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Full-Text Articles in Law

The Right Balance: Qualified Immunity And Section 1983, Jana Minich Dec 2017

The Right Balance: Qualified Immunity And Section 1983, Jana Minich

Channels: Where Disciplines Meet

This paper explores qualified immunity jurisprudence in the context of Section 1983 lawsuits against police officers. Following an overview of the history behind this jurisprudence, this research looks into the current problems with the application of qualified immunity: lack of guidance for lower courts, a need for constitutional rights articulation, and a divergence from notice-based standard for particularity. This study suggests guiding the trajectory of case law toward solutions with foundations already present in precedent rather than overhauling the system of qualified immunity.


In His Own Words: Judge Coffin And Workability, William C. Kelly Jr. Oct 2017

In His Own Words: Judge Coffin And Workability, William C. Kelly Jr.

Maine Law Review

Early in his judicial career, Judge Coffin proffered the concept of “workability” as one of the core factors in judging. Justice and Workability: Un Essai, his first published reflection on this idea, appeared in the Suffolk University Law Review in 1971. To frame the discussion, he started with a formal definition: “[T]he extent to which a rule protecting a right, enforcing a duty, or setting a standard of conduct—which is consistent with and in the interests of social justice—can be pronounced with reasonable expectation of effective observance without impairing the essential functioning of those to whom the rule applies.” This …


Collateral Visibility: A Socio-Legal Study Of Police Body Camera Adoption, Privacy, And Public Disclosure In Washington State, Bryce Clayton Newell Oct 2017

Collateral Visibility: A Socio-Legal Study Of Police Body Camera Adoption, Privacy, And Public Disclosure In Washington State, Bryce Clayton Newell

Indiana Law Journal

Law enforcement use of body-worn cameras has become a subject of significant public and scholarly debate in recent years. This Article presents findings from a study of the legal and social implications of body-worn camera adoption by two police departments in Washington State. In particular, this study focuses on the public disclosure of body-worn camera footage under Washington State’s public records act, state privacy law, and original empirical findings related to officer attitudes about—and perceptions of—the impact of these laws on their work, their own personal privacy, and the privacy of the citizens they serve. The law in Washington State …


Gentlemen: The Right To Resist Unlawful Arrest In South Carolina, J. Christopher Clark Oct 2017

Gentlemen: The Right To Resist Unlawful Arrest In South Carolina, J. Christopher Clark

South Carolina Law Review

No abstract provided.


Police In America: Ensuring Accountability And Mitigating Racial Bias Feat. Professor Destiny Peery Oct 2017

Police In America: Ensuring Accountability And Mitigating Racial Bias Feat. Professor Destiny Peery

Northwestern Journal of Law & Social Policy

No abstract provided.


Litigating Police Misconduct: Does The Litigation Process Matter? Does It Work? Oct 2017

Litigating Police Misconduct: Does The Litigation Process Matter? Does It Work?

Northwestern Journal of Law & Social Policy

No abstract provided.


Police In America: Ensuring Accountability And Mitigating Racial Bias Feat. Paul Butler Oct 2017

Police In America: Ensuring Accountability And Mitigating Racial Bias Feat. Paul Butler

Northwestern Journal of Law & Social Policy

No abstract provided.


Reforming The Ranks: Policy Initiatives To Ensure Police Accountability & Improve Police And Community Relations Oct 2017

Reforming The Ranks: Policy Initiatives To Ensure Police Accountability & Improve Police And Community Relations

Northwestern Journal of Law & Social Policy

No abstract provided.


Building Movement: Racial Injustice, Transformative Justice And Reimagined Policing Oct 2017

Building Movement: Racial Injustice, Transformative Justice And Reimagined Policing

Northwestern Journal of Law & Social Policy

No abstract provided.


The First Amendment And The Police In The Digital Age, Kermit V. Lipez Sep 2017

The First Amendment And The Police In The Digital Age, Kermit V. Lipez

Maine Law Review

In almost thirty-two years as a judge, I have written over 1300 opinions. Each of these opinions was important to the parties involved, yet some have gained more prominence than others. This essay addresses one of those—a 2011 decision that involves the First Amendment, the complex relationship between the police and the communities they serve, and the revolution in communications technology. I emphasize two points as I begin. I have enormous respect for police officers and their work. They risk their lives on the job—a reality that we have seen far too often in recent years—and go to work every …


Supply The Hand That Feeds: Narcotic Detection Dogs And The Fourth Amendment, Megan Yentes Jun 2017

Supply The Hand That Feeds: Narcotic Detection Dogs And The Fourth Amendment, Megan Yentes

Northern Illinois University Law Review

Police canines are highly valued by law enforcement agencies as they are capable of detecting the faintest scent of contraband. The Supreme Court has established that a canine sniff is not a "search" within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment, and as long as a canine has been formally trained by any "bona fide" organization, their positive alert provides law enforcement officials with the requisite probable cause to institute warrantless and invasive searches of automobiles. The Supreme Court's flawed approach was best summed up by Justice Souter when he stated, "The infallible dog, however, is a creature of legal fiction." …


Find My Criminals: Fourth Amendment Implications Of The Universal Cell Phone "App" That Every Cell Phone User Has But No Criminal Wants, Christopher Joseph Apr 2017

Find My Criminals: Fourth Amendment Implications Of The Universal Cell Phone "App" That Every Cell Phone User Has But No Criminal Wants, Christopher Joseph

Barry Law Review

No abstract provided.


Bias In Blue: Instructing Jurors To Consider The Testimony Of Police Officer Witnesses With Caution, Vida B. Johnson Apr 2017

Bias In Blue: Instructing Jurors To Consider The Testimony Of Police Officer Witnesses With Caution, Vida B. Johnson

Pepperdine Law Review

Jurors in criminal trials are instructed by the judge that they are to treat the testimony of a police officer just like the testimony of any other witness. Fact-finders are told that they should not give police officer testimony greater or lesser weight than any other witness they will hear from at trial. Jurors are to accept that police are no more believable or less believable than anyone else. Jury instructions regarding police officer testimony stand in contrast to the instructions given to jurors when a witness with a legally recognized interest in the outcome of the case has testified. …


Islam Is The New Black: Muslim Perceptions Of Law Enforcement, Jesenia Robles Apr 2017

Islam Is The New Black: Muslim Perceptions Of Law Enforcement, Jesenia Robles

McNair Scholars Research Journal

Research shows that healthy police-community relationships are important for an effective police department. However, although many studies have investigated the relationship between racial minorities and police, only a small portion focus on the Islamic community. This is problematic because hostility towards the Islamic community has been on the rise in the United States (US) since the attacks of 9/11 (Jackson, 2010), and current Middle Eastern conflicts have led to an influx of Muslim refugees into the US. This has further diversified neighborhoods and is the reason that it is just as imperative to explore police-Muslim interactions as it is to …


Police-Worn Body Cameras: An Antidote To The “Ferguson Effect”?, Alberto R. Gonzales, Donald Q. Cochran Apr 2017

Police-Worn Body Cameras: An Antidote To The “Ferguson Effect”?, Alberto R. Gonzales, Donald Q. Cochran

Missouri Law Review

This Article explores the questions raised by this scenario, focusing on police-worn body cameras, the role these cameras may play in officer-citizen encounters, and the resolution of legal disputes that arise from such encounters. Part II discusses what role, if any, citizen-recorded videos and the effect they have on society play in the prevalence of crime – what has sometimes been called the “Ferguson effect.” Part III explores the role police-worn body cameras could play in counteracting any such effect, addressing arguments in favor of body cameras and exploring their potential to encourage positive police and citizen behavior. Part IV …


State Of Fear: Domestic Violence In South Carolina, Matthew Robins Apr 2017

State Of Fear: Domestic Violence In South Carolina, Matthew Robins

South Carolina Law Review

No abstract provided.


Ms-13 As A Terrorist Organization: Risks For Central American Asylum Seekers, Jillian Blake Jan 2017

Ms-13 As A Terrorist Organization: Risks For Central American Asylum Seekers, Jillian Blake

Michigan Law Review Online

In its first year, the Trump Administration has used aggressive rhetoric in a crusade against the transnational gang MS‑13. In April, Attorney General Jeff Sessions called MS‑13 “one of the most violent gangs in the history of our country” and said that the gang “could qualify” as a terrorist organization. Since then, the administration has put its fight against MS‑13 at the front and center of its agenda. In a speech this summer, President Donald Trump called MS‑13 gang members “animals” and vowed to “dismantle, decimate and eradicate” their operations. The president has also used the threat posed by MS‑13 …


The Fourth Amendment Categorical Imperative, David Gray Jan 2017

The Fourth Amendment Categorical Imperative, David Gray

Michigan Law Review Online

The vast majority of current Fourth Amendment doctrine is unfounded, incoherent, and dangerous. The culprit is the Supreme Court’s 1967 decision in Katz v. United States, which defines “search” as government conduct that violates subjectively manifested expectations of privacy “that society is prepared to recognize as ‘reasonable.’ ” This is pure applesauce. Nowhere will you find a standard dictionary that defines “search” in these terms. Neither will you hear a native speaker of the English language use “search” in this sense unless her mind has been polluted by a semester of studying criminal procedure. The Court created this definition …


The Police-Community Partnership: Civilian Oversight As An Evaluation Tool For Community Policing., Nathan Witkin Jan 2017

The Police-Community Partnership: Civilian Oversight As An Evaluation Tool For Community Policing., Nathan Witkin

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

Citizen review boards (CRBs) tend to act as unofficial criminal courts for police misconduct. Without the binding, legal powers of the court, these civilian oversight bodies are often ineffective and draw resistance from law enforcement. “Community policing,” or community-oriented policing (COP) is a law enforcement strategy that emphasizes the use of problem-solving skills through community engagement and partnerships, but performance through arrests/citation statistics only. Without a process to evaluate public relations skills, the COP strategy encourages officers to reduce distance between them and the community while retaining a crime-fighting focus—a dynamic that increases tension and violence between police and crime-prone …


The Emerging American Police State: The Problem Is Not With The Police, But Higher Up, William E. Nelson Jan 2017

The Emerging American Police State: The Problem Is Not With The Police, But Higher Up, William E. Nelson

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.


Missing Police Body Camera Videos: Remedies, Evidentiary Fairness, And Automatic Activation, Mary D. Fan Jan 2017

Missing Police Body Camera Videos: Remedies, Evidentiary Fairness, And Automatic Activation, Mary D. Fan

Georgia Law Review

A movement toward police regulation by recording is
sweeping the nation. Responding to calls for
accountability, transparency and better evidence,
departments have rapidly adopted body cameras.
Recording policies require the police to record more law
enforcement encounters than ever before. But what
happens if officers do not record? This is an important,
growing area of controversy. Based on the collection
and coding of police department body camera policies,
this Article reveals widespread detection and
enforcement gaps regarding failures to record as
required. More than half of the major-city departments
in the sample have no provisions specifying
consequences for not recording …