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Full-Text Articles in Law
Police Misconduct, Video Recording, And Procedural Barriers To Rights Enforcement, Howard M. Wasserman
Police Misconduct, Video Recording, And Procedural Barriers To Rights Enforcement, Howard M. Wasserman
Faculty Publications
The story of police reform and of "policing the police" has become the story of video and video evidence, and "record everything to know the truth" has become the singular mantra. Video, both police-created and citizen-created, has become the singular tool for ensuring police accountability, reforming law enforcement, and enforcing the rights of victims of police misconduct. This Article explores procedural problems surrounding the use of video recording and video evidence to counter police misconduct, hold individual officers and governments accountable, and reform departmental policies, regulations, and practices. It considers four issues: 1) the mistaken belief that video can "speak …
Just A Bit Aside, Howard Wasserman
Just A Bit Aside, Howard Wasserman
Faculty Publications
In "Time to Drop the Infield Fly Rule and End a Common Law Anomaly," Judge Andrew Guilford and Joel Mallord offer the first cohesive scholarly critique of baseball's venerated and venerable Infield Fly Rule. They argue that the rule is grounded in outdated notions of sportsmanship and opposition to deception and that the game would be more exciting if players could be left to their own strategic and skillful devices on infield fly balls. This Response Essay builds on my previous work to argue that, properly understood, the Infield Fly Rule is justified, necessary, and appropriate in order to to …
The Process Of Marriage Equality, Josh Blackman, Howard M. Wasserman
The Process Of Marriage Equality, Josh Blackman, Howard M. Wasserman
Faculty Publications
No abstract provided.
Mixed Signals On Summary Judgment, Howard Wasserman
Mixed Signals On Summary Judgment, Howard Wasserman
Faculty Publications
This essay examines three cases from the Supreme Court’s October Term 2013 addressing the standards for summary judgment. In one case, the Court affirmed summary judgment against a civil-rights plaintiff, in a continued erroneous over-reliance on the certainty of video evidence. In two other cases, the Court rejected the grant of summary judgment against civil-rights plaintiffs, arguably for the first time in quite a while. This essay unpacks the substance and procedure underlying all three decisions and considers the effect of the three cases and what signals they send to lower courts and litigants about the proper approach to summary …
Video Evidence And Summary Judgment: The Procedure Of Scott V. Harris, Howard Wasserman
Video Evidence And Summary Judgment: The Procedure Of Scott V. Harris, Howard Wasserman
Faculty Publications
In Scott v. Harris (2007), the Supreme Court granted summary judgment on a Fourth Amendment excessive-force claim brought by a motorist injured when a pursuing law-enforcement officer terminated a high-speed pursuit by bumping the plaintiff's car. The Court relied almost exclusively on a video of the chase captured from the officer's dash-mounted camera and disregarded witness testimony that contradicted the video. In granting summary judgment in this circumstance, the Court fell sway to the myth of video evidence as able to speak for itself, as an objective, unambiguous, and singularly accurate depiction of real-world events, not subject to any interpretation …