Law Commons^™

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. …

Free Trade Agreements And The Lacey Act: A Carrot And Stick Approach To Prevent And Deter Trade In Iuu Fisheries, Ginna Arevalo

Florida A & M University Law Review

The U.S. is the world’s largest importer of seafood, importing virtually every fish sold in the U.S. market. Trade statistics do not break down the percentage of imported wild harvested fish, but a recent study estimated that twenty to thirty-two percent are caught illegally. Trade in illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fisheries undermines efforts to conserve fish stocks, generates global annual losses of up to twenty-three billion dollars, and weakens economic opportunity for U.S. fishermen. Part I of this paper explains the role of different actors in the trade of duty-free IUU fish and how IUU catches may enter the …

Selling Florida's Water Up The River, Kara Consalo

Journal Publications

While Florida has the second highest rainfall in the United States, from the northern Okefenokee Swamp to the southern Florida Everglades, these bountiful ecosystems are still dependent to a great degree on the level and flow of underground water
supplies. Yet these life sustaining water bodies are under threat
by the very government agency tasked to protect them. By selling
millions upon millions of gallons of water from the Floridan aquifer
to out-of-state bottling interests, Florida's water management
districts are causing an unnecessary, yet life threatening, depletion
of the aquifer waters. Over the last forty years of regulation by the …

"Fuck Your Breath": Black Men And Youth, State Violence, And Human Rights In The 21st Century, Jeremy I. Levitt

Journal Publications

This polemical essay was written at the behest of Black men and youth, and it is dedicated to African American women who relentlessly fight to safeguard the rights and well-being of Black men, even when in the process their maltreatment and welfare are grossly overlooked and forgotten. Bree Newsome's courageous and necessary removal of the confederate flag in the South Carolina State House is a prime example of such fearless activism. Joanne Deborah Chesimard aka Assata Shakur's-a former leader of the revolutionary organization known as the Black Liberation Armyascendency to the FBI's Most Wanted Terrorist list is another tragically intoxicating …

The Color Of Pain: Blacks And The U.S. Health Care System--Can The Affordable Care Act Help To Heal A History Of Injustice?, Part I, Jennifer M. Smith

Journal Publications

Discrimination in its various forms has contributed to the exclusion of blacks and other people of color from the field of medicine both as health care providers and as patients in the United States. Dr. Robinson's story is but one example. Racism has significantly harmed the health care of black people in the U.S. Generally speaking, those with the poorest health and the greatest need have had the poorest access to medical care, as well as lower quality health care than their white counterparts. To understand this, we must consider the historical context of blacks in America and in America's …

Lawyer Ethics And The Financial Action Task Force: A Call To Action, Jack P. Sahl

NYLS Law Review

No abstract provided.

Minding The Gap: A Call For Standardizing Pre-Dispute Arbitration Clauses In Otc Derivative Transactions, Zachary E. Davison

NYLS Law Review

No abstract provided.

Capturing The Transplant: U.S. Antitrust Law In The European Union, Silvia Beltrametti

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

The scholarly literature on the movement of legal norms focuses almost exclusively on transfers from one jurisdiction to another. It largely ignores transfers into new regulatory regimes. Drawing on a case study of the transplantation of U.S. antitrust law into the nascent entity that was to become the European Community, and analyzing its evolution from a public choice perspective, this Article suggests that transfers into new regulatory regimes are more likely to be effective when the lack of established institutions creates opportunities for stakeholders. The endorsement of a new law will enable stakeholders to influence its application and to capture …

Building The Case Against Human Trafficking: Developing And Evaluating A Training Module For Law Enforcement Officials, Katie Sanders

MPA/MPP/MPFM Capstone Projects

Since the passage of federal legislation to address human trafficking in the United States, efforts to measure and combat the crime have continued to grow (Victims of Trafficking and Violence Prevention Act of 2000). Measuring human trafficking has continued to be a difficult task for researchers, law enforcement, and victim services providers. The combined efforts of these groups has lead to the recognition that without more widespread identification of victims and perpetrators of human trafficking—a crime referred to as modern-day slavery—estimates will continue to be inaccurate. In order to improve the identification process, this specific proposal focuses on law enforcement …

Analyzing Charges And Payments Received For Discharged Patients At Teaching Hospitals In Relation To Patient Satisfaction And Overall Medicare Charges, Rob Sutter

MPA/MPP/MPFM Capstone Projects

The affordability of healthcare is a major, recurring topic in the media. One of President Obama’s cornerstone policies has been the attempt to make health care affordable. Part of the concern lies in cost differences for similar procedures. The cost for a standardized procedure such as abnormal cardiac dysrhythmia without complication varies greatly between hospitals. The cost difference of a patient getting treated for such an event can be an average of $30,000 depending on which hospital you go to. There is no immediately apparent reason for such a large difference. Another noticeable item is that all the hospitals receive …