Law Commons^™

Don't Mess With Texans' Rights: Protecting Transgender Youth From The Paternalistic Policies Of State Executives, Mary Franklin

Indiana Journal of Law and Social Equality

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton issued an opinion in 2022 detailing how gender-affirming care for transgender minors constituted child abuse under the Texas Family Code. As a result of this opinion, multiple families of trans teens engaging in various forms of gender-affirming care were investigated by the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services. This Article applies the constitutional standards imposed by the equal protection clause, substantive due process, and parental authority to Paxton’s recommendation, using both the U.S. and Texas Constitutions. Ultimately, this Article concludes that Paxton’s opinion fails to meet these constitutional standards and recommends action from the …

The Irrationality Of Child Support Enforcement In The United States: Harming Children And Punishing The Poor, Hannah Pitcher

Indiana Journal of Law and Social Equality

No abstract provided.

Remembering The Hon. Viola J. Taliaferro, James Owsley Boyd

Keep Up With the Latest News from the Law School (blog)

Judge Viola J. Taliaferro, a pathbreaking jurist in Monroe County and renowned advocate for its children, passed away Monday, June 12 in Bloomington.

A 1977 graduate of the Indiana University Maurer School of Law, Taliaferro entered the legal profession later in life, but wasted no time making an immediate—and lasting—impact on her local community.

Viola Taliaferro earned a Master of Liberal Arts degree from Johns Hopkins University in 1969. By then she and George had four children, and the family returned to Bloomington—where George had played for the Indiana University Hoosier football team—in 1972.

Three years later she enrolled at …

Rojas Reflects On Law School During A Pandemic, James Owsley Boyd

Keep Up With the Latest News from the Law School (blog)

During her sophomore year of college, Alexa Rojas was an intake intern with a children’s advocacy center outside of Joliet, Illinois. It sparked the realization that she knew she wanted to make a difference in the lives of kids who have endured abuse and trauma. In her position, Rojas served as the first point of contact for families scheduling forensic interviews with law enforcement and prosecutors. In order to lessen the impact on the victim, substantial logistical work went on behind the scenes to ensure that the child only had to tell their story once—to someone they trusted.

In The Best Interests Of Whom?: An Analysis Of Judicial Bias In Custody Disputes Involving Transgender Children, Caden Pociask

Indiana Law Journal

Anti-transgender discrimination and bias loom large in many areas of our society, but perhaps one of the most concerning settings is within the four walls of a courtroom. Evidence suggests that judicial decision making in custody determinations involving transgender children are influenced by anti-transgender bias. In this Note, I examine the current best practice for treating transgender children, the affirmative model, and explore the legal landscape of custody cases involving parents who disagree on how to treat their transgender child. I then suggest a model of comprehensive judicial education reform to help eliminate antitransgender bias from family courts in the …

Pregnant Workers Fairness Acts: Advancing A Progressive Policy In Both Red And Blue America, Deborah Widiss

Articles by Maurer Faculty

Pregnant workers often need small changes—such as permission to sit on a stool or to avoid heavy lifting—to stay on the job safely through a pregnancy. In the past decade, twenty-five states have passed laws that guarantee pregnant employees a right to reasonable accommodations at work. Despite the stark partisan divide in contemporary America, the laws have passed in both Republican- and Democratic-controlled states. This Essay offers the first detailed case study of this remarkably effective campaign, and it shows how it laid the groundwork for analogous federal legislation, passed in December 2022, that ensures workers across the country will …

The Child Vanishes: Justice Scalia's Approach To The Role Of Psychology In Determining Children's Rights And Responsibilities, Aviva Orenstein

Articles by Maurer Faculty

This Article explores how Justice Antonin Scalia’s hostility to psychology, antipathy to granting children autonomous rights, and dismissiveness of children’s interior lives both affected his jurisprudence and was a natural outgrowth of it. Justice Scalia expressed a skeptical, one might even say hostile, attitude towards psychology and its practitioners. Justice Scalia’s cynicism about the discipline and the therapists who practice it is particularly interesting regarding legal and policy arguments concerning children. His love of tradition and his rigid and unempathetic approach to children clash with modern notions of child psychology. Justice Scalia’s attitude towards psychology helps to explain his jurisprudence, …

Frozen Embryos, Male Consent, And Masculinities, Dara E. Purvis

Indiana Law Journal

Picture two men facing the possibility of unwanted fatherhood. One man agreed to go through in vitro fertilization (IVF) with his partner, but years later has changed his mind. Despite the fact that the embryos created through IVF are his partner’s last chance to be a genetic parent, a court allows him to block her use of the embryos.

By contrast, another couple’s sexual relationship broke the law. The woman was a legal adult, and her partner was a child under the age of eighteen. Their encounter was thus statutory rape. Her crime led to pregnancy, and after she gave …

Chosen Family, Care, And The Workplace, Deborah Widiss

Articles by Maurer Faculty

Employees often request time off work to care for the medical needs of loved ones who are part of their extended or chosen family. Until recently, most workers would not have had any legal right to take such leave. A rapidly growing number of state laws, however, not only guarantee paid time off for family health needs, but also adopt innovative and expansive definitions of eligible family.

Several provide leave to care for intimate partners without requiring legal formalization of the relationship. Some go further to include any individual who has a relationship with the employee that is “like” or …

A Pioneer Of The Law & Society Movement: One Eyewitness’S Reflections, Jayanth K. Krishnan

Articles by Maurer Faculty

There is arguably no more seminal a figure in the field of law and society than Professor Marc Galanter. That a Special Issue featuring dedications to several leading academic lights would be hosted by the University of Chicago Law Review is especially significant in terms of Marc’s inclusion because Chicago is where Marc came of age as a student.

Professor Richard Abel, some years back, chronicled Marc’s educational journey in Hyde Park. As Abel tells it—and as Marc has told me over the years—after finishing his B.A. and while continuing to work on his master’s degree from Chicago, Marc enrolled …

Zero Sympathy: Unaccompanied Minors' Rights In The Us Immigration System, Mahrukh Ali

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

This note analyzes the US Government's approach to unaccompanied minors and the webs they must navigate when they are apprehended by the US immigration system. More importantly, this note calls for reformative approaches to children's rights through acknowledging the differences between adults and children while simultaneously taking their vulnerability and autonomy into account. After explaining the migrant crisis along with its implications and examining the underlying reasons fostering this movement, this note discusses the legal options available for unaccompanied minors. It draws on the shortcomings of the immigration system as the system labels unaccompanied minors as dependent children, but also …

"Work And Caregiving During Covid-19" And "Pregnant Employees And New Parents", Deborah A. Widiss

Books & Book Chapters by Maurer Faculty

Professor Widiss contributed chapter 6 "Work and Caregiving During COVID-19" and chapter 8 "Pregnant Employees and New Parents" in this Open Access book edited by Jeffrey Hirsh and Sachin Pandya.

The two Widiss chapters, combined into one .pdf file, can be downloaded above, or the entire book can be viewed HERE.

Equality, Animus, And Expressive And Religious Freedom Under The American Constitution: Masterpiece Cakeshop And Beyond, Daniel O. Conkle

Books & Book Chapters by Maurer Faculty

Professor Conkle's contribution to this volume, pre-print attached, is the chapter "Equality, Animus, and Expressive and Religious Freedom Under the American Constitution: Masterpiece Cakeshop and Beyond."

CHAPTER ABSTRACT: Does the First Amendment protect religious wedding vendors from anti-discrimination laws that require them to provide goods or services for same-sex weddings? The fundamental question is whether equality or religious freedom should prevail in this setting, but the complexities of American free speech and free exercise law—exacerbated by the Supreme Court’s decision in Masterpiece Cakeshop—have obscured the debate with dubious distinctions and highly contentious rationales and arguments. In this Essay, I present …

Equalizing Parental Leave, Deborah A. Widiss

Articles by Maurer Faculty

The United States is the only developed country that fails to guarantee paid time off work to new parents. As a result, many new parents, particularly low-wage workers, are forced to go back to work within days or weeks of a birth or adoption. In recent years, a growing number of states have passed laws to address this gap in American labor policy, and in December 2019, Congress enacted legislation providing paid parental leave for most federal workers. This Article offers the first detailed analysis of these new laws, and it exposes how their structure—probably unintentionally—disadvantages sole-parent families.

In America, …

The Hidden Gender Of Gender-Neutral Paid Parental Leave: Examining Recently-Enacted Law In The United States And Australia, Deborah A. Widiss

Articles by Maurer Faculty

The United States and Australia are unusual in their approach to providing paid time off to new parents. Virtually every other country in the world provides maternity leaves that are far longer than paternity leaves, even if they also provide supplemental parental leave available to either parent. Recently-enacted laws in the United States and Australia, by contrast, eschew sex-specific classifications entirely. But, while both adopt gender-neutral approaches, they are structured quite differently. American laws provide each parent equal and non-transferable benefits; Australian law provides an extended period of benefits to a “primary” caregiver, and a much shorter period of benefits …

Toward A Theory Of Intercountry Human Rights: Global Capitalism And The Rise And Fall Of Intercountry Adoption, Barbara Stark

Indiana Law Journal

This Article proposes another mechanism for enforcement, an alternative to self-serving domestic policing and weak international bureaucracy. “Intercountry,” as opposed to “international,” human rights would apply to specific rights in specific contexts and be enforceable through the legal mechanisms and other resources of the state parties that accepted them. Intercountry adoption is a useful context in which to consider this proposal for several reasons.

First, as a practical matter, there have probably never been more babies and children in orphanages, on the street, on the market, or on their own. Yet intercountry adoptions have declined to levels not seen for …

Blockchain Wills, Bridget J. Crawford

Indiana Law Journal

Blockchain technology has the potential to radically alter the way that people have

executed wills for centuries. This Article makes two principal claims—one

descriptive and the other normative. Descriptively, this Article suggests that

traditional wills formalities have been relaxed to the point that they no longer serve

the cautionary, protective, evidentiary, and channeling functions that scholars have

used to justify strict compliance with wills formalities. Widespread use of digital

technology in everyday communications has led to several notable cases in which

individuals have attempted to execute wills electronically. These wills have had a

mixed reception. Four states currently recognize electronic …

Reproductive Contracts: An Analysis Of Reproductive Treatments, A Critique Of Forms Of Informed Consent, And Prevention Of Circumvention Of Medical Tourism, Minsung Kim

Maurer Theses and Dissertations

The goal of the dissertation is to analyze reproductive medicine, criticize informed consent forms for receiving reproductive treatments, and imply prevention of circumvention of medical tourism. Most of all, the dissertation considers a theoretical approach regarding how we understand reproductive treatments. The dissertation divides reproductive treatments into sustainable and disruptive ones. Reproductive treatments referred to as sustainable ones have legally become pervasive after regulatory evaluations concerning safety, ethical, and legal concerns. However, a few reproductive treatments that are referred to as disruptive ones still have led to disputes regarding whether infertility couples can require and receive them for treatment. The …

Battle Of The Sexes: A History Of Social Change And A Solution For Maintaining A Child’S Best Interest In Light Of The #Metoo Movement, Jackie Calvert

Indiana Journal of Law and Social Equality

No abstract provided.

Zoning For Families, Sara C. Bronin

Indiana Law Journal

Is a group of eight unrelated adults and three children living together and sharing meals, household expenses, and responsibilities—and holding themselves out to the world to have long-term commitments to each other—a family? Not according to most zoning codes—including that of Hartford, Connecticut, where the preceding scenario presented itself a few years ago. Zoning, which is the local regulation of land use, almost always defines family, limiting those who may live in a dwelling unit to those who satisfy the zoning code’s definition. Often times, this definition is drafted in a way that excludes many modern living arrangements and preferences. …

The Child Welfare System: A Misnomer In Need Of Services, Allison Hilmer

Indiana Journal of Law and Social Equality

No abstract provided.

Arizona's Torres V. Terrell And Section 318.03: The Wild West Of Pre-Embryo Disposition, Catherine Wheatley

Indiana Law Journal

In this Note, Part I examines the three main approaches used in other state supreme court decisions to decide pre-embryo disposition disputes, as well as three perspectives on the legal status of the pre-embryo, and compares them with Arizona’s emerging law. Part II summarizes Arizona’s Torres trial court order and opinion and section 318.03. Part III then analyzes whether the Torres orders and Arizona’s new statutory “most likely to lead to birth standard”12 present constitutional issues and concludes that the trial court’s order, if reinstated by the Arizona Supreme Court, and section 318.03 can be challenged on substantive due process …

New Services For Families In The Dc Superior Court, Amy Applegate, Jeannie M. Adams, Connie J. Beck, Amy Holtzworth-Munroe, Fernanda S. Rossi

Articles by Maurer Faculty

Until recently, because of concerns about safety and parties’ abilities to make good decisions in cases with a history of high intimate partner violence or abuse (IPV/A), in the District of Columbia’s Superior Court such cases were screened out of mediation and sent back to the family court. But two big program additions — videoconferencing and shuttle mediation — have allowed parties in these cases to consider mediation. The Multi-Door Dispute Resolution Division of the DC Superior Court (Multi-Door) implemented this change after several years of preparation: its administrators added safety measures, provided in-depth training for staff and mediators, and …

Uncommon Misconceptions: Holding Physicians Accountable For Insemination Fraud, Jody L. Madeira

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

We Are All Farkhunda: An Examination Of The Treatment Of Women Within Afghanistan's Formal Legal System, Ashley Lenderman

Indiana Journal of Constitutional Design

In this paper, I will examine three cases of violence against women that went through the Afghan formal legal system: the case of Farkhunda, the Paghman district gang rape case, and the case of Sahar Gul. In the first Part, I will discuss the formal legal system framework on which the cases are based. In the second Part, I will discuss the cases in detail. In the third Part, I will describe neo-liberal, reformist, and neo-fundamentalist approaches to interpretation of Islamic law, and I will then draw out pieces of the decisions from the three cases that closely match these …

Criminalizing Pregnancy, Cortney Lollar

Indiana Law Journal

The state of Tennessee arrested a woman two days after she gave birth and charged her with assault of her newborn child based on her use of narcotics during her preg-nancy. Tennessee’s 2014 assault statute was the first to explicitly criminalize the use of drugs by a pregnant woman. But this law, along with others like it being considered by legislatures across the country, is only the most recent manifestation of a long history of using criminal law to punish poor mothers and mothers of color for their behavior while pregnant. The purported motivation for such laws is the harm …

Dissenting From History: The False Narratives Of The Obergefell Dissents, Christopher R. Leslie

Indiana Law Journal

According to a quote attributed to numerous philosophers and political leaders, “History is written by victors.”1 In the legal battle over same-sex marriage, those opposed to marriage equality have attempted to disprove this age-old adage. In response to the majority opinion in Obergefell v. Hodges—which held that state laws banning same-sex marriage violate the Fourteenth Amendment—each of the four dissenting Justices issued his own dissenting opinion. Every one of these dissents misrepresented the circumstances and precedent leading up to the Obergefell decision. Collectively, the Obergefell dissenters have valiantly tried to rewrite America’s legal, constitutional, and social history, all in an …

Making It Up: Lessons For Equal Protection Doctrine From The Use And Abuse Of Hypothesized Purposes In The Marriage Equality Litigation, Steve Sanders

Articles by Maurer Faculty

To survive rational basis scrutiny under the Equal Protection Clause, a law must serve a governmental purpose which is at least legitimate. It is well established that legitimate purposes can sometimes be found through speculation and conjecture-that is, they may be hypothesized-in order to avoid the difficulties of identifying actual purpose or the specter of courts second-guessing legislative judgments. But hypothesized purposes can be abused, and such abuse was rampant in the states' defenses of their bans on same-sex marriage, bans which were ultimately invalidated in Obergefell v. Hodges.

This Article draws on the federal marriage litigation as a lens …

Pavan V. Smith: Equality For Gays And Lesbians In Being Married, Not Just Getting Married, Steve Sanders

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Intimate Liberties And Antidiscrimination Law, Deborah A. Widiss

Articles by Maurer Faculty

In assessing laws that regulate marriage, procreation, and sexual intimacy, the Supreme Court has recognized a “synergy” between guaranteeing personal liberties and advancing equality. Courts interpreting the antidiscrimination laws that govern the private sector, however, often draw artificial and untenable lines between “conduct” and “status” to preclude protections for individuals or couples who face censure because of their intimate choices. This Article exposes how these arguments have been used to justify not only discrimination against the lesbian and gay community, but also discrimination against heterosexual couples who engage in non-marital intimacy or non-marital childrearing.

During the 1980s and 1990s, several …