaden the scope of the ADA, especially in regard to reading impaired individuals who request reasonable accommodations on licensing exams. Part I examines the ADA's protections for individuals with learning disabilities. Part II discusses the applicability of the ADA to licensing exams, including state bar exams. Part III examines case law over the past twenty years pertaining to learning impaired individuals who have requested accommodations on licensing exams. Part IV analyzes the ADAAA and focuses on its potential to change the status quo for learning impaired individuals …

The Rise And Demise Of The Collective Right Interpretation Of The Second Amendment, David T. Hardy

Cleveland State Law Review

This article explores the origins of the two competing theories of the Second Amendment -- the "individual rights" approach which carried the majority in Heller and McDonald, and the variants of a "collective right" theory which was previously dominant in the lower courts, and one variant of which was endorsed by the Heller dissents. Careful analysis of states' bills of rights of the Framing period suggests that two guarantees were desired, by different political factions. Framers closely adhering to the Classical Republican point of view favored protection for the militia as a system; those favoring the emerging Jeffersonian point of …

Political Gangsters: The Future Of Racketeering Law In Politics Note, Jillian Henzler

Cleveland State Law Review

Racketeering law and election restrictions are two areas of law that are not typically connected. Previous to the landmark decision in Citizens United, the chances of finding racketeering within election law were probably very slim.The corruption created by this new ruling is a fear that the government has been trying to combat for over a century. Not only will the effects of this new rule increase the appearance of corruption, this corruption may rise to a criminal level if racketeering action actually takes place. The ever-changing and expanding definition of racketeering under the Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act shows …

Qualified Immunity Dissonance In The Sixth Circuit: Why We Must Return To Reasonableness, Matt Chiricosta

Cleveland State Law Review

The Sixth Circuit's inconsistent jurisprudence threatens the delicate balance that the defense aims to strike between protecting citizens from having their constitutional rights violated on the one hand and protecting government officials from undue interference with their official duties on the other. This Note critiques the medical emergency-law enforcement response capacity the Sixth Circuit has set forth to help adjudicate qualified immunity claims and suggests improvements the court can make to its qualified immunity jurisprudence.In Part II, I briefly trace the Supreme Court's development of the doctrine and outline the doctrine's policy goals. In Part III, I develop my thesis …

Workplace Privacy And Monitoring: The Quest For Balanced Interests , Ariana R. Levinson

Cleveland State Law Review

We can see in 2001 that 77 percent of employers were engaged in monitoring. This may have increased slightly or decreased slightly, but whatever has happened, we know that this is a significant amount of employers--much greater than a majority--that are engaging in monitoring of their employees. We can also see the great rise in monitoring of computers and electronic files in a ten-year period between 1997 and 2007. Finally, we can see some of the newer technologies. In 2007, twelve percent of the reporting employers were monitoring the blogosphere, eight percent were monitoring GPS vehicle tracking, and ten percent …

Table Of Contents, Cleveland State Law Review

Cleveland State Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Constitutional Status Of Speech About Oneself, R. George Wright

Cleveland State Law Review

We have accepted above the well-established idea that speech about oneself that is also intended to convey some sort of political idea or to address some matter of public concern can typically be distinguished from speech about oneself with no such further intent. On this basis, we have argued, contrary to recent contentions, that the latter sort of speech-speech that is "merely" about the self, or about one's merely personal or private concerns-should not generally qualify for any sort of elevated free speech protection. Fundamentally, this is because such speech does not systematically promote any of the consensually recognized and …

The Inappropriate Imposition Of Court-Ordered Mediation In Will Contests , Victoria J. Haneman

Cleveland State Law Review

Mediation settlements that are shaped or driven by non-legal considerations are not problematic, unless and until the process of mediation is designed and imposed upon the parties through state action (namely, the judicial system). Because the approach taken in mediation ineradicably strains against the legal rules applied by the courts adjudicating those same cases, a legitimate question arises as to whether or not instituting court-ordered mediation programs that mandate mediation in will contest cases is appropriate. The contention of this Article is not that mediation is inappropriately used by the parties to a will contest case, but instead that court-ordered …

The Myth Of Church-State Separation, David E. Steinberg

Cleveland State Law Review

This article asserts that the church-state separation interpretation of Establishment Clause history is simply wrong. The framers were focused on the first five words of the amendment, which read: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof . . . .” The original Establishment Clause was a guarantee that the federal government would not interfere in state regulation of religion-whatever form that state regulation took. Rather than enacting the Establishment Clause to mandate a separation of church and state, the framers adopted the clause to protect divergent state practices-including state establishment of …

Have You Been Drinking Tonight Ms. Prynne - Ohio's Scarlet Letter For Ovi/Dui Offenders: A Violation Of First Amendment Protection Against Compelled Speech, William Livingston

Cleveland State Law Review

This note examines the history of scarlet letter punishments. These types of sanctions raise many constitutional concerns; this Note will specifically address First Amendment compelled speech. Different standards of constitutional review for First Amendment violations and probation conditions will also be discussed. The note will also explain how Ohio's special license plate violates the First Amendment. Because the license plate is a legislative requirement that infringes upon free speech and eliminates judicial sentencing discretion, the state's interest must pass strict scrutiny. This analysis will confirm that the state's interest is legitimate but not compelling. The special license plate fails to …

Tweaking Tinker: Redefining An Outdated Standard For The Internet Era, Shannon M. Raley

Cleveland State Law Review

This Note argues that the Tinker standard needs to be reevaluated to encompass Internet-related cases both by eliminating the “on-campus” requirement and by further defining what constitutes a “substantial disruption.” The “on-campus” requirement should be eliminated for the following reasons: 1) lower federal courts already disregard this condition for Internet-related cases; 2) it leads students to abuse their First Amendment rights; and 3) this requirement threatens the safety of teachers, students, and other school personnel. Additionally, Tinker's “substantial disruption” prong would be better understood as a factors test. This ensures that schools utilize the same criteria in determining whether a …

Capital Punishment, Psychiatrists And The Potential Bottleneck Of Competence , Jacob M. Appel

Journal of Law and Health

The purpose of this paper is to merge two largely separate bodies of writing on the subject of psychiatric participation in capital punishment. Much has already been written from the perspective of legal academics regarding the rights of prisoners to be free from unwanted medical care if the purpose of providing such care is to render them fit for execution. Medical ethicists have also written much on the degree to which physicians, and specifically psychiatrists, may participate in facilitating the death penalty before they become so complicit as to violate accepted standards of professional ethics. Surprisingly, these two fields of …

Voluntary Client Testimony As A Privilege Waiver: Is Ohio's Law Caught In A Time Warp, David B. Alden, Matthew P. Silverstein

Cleveland State Law Review

The question of whether Ohio should retain the waiver through voluntary testimony rule-assuming that is the current rule-is neither close nor difficult. The relevant statute dates back to the middle of the nineteenth century when Ohio enacted its first code of civil procedure, and if it in fact leads to a waiver, has been substantively unchanged in the intervening one hundred fifty plus years. The rule undermines the policies the attorney-client privilege was designed to further, and the policy on which the rule apparently was based-preventing perjured testimony-no longer has the primacy it did in the mid-nineteenth century and, in …

The Unified Sealed Theory: Updating Ohio's Record-Sealing Statute For The Twenty-First Century, Michael H. Jagunic

Cleveland State Law Review

This Note will argue that Ohio's record sealing statute is still a viable means to achieve this balance, but that it must be supplemented by additional laws in order to remain effective. Part II provides a short history of record sealing and expungement in the United States and explains how Ohio's record sealing statute effectively deals with some common criticisms of record sealing. Part III then briefly examines why sealing and expungement statutes are becoming increasingly ineffective due to the proliferation of electronic criminal records and the rise of the data-mining industry. Part IV critiques some of the proposed solutions …

The Unconstitutionality Of Oklahoma's Sq 755 And Other Provisions Like It That Bar State Courts From Considering International Law, Penny M. Venetis

Cleveland State Law Review

This paper will discuss SQ 755's many legal deficiencies, focusing primarily on its constitutional infirmities. First, SQ 755 is a clear violation of the Supremacy Clause of Article VI of the U.S. Constitution. The prohibition on looking to international law requires that Oklahoma courts disregard U.S. treaty obligations, and the law of nations (also known as customary international law), which are all binding on American courts. Second, SQ 755 unconstitutionally limits a state's duty to give full faith and credit to the judicial decisions of other states. The law is clear that no state has the authority to condition its …

Internet Contracting And E-Commerce Disputes: International And U. S. Personal Jurisdiction , Anne Mccafferty

Global Business Law Review

In cases involving international defendants, a variety of bases have been deemed appropriate for a U.S. court to assert personal jurisdiction, including nationality, domicile, “purposeful availment,” and a number of federal statutes. With the explosion of the Internet and the resulting expansion of international business transactions via the Web, courts have struggled to adapt traditional modes of adjudication consistent with established common, statutory and international law. Internet transactions—now known as e-commerce—involve the “practice of buying and selling goods and services through online consumer services on the Internet.” In a sphere of commerce apparently limitless in its reach, this article explores …

The Skeleton Key: Will The Federal Health Care Reform Legislation Unlock The Solutions To Diverse Dilemmas Arising From The State Health Care Reform Laboratories , Christopher R. Smith

Journal of Law and Health

Given that the Reform Law is not operating on a blank slate, this article examines its impact on the health care reform efforts of three states: Hawaii, Maine, and Vermont. More specifically, this article examines each state’s health care reform plan, the outcomes of each plan in terms of achieving universal coverage or near universal coverage, and the likely impact of the federal health care reform legislation on these plans, with a particular focus on how the federal legislation and state laws will or will not work together to achieve near-universal coverage. The article aims to determine whether the Reform …

Organ Conscription: How The Dead Can Save The Living, David Schwark

Journal of Law and Health

This Note will examine the failures of uncompensated and voluntary donation and argue that the only way to meet our country's organ needs is to make donation mandatory. Part II of this Note examines the history of voluntary organ donation in the United States. This history describes the evolution of organ donation laws from the first transplant until the present day. Part II also details the consequences and shortcomings of the current system. Part III examines three other proposed solutions to the organ deficit. These possible solutions include routine requests, an organ market, and presumed consent. However, none of these …

Food-Borne Ultimatum: Proposing Federal Legislation To Create Humane Living Conditions For Animals Raised For Food In Order To Improve Human Health, The, Lynn M. Boris

Journal of Law and Health

In order to reduce the large number of human health risks associated with reckless farming practices, Congress must enact federal legislation that requires humane living conditions for farm animals and declares a moratorium on the routine use of unnecessary antibiotics. Part II of this Note will briefly review traditional farming and animal husbandry practices and examine the shift to the modern practices used by producers of animal products today. Part II will also present several farming practices utilized today that are particularly dangerous to human health. Part III of this Note will explore the immense human suffering that is occurring …

Ohio's Aggressive Attack On Medical Identity Theft, Stanley C. Ball

Journal of Law and Health

This note explains the severity of medical identity theft and the state and federal legislative reactions to the problem. Specifically, the note discusses data breach notification statutes that require healthcare providers to notify consumers when the systems holding customer personal information are breached. The note concludes that Ohio’s data breach notification statute, which does not expressly cover healthcare providers, should be amended to protect residents from medical identity theft and provide redress when healthcare providers violate state law.

Anti-Cyber Bullying Statutes: Threat To Student Free Speech, John O. Hayward

Cleveland State Law Review

On October 17, 2006, Megan Meier, a thirteen-year-old girl in Dardenne Prairie, Missouri, who had been diagnosed with attention deficit disorder and depression, committed suicide because of postings on MySpace, an Internet social networking site, saying she was a bad person whom everyone hated and the world would be better off without. As a result, the state revised its harassment and stalking statutes to prohibit using electronic means to knowingly "frighten, intimidate, or cause emotional distress to another person."' At the time of this writing, twenty-one states have passed similar legislation with others sure to follow. Many of these statutes …

Life, Death, And Iq: It's Much More Than Just A Score: Understanding And Utilizing Forensic Psychological And Neuropsychological Evaluations In Atkins Intellectual Disability/Mental Retardation Cases, John Matthew Fabian, William W. Thompson, Jeffrey B. Lazarus

Cleveland State Law Review

This article highlights best practices for assessing MR and ID in capital cases with an emphasis on Atkins trial preparation and potential problems the authors have noted through experience. These best practices in Atkins hearings concern issues for the lawyers, forensic psychologists, and neuropsychologists, which include:

1. Practice effects and IQ testing

2. Consistency of IQ scores over time

3. Flynn Effect

4. Malingering versus cognitive suboptimal effort

5. Lack of records indicating pre-age 18 diagnosis of MR/ID

6. Retrospective assessment of adaptive behaviors

7. Death row trends of increasing IQ over the years while incarcerated

8. Maladaptive behaviors versus …