Law Commons^™

The Mystery Of The Leavenworth Oaths, M H. Hoeflich, Stephen M. Sheppard

Faculty Articles

Lawyers have sworn an oath to be admitted to the Bar since the beginnings of the Anglo-American legal profession. The oath serves several extremely important purposes. First, it is the formal act that admits an individual into the Bar and confers upon the oath taker the right to perform the duties of an attorney in the jurisdiction in which the oath is given. Second, the oath admits the new attorney to the broader world of the legal profession and signifies that the new attorney has been judged by the oath giver as worthy of the right to practice law. Third, …

"Only To Have A Say In The Way He Dies:" Bodily Autonomy And Methods Of Execution, Alexandra L. Klein

Faculty Articles

Capital punishment is one of the most significant intrusions into a person's bodily autonomy; the state takes a person's life. Even though the state has stripped a person on death row of much of their autonomy and intends to kill them, removing all autonomy, a person sentenced to death may, in some circumstances, choose how they will die. While most states rely on a single method of execution, some states permit a condemned person to choose among two or more methods of execution. Constitutional challenges to methods of execution requires the challenger to demonstrate a substantial risk of severe pain …

When Police Volunteer To Kill, Alexandra L. Klein

Faculty Articles

The Supreme Court has upheld the constitutionality of lethal injection, yet states continue to struggle with drug shortages and botched executions. Some states have authorized alternative methods of execution, including the firing squad. Utah, which has consistently carried out firing squad executions throughout its history, relies on police officers from the jurisdiction where the crime took place to volunteer to carry out these executions. This represents a plausible-and probable method for other states in conducting firing squad executions.

Public and academic discussion of the firing squad has centered on questions of pain and suffering. It has not engaged with the …

Meaningless Guarantees: Comment On Mitchell E. Mccloy's “Blind Justice: Virginia's Jury Sentencing Scheme And Impermissible Burdens On A Defendant's Right To A Jury Trial", Alexandra L. Klein

Faculty Articles

Despite the important role that jurors play in the American criminal justice system, jurors are often deprived of critical information that might help them make sense of the law their oaths require them to follow. Such information with regard to sentencing might include the unavailability of parole, geriatric release, sentencing guidelines, or other information that is relevant to determining a defendant's penalty. Withholding information from juries, particularly in sentencing, risks unjust and inequitable sentences. Keeping jurors in the dark perpetuates injustices and undermines public confidence and trust in the justice system.

Mitch McCloy's excellent Note provides a compelling illustration of …

Machine Learning And The New Civil Procedure, Zoe Niesel

Faculty Articles

There is an increasing emphasis in the legal academy, the media, and the popular consciousness on how artificial intelligence and machine learning will change the foundations of legal practice. In concert with these discussions, a critical question needs to be explored-As computer programming learns to adjust itself without explicit human involvement, does machine learning impact the procedural practice of law? Civil procedure, while sensitive to technology, has been slow to adapt to change. As such, this Article will explore the impact that machine learning will have on procedural jurisprudence in two significant areas-service of process and personal jurisdiction.

The Article …

Federal Jurisdiction For Above-Ground Oil Storage Tanks: A Practical Analysis For Navigating Federal Regulations, Kathryn Hussong

St. Mary's Law Journal

Clear, consistent, and concise jurisdictional boundaries will aid pipeline operators to determine which regulations apply to their operations and associated facilities. This will help alleviate legal and financial risk to pipeline operators, who may be liable for noncompliance regardless of whether the pipeline operator or the associated refinery commits the violation. Overlapping state and federal regulations of pipelines and refineries has created confusion amongst operators regarding what regulations apply to their facilities. Three federal agencies—the Pipeline and Hazardous Safety Administration (PHMSA), the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) respectively—and a myriad of state agencies simultaneously …

Beyond The Borders Of The Law: Critical Legal Histories Of The North American West (Book Review), Michael S. Ariens

Faculty Articles

No abstract provided.

#Personaljurisdiction: A New Age Of Internet Contacts, Zoe Niesel

Faculty Articles

No abstract provided.

Sanctuary Cities And The Trump Administration: The Practical Limits Of Federal Power, Joshua W. Dansby

The Scholar: St. Mary's Law Review on Race and Social Justice

On January 25, 2017, President Donald J. Trump signed an executive order with the supposed purpose of enhancing public safety of the interior of the United States. Part of the Administration’s plan includes threatening “sanctuary jurisdictions,” also known as “sanctuary cities,” with the loss of federal funds for failing to comply with federal law, specifically 8 U.S.C. § 1373.

There are several problems with this plan: (1) there is no solid definition for what makes a city a “sanctuary;” (2) if we accept the Administration’s allusion that a sanctuary jurisdiction is one that “willfully” refuses to comply with 8 U.S.C. …

The Knottiest Problem: Unraveling Arising Under Jurisdiction In Copyright Cases, Zoe Niesel, Bethany A. Corbin

Faculty Articles

No abstract provided.

Personal Jurisdiction In Legal Malpractice Litigation, Cassandra Burke Robertson

St. Mary's Journal on Legal Malpractice & Ethics

Lawyers are increasingly engaging in multi-jurisdictional practice—and their representation is increasingly giving rise to cross­-jurisdictional malpractice actions. Over the years, courts have issued divergent and contradictory opinions about whether out-of-state attorneys representing clients only on out-of-state matters can constitutionally be subject to personal jurisdiction in the client’s home state. The Supreme Court’s recent opinions in Daimler v. Bauman and Walden v. Fiore do little to settle this question and, in fact, may raise more questions than they answer. Nevertheless, the Supreme Court’s new personal jurisdiction jurisprudence offers an opportunity for courts to adopt a more cohesive analysis of personal jurisdiction …

Daimler And The Jurisdictional Triskelion, Zoe Niesel

Faculty Articles

No abstract provided.

Judicial Participation In Plea Bargaining: A Dispute Resolution Perspective, Rishi Batra

Faculty Articles

There is a common perception that judges do not or should not play a role in the criminal plea bargaining discussions between prosecutors and defense counsel. However, in many state jurisdictions, judicial participation is allowed or even encouraged by statute or by case law. This Article briefly summarizes some of the issues with the plea bargaining process, including how structural issues with the way defense counsel are appointed and compensated, along with the power of prosecutors, makes good representation for defendants less likely. By then performing a fifty-state survey of rules for judicial participation in plea bargaining, the Article explicates …

Can Federal Courts Exercise Jurisdiction Over State Law Malpractice Claims Arising Out Of Patent Law Disputes?, Isaac C. Ta

St. Mary's Journal on Legal Malpractice & Ethics

Under 28 U.S.C. § 1338, federal courts generally have original jurisdiction over cases arising under federal civil law. Specifically, under 28 U.S.C. § 1338(a), federal courts have jurisdiction over cases brought under federal patent laws. As with any legal proceeding, the potential for legal malpractice as it relates to patent issues (e.g., proper patent filing) is very real. However, unlike patent law proceedings, legal malpractice is governed by state law.' When the two causes of action are intertwined, federal and state courts are presented with the issue of which court possesses proper jurisdiction. Some argue federal courts can properly exercise …

All For One: A Review Of Victim-Centric Justifications For Criminal Punishment, Adam J. Macleod

Faculty Articles

Disparate understandings of the primary justification for criminal punishment have in recent years divided along new lines. Retributivists and consequentialists have long debated whether a community ought to punish violators of legal norms primarily because the violator has usurped communal standards (the retributivist view), or rather merely as a means toward some end such as rehabilitation or deterrence (the consequentialist view). The competing answers to this question have demarcated for some time the primary boundary in criminal jurisprudential thought.

A new fault line appears to have opened between those who maintain the historical view that criminal punishment promotes the common …

A Simple Prescription For Texas's Ailing Court System: Stronger Stare Decisis., Andrew T. Solomon

St. Mary's Law Journal

Several Texas Supreme Court Justices have recently criticized Texas’s appellate justice system for its failure to provide consistency and the unfairness it produces, namely how litigants are treated differently despite the identical factual circumstances. Despite the warnings of various Texas Justices, neither the Texas Supreme Court nor the Texas Legislature have done much to rectify the lack of uniform justice received by Texas litigants. Most of the proposals to reform the Texas appellate justice systems’ unfairness have focused exclusively on structural changes. While structural changes could help reduce inconsistent “justice”, these reforms fail to address the main substantive problem—Texas’s weak …

United States V. Bean: Shoveling After The Elephant., Pannal Alan Sanders

St. Mary's Law Journal

Over the years Congress has enacted and amended several versions of the United States Code (U.S.C) § 925(c). Several reported cases illustrate the courts’ early efforts to develop a coherent body of jurisprudence with respect to the procedural and substantive aspects of U.S.C. § 925(c) judicial review. Specifically, the § 925(c) denials of relief by the Director before the congressional appropriations ban commenced in 1993. Although the methodology and reasoning behind these decisions differ in their details, several themes are discernable. First, even without the express provisions for judicial review added by the Firearms Owners Protection Act (FOPA), courts consistently …

Warrantless Arrest Jurisdiction In Texas: An Analysis And A Proposal., Gerald S. Reamey, J. Daniel Harkins

St. Mary's Law Journal

Within the State of Texas, there exist a great number of “peace officers” who are granted a wide range of power and authority. This includes the power to make warrantless arrests and searches pursuant to those arrests. Significant ambiguity exists regarding a peace officer’s jurisdiction. The confusion is largely due to imprecise statutory language and varying judicial interpretations. Article 998 of Texas Revised Civil Statutes, for example, bestowed on city police officers the same powers, authority, and jurisdiction as city marshals. The statute, though, neglected to define the extent of that jurisdiction, or even what “jurisdiction” meant in that context. …

Warrantless Arrest Jurisdiction In Texas: An Analysis And A Proposal, Gerald S. Reamey, J. Daniel Harkins

Faculty Articles

Within the State of Texas, there exist a great number of “peace officers” who are granted a wide range of power and authority. This includes the power to make warrantless arrests and searches pursuant to those arrests. Significant ambiguity exists regarding a peace officer’s jurisdiction. The confusion is largely due to imprecise statutory language and varying judicial interpretations.

Article 998 of Texas Revised Civil Statutes, for example, bestowed on city police officers the same powers, authority, and jurisdiction as city marshals. The statute, though, neglected to define the extent of that jurisdiction, or even what “jurisdiction” meant in that context. …

Judicial Federalism And Supreme Court Review Of State Court Decisions: A Sensible Balance Emerges, David A. Schlueter

Faculty Articles

State courts are free to exercise final authority as arbiters of state law and adopt state standards that protect individual rights more than federal law. While state courts have responded to such urgings with expansive rulings, they have not always been careful about spelling out in their decisions whether they were relying on state law, federal law, or both. This judicial imprecision creates a jurisdictional dilemma for the Supreme Court when it is asked to review the state court decision. If the state's decision rests on independent and adequate state grounds, the Court will apply judicial restraint and decline review. …