Law Commons^™

Teaching New Dogs Old Tricks: Reshaping The Department Of Homeland Security's Technology Development Infrastructure, Michael Greenberger

Michael Greenberger

This article discusses the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS’s) use of technology to help fight the war on terror. First, this article reveals how DHS has made little progress in encouraging the development of important technology, despite receiving ample resources from Congress to do so. Second, this article looks to the Office of War Mobilization’s (OWM) work during World War II as a possible template for galvanizing the Nation’s technological talent and resources to fight terror. Third, this article suggests a program for refining the OWM template to meet modern day needs. In this regard, DHS is the “new dog,” …

The Need For Closed Circuit Television In Mass Transit Systems, Michael Greenberger

Michael Greenberger

Closed circuit television video (CCTV) surveillance systems need to be introduced or enhanced in the public areas within United States’ mass transit systems. London’s extensive system was used very successfully in the investigation of the July 2005 terrorist attacks on its subway and bus systems. That effective investigatory use of CCTV is very likely to be a significant deterrence to future terrorist activities on London mass transit. The United States must be prepared in the event of similar attacks on its soil. As roughly twenty times more people travel by mass transit than by air, it is time for this …

Energy Market Manipulation And Federal Enforcement Regimes, Michael Greenberger

Michael Greenberger

No abstract provided.

Comment: Relocation, Accidental Inequalities, And The Equal Protection Doctrine, Michael Greenberger

Michael Greenberger

No abstract provided.

Did The Founding Fathers Do "A Heckuva Job"? Constitutional Authorization For The Use Of Federal Troops To Prevent The Loss Of A Major American City, Michael Greenberger

Michael Greenberger

As the one year anniversary of the landfall of Hurricane Katrina on the Gulf Coast passed, the highly critical reports of the Bush Administration's mismanagement of the response to that catastrophe continued to mount. Central to the criticism of the Administration was its indecisiveness in deploying military assets to rescue and protect Gulf Coast citizens overwhelmed by one of the country's worst natural disasters. The President failed to act because of a perceived lack of statutory and constitutional authority to override the Louisiana Governor's refusal to allow the Federal government to have ultimate control over the deployment of Federal troops …

Energy Speculation: Is Greater Regulation Necessary To Stop Price Manipulation? Part Ii., Michael Greenberger

Michael Greenberger

No abstract provided.

Preparing Vulnerable Populations For A Disaster: Inner-City Emergency Preparedness - Who Should Take The Lead?, Michael Greenberger

Michael Greenberger

No abstract provided.

Energy Speculation: Is Greater Regulation Necessary To Stop Price Manipulation?, Michael Greenberger

Michael Greenberger

No abstract provided.

Strengthening Security And Oversight At Biological Research Laboratories, Michael Greenberger

Michael Greenberger

With the advent of the Anthrax attacks in the fall of 2001, this Nation has been confronted with a serious policy conundrum. On the one hand, we have strengthened programs that encourage the use of our best scientific resources to develop countermeasures to the weaponization of highly dangerous biopathogens. On the other hand, research on those countermeasures requires the use of the very biopathogens we seek to defeat. There have been many mishaps in the handling of those pathogens, which raises the frightening prospect that the research may be as (or more) dangerous than the potential bioterrorist acts themselves. Indeed, …

Excessive Speculation In The Natural Gas Market, Michael Greenberger

Michael Greenberger

No abstract provided.

You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet: The Inevitable Post-Hamdan Conflict Between The Supreme Court And The Political Branches, Michael Greenberger

Michael Greenberger

On September 21, 2006, my colleagues, Professors Singer, Quint, and Young, and I led a workshop for our faculty on the Supreme Court’s last, and most important case of the previous Term, Hamdan v. Rumsfeld. As was doubtless true of law scholars across the country (indeed, perhaps throughout the world), we expressed wonderment about the sweep of the decision. In Hamdan, a conservative Court, having just been joined by two conservative appointees named by a conservative President (known for attempting a dramatic expansion of his Article II war powers authority) and confirmed by a conservative Republican-controlled Senate (known for accommodating …

State And Federal Emergency Powers, Michael Greenberger, Arianne Spaccarelli

Michael Greenberger

As the federal and state response to Hurricane Katrina demonstrated, a failure to understand and utilize legal authorities properly during a disaster can slow response efforts, destroy trust in governments, and exacerbate chaos and civil unrest. This chapter will provide an overview of the statutory and constitutional authority for state and federal response to emergencies, including a description of typical state emergency management statutes, a summary of the major federal statutes related to public health emergency responses, and a discussion of the constitutional limits on federal actions during a public health emergency.

Did The Founding Fathers Do "A Heckuva Job"? Constitutional Authorization For The Use Of Federal Troops To Prevent The Loss Of A Major American City, Michael Greenberger

Michael Greenberger

As the one year anniversary of the landfall of Hurricane Katrina on the Gulf Coast passed, the highly critical reports of the Bush Administration's mismanagement of the response to that catastrophe continued to mount. Central to the criticism of the Administration was its indecisiveness in deploying military assets to rescue and protect Gulf Coast citizens overwhelmed by one of the country's worst natural disasters. The President failed to act because of a perceived lack of statutory and constitutional authority to override the Louisiana Governor's refusal to allow the Federal government to have ultimate control over the deployment of Federal troops …

Three Strikes And You're Outside The Constitution: Will The Guantanamo Bay Alien Detainees Be Granted Fundamental Due Process?, Michael Greenberger

Michael Greenberger

The United States Supreme Court has agreed to take up its first case arising from the War on Terror by hearing the consolidated appeals of two groups of foreign aliens who are or who had been detained at the United States Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, Cuba: Rasul v. Bush (No. 03-334) and Al Odah v. United States (No. 03-343). The cases stem from the United States' capture of several hundred prisoners in Afghanistan and Pakistan and their subsequent imprisonment at Guantanamo Bay. The prison began operation in January 2002, and approximately 90 detainees have been freed up to this time, …

False Conflict: Who's In Charge Of National Public Health Catastrophes, Michael Greenberger

Michael Greenberger

Hurricane Katrina renewed an old debate concerning which level of government should lead the response effort to catastrophic disasters. Traditionally, emergency response is handled at the most local level possible. The National Response Plan (NRP) adheres to this tenet, while providing for extensive coordination between the federal government and states and localities, if necessary. In doing so, the NRP provides procedures to ensure that federal assets may be brought to bear, without stomping on the nation's time honored commitment to the principles of federalism.

Judicial Review Of Administrative Action And Responsible Government, Warner W. Gardner, Michael Greenberger

Michael Greenberger

No abstract provided.

Indefinite Material Witness Detention Without Probable Cause: Thinking Outside The Fourth Amendment, Michael Greenberger

Michael Greenberger

A constitutional issue recently addressed by the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in United States v. Awadallah, 349 F.3d 42 (2003), has not received the widespread attention of high-profile litigation concerning the Justice Department's other controversial counter-terrorism policies. It is equally important. The issue arises out of Attorney General Ashcroft's announcement shortly after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 that the aggressive detention of material witnesses [was] vital to preventing, disrupting or delaying new attacks. Since that time, the Department of Justice has used the federal material witness statute (18 U.S.C. Section 3144) to arrest …

The 800 Pound Gorilla Sleeps: The Federal Government's Lackadaisical Liability And Compensation Policies In The Context Of Pre-Event Vaccine Immunization Programs, Michael Greenberger

Michael Greenberger

On July 21, 2004, President Bush signed the Project Bioshield Act, which authorizes the spending of $5.6 billion to advance the development and acquisition of vaccines and other countermeasures to biological agents. While the funding and progress are welcome signs for our national biodefense strategy, the failure of the federal Phase I smallpox vaccination program demonstrated that other serious obstacles remain to the implementation of a successful pre-event vaccine immunization program. Specifically, as demonstrated by a field study of several states' health departments, performed at the ANSER Institute for Homeland Security, the federal government's inability to provide both sufficient liability …

Ending Excessive Speculation In Commodity Markets: Legislative Options, Michael Greenberger

Michael Greenberger

No abstract provided.

Rights-In-Data Policies Affecting Department Of Defense Acquisition Of Computer Software And Related Products, Michael Greenberger, Michael Kane

Michael Greenberger

No abstract provided.

Project Bioshield: Linking Bioterrorism Threats And Countermeasure Procurement To Enhance Terrorism Preparedness, Michael Greenberger

Michael Greenberger

No abstract provided.

The Role Of The Courts In Criminal Justice, Timothy O'Neill

Timothy P. O'Neill

What Documentary Films Teach Us About The Criminal Justice System - Introduction, Taunya Lovell Banks

Taunya Lovell Banks

Film . . . has been used effectively to shape public perceptions about the criminal justice system. . . . [and] the documentary form has power to convict or release a defendant, as well as to disclose the positive and negative aspects of the criminal justice system. . . . Three articles on this subject appear in this issue of the UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND LAW JOURNAL OF RACE, RELIGION, GENDER AND CLASS and add to this body of scholarship. . . .Our goal was to foster a series of dialogues among and between a number of individuals: filmmakers....

The Price Of Fame: Brown As Celebrity, Mark Graber

Mark Graber

This essay examines the history of Brown I, Brown II, and Bolling in the Supreme Court of the United States. Enduring precedents, the analysis suggests, go through three stages. In the first stage, they fight for survival. This describes Brown during the first decade after that decision was handed down. No Supreme Court Justice asserted, “Brown should be overruled,” but many citations to Brown came in the context of political efforts to reverse or marginalize that decision. In the second stage, precedents fight for extension. This describes Brown in the later Warren and Burger years. Civil rights activists insisted that …

Running Cars, Constitutions And Metaphors Into The Ground, Mark A. Graber

Mark Graber

Professor Sanford Levinson frequently analogizes the Constitution of the United States to a vehicle that desperately needs repairs. “[R]elying on the present Constitution.” he writes, “is similar to driving a car with very bad brakes and slick tires.” Much commentary on Our Undemocratic Constitution implicitly challenges the automotive metaphor. The Constitution of the United States, supporters profess, is not really as bad as Levinson would have us believe. The following pages take a road less traveled. Ancient constitutional institutions in the United States are suffering from severe wear and tear. Nevertheless, decisions to drive a comparatively unsafe car are often …

Green Protectionism Is No Less Harmful Than Any Other Type, Sungjoon Cho

Sungjoon Cho

No abstract provided.

The Miracle In Springfield, Ann Lousin

Ann M. Lousin

Legal Bargaining Theory's New "Prospecting" Agenda: It May Be Social Science, But Is It News?, Robert J. Condlin

Robert J. Condlin

In the good old days legal bargaining scholarship was based mostly on negotiator war stories exuberantly told. The social-scientific study of the subject did not begin in earnest until the nineteen-seventies. Since then, however, the literature of storytelling has gone into a pronounced eclipse and social-scientific study is now the principal scholarly game in town. This article questions the wisdom of this shift, almost seismic in its proportions, and argues that it is too soon to jump on the social science bandwagon. Discussion focuses on the uses made of the Prospect Theory of Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky and the …

Characteristics Of A Mature Legal Writing Program, E. Joan Blum

E. Joan Blum

As a legal writing programs matures, a culture of collaboration can foster innovation and excellence more effectively than a director-led program.

Characteristics Of A Mature Legal Writing Program, Judith Tracy

Judith B. Tracy

No abstract provided.