Law Commons^™

Reasonable Person And I, Lydia J. Carlsgaard

UC Law SF Journal on Gender and Justice

No abstract provided.

Illegally Yours, With Updated Foreword, Laura Weinstock

UC Law SF Journal on Gender and Justice

After a drastic change in landscape in the legality of same-sex marriage, the author readdresses the issues faced by the LGBT community just over a decade ago. The author highlights what challenges were presented when same-sex marriage was just becoming legal on a state level and the predictions for what was to come.

Who Is Suspicious, Jon Lau

UC Law SF Journal on Gender and Justice

No abstract provided.

In The Padded Closet: Thoughts On A Secret Life, Naomi A. Himmelhoch

UC Law SF Journal on Gender and Justice

The author highlights their personal experience with several mental issues as a law student as UC Hastings. This piece explains one's approach to the battling the societal and legal issues through their secret battle against mental illness.

Artificial Wombs: The Third Era Of Human Reproduction And The Likely Impact On French And U.S. Law, Marion Abecassis

UC Law SF Journal on Gender and Justice

Advances in reproductive technology are outpacing statutory and regulatory authority, and artificial wombs as a form of assistive reproductive technology are no longer the subject of science fiction. This article begins with insight to the original ideas of artificial wombs and the subsequent effect these ideas had science and technology at the time. Artificial wombs, being disconnected from the body, were the subjects of dystopian portrayals of society, and many critics denied the possibility that such technology would ever exist. Experiments in the 20th century, however, have made artificial wombs a real possibility. The author explores how artificial wombs would …

Natural Incubators: Somatic Support As Reproductive Technology, And The Comparative Constitutional Implications On Cases Of Maternal Brain Death In The U.S., Canada, And Ireland, Sonya Laddon Rahders

UC Law SF Journal on Gender and Justice

Should a brain dead pregnant person be kept alive on life support, despite the family's wishes otherwise, in order to fully gestate the fetus? A 2013 grand rounds study out of United Arab Emirates found that medical technology has reached such an advanced stage that gestational age is no longer a barrier to whether or not a pregnant person may be kept on somatic support until the fetus is delivered. The study concluded that a brain dead pregnant person might serve as a "natural incubator" and successfully deliver a baby after the mother becomes brain dead at just 16 weeks' …

Lifting As They Climb: Race, Sorority, And African American Uplift In The 20th Century, Gregory S. Parks, Caryn Neumann

UC Law SF Journal on Gender and Justice

Founded in the 1920s, Zeta Phi Beta and Sigma Gamma Rho are two prominent African-American sororities with rich histories of community service and philanthropy work. As educated black women, sorority members took on the responsibility of engaging in community racial uplift-that is, to uplift the African-American race as a whole by working to better its purported "lowest" members-in order to acquire rights and to be uplifted in the eyes of whites. Therefore, Zeta Phi Beta and Sigma Gamma Rho dedicated themselves to helping others from their inception until today; both sororities have a vast alumni network of prominent African-American women …

An Uncommon Alliance: Finding Empowerment For Exotic Dancers Through Labor Unions, Sarah Chun

UC Law SF Journal on Gender and Justice

This article explores the life of exotic dancers and their legal status in the employment context. The author highlights the stigma associated with exotic dancing as well as the legal and social barriers that confront these dancers as employees in their attempt to unionize. Specifically, this article addresses the implications of unionizing exotic dance clubs and the organizing efforts to do so in California.

Personal Experiences Of A Deaf Law Student, With Updated Foreword, Alice Mcgill

UC Law SF Journal on Gender and Justice

This article highlights the author's experience as a deaf individual. What began as a challenge in law school became a greater challenge in the legal profession. However, the author highlights, with the passage often American Disabilities Act, that legal landscape has changed drastically in both positive and negative ways. With new technology, new types of discrimination, and new forms of education, the author notes how much her life has changed since law school and how she has become to appreciate the Deaf community in new ways.

I Dance For A Living, Dawn Passar

UC Law SF Journal on Gender and Justice

No abstract provided.

Feminism On The Front Lines, With Updated Foreword, Blythe Leszkay

UC Law SF Journal on Gender and Justice

This article details the history of women in the military and the policies that have kept women out of combat positions, as well as the effect that the ban has had on servicewomen and women in general. It concludes that women should be allowed into combat positions and specifically responds to various arguments of those opposed to women's inclusion in combat roles.

Empty Benefits: Employer-Sponsored Oocyte Cryopreservation And Potential For Employment Discrimination, Ali L. Nicolette

UC Law SF Journal on Gender and Justice

This note analyzes the complexities employer-sponsored egg freezing poses to female employees. The author highlights that with the high-cost procedure and low success rates, this enticing procedure should not be everyone's choice. Given the legal, social, and individual implications for female employees, the author notes that such employer-sponsored egg freezing is an implicit form of gender discrimination as employers push the female employees to work harder selling the sponsorship as a "benefit" of delaying having a family.

Boy Or Girl: Who Gets To Decide: Gender-Nonconforming Children In Child Custody Cases, David Alan Perkiss

UC Law SF Journal on Gender and Justice

Transgender youth, especially those in families that express rejecting behavior, are at great risk for physical and psychological harms that can be alleviated by the support of family. However, when separated parents disagree about whether to support their gender-nonconforming children in their felt genders, especially as more transgender youth come out at earlier ages, disagreements between the parents leads to harm for the child as well as renewed custody challenges. This disagreement was adjudicated in the custody dispute Smith v. Smith. This Article analyzes Smith and applies to cases involving gender-nonconforming children, regardless of a court's finding of gender identity …

Clearing Some Smoke: Medical Cannabis, Fifteen Years Later, Steven Heilig

UC Law SF Journal on Gender and Justice

The legalization of medical cannabis in California came with the passage of the California Proposition 215. However, with the passage of Proposition 215, also came some setbacks, one of them being California Proposition 19. Proposition 19 sought to legalize the sale of cannabis throughout the state, but due to the biases and fear related to the marijuana industry, the proposition failed to pass. The author explains the unique position California is in for the cannabis industry across the country and how it can work to help alleviate the fears of such a growing industry.

Out Of Thin Air: Evaluating The Legality Of The Clean Power Plan Under The Equal Sovereignty Principle, Sharma, Deepa

UC Law Constitutional Quarterly

The Clean Power Plan requires states to meet specific carbon emissions targets based on the amount of pollution emitted from in-state power plants. The rule marks the most aggressive action taken by the United States to combat climate change. The rule, however, is currently facing a litany of legal challenges. In addition to the questionable legal authority under which the regulation was promulgated, the regulation may be constitutionally problematic. This paper examines whether the rule violates the Equal Sovereignty Principle as articulated in the Supreme Court's blockbuster ruling in Shelby County v. Holder because it exempts Alaska and Hawaii without …

Where Else Is The Appearance Of Corruption Protected By The Constitution: A Comparative Analysis Of Campaign Finance Laws After Citizens United And Mccutcheon, Vladyslav Dembitskiy

UC Law Constitutional Quarterly

This Note focuses on the appearance of political corruption in the United States after the two infamous Supreme Court decisions, Citizens United v. FEC and McCutcheon v. FEC. As a foundation, this Note explains that traditional bribery-giving money under the table to get political favors-is generally obsolete because developed countries penalize it equally. Because traditional bribery is unequivocally penalized in all contexts, people have found ways to obtain political favors lawfully: by putting money on the table, as opposed to under the table, through lobbying and campaign finance. This is called "appearance of corruption" because the practice looks like bribery, …

Reforming High-Stakes Police Departments: How Federal Civil Rights Will Rebuild Constitutional Policing In America, Ivana Dukanovic

UC Law Constitutional Quarterly

Over the past two decades, the Justice Department has untaken dozens of topdown interventions of local police departments plagued with unconstitutional policing. From Albuquerque, New Mexico, to Ferguson, Missouri, the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division has instituted reform in departments exhibiting patterns or practices that violate individuals' constitutional rights. The government's tool for imposing such reform and oversight on local, state power is a twenty-three-year-old statute: 42 U.S.C. 14141. This Note proposes that § 14141 is the change agent for rebuilding constitutional policing in America.

But with change comes challenge, and many pushback departments continue to resist reform. The Note …

Government Speech And Circumvention Of The First Amendment, Mark Strasser

UC Law Constitutional Quarterly

The government speech doctrine permits the government to convey its stance on issues through its actions. This article focuses on the development of the government speech doctrine and argues the necessity of limitations on this doctrine to prevent infringements on First Amendment rights. In Rust v. Sullivan, the Supreme Court first recognized what would later be characterized as the government speech doctrine, holding that a statute that prevented clinics from receiving federal funds for abortion-related activities did not violate the Constitution. The Court has subsequently suggested that this was in essence allowing the government to convey a particular message through …

Bar, Bench, And Civic Culture, Geoffrey C. Hazard Jr.

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Bridging Rule Of Law Theory And Implementation: The Role Of Professional Ethical Integrity, Kate E. Bloch

UC Law SF International Law Review

No abstract provided.

Cross-Cultural Challenges, Consensus, And Opportunities For Advancing The Professional Ethical Integrity Of Legal System Actors, Rory K. Little

UC Law SF International Law Review

No abstract provided.

Reflections On Ethical Integrity: Challenges To The Rule Of Law Facing The Haitian Legal Profession, Jomanas Eustache

UC Law SF International Law Review

No abstract provided.

Completing Government Speech's Unfinished Business: Clipping Garcetti's Wings And Addressing Scholarship And Teaching, Edward J. Schoen

UC Law Constitutional Quarterly

This article examines two major developments stemming from the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Garcetti v. Ceballos, in which the Court ruled: Statements made by public employees pursuant to their official duties are not protected by the First Amendment. Furthermore, the Court disclaimed whether or not its ruling applied to scholarship of teaching. First, this decision has triggered an avalanche of circuit court decisions dismissing 42 U.S.C. § 1983 employment retaliation claims, because the courts usually determined the expression was derived from the government employee's actual duties. Second, the disclaimer has created inconsistency and doubt in assessing § 1983 public …

The American Bar Association's Criminal Justice Mental Health Standards: Revisions For The Twenty-First Century, Christopher Slobogin

UC Law Constitutional Quarterly

The American Bar Association's revision of its Criminal Justice Mental Health Standards ("Standards"), promulgated in August 2016, tackles a wide range of issues concerning the involvement of people with mental disabilities in the criminal justice system. Consisting of over ninety black letter provisions, the Standards address diversion and specialized courts; the role of mental health professionals, the police, lawyers and correctional officials in cases involving people with mental disabilities; and the law and processes associated with competency, insanity, commitment, and capital and non-capital sentencing. This article describes the genesis of the Standards and explains their content, organized in terms of …

Asylum And Terrorism: The Death Of Human Rights Law?, Moria Paz

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Twenty-Week Abortion Statutes: Four Arguments, Randy Beck

UC Law Constitutional Quarterly

The Supreme Court has never justified the conclusion that the Constitution bars any substantial regulation designed to protect fetal life prior to viability. No majority opinion has offered a rationale for the viability rule, and the arguments in non-majority opinions are conclusory or fail to distinguish viability from earlier possible lines. The viability rule is arbitrary because the capacity of a fetus to survive outside the womb says nothing about the value of the fetus from the standpoint of the state or the burden of pregnancy on the mother, the two interests the rule purports to balance. The arbitrary character …

Meyer, Pierce, And The History Of The Entire Human Race: Barbarism, Social Progress, And (The Fall And Rise Of) Parental Rights, Jeffrey Shulman

UC Law Constitutional Quarterly

This article examines the significance of the United States Supreme Court decisions in Meyer v. Nebraska and Pierce v. Society of the Sisters under the backdrop of shifting views on what constitutes appropriate state regulation of education. On its face, the question of how a state may regulate education may not seem so controversial. However, the idea that the state could mandate public education and take children from their parents conflicted with traditional views of family autonomy and parental authority.

Progress would occur with the steady diminution of state authority, but under the guidance of the court. Part I of …

Operation Inherent Resolve And The Reemergence Of The Debate Over The War Powers Resolution, Kyle C. Walker

UC Law Constitutional Quarterly

In the face of terrorist threats and the emergence of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, President Obama has authorized air-strikes as part of the country's antiterrorism campaign. This article begins by discussing the unique justifications for the executive's actions as commander in chief, and identifies the difficult question of defining where Presidential and Congressional war powers begin, end, and overlap. Specifically, the article describes how the Executive has relied on the 2002 Authorization to Use Military Force in Iraq as well as the President's constitutional authority to protect American citizens and national security. In doing so, President …

The Real-World Fourth Amendment, Brent E. Newton

UC Law Constitutional Quarterly

The Fourth Amendment's protections against unreasonable searches and seizures have resulted in a massive body of appellate case law, including several hundreds of decisions by the Supreme Court and many thousands of decisions by the lower courts. The Article, written by a former long-time public defender, provides a comprehensive and accessible survey of the Fourth Amendment as applied to recurring real-world situations in which a police officer or other governmental official engages in a search or seizure of property or a person. The Article addresses both "substantive" and "remedial" aspects of the Fourth Amendment in both criminal prosecutions and civil …

Shocking The Eighth Amendment's Conscience: Applying A Substantive Due Process Test To The Evolving Cruel And Unusual Punishments Clause, Jency Megan Butler

UC Law Constitutional Quarterly

Excessive force is today's most prominently debated governmental abuse. The "shocks the conscience" test is a widely used substantive due process protection that analyzes excessive force claims. More specifically, under excessive force law, the "shocks the conscience" test evaluates whether the government has violated a person's constitutional rights. This Note begins with an overview of Eighth Amendment history and articulates a problem in today's Cruel and Unusual jurisprudence created by the Supreme Court's unsettled proportionality review. This Note then proposes that the Cruel and Unusual Punishments Clause should be interpreted with the "shocks the conscience" standard. For an Eighth Amendment …