Law Commons^™

Suing Texas State Senate Bill 8 Plaintiffs Under Federal Law For Violations Of Constitutional Rights, Anthony J. Colangelo

SMU Law Review Forum

Many people are deriding (or celebrating) the exceptional—and exceptionally deceptive—device of the Texas legislature to so-called “deputize” private individuals as government enforcement agents to carry out a state anti-abortion law that, at present, violates the U.S. Constitution. The law at issue, commonly referred to as Senate Bill 8, is extraordinarily broad, and provides that anyone can sue anyone who “aids or abets” an abortion after about six weeks of pregnancy (including, if read literally, the Uber driver who drove the woman to the clinic). The law awards recovery of no less than $10,000 and makes no exceptions for pregnancies resulting …

Ending Injustice: Solving The Initial Appearance Crisis, Pamela R. Metzger, Janet C. Hoeffel, Kristin Meeks, Sandra Sidi

Deason Center Reports

Most Americans expect that if they are arrested, they will quickly appear before a judge, learn about the charges, and have an attorney assigned to defend them. The reality is vastly different. After arrest, a person can wait in jail for days, weeks, or even months before seeing a judge or meeting an attorney. This report chronicles the resulting initial appearance crisis and highlights its devastating consequences. More importantly, it provides policymakers and advocates with actionable recommendations.

Texas, Abortion, And State Action, Alexander J. Lindvall

SMU Law Review Forum

The Texas Legislature recently passed what the Supreme Court describes as an “unprecedented” statutory scheme. Texas’s new law allows private, everyday citizens to sue anyone who assists a woman in obtaining an abortion after her sixth week of pregnancy. It’s clear that Texas chose this unusual enforcement mechanism to try to circumvent the Constitution’s “state action” requirement. Before a plaintiff can challenge a policy or action on constitutional grounds, they must show that the government somehow had a hand in causing their harm. But this Texas law strips the government of its enforcement power and instead gives it to everyday …

School Police Reform: A Public Health Imperative, Thalia González, Emma Kaeser

SMU Law Review Forum

Out of the twin pandemics currently gripping the United States­—deaths of unarmed Black victims at the hands of police and racialized health inequities resulting from COVID-19—an antiracist health equity agenda has emerged that identifies racism as a public health crisis. Likewise, calls for reform of school policing by those advocating for civil rights, racial justice, and Black Lives Matter have simultaneously intensified. Yet each remains siloed, despite the natural connection and implicit overlap between these separate movements and debates. Indeed, there are documented negative health effects of school policing for Black, Indigenous, people of color (BIPOC) youth. But these have …

The Texas Legislature Has Significantly Broadened The Statute Governing Recovery Of Attorney's Fees In Breach Of Contract Cases, Gregory Scott Crespi, West Menefee Bakke

SMU Law Review Forum

Texas recently enacted amendments that significantly expand the scope of section 38.001 of the Texas Civil Practice & Remedies Code, a statute that awards attorney’s fees to successful claimants in breach of contract cases. Under the new amendments, which take effect September 1, 2021, the prevailing party may recover reasonable attorney’s fees from most forms of business organizations, including partnerships and limited liability companies—not just from individuals and corporations, as the statute previously provided. And although there has been some confusion on this point, the amended statute continues to protect governments and governmental agencies from attorney’s fees liability. Additionally, the …

Budding Change, Pamela R. Metzger, Victoria Smiegocki, Kristin Meeks

Deason Center Reports

Budding Change explores what happened when Dallas County District Attorney John Creuzot (DA Creuzot) radically changed his office’s policies about the prosecution of first-time misdemeanor marijuana cases. The report concludes that DA Creuzot’s 2019 policies were associated with significant reductions in police enforcement of marijuana misdemeanor laws. As a result, marijuana screening caseloads within the District Attorney’s Office declined substantially. Budding Change shows that prosecutorial policies can have a profound impact on policing behaviors.

The Abcs Of Racial Disparity, Pamela R. Metzger, Kristin Meeks, Victoria Smiegocki, Kenitra Brown

Deason Center Reports

Data show that Black and White people use marijuana at roughly equal rates. Yet in 2018, in six of Dallas County's biggest cities, Black people were vastly overrepresented in the enforcement of low-level drug crimes. With a look at enforcement trends before the election of District Attorney John Creuzot, this study launches a series of reports about how his reforms have impacted Dallas County.

The Gun Rights Movement And 'Arms' Under The Second Amendment, Eric M. Ruben

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

After Donald Trump supporters breached the U.S. Capitol on January 6 wielding weapons including tasers, chemical sprays, knives, police batons, and baseball bats, Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) remarked that the insurrection “didn’t seem . . . armed.” Johnson, who is A-rated by the National Rifle Association (NRA), observed, “When you hear the word ‘armed,’ don’t you think of firearms?” For many, the answer is likely yes.

This essay describes how the gun rights movement has contributed to the conflation of arms and firearms. In doing so, it shows how that conflation is flatly inconsistent with the most important legal context …

When Half The Neighborhood Is Missing: How To Overcome Systemic Poverty And Gentrification Following The Models Of Dudley Street And Mission Waco, Kevin A. Brown, Kevin A. Brown, Kevin A. Brown

Doctor of Ministry Projects and Theses

Abstract

By following the examples of Mission Waco and The Dudley Street Initiative, it is possible to renew a sense of beloved community by changing the narrative of poverty and gentrification by rebuilding the village through empowering the poor and marginalized.

Mission Waco and The Dudley Street Initiative are comprehensive sustainable communities because they combine numerous social and economic interventions under developed strategic plans. The principal question that this dissertation seeks to answer is whether these models can be implemented in local communities to help overcome gentrification and poverty. Implementation can be successful if we can identify the problem, rethink …

Automated Analysis Of Rfps Using Natural Language Processing (Nlp) For The Technology Domain, Sterling Beason, William Hinton, Yousri A. Salamah, Jordan Salsman

SMU Data Science Review

Much progress has been made in text analysis, specifically within the statistical domain of Term Frequency (TF) and Inverse Document Frequency (IDF). However, there is much room for improvement especially within the area of discovering Emerging Trends. Emerging Trend Detection Systems (ETDS) depend on ingesting a collection of textual data and TF/IDF to identify new or up-trending topics within the Corpus. However, the tremendous rate of change and the amount of digital information presents a challenge that makes it almost impossible for a human expert to spot emerging trends without relying on an automated ETD system. Since the U.S. Government …

Russia/Eurasia, Maria Grechishkina, Natalia Lantonio, Timur Bondaryev

The Year in Review

No abstract provided.

Middle East Committee, Hdeel Abdelhady, Sarah A. Oliai, Ibrahim Sattout, Dania Dib, Emma Higham, Yasser Shabbir, Abdulaziz M. Al Hussan, Amgad T. Husein, Mahmoud Abdel-Baky, Jonathan G. Burns, Zachary J. Walker, Christian Murad, S. Elisa Kim

The Year in Review

No abstract provided.

Mexico, Gil Anav, Francisco Garcia Bedoy Uribe, Susan Burns, Sergio Bustamante, Yurixhi Gallardo Martinez, Jorge Garcia Peralta, Karla Gudino Yanezyves, Matthew Hansen, Yves Hayaux Du Tilly L., Marco Antonio Pena Barba, Juan Pablo Sainz

The Year in Review

No abstract provided.

India, Aseem Chawla, Kavita Mohan, Poorvi Chothani, Gagan Kumar, Amit Kaushik, Namrata Patodia Rastogi, Sharanya G. Ranga, Riya Dutta

The Year in Review

No abstract provided.

Europe, Thomas Stanton, Laurent De Muyter, Angelique Devaux, Audrey Kavets, Valeria Miller, Jorg Rehder, John Richards, Andreas Ripken, Roselyn Sands

The Year in Review

No abstract provided.

Canada, Angela E. Weaver, Erin Brown, Melissa N. Burkett, Sunita D. Doobay, Theodore Goloff, George Karayannides, Ken Macdonald, Martin G. Masse, Terri-Lee Oleniuk, Taylor Schappert, Ellen Snow, Clifford Sosnow

The Year in Review

No abstract provided.

Asia Pacific, Justin G. Persaud, Zack Spencer, Genan Zilkha

The Year in Review

No abstract provided.

Africa, Diepiriye Anga, Lawrence Fubara Anga, Rosanna Barsati, Elisha Bhugwandeen, Susan Bishai, Anne Bodley, Ineke Brink, Ladawn Burnett, Kirsty Dean-Mhlongo, Michela Cocchi, Tamara Dini, Adam Dubin, Dr. Porpoise Evans, Rudolf Ezeani, Peter Finan, Elizabeth Fitzgerald, Katherine Flannery, Sara Frazao, Ganiyou Gassikia, Felicia Gordon, Jehmal Hudson, Joyce Karanja-Ng'ang'a, Sarika Karia, Ryan P. Kelley, James Lord, Lumela Lumela, Anis Mahfoud, Xolani Nyali, Nkatha Obungu, Nelson Ogbuanya, Steve Onwuasoanya, Ricardo Silva

The Year in Review

No abstract provided.

Transnational Legal Practice, Laurel Terry

The Year in Review

No abstract provided.

Sexual Orientation And Gender Identity, Mark E. Wojcik

The Year in Review

No abstract provided.

National Security Law, James D. Carlson, Geoffrey M. Goodale, Guy C. Quinlan, Sergio L. Suarez

The Year in Review

No abstract provided.

International Organizations: The Work Of The Un In 2015, Javier Etcheverry Boneo, Elizabeth A. Turchi, Renee Dopplick, Jehmal Hudson, Gabrielle Culmer, Poopak Taati

The Year in Review

No abstract provided.

International Human Rights, Noor Ahmad, Honorable Del Atwood, Jeffrey L. Bleich, Cindy Galway Buys, Nicholas J. Leddy

The Year in Review

No abstract provided.

International Environmental And Resources Law, Kristen Hite, Lynn A. Long, Stephanie Altman, Derek Campbell, David Gravallese, Richard A. Horsch, David Hunter, Erika Lennon, Thomas Parker Redick, Matt Oakes, Erica Lyman, Andrew Schatz, Baskut Tunack, Giulia Carlini

The Year in Review

No abstract provided.

International Art And Cultural Heritage, Patty Gerstenblith, Jacqueline Farinella, David Bright, Kevin Ray

The Year in Review

No abstract provided.

Anti-Money Laundering, Nicole S. Healy, Emily N. Christiansen

The Year in Review

No abstract provided.

Anti-Corruption, Leslie A. Benton, Stuart H. Deming, Mikhail Reider-Gordon, Frank A. Fariello, Christina M. Mitropoulos

The Year in Review

No abstract provided.

International Tax, Margriet Lukkien, Christie Galinski, David Dingfa Liu, Aseem Chawla, Eugenio Romita, Guillermo Villsenor, Jorge Lopez, Star Q. Lopez

The Year in Review

No abstract provided.

Immigration And Naturalization, Kevin J. Fandl, Melanie Glover, Sabrina Damast, Alexandria Sodini

The Year in Review

No abstract provided.

Employment Law, Theodore Goloff

The Year in Review

No abstract provided.