Law Commons^™

Cyborgs And The Americans With Disabilities Act, Lou Colasanti

Student Scholarship

Medical technology is advancing at lightning speed with the potential to drastically benefit the disabled. These new technologies will result in humans who will use a wide array of assistive technologies and will likely be labelled as Cyborgs. Assistive technologies such as self-driving cars, robots, computer chip implants, insertable medical hardware, and exoskeletons are already well developed. The day is rapidly approaching when Cyborgs as a class will be large and influential. Critically, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the judges tasked with enforcing this legislation, and the legislature itself are all ill equipped to handle the speed of this …

From Healthcare To Hiring: Impacts Of Social And Public Policy On Disabled Veterans In The United States, Benjamin Michael Stoflet

Student Scholarship

The United States Government is struggling to fulfill commitments it has made to service members suffering from disabilities incurred during honorable service to the country. The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) disability compensation structure, job training programs, and methods of alternative dispute resolution is a patchwork resulting from decades of legislation creating a system where veterans often become locked in a complicated and often combative process to obtain benefits they have earned. Employers, advocacy groups, academics, and federal officials agree that there are systematic issues within the VA negatively impacting disabled veterans. These include a lack of patient-centered care, divergent …

Transforming Minnesota's Early Care And Education Infrastructure, Nicole Frethem

Student Scholarship

In 2021, the Minnesota legislature authorized the Great Start for All task force to present recommendations for how the state can provide “access to affordable, high-quality early care and education that enriches, nurtures, and supports children and their families,” to “all families” in Minnesota.

The early care and education landscape in Minnesota has experienced dramatic changes in programming and investments over the last twenty years. In the early 2000s, the state’s primary child care subsidy program, the Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP), was moved from the Department of Children, Families and Learning to the Department of Human Services in an …

Radical Imagination: Fostering Community In Legal Education, Adrienne Baker

Student Scholarship

Study after study alerts us to concerns about law student wellbeing. Statistics are staggering, and law students are more likely to become anxious, depressed, and turn to substance abuse. Self-care is framed as an antidote, but the individual responsibility is still placed on the student. Rather, the issue is better resolved upstream.

Law schools must transgress and transform; they must reimagine their function. This article reflects on law school pedagogy and simple ways to build community in the classroom as well as school-wide administrative suggestions to promote law student wellbeing.

Disability Discrimination In Higher Education: The Enabling Spirit Of American Disability Legislation In Conflict With Judicial Interpretation, Travis Murray

Student Scholarship

Disabled individuals have historically been treated as second-class citizens in the United States. While improvements have certainly been made over time, disabled individuals still face significant barriers to enjoying full and equal participation in society. Higher education is one aspect of American society still lacking proportional representation of the disabled community. To try and understand why disabled Americans fail to thrive in higher education at rates approaching those of non-disabled individuals, this paper will examine the following: how the history of disability discrimination in America influenced passage of powerful anti-discrimination legislation; how American courts have generally interpreted that legislation to …

Elder Law & Feminism: Moving Toward Equity In Aging, Emily M. Flesch

Student Scholarship

No abstract provided.

A Missing Link For Producing Practice-Ready Law Graduates And For Narrowing The Expectations-Reality Gap: 1l Judicial Internships, Inti Martinez-Aleman

Student Scholarship

Mitchell Hamline School of Law (MHSL) is in a privileged position to help redefine legal education in the United States. Its two predecessor schools, William Mitchell College of Law and Hamline University School of Law, were regarded as practice-focused and devoted to public service. As it goes through its first year since the law schools combined, MHSL’s new Dean and President, Mark C. Gordon, is positioned to carve out a bright future for the school’s next 100 years. If the model MHSL implements proves to be groundbreaking—as the Langdellian model was for American legal education starting in Harvard Law School …

Empowering The Consumer: A Discussion On Minnesota's Dual Agency Statute And A Proposed Solution That Puts The Consumer First, Micheal Fleming

Student Scholarship

Many Americans across this county strive to achieve the dream of home ownership. The obstacles that stand in the way of achieving that dream can be staggering and unique to the persons pursuing home ownership. To a certain extent, it is expected that there be some proverbial hoops of fire to jump through before finally turning that key to a new home. What the consumer does not expect is to find a statutory scheme that creates unnecessary obstacles, such as a broker with a divided loyalty and information barriers, at the expense of the public. This statutory scheme is enshrined …

Novelty Grace Periods: A National Law Survey, Frederik Struve

Student Scholarship

This survey includes all national law statutes (known to the author), conveying broader rights when compared with Article 55 of the European Patent Convention. The statutes provided in this survey have primarily been retrieved from the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and from national patent offices where appropriate. Links to the materials used are provided after each statute.

Briefly, the survey documents that 72 countries offer broader rights to applicants, when compared with EPC Article 55. Of those countries, 46 include the right to claim priority under the Paris Convention. In all, 61 contracting states to the Patent Cooperation Treaty …

Doma Statutes And Same-Sex Divorce Litigation, Erica A. Holzer

Student Scholarship

For the purposes of writing a article on same-sex divorce, it became necessary to categorize the various state Defense of Marriage Act (DoMA) statutes and constitutional amendments to analyze how each type of DoMA might handle a petition for same-sex divorce. In doing so, I developed six different categories: (1) No DoMA; (2) Definitional DoMAs; (3) DoMAs that void same-sex marriages; (4) DoMAs that explicitly deny benefits of marriage; (5) DoMAs that declare that there is no same-sex marriage to dissolve; and (6) DoMAs that explicitly prohibit same-sex divorce. This document shows which state DoMAs fall into each of these …

Defense Of Marriage Acts: A Fifty State Survey, Erica A. Holzer

Student Scholarship

This document includes every DoMA statute and constitutional amendment in all 50 states in alphabetical order as of January 31, 2012. The text of these laws is provided, as well as a link to the statute or constitutional amendment on Westlaw.