Law Commons^™

Congress Addresses Federally-Funded Animal Research Lab, Angela Sukurs

Public Interest Law Reporter

No abstract provided.

The Future Of United States "Wet Foot-Dry Foot" Policy For Cuban Immigration, Elizabeth Hanford

Public Interest Law Reporter

No abstract provided.

Table Of Contents, Public Interest Law Reporter

Public Interest Law Reporter

No abstract provided.

Lawyers Represent Clients ... Or Do They?, Alan Mills

Public Interest Law Reporter

In most cases, lawyers file cases on behalf of clients. However, lawyers do not-get to make substantive decisions about the cases we work on; our clients do. Illinois Rule of Professional Conduct 1.2 makes this clear: [A] lawyer shall abide by a client's decisions concerning the objectives of representation and .. . Shall consult with the client as to the means by which they are to be pursued. But what happens in a class action lawsuit? Once a class is certified, lawyers represent both named plaintiffs and every member of the class. What happens when there is a conflict between …

Making Higher Education An Option: Taking A Look At The Chicago Support System For Undocumented High School Students, Martha Laura Garcia

Public Interest Law Reporter

From the injunction on the President's Executive Action to expand the current immigration policies to the current language presidential candidates have used when speaking about immigration reform, immigrants have more than enough reasons to feel uneasy about their future in this country. All is not bad, however, especially for undocumented students. Cities like Chicago, a city of immigrants, are making great strides to create welcoming and supportive communities for immigrants. Compared to other U.S. cities, Chicago is very immigrant-friendly, with people working across the city to provide support for undocumented students and ensure that they have access to higher education. …

Polling Stations Not Up To Ada Standards Prevent Voting, Bethany Dixon

Public Interest Law Reporter

No abstract provided.

Finding Common Ground: Exploring Whether Gentrification And Public Housing Can Co-Exist, Adrien Fernandez

Public Interest Law Reporter

No abstract provided.

State Budget Cuts Cause Disproportional Impact On Minorities, Women, And Immigrants, Ji Hwang

Public Interest Law Reporter

No abstract provided.

Who's In The Sights: Fighting The Illegal Effects Of Legal Gun Ownership In Chicago, Sarah Nagy

Public Interest Law Reporter

No abstract provided.

Should Transgender Men And Women Be Allowed To Get Sex Reassignment Surgery While Incarcerated?, Keimer Raymond

Public Interest Law Reporter

No abstract provided.

Are The Sexual Assault Policies On Illinois College Campuses Procedurally Structured To Support The Reproductive Rights Of Female Victims?, Erika Weaver

Public Interest Law Reporter

No abstract provided.

Marriage Certificates, Wedding Bells Unemployment Lines: Employment Discrimination Issues Post Marriage Equality, Joel Viramontes-Gallegos

Public Interest Law Reporter

No abstract provided.

How Chicago Is Criminalizing Homelessness, Anthony Wadas

Public Interest Law Reporter

Chicago passed an ordinance banning "aggressive panhandling," and the definition is rather broad, providing no clear definition of what constitutes "aggressive." The ordinance outright bans panhandling in certain locations, such as within ten feet of any CTA bus stop, "L" entrance, ATMs, or certain businesses including currency exchanges, banks, and outdoor cafes. Additionally, individuals are prohibited from soliciting people in vehicles for donations. Further, it prohibits soliciting in a manner that a reasonable person would find intimidating. Faced with these efforts to criminalize the homeless condition, individuals living on the streets face additional struggles when trying to escape poverty. People …

Civil Asset Forfeiture Reform: Is Chicago Making The Grade?, Austin Spillar

Public Interest Law Reporter

Civil asset forfeiture allows police to seize a person's cash and property without charging or convicting them of a crime, or even without making an arrest. The police simply just have to suspect that the assets are tied to an illegal activity. This leads some to call it "legal robbery," while law enforcement sees it as a tool to fight crime and supplement their budget. This article will examine civil asset forfeiture and its proceeds, emerging efforts for reform, and recent data and case law on civil asset forfeiture in Chicago.

Political Activism: Chicago Politicians' Silence When Black Lives Matter, Alison Hill

Public Interest Law Reporter

No abstract provided.

The Fight That Must Be Fought: Reflections On Race, School, Struggle And Sacrifice On The South Side Of Chicago, David Stovall

Public Interest Law Reporter

The following paragraphs are centered in the realities of life in a hyper-segregated city that moves to displace, marginalize and isolate certain members of its population while making space for new investments in housing and other infrastructure. The story is layered and multi-pronged, while deeply imbued in the politics of race, class, and government. Fortunately for some members of the city, the struggle for the basic needs of housing, education and quality of life has not ended. Instead, a public awakening has begun to ignite city members to work in unison to change the current condition.

Shifting Our Focus From Retribution To Social Justice: An Alternative Vision For The Treatment Of Pregnant Women Who Harm Their Fetuses, April L. Cherry

Journal of Law and Health

The ways in which society responds to pregnant women whose behavior purportedly harms their fetuses can be explored from a variety of legal vantage points. This article argues that the criminal law model currently used is ineffective. The assignment of criminal liability to pregnant women is often rooted in fetal personhood and maternal deviance discourse. Criminal law solutions fail because they fail to take into account the fact that maternal behavior is often the result of a myriad of the social and economic conditions over which pregnant women have little or no control. The criminal law model, therefore, simply punishes …

An Incomplete Pass: Inadequacies In Ohio's Youth Concussion Legislation And The Ongoing Risk For Players, Andrew J. Kane

Journal of Law and Health

Broadly, this paper questions whether Ohio’s recently enacted youth concussion legislation adequately addresses the public health issue of sport-related brain injury, and contends that it does not. To that end, it first addresses the significance of traumatic brain injuries, including concussions, explaining that the failure to protect youth athletes from these potentially fatal conditions has largely resulted from a lack of awareness of their influence on neurological functions, and of their potential to cause serious brain injury. Next, this paper examines several legislative responses enacted by other states, all of which were in place before Ohio’s, and compares the recently …

The Not So "Sweet Surprise": Lawsuits Blaming Big Sugar For Obesity-Related Health Conditions Face An Uphill Battle, Catherine Srithong Wicker

Journal of Law and Health

Because obesity and its associated health problems have been largely attributed to poor self-control, laziness, and various other personal failings, society has been unwilling to assign blame to food manufacturers for their role in contributing to this problem. But, as consumers are becoming more aware of the significantly harmful effect that poor diets can have on a person’s heath, the scales may be tipping in favor of bringing “Big Food” to court. Food manufacturers, however, are not exactly vulnerable. Armed with precedent disputing the causal link between consumption of fast food and adverse health effects, judicially-created barriers to admitting epidemiologic …

The Federal Rules Of Civil Procedure, Electronic Health Records, And The Challenge Of Electronic Discovery, Terrance K Byrne

Journal of Law and Health

Byrne argues that disparities among different courts’ interpretations of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure amendments have caused confusion for those in law and healthcare. Additional amendments to the FRCP are necessary to provide clarity, especially in the area of healthcare electronic discovery. Specifically, future amendments should include:

1. Enforcing the “Meet and Confer” process, especially as related to e-discovery and ESI;

2. Clear specification about when the duty to preserve information begins;

3. Delineating reasonable and consistent standards for production of information; and

4. Outlining the details for when sanctions for failing to retain ESI are appropriate

Ultracrepidarianism In Forensic Science: The Hair Evidence Debacle, David H. Kaye

Faculty Scholarship

For over 130 years, scientific sleuths have been inspecting hairs under microscopes. Late in 2012, the FBI, the Innocence Project, and the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers joined forces to review thousands of microscopic hair comparisons performed by FBI examiners over several of those decades. The results have been astounding. Based on the first few hundred cases in which hairs were said to match, it appears that examiners “exceeded the limits of science” in over 90% of their reports or testimony. The disclosure of this statistic has led to charges that the FBI “faked an entire field of forensic …

Out Of Breath And Down To The Wire, Nancy C. Marcus

Faculty Scholarship

This article chronicles a series of breathtakingly disturbing police killings of unarmed black men (and a child) in a single year’s time, spanning from between July 2014 to July 2015, which have resulted in national outcry and sparked a movement toward police reform across the country. The article details a number of the suggested remedial measures offered to address the problem of excessive lethal police force across the country and concludes that, among the proposed reforms, one of the most important is a renewed emphasis of critical constitutional limitations upon permissible lethal police force and other unjustified treatment of individuals …

Is General Negligence The New Exception To The Florida Impact Rule?, Stephan Krejci

Florida A & M University Law Review

The impact rule is an ancient torts doctrine that precludes recovery for emotional distress unless the victim has been physically impacted by the tortfeasor and the emotional distress grew out of that physical impact. American courts widely adopted the impact rule and it persists in a handful of states to this day. Courts give several reasons for denying these negligent infliction of emotional distress (NIED) claims and these reasons fall into three broad categories: judicial efficiency, evidence concerns, and foreseeability. This paper proposes that Florida abrogate the impact rule and switch to using a general negligence approach for NIED claims. …

State Regulation And The Necessary And Proper Clause, William Baude

Case Western Reserve Law Review

No abstract provided.

Improving Regulatory Accountability: Lessons From The Past And Prospects For The Future, Susan E. Dudley

Case Western Reserve Law Review

No abstract provided.

Politics Of Nonenforcement, Zachary S. Price

Case Western Reserve Law Review

No abstract provided.

Masthead, Volume 66 Issue 2 (2015)

Case Western Reserve Law Review

No abstract provided.

National Football League Management Council V. National Football League Players Association: Deflategate Reviewed, Zachary J. Lafleur

Case Western Reserve Law Review

It is easy to dismiss the decision as the conclusion of an overreported story that relates to an over-reported league, but Deflategate and the facts surrounding the case provide unique insight into the tensions that exist between the NFL’s commissioner, owners, the players’ union, players, and fans.

"Take Back The Beach!" An Analysis Of The Need For Enforcement Of Beach Access Rights For U.S. Virgin Islanders, Aliya T. Felix

Florida A & M University Law Review

Part I of this paper defines the traditional use of the beaches in the U.S. Virgin Islands and includes a personal anecdote as evidence of a trend toward restricting beach access in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Part II provides a legal framework of public beach access rights through an analysis of the general public trust doctrine, the U.S. Virgin Islands Open Shorelines Act, and the U.S. Virgin Islands’ case law. Part III examines case studies involving private entities blocking beach access to the public in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Part IV offers a proposal for reform to ensure protection of …

You Get What You Pay For: The Nfip Is Underwater And Climate Change Adaptation Is Essential To Reach Dry Land, Alana Dietel

Florida A & M University Law Review

Climate change is a reality, and Florida is uniquely situated to feel its effects sooner than other states. This is due to the prediction of a substantially rising sea level and the fact that a majority of the most populated and popular areas in Florida are located along or near the coasts. Part I of this article examines the realities of climate change. Part II reviews the current state of the most significant attempt at flood insurance by the Federal government, the NFIP. Part II also reviews Florida’s statewide initiatives, as well as local initiatives of three distinct Florida counties. …