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Full-Text Articles in Law
Possession Of Child Pornography: Should You Be Convicted When The Computer Cache Does The Saving For You?, Giannina Marin
Possession Of Child Pornography: Should You Be Convicted When The Computer Cache Does The Saving For You?, Giannina Marin
Florida Law Review
“For years, defense lawyers have argued the ‘young and stupid’ semidefense for their youthful clients. Now, we can have the ‘I didn’t know it was on the hard drive’ objection for the unsophisticated computer user in child pornography cases—or at least they can in the 9th Circuit.” This quote, appearing on the website of an East Texas criminal defense law firm, refers to the outcome of United States v. Kuchinski. In Kuchinski, the defendant’s computer contained, in various forms, more than 15,000 images of child pornography. There was no question that Kuchinski’s volitional viewing of the images on the Internet …
Student Speech Rights In The Digital Age, Mary-Rose Papandrea
Student Speech Rights In The Digital Age, Mary-Rose Papandrea
Florida Law Review
For several decades courts have struggled to determine when, if ever, public schools should have the power to restrict student expression that does not occur on school grounds during school hours. In the last several years, courts have struggled with this same question in a new context—the digital media. The dramatic increase in the number of student speech cases involving the Internet, mobile phones, and video cameras begs for a closer examination of the scope of school officials’ authority to censor the expression of minors as well as the scope of juvenile speech rights generally. This Article takes a close …
False Statements V. Free Debate: Is The First Amendment A License To Lie In Elections?, Simon A. Rodell
False Statements V. Free Debate: Is The First Amendment A License To Lie In Elections?, Simon A. Rodell
Florida Law Review
No abstract provided.
Constitutional Advocacy Explains Constitutional Outcomes, Stephen A. Higginson
Constitutional Advocacy Explains Constitutional Outcomes, Stephen A. Higginson
Florida Law Review
In oral argument in Baker v. Carr, Attorney Z.T. Osborn, Jr., on behalf of Tennessee voters arguing that the U.S. Supreme Court should hold legislative apportionment ajusticiable issue, exclaimed that "the motto of the Supreme Court of Tennessee is Fiat justicia ruat caelum; Let justice be done if the skies should fall." With that exhortation, Osborn remarked to the Court, "We have no other place to go. Weare at the capital of the world.
Reining In Abuses Of Executive Power Through Substantive Due Process, Rosalie Berger
Reining In Abuses Of Executive Power Through Substantive Due Process, Rosalie Berger
Florida Law Review
Although substantive due process is one of the most confusing and controversial areas of constitutional law, it is well established that the Due Process Clause includes a substantive component that “bars certain arbitrary wrongful government actions ‘regardless of the fairness of the procedures used to implement them.’” The Court has recognized substantive due process limitations on law-enforcement personnel, publicschool officials, government employers, and those who render decisions that affect our property rights. Government officials who act with intent to harm or with deliberate indifference to our rights have been found to engage in conduct that “shocks the judicial conscience” contrary …
Substantive Due Process: Sex Toys After Lawrence Williams V. Morgan, 478 F.3d 1316 (11th Cir. 2007), Michael J. Hooi
Substantive Due Process: Sex Toys After Lawrence Williams V. Morgan, 478 F.3d 1316 (11th Cir. 2007), Michael J. Hooi
Florida Law Review
No abstract provided.
In Honor Of Walter O. Weyrach: Florida's Eminent Domain Overhaul: Creating More Problems Than It Solved, Scott J. Kennelly
In Honor Of Walter O. Weyrach: Florida's Eminent Domain Overhaul: Creating More Problems Than It Solved, Scott J. Kennelly
Florida Law Review
A knock at your front door wakes you. Blurry-eyed, you open your door to a government official who tells you that the city would like to purchase your home for a price slightly greater than fair market value. According to the official, most of your neighbors have already agreed to sell their homes so that your “distressed” neighborhood can get an economic facelift, which will include a multi-tower condominium complex. While you briefly consider selling, you are bothered that the government will not put your property to what you deem a traditional public use. Quickly remembering that your state representative …
In Honor Of Walter O. Weyrauch: The Case For Overturning Williams V. Florida And The Six-Person Jury: History, Law, And Empirical Evidence, Alisa Smith, Michael J. Saks
In Honor Of Walter O. Weyrauch: The Case For Overturning Williams V. Florida And The Six-Person Jury: History, Law, And Empirical Evidence, Alisa Smith, Michael J. Saks
Florida Law Review
After 700 years of common-law history and nearly 200 years of constitutional history, the Supreme Court concluded that the constitutionally permissible minimum jury size could not be inferred from the language or the history of the Constitution. The answer, said the Court in Williams v. Florida, could be found only through a “functional analysis” of the performance of smaller juries (that is, empirical examination of the behavior of different-sized juries). The Court implicitly abandoned that analysis in Ballew v. Georgia, when it held that juries with fewer than six members were unconstitutional-a decision based on nothing more than the ipse …
In Honor Of Walter O. Weyrauch: Three Faces Of Supplemental Jurisdiction After The Demise Of United Mine Workers V. Gibbs, C. Douglas Floyd
In Honor Of Walter O. Weyrauch: Three Faces Of Supplemental Jurisdiction After The Demise Of United Mine Workers V. Gibbs, C. Douglas Floyd
Florida Law Review
In United Mine Workers v. Gibbs, the Supreme Court rejected the narrow “cause of action” test announced in Hurn v. Oursler for what was then termed pendent-claim jurisdiction in favor of a broader “common nucleus of operative fact” standard. In subsequent cases, the Court in dicta implied, without deciding, that the same standard might govern other extensions of federal court jurisdiction to non-diverse state law claims incident to federal question or diversity claims falling within Article III of the U.S. Constitution in the related but distinct contexts of “pendent party” and “ancillary” jurisdiction. Meanwhile, cases in the lower courts tended …
Returning To Hazelwood's Core: A New Approach To Restrictions On School-Sponsored Speech, Emily Gold Waldman
Returning To Hazelwood's Core: A New Approach To Restrictions On School-Sponsored Speech, Emily Gold Waldman
Florida Law Review
Nearly twenty years ago in Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier, the Supreme Court, in upholding the constitutionality of a public high school principal’s censorship of a student newspaper produced in a journalism class, held that “educators do not offend the First Amendment by exercising editorial control over the style and content of student speech in school-sponsored expressive activities so long as their actions are reasonably related to legitimate pedagogical concerns.” Since then, Hazelwood’s “reasonably related to legitimate pedagogical concerns” This Article argues that this conundrum can be untangled by returning to Hazelwood’s core as a student speech case. It first …
Surpassing Sentencing: The Controversial Next Step In Confrontation Clause Jurisprudence, Amanda Harris
Surpassing Sentencing: The Controversial Next Step In Confrontation Clause Jurisprudence, Amanda Harris
Florida Law Review
After Crawford v. Washington opened the door to a Confrontation Clause debate in 2004, the United States Supreme Court has consistently confronted confrontation issues arising out of the Crawford interpretation. One issue that the Supreme Court has not yet tackled is whether the Confrontation Clause applies during non-capital and capital sentencing. While many states and federal courts continue to hold that no right of confrontation during sentencing exists, many other courts have chosen to apply a right of confrontation in both capital and non-capital sentencing. This Note takes two new approaches to the Confrontation Clause at sentencing debate. First, this …
The Gold Clause Cases And Constitutional Necessity, Gerard N. Magliocca
The Gold Clause Cases And Constitutional Necessity, Gerard N. Magliocca
Florida Law Review
This Article presents a case study of how constitutional actors respond when the rule of law and necessity are sharply at odds and provides some background on Section Four of the Fourteenth Amendment. In 1935, the Supreme Court heard constitutional challenges to the abrogation of “gold clauses” in contracts and Treasury bonds. Gold clauses guaranteed that creditors would receive payment in gold dollars as valued at the time a contract was made. Due to the deflation that followed the Great Depression, this meant that debtors were being forced to pay back much more than they owed originally. To stop a …
Just What The Doctor Ordered? How The Patient Safety And Quality Improvement Act May Cure Florida’S Patients’ Right To Know About Adverse Medical Incidents (Amendment 7), Kelly G. Dunberg
Florida Law Review
This Note addresses the impact of Florida’s Patients’ Right to Know About Adverse Medical Incidents (commonly known as Amendment 7) on the peer review process and the quality of healthcare in Florida. Enacted in 2004 as an amendment to the Florida Constitution, Amendment 7 provides citizens access to records and reports of past adverse medical incidents involving doctors, hospitals, and healthcare providers. Critics of Amendment 7 argue that peer review privilege protections are necessary to maintain high-quality healthcare in Florida, pointing to the need to encourage candid and vigorous evaluations by physicians of their colleagues. In contrast, Amendment 7 supporters …
Popular Originalism? The Tea Party Movement And Constitutional Theory, Rebecca E. Zietlow
Popular Originalism? The Tea Party Movement And Constitutional Theory, Rebecca E. Zietlow
Florida Law Review
The U.S. Constitution is currently the subject of a heated political debate. Tea Party activists have invoked the Constitution as the foundation of their conservative political philosophy. These activists are engaged in “popular originalism,” using popular constitutionalism—constitutional interpretation outside of the courts—to invoke originalism as interpretive method. The Tea Party movement thus provides an excellent heuristic to explore the relationship between originalism and popular constitutionalism, two prominent trends in constitutional theory. Both originalists and popular constitutionalists study legal history to illuminate constitutional meaning, but the two schools of thought draw diverging lessons from that history. Originalists look to history to …
The Model Penal Code’S Wrong Turn: Renunciation As A Defense To Criminal Conspiracy, R. Michael Cassidy, Gregory I. Massing
The Model Penal Code’S Wrong Turn: Renunciation As A Defense To Criminal Conspiracy, R. Michael Cassidy, Gregory I. Massing
Florida Law Review
While the Model Penal Code was certainly one of the most influential developments in criminal law in the past century, the American Law Institute (ALI) took a seriously wrong turn by recognizing “renunciation” as a defense to the crime of conspiracy. Under the Model Penal Code formulation, a member of a conspiracy who later disavows the agreement and thwarts its objective (for example, by notifying authorities of the planned crime in order to prevent its completion) is afforded a complete defense to conspiracy liability. This defense has enormous implications for crimes involving national security and terrorism, which are typically planned …
The Open Road And The Traffic Stop: Narratives And Counter-Narratives Of The American Dream, Nancy Leong
The Open Road And The Traffic Stop: Narratives And Counter-Narratives Of The American Dream, Nancy Leong
Florida Law Review
American culture is steeped in the mythology of the open road. In our collective imagination, the road represents freedom, escape, friendship, romance, and above all, the possibility for a better life. But our shared dream of the open road comes to a halt in the mundane reality of the traffic stop—a judicially authorized policing procedure in which an officer may pull over a vehicle if she has cause to believe the driver has committed even the most minor traffic violation. I examine the cultural texts—books, movies, songs—celebrating the open road and juxtapose them against those documenting the traffic stop. The …
Wrong Means To An Unjust End? The Eleventh Circuit’S Decision In First Vagabonds Church Of God, Fay O. Pappas
Wrong Means To An Unjust End? The Eleventh Circuit’S Decision In First Vagabonds Church Of God, Fay O. Pappas
Florida Law Review
In 2005, Orlando Food Not Bombs (OFNB), a conglomeration of political activists who advocate a “right to food,” began conducting “food-sharing events” once a week in downtown Orlando, Florida. OFNB distributed free vegan meals in Lake Eola Park to the hungry and homeless. Soon, however, the City began receiving complaints related to the number of homeless individuals who would disperse into adjacent neighborhoods following the events. In response, the City enacted the Large Group Feeding Ordinance, which required a permit for any feeding event likely to attract twenty-five or more people.
Eighteenth Century Law, Twenty-First Century Problems: Jones, Gps Tracking, And The Future Of Privacy, Lauren Millcarek
Eighteenth Century Law, Twenty-First Century Problems: Jones, Gps Tracking, And The Future Of Privacy, Lauren Millcarek
Florida Law Review
In 2004, law enforcement officers began investigating Antoine Jones, a Washington, D.C. nightclub owner, for suspected drug trafficking. After gathering information through stakeouts, cameras, and a wiretap on Jones’ phone, the officers obtained a warrant to place a Global Positioning System (GPS) tracker on Jones’ wife’s car, which Jones possessed and used regularly. However, the officers failed to comply with the precise terms of the warrant, making the installation and use of the tracker warrantless. The officers tracked the car’s every movement, twenty-four hours per day, for an entire month. The data linked Jones to a stash house containing a …
Twombly In Context: Why Federal Rule Of Civil Procedure 4(B) Is Unconstitutional, E. Donald Elliott
Twombly In Context: Why Federal Rule Of Civil Procedure 4(B) Is Unconstitutional, E. Donald Elliott
Florida Law Review
Rule 4(b) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure delegates to private parties state authority to compel a person to appear and answer civil charges in court without any preliminary state review or screening for reasonableness. This is argued to be unconstitutional as a unreasonable seizure of the person, a deprivation of private property without due process, and a standardless delegation of state power to a private party with a financial interest. The history of the writ of summons is reviewed. From the Founding until 1938, federal courts reviewed the grounds proposed for suit prior to service of a summons …