Law Commons^™

Amateur Regulation And The Unmoored United States Olympic And Paralympic Committee, Dionne L. Koller

All Faculty Scholarship

n the wake of the USA Gymnastics sexual abuse scandal and Women’s National Soccer Team’s claim for pay equity, members of Congress have proposed legislation that would reform the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC) through amendments to its governing statute, the Ted Stevens Olympic and Amateur Sports Act. While an important step in the right direction, the proposed reforms fail to address deeper, more urgent questions about the USOPC, the sport National Governing Bodies (NGBs) it recognizes, and the meaning of the Olympic and Amateur Sports Act. This Article explores those issues by explaining that the USOPC’s quasi-governmental …

Sports, Doping, And The Regulatory "Tipping Point", Dionne L. Koller

All Faculty Scholarship

This Essay seeks to explore whether there is a regulatory tipping point for sports-the point at which the government will take action to address a perceived problem in sports-and if so, what the circumstances are that generate such a moment. Such an issue is particularly important now. Troubling stories about athletes' health and well-being and the consequences of our most beloved games are nothing new. Reports of the effects of sports concussions, exploitation of college athletes, and other examples of the harms wrought by the "win at all costs" mentality dominate sports headlines and prompt calls for meaningful change. Many …

The Innocence Protection Act Of 2004: A Small Step Forward And A Framework For Larger Reforms, Ronald Weich

All Faculty Scholarship

Passage of the Innocence Protection Act in the closing days of the 108th Congress was a watershed moment. To be sure, the bill that finally became law was a shadow of the more ambitious criminal justice reforms first championed five years earlier by Senator Pat Leahy, Congressman Bill Delahunt and others. But the enactment of legislation designed to strengthen — not weaken — procedural protections for death row inmates was rich in symbolic importance and promise.

Writing in the April 2001 issue of THE CHAMPION (Innocence Protection Act: Death Penalty Reform on the Horizon), I said optimistically: "The criminal justice …