Law Commons^™

Taking Care With Text: "The Laws" Of The Take Care Clause Do Not Include The Constitution, And There Is No Autonomous Presidential Power Of Constitutional Interpretation, George Mader

Faculty Scholarship

“Departmentalism” posits that each branch of the federal government has an independent power of constitutional interpretation—all branches share the power and need not defer to one another in the exercise of their interpretive powers. As regards the Executive Branch, the textual basis for this interpretive autonomy is that the Take Care Clause requires the President to “take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed” and the Supremacy Clause includes the Constitution in “the supreme Law of the Land.” Therefore, the President is to execute the Constitution as a law. Or so the common argument goes. The presidential oath to “execute …

Employee Benefits Law—Shifting The Burden Out Of Neutral: Why Burden-Shifting Is Necessary In Erisa Breach Of Fiduciary Duty Claims, William G. Mcgrath

University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law Review

No abstract provided.

Criminal Procedure—Technology In The Modern Era: The Implications Of Carpenter V. United States And The Limits Of The Third-Party Doctrine As To Cell Phone Data Gathered Through Real-Time Tracking, Stingrays, And Cell Tower Dumps, Deepali Lal

University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law Review

No abstract provided.

Employment Law—Just Let Them Handle It Amongst Themselves: An Argument In Favor Of Abandoning The Application Of The Lynn's Food Stores Standard To Flsa Settlement Agreements, Matthew C. Lewis

University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law Review

No abstract provided.

A New Stage In The Struggle For Voting Rights, Lynn Adelman

University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law Review

No abstract provided.

Contract Law—Conspicuous Arbitration Agreements In Online Contracts: Contradictions And Challenges In The Uber Cases, Matthew Hoffman

University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law Review

No abstract provided.

Roadmap For Anti-Racism: First Unwind The War On Drugs Now, André Douglas Pond Cummings, Steven A. Ramirez

Faculty Scholarship

The War on Drugs (WOD) transmogrified into a war on communities of color early in its history, and its impact has devastated communities of color first and foremost. People of color disproportionately suffer incarceration in the WOD even though people of color use illegal narcotics at substantially lower rates than white Americans. As a result, the WOD led to mass incarceration of people of color at many times the rate of white Americans. Indeed, as a stark illustration of the power of race in America, even after Illinois and Colorado legalized cannabis, over-policing in communities of color resulted in a …

Employment Law—Antidiscrimination—Falling Into The Legal Void: How Arkansas Can Protect Unpaid Interns From Discrimination And Harassment, Christina Redmann

University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Racist Roots Of The War On Drugs And The Myth Of Equal Protection For People Of Color, André Douglas Pond Cummings, Stephen A. Ramirez

University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law Review

By 2021, the costs and pain arising from the propagation of the American racial hierarchy reached such heights that calls for anti-racism and criminal justice reform dramatically expanded. The brutal murder of George Floyd by the Minneapolis police vividly proved that the social construction of race in America directly conflicted with supposed American values of equal protection under law and notions of basic justice. The racially-driven War on Drugs (WOD) fuels much of the dissonance between American legal mythology—such as the non-discrimination principle and the impartial administration of the rule of law—and the reality of race in the United States. …

What It Takes: A Statistical Analysis Of Arkansas Supreme Court’S Petition For Review Process, Justice Rhonda Wood, Jessica Finan Patterson, Brian W. Johnson

University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law Review

No abstract provided.

Criminal Law—The Federal Sentencing Guidelines: Examining The Physical Restraint Sentencing Enhancement, Drew Curtis

University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law Review

No abstract provided.

Constitutional Law—Fourteenth Amendment And Fetal Personhood—Established Injustice: American Abortion Jurisprudence And The Irreducible, Geoffrey "Chip" Gross

University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law Review

No abstract provided.

Administrative Law—The Wholesale Human: The Ineffectuality Of Responsive Regulation To Advancements In Reproductive Biotechnology Post Roe V. Wade, E. Jonathan Mader

University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law Review

No abstract provided.

Trauma: Community Of Color Exposure To The Criminal Justice System As An Adverse Childhood Experience, André Douglas Pond Cummings, Todd Clark, Caleb Gregory Conrad, Amy Dunn Johnson

Faculty Scholarship

The reality that traumatic childhood experiences are directly linked to negative health outcomes has been known and widely recognized in public health and clinical literature for more than two decades. Adverse Childhood Experiences (“ACEs”) represent the “single greatest unaddressed public health threat facing our nation today” according to Dr. Robert Block, former President of the American Academy of Pediatrics.

ACEs are traumatic events that occur in early childhood, which can range from abuse and neglect to experiences derived from household and community dysfunction, such as losing a caregiver, being incarcerated, or living with a household member suffering from mental illness. …

Donative Hot-Powers Cases Under The Uniform Power Of Attorney Act, F. Philip Manns Jr.

University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law Review

Among its significant reforms, the Uniform Power of Attorney Act (UPOAA) denies agents nine types of power unless “the power of attorney expressly grants” them. Those so-called “hot powers” relate to delegations of fiduciary authority and to donative transfers of the principal’s property for less than full consideration. The donative hot powers include creating, amending, or terminating a trust; making gifts; creating or changing beneficiary designations; creating or changing rights of survivorship; and waiving or disclaiming property interests. The rationale for requiring the grant of specific authority is the risk those acts pose to the principal’s property and estate plan. …

Arkansas’S Civil Asset Forfeiture Statute And The Eighth Amendment’S Excessive Fines Clause, Aaron Newell

University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Motor Carrier Excuse, David M. Cole

University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law Review

No abstract provided.

Constitutional Law—Large-Capacity Magazine Bans And The Second Amendment, Jared Self

University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law Review

No abstract provided.

Property Law—Beyond Repair: The Persistent Unconstitutionality Of The Failure To Vacate Statute, Colin Boyd

University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Farcical Samaritan's Dilemma, Andre Douglas Pond Cummings, Steven A. Ramirez

Faculty Scholarship

“[T]he hypothesis is that modern man has become incapable of making the choices that are required to prevent his exploitation by predators of his own species[.]”

This article explores one of the foundational pillar theories of Law and Economics and specifically Public Choice Theory as espoused by Nobel Laureate James M. Buchanan: the “Samaritan’s Dilemma.” Using the Biblical parable of the Good Samaritan, Buchanan imagines a “dilemma” faced by the Good Samaritan when encountering a beaten and bloodied man left to die on the road to Jericho. Using Game Theory, Buchanan constructs a moral quandary that the man from Samaria …

Toward A Socially Just Peace In The War On Drugs?: The Illinois Cannabis Social-Equity Program, Andre Douglas Pond Cummings

Faculty Scholarship

Laudably, when Illinois legalized the recreational use of cannabis, it also sought to repair the damage wrought by the War on Drugs (WOD)through its social-equity initiatives. That harm included excessive and disproportionate incarceration in communities of color, over-policing within those communities, and all of the social and economic harms implicit in those realities. This harm necessarily creates intergenerational harm, as parents and children lose necessary pillars of support. Moreover, compelling evidence suggests that the progenitors of the WOD in-tended this harm. Measured against this historic social injustice, the social equity efforts in Illinois fail to secure a material unwinding of …

Cause For Concern Or Cause For Celebration?: Did Bostock V. Clayton County Establish A New Mixed Motive Theory For Title Vii Cases And Make It Easier For Plaintiffs To Prove Discrimination Claims?, Terrence Cain

Faculty Scholarship

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 makes it unlawful for an employer to discriminate against an employee “because of” race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. This seems simple enough, but if an employer makes an adverse employment decision partly for an impermissible reason and partly for a permissible reason, i.e., if the employer acts with a mixed motive, has the employer acted “because of” the impermissible reason? According to Gross v. FBL Financial Services, Inc. and University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center v. Nassar, the answer is no. The Courts in Gross and Nassar held that …

Time To Mail It In? A Survey Of 2020 Voting Rights Issues In Arkansas And Recommendations For More Inclusive Elections, Kim Vu-Dinh

University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law Review

The highly contagious COVID-19 pandemic, combined with over fifty lawsuits brought by former President Donald Trump, made the general election of 2020 one of the most controversial in the history of the United States. Accusations of voter disenfranchisement proliferated across the nation and were initiated by members of both sides of the political spectrum, even before Election Day. Arkansas was no exception to this rule. In 2020, multiple Arkansas lawsuits highlighted the weaknesses of the state’s voter infrastructure, particularly with regard to the absentee ballot process. Voting-by-mail was particularly important in the pandemic year when long lines became a public …

Labor And Employment—Not Waiting For Superman: Collective Bargaining As An Affirmation Of Teachers' Value, Christopher Yeatman

University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law Review

No abstract provided.

Yazzie V. Hobbs: The 2020 Election And Voting By Mail On- And Off-Reservation In Arizona, Jean Reith Schroedel, Kara Mazareas, Joseph Dietrich, Jamaica Bacus-Crawford

University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law Review

During the 2020 election, voting by mail was touted as a way to safely vote from home and avoid the risks of contracting COVID-19. While voting by mail is definitely safer than in-person voting, it also assumes that all citizens have equal access to the mail services needed for voting by mail. Lawyers, acting on behalf of Navajo plaintiffs in Arizona, argued in Yazzie et al. v. Hobbs (2020) that voters living on the Navajo Nation faced impermissible barriers in accessing voting by mail. They provided evidence showing there was limited mail service on the reservation and that mail delivery …

Business Judgment Rule Or Due Diligence? How To Reduce Vicarious Liability For Spac Directors And Officers, Beau Duty

University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law Review

No abstract provided.

Immigration Law—Creating Consistency In Domestic Violence Asylum Cases, Zoya Miller

University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law Review

No abstract provided.

Arkansas Practice Materials: A Selective Annotated Bibliography, Jessie Wallace Burchfield, Melissa Serfass

Faculty Scholarship

Whether you are a legal professional or a novice legal researcher, this annotated bibliography of Arkansas practice materials provides current and relevant state-specific information about available resources. The bibliography integrates online and print resources, grouped by topic rather than format. Each source is annotated with helpful information.

Detailed information about primary legal materials such as court cases, statutes and administrative regulations is included. Information about secondary sources such as treatises, practice manuals, forms, and websites, is also covered.

It is organized in five main sections: Primary Materials, Government Resources, State Specific Resources, General Jurisprudence, and Practice Materials by Topic.

Trauma, André Douglas Pond Cummings

Faculty Scholarship

Meek Mill’s life and career have been punctuated by trauma. From childhood through his current adulthood, Mill has experienced excruciating trauma even as a well-known hip hop artist. In 2018’s track of that name Trauma, Mill describes in illuminating prose just how these traumatic experiences harmed and impacted him personally describing the very same harms that impact so many similarly situated young black people in the United States. Meek Mill, as a child, witnessed violent death and experienced poverty while as a young man he was arrested and incarcerated (wrongly). Despite his star turn as a true hip hop icon, …

Racial Captialism And Race Massacres: Tulsa's Black Wall Street And Elaine's Sharecroppers, André Douglas Pond Cummings, Kalvin Graham

Faculty Scholarship

United States history is marked and checkered with grievous race massacres dating back to the end of slavery. These race “riots,” as they are benignly referred to in some quarters, occurred infamously in Tulsa, Elaine, Rosewood, Chicago, Detroit, and so many other lesser remembered cities. The starkest period of race massacres in the United States, including each of those just mentioned, occurred in the early 1900s, between 1919 and 1923 when Black Americans, newly empowered by service in a world war and having gained available land grants in territories where indigenous peoples were forced to abandon, began finding economic and …