Law Commons^™

Environmental Racism In St. Louis, Thomas Harvey, John Mcannar, Michael-John Voss, Dutchtown South Community Corporation, Action St. Louis, Sierra Club

All Faculty Scholarship

This report calls out environmental racism-"the disproportionate impact of environmental hazards on people of color"1-in St. Louis. While these disparities have been part of the long-standing discriminatory and profit-driven policies and practices known too well by black St. Louisans, the issue of environmental racism has rarely been addressed in the City.

At least three recent reports- For the Sake of All,2 Segregation in St. Louis: Dismantling the Divide,3 and Equity lndicators4-document the heavy health, economic, and quality of life burdens that the St. Louis region imposes on its black residents. This report complements those by focusing on the burdens related …

St. Louis Vacancy Collaborative: 2019-2021 Work Plan, Dana M. Malkus

All Faculty Scholarship

Our City has a serious vacant property challenge. To effectively address vacancy, we must understand and respond to the factors that cause and perpetuate it. Much of the story of vacancy in our city, like other cities, includes a legacy of racism, disinvestment, and disengagement that has led to a breakdown in trust. We know that vacancy can result from incomplete foreclosure, bankruptcy, prolonged probate or lack of proper probate, investors with little incentive to care, judgment proof owners, bank ownership, lack of resources to repair or redevelop, lack of value, the foreclosure crisis, sprawl and weak markets.¹ In …

A Guide To Understanding And Addressing Vacant Property In The City Of St. Louis, Dana M. Malkus

All Faculty Scholarship

The City of St. Louis has a serious vacant property challenge. Since the population peak in 1950, the City has experienced a 63% decline in population and now has one of the highest rates of vacancy in the nation.¹ The City has approximately 25,000 vacant properties.² Approximately 12,000 of these are owned by the Land Reutilization Authority (LRA) or other public agencies,³ which means that approximately 13,000 are privately owned. Most of those vacant properties
are concentrated in the north and southeast portions of the City.⁴ For a city of its size, the City has "an …

Segregation In St. Louis: Dismantling The Divide, For The Sake Of All [In Collaboration With], Thomas Harvey, John Mcannar, Michael-John Voss, Ascend Stl Inc., Community Builders Network Of Metro St. Louis, Metropolitan St. Louis Equal Housing And Opportunity Council (Ehoc), Team Tif

All Faculty Scholarship

Place matters. Where people live in St. Louis has been shaped by an extensive history of segregation that was driven by policies at multiple levels of government and practices across multiple sectors of society. The effect of segregation has been to systematically exclude African American families from areas opportunity that support economic, educational, and health outcomes.

It's Not Just Ferguson: Missouri Supreme Court Should Consolidate The Municipal Court System, Thomas Harvey, John Mcannar, Michael-John Voss, Joshua Feinzig, Chris Mcallister

All Faculty Scholarship

The Missouri Supreme Court's unprecedented decision to take control of Ferguson's Municipal Court was based primarily on issues raised during sustained protest following the killing of Mike Brown and reports published by ArchCity Defenders and the Department of Justice. These reports highlighted racial disparity in traffic stops, excessive revenue generation, and excessive warrants and arrests and confirmed the lived experiences of poor and Black people in St. Louis: there is a racially discriminatory and profit-driven approach to law enforcement made possible only by the collaborative efforts of local government, police, and courts.

These condemned practices are not unique to Ferguson. …

Archcity Defenders: Municipal Courts White Paper, Thomas Harvey, John Mcannar, Michael-John Voss, Megan Conn, Sean Janda, Sophia Keskey

All Faculty Scholarship

ArchCity Defenders represents St. Louis' indigent on a pro bono basis in criminal and civil legal matters while working closely with social service providers to connect clients with services. Our primary goal is to remove the legal barriers preventing our clients from accessing the housing, job training, and treatment they need to get on with their lives.

In the five years we have been doing this work, we have primarily focused on representation in the municipal courts that have jurisdiction over infractions for mostly traffic-related offenses. Our direct representation of clients in these courts and the stories they shared of …

Place Mattters (Most): An Empirical Study Of Prosecutorial Decision-Making In Death-Eligible Cases, Katherine Y. Barnes, David L. Sloss, Stephen C. Thaman

All Faculty Scholarship

This article investigates prosecutorial discretion in death penalty prosecution in Missouri. Based upon an empirical analysis of all intentional-homicide cases from 1997-2001, this article concludes that Missouri law gives prosecutors unconstitutionally broad discretion in charging these cases. This article also finds that prosecutors exercise this broad discretion differently, leading to geographic and racial disparities in sentencing, and concludes with proposals for statutory reform.

I’Ll Huff And I’Ll Puff — But Then You’Ll Blow My Case Away: Dealing With Dismissed And Bad-Faith Defendants Under California’S Anti-Slapp Statute, Jeremiah A. Ho

All Faculty Scholarship

Although the original enactment of California’s anti-SLAPP law was commendable, the law itself (section 425.16 of the California Civil Code) has its share of flaws. One particular wrinkle that the California appellate courts still have not ironed out in interpreting section 425.16 involves the situation where the filer of a SLAPP suit voluntarily dismisses his SLAPP suit against the victim. Because the goal of California’s anti-SLAPP statute is to deter the “chilling” effect of SLAPP suits upon the public’s ability to “petition for the redress of grievances” — which includes the cost put forth to defend such suits — the …

When Worlds Collide: Federal Construction Of State Institutional Competence, Marcia L. Mccormick

All Faculty Scholarship

The federal courts routinely encounter issues of state law. Often a state court will have already analyzed the law at issue, either in a separate case or in the very situation before the federal court. In every one of those cases, the federal courts must decide whether to defer to the state court analysis and, if so, how much. The federal courts will often defer, but many times have not done so, and they rarely explain the reasons for the departures they make. While this lack of transparency gives the federal courts the greatest amount of discretion and power, it …

The Death-Prolonging Procedures Act And Refusal Of Treatment In Missouri, Sandra H. Johnson

All Faculty Scholarship

Missouri’s Death-Prolonging Procedures Act of 1985 represents an effort to ensure that an individual’s choices regarding medical treatment will be honored, even if the individual becomes incompetent. This article considers the Act’s limiting structure and examines the effect of these limits on the effectiveness of the Act in providing a legal right to refuse medical treatment.

Following an introduction, Part II describes the limiting structure of the Act. Part III considers the way in which the Act’s limitations relate to its binding effect.

First, an individual’s declaration applies only to "death-prolonging procedures" and only if the individual is terminally ill. …

Displacement And Urban Reinvestment: A Mount Laurel Perspective, Peter W. Salsich

All Faculty Scholarship

This article discusses the continuing national debate concerning the responsibility that local governments should accept when residents are forced to leave their homes as a result of reinvestment activities encouraged by the cities and funded in part with public funds. The author explains the many different forms that reinvestment displacement may take and traces the legislative and judicial response to this issue. Despite what the author refers to as a considerable amount of buck passing, the article points out resources that are being made available to combat displacement. The article highlights the Supreme Court of New Jersey opinion in the …

Local Government In Missouri: The Crossroads Reached, Peter W. Salsich

All Faculty Scholarship

This article addresses the perceived inadequacy of the State of Missouri’s statutory tools to modernize local government. Some of the more extreme examples of conflicting and obsolete provisions in the laws affecting local government in Missouri are discussed. In many instances these obsolete statutes severely restricted the operations of municipalities. The article also looks at laws relating to special benefit districts, problems in county government, and the issue of home rule. Many of the concerns addressed in this article have to do with the overlap that exists among political subdivisions within a given area, such as counties, cities, and special …