Law Commons^™

Without Due Process Of Law: The Dobbs Decision And Its Cataclysmic Impact On The Substantive Due Process And Privacy Rights Of Ohio Women, Jacob Wenner

Journal of Law and Health

Since the overturning of prior abortion precedents in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, there has been a question on the minds of many women in this country: how will this decision affect me and my rights? As we have seen in the aftermath of Dobbs, many states have pushed for stringent anti-abortion measures seeking to undermine the foundation on which women’s reproductive freedom had been grounded on for decades. This includes right here in Ohio, where Republican lawmakers have advocated on numerous occasions for implementing laws seeking to limit abortion rights, including a 6-week abortion ban advocated …

“I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free”: A Lamentation On Dobbs V. Jackson’S Pernicious Impact On The Lives And Liberty Of Women, April L. Cherry

Cleveland State Law Review

On June 24, 2022, the Supreme Court overturned nearly fifty years of precedent when it declared in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization that abortion was not a fundamental right, and therefore it was not protected by the Fourteenth Amendment and substantive due process. In law school corridors and legal scholar circles, discussion of the Court’s evisceration of abortion rights focused on the corresponding changes in Fourteenth Amendment jurisprudence and the Court’s outright dismissal of stare decisis. But in homes, hospitals, community centers, and workplaces, different conversations were happening. Conversations, mostly had by women, concerned the real-life consequences of overturning …

R.E.S.P.E.C.T.: The Court's Forgotten Virtue, Camille Pollutro

Cleveland State Law Review

This Article recommends a shift in constitutional interpretation that requires the existence of respect for the class at issue when a fundamental right is being considered under the narrow, historical deeply rooted test of the Fourteenth Amendment. By focusing on Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, this Article highlights that the class at issue—women—are having their fundamental rights decided for them by the legal sources of 1868. In applying this strict and narrow historical deeply rooted test, the Court fails to consider the lack of respect and autonomy that women had in 1868. To the Court, if twenty-eight out …

Jd And Me: Exploring Hybrid Representation Of Pro Se Defendants In Capital Murder Cases, Andrew Wick

Et Cetera

The United States Constitution grants those facing the loss of life and liberty the right to due process and a fair trial under the law. What can be done to ensure criminal defendants facing the death penalty feel as though their desired argument and defense will be presented while still having the appearance of a fair trial? This Article compares a person the law says is qualified to waive counsel and represent themselves and a person qualified to be appointed to represent those facing the death penalty, what is required to waive counsel, the involvement of the trial court and …

Taking The Gavel Away From The Executive Branch: The Indeterminate Sentencing Scheme Under S.B. 201 Is Ripe For Review And Unconstitutional, Jessica Crtalic

Cleveland State Law Review

In 2019, Senate Bill 201, also known as the Reagan Tokes Act, reintroduced an indeterminate sentencing scheme in Ohio whereby sentences are assigned in the form of a range. Under this sentencing scheme, the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, through the parole board, has discretion to retain an inmate past the presumptive release date. This fails to afford the accused their guaranteed right to a jury trial, improperly places judiciary power in the hands of the executive branch, and scrutinizes the violation of due process such that the defendant is being denied a fair hearing and notice. Not only …

In Pursuit Of A Modern Standard: The Constitutional Proportions Of Collateral Harm From Pursuits And Police High-Speed Driving, Julian Gilbert

Cleveland State Law Review

Police chases and high-speed driving are common practices that pose a substantial amount of harm and are often unjustified. The benefits of such chases are questionable, and rapid police action at all costs is often unnecessary. When bystanders are injured as a result of police high-speed driving, there are few avenues to have their rights vindicated, and federal court cases require plaintiffs to meet an almost impossible burden. However, under the United States Supreme Court case of County of Sacramento v. Lewis, a plaintiff can put forth evidence that their substantive due process right to life under the Fourteenth …

Due Process Junior: Competent (Enough) For The Court, Tigan Woolson

Journal of Law and Health

There are many reports presenting expert policy recommendations, and a substantial volume of research supporting them, that detail what should shape and guide statutes for juvenile competency to stand trial. Ohio has adopted provisions consistent with some of these recommendations, which is better protection than relying on case law and the adult statutes, as some states have done. However, the Ohio statute should be considered a work in progress.

Since appeals courts are unlikely to provide meaningful review for the substance of a juvenile competency determination, the need for procedures for ensuring that the determination is initially made in a …

Innocent Until Proven Arrested: How Pretrial Juvenile Detention For Nonviolent Offenders In Ohio Inflicts Constitutional Violations, Taryn Schoenfeld

Et Cetera

When a juvenile is accused of committing a crime in Ohio, juvenile court judges must determine whether to detain the child pretrial in a juvenile jail or permit the child to go home to await trial. Whereas alleged adult offenders have the right to pay a monetary bond to be released from jail pretrial, juveniles have no such right. Thus, once a judge makes the decision to detain a juvenile pretrial—prior to being adjudicated delinquent of any crime—it is difficult for that decision to be undone. While incarcerated, juveniles suffer irreversible psychological, emotional, mental, and social harms, despite juvenile courts …

Notice, Due Process, And Voter Registration Purges, Anthony J. Gaughan

Cleveland State Law Review

In the 2018 case of Husted v. A. Philip Randolph Institute, a divided United States Supreme Court upheld the procedures that Ohio election authorities used to purge ineligible voters from the state’s registration lists. In a 5-4 ruling, the majority ruled that the Ohio law complied with the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (NVRA) as amended by the Help America Vote Act of 2002 (HAVA). This Article contends that the controlling federal law—the NVRA and HAVA—gave the Supreme Court little choice but to decide the case in favor of Ohio’s secretary of state. But this article also argues …

Clear As Mud: Constitutional Concerns With Clear Affirmative Consent, C. Ashley Saferight

Cleveland State Law Review

Rape and sexual assault laws and policies have shifted significantly in recent years, including the introduction of affirmative consent. Unfortunately, both proponents and critics tend to confuse the issues and falsely equate affirmative consent as a substantive social standard versus a procedural standard for adjudication and punishment. Although affirmative consent generally does not represent a significant change in consent law in the United States, statutes and policies requiring a further requirement that affirmative consent be clear and unambiguous (“clear affirmative consent”) are problematic and raise constitutional concerns. When clear affirmative consent policies are used as an adjudicative standard, they increase …

The Privileges And Immunities Of Non-Citizens, R. George Wright

Cleveland State Law Review

However paradoxically, in some practically important contexts, non-citizens of all sorts can rightly claim what amount to privileges and immunities of citizens. This follows from a careful and entirely plausible understanding of the inherently relational, inescapably social, and essentially reciprocal nature of at least some typical privileges and immunities.

This Article contends that the relationship between constitutional privileges and immunities and citizenship is more nuanced, and much more interesting, than usually recognized. Crucially, allowing some non-citizens to invoke the privileges and immunities of citizens often makes sense. The intuitive sense that non-citizens cannot logically claim the privileges or immunities of …

Forgotten Cases: Worthen V. Thomas, David F. Forte

Cleveland State Law Review

According to received opinion, the case of the Home Bldg. & Loan Ass’n v. Blaisdell, decided in 1934, laid to rest any force the Contract Clause of the United States Constitution had to limit state legislation that affected existing contracts. But the Supreme Court’s subsequent decisions belies that claim. In fact, a few months later, the Court unanimously decided Worthen v. Thomas, which reaffirmed the vitality of the Contract Clause. Over the next few years, in twenty cases, the Court limited the reach of Blaisdell and confirmed the limiting force of the Contract Clause on state legislation. Only …

With Liberty And Justice For Some: Denial Of Meaningful Due Process In School Disciplinary Actions In Ohio, Genevieve Vince

Cleveland State Law Review

Students face many different obstacles in school and arbitrary exclusion should not be one of them. Despite the Supreme Court stating that students do not shed their rights at the schoolhouse gate, they in fact do shed their rights. This Note examines how school disciplinary actions deny students meaningful due process. It discusses the foundation of modern due process, including what other rights have been incorporated into the contemporary understanding of due process as well as its historic roots. Additionally, this Note explores the case that established the procedures required of school administrators to comport with a student’s right to …

The Constitutionality Of Prison Privatization: An Analysis Of Prison Privatization In The United States And Israel, Stacey Jacovetti

Global Business Law Review

This note analyzes the constitutionality of the current state of prison privatization in the United States under the non-delegation doctrine and the due process clause. Furthermore, this note analyzes the Israeli Supreme Court's ruling holding prison privatization as unconstitutional under the Basic Law of the Right to Human Dignity and Liberty. Subsequently, an argument is made that the current authority for the utilization of private prisons in the United States is insufficient to establish the use of private prisons as constitutional. As such, this note argues that the overall scheme of privatization should provide for more detailed contracts--similar to those …

The Marriage Of State Law And Individual Rights And A New Limit On The Federal Death Penalty, Jonathan Ross

Cleveland State Law Review

Since the 1990s, federal prosecutors have, with increasing frequency, sought the death penalty for federal offenses committed in and also punishable under the laws of non-death penalty states. Critics of this practice have pointed out that federal prosecutors can use the federal death penalty to circumvent a state's abolition of capital punishment. Courts, however, have almost unanimously rejected arguments that state law should be a shield from federal punishment for federal offenses. This article proposes a novel way to challenge the federal death penalty's use in a non-death penalty state—the Supreme Court's reasoning in United States v. Windsor. In Windsor, …

Use Of Secret Evidence By Government Lawyers: Balancing Defendants' Rights With National Security Concerns, Tracy L. Conn

Cleveland State Law Review

The ability to use secret evidence in trials involving national security matters is an extremely controversial power of the government lawyer. Although the use of secret evidence was a divisive issue before September 11, 2001, the terrorist attacks that day sparked the passage of new legislation that increased the power of the government lawyer to use classified evidence. By examining the cases involving secret evidence both before and after September 11, in particular the case of Zacarias Moussaoui, it becomes apparent that what is at stake is the appropriate balance between national security concerns and the constitutional rights of defendants. …

The Abortion Right, Originalism, And The Fourteenth Amendment, Steven Graines, Justin Wyatt

Cleveland State Law Review

In this article, the Privileges or Immunities Clause will be re-conceived in its original context, at the center of the Fourteenth Amendment. This re-conception includes the assumption that The Slaughter-House Cases" were decided incorrectly.'" The contention of the article is that abortion restrictions, as a specific originalist matter, can be considered economic legislation and that they also economically burden women, such that they unconstitutionally abridge two privileges or immunities, the Lochnerian liberties to contract and the engagement in any of the common occupations. Specifically, abortion restrictions violate "the prohibition on redistributive 'class' legislation ... that was deeply rooted in the …

The Use Of Interpreters For The Deaf And The Legal Community's Obligation To Comply With The A.D.A., Jo Anne Simon

Journal of Law and Health

Title II of the ADA, which most closely resembles section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, requires that state and local government facilities, including courts, be accessible to individuals with disabilities. Title III of the Act requires that public accommodations be accessible to persons with disabilities. The Act specifically includes attorney's offices in its definition of public accommodation. Title II and III of the Act require that reasonable accommodations be provided to qualified persons with disabilities, unless such provision would fundamentally alter the goods, services or programs provided. Reasonable accommodations can take the form of auxiliary aids and services, …

Due Process, Judicial Review, And The Rights Of The Individual, Edward D. Re

Cleveland State Law Review

As a federal judge I fully appreciate the role of the judiciary in reviewing the actions of administrative agencies. Hence, I am pleased to discuss the concepts of due process, judicial review, and the rights of the individual. Since it cannot be questioned that public officers and administrative agencies vitally affect the lives and interests of all persons, it is important to know the legal controls and remedies that are available to assure that public officials act lawfully. This, of course, implies that all administrators and officers of government must act within the bounds of their delegated authority and comply …

Impeaching A Defendant's Testimony By Proof Of Post-Arrest Silence: Doyle V. Ohio, F. Ronald O'Keefe

Cleveland State Law Review

This Note will attempt to outline the genesis of the issue of impeachment by post-arrest silence by first discussing the various inquiries into the probative value of silence which had been undertaken by courts on the federal level before Hale (United States v. Hale, 422 U.S. 171 (1975)) . The focus will then shift to the Hale Court's treatment of this issue. The constitutional aspects of the issue will then be discussed, and the pronouncement of the Doyle Court (Doyle v. Ohio, 96 S. Ct. 2240 (1976)) will be analyzed with an emphasis on the continuity between the Hale and …

Juvenile Delinquent And Unruly Proceedings In Ohio: Unconstitutional Adjudications, Patricia Simia Kleri

Cleveland State Law Review

This article will focus on the constitutional defects of juvenile court adjudications under Ohio juvenile law. The arguments presented, however, are equally applicable in other jurisdictions since every state has some type of legislation granting juvenile court jurisdiction over both criminals and noncriminal misconduct of children.

Civil Rights By Default, Barbara Kaye Besser, Charles Guerrier

Cleveland State Law Review

It is the intention of this article to discuss the existing devices available to the Ohio Civil Rights Commission to compel a respondent to provide the relevant factual information requested; to point out the inadequacies of these procedures; and to propose an additional method to effectuate a speedy resolution of the controversies before the Ohio Civil Rights Commission.

The Right To Counsel And Due Process In Probation Revocation Proceedings: Gagnon V. Scarpelli, Douglas C. Jenkins

Cleveland State Law Review

On May 14, 1973, the worst fear of at least one commentator was borne out by the opinion of the Supreme Court in Gagnon v. Scarpelli. Justice Powell, writing for the Court, recognized certain due process rights of the individual who has been convicted and placed on probation. The Court refused to adopt a per se right to representation by counsel as an element of due process in probation revocation proceedings, however. The opinion has left the meaning and importance of due process in grave doubt, has retarded the progression of penal-correctional reform, and has insured a heavy docket for …

Abuse Of Process - A Misunderstood Concept, Charles G. Bretz Jr.

Cleveland State Law Review

The courts of Ohio have said that there is no difference between an action for abuse of process and one for malicious prosecution. Other jurisdictions likewise have had trouble distinguishing the two torts. Apparently, this is because the term has been used to describe a variety of dissimilar situations which are alike only in that there has been actionable injury as a result of the improper use of a legal process. To a lesser extent, the confusion may also have resulted from the varying terms used to describe the two actions, coupled with the imprecise use of the terms by …

Prisoner's Clothing During Trial, Christine Mukai

Cleveland State Law Review

This paper will deal with the appearance, vis-a-vis clothing, of a criminal defendant and the right of that defendant not to be attired in prison garb during judicial proceedings. The purpose here is not to consider the practices of the various jurisdictions; rather this shall be an attempt to display the existence and implications of the right to stand trial in non-criminating clothing.

Freedom Of Speech Of The Public School Teacher, Edward M. Graham

Cleveland State Law Review

Courts, until recent years, when deciding whether teachers surrender their right of free speech by accepting employment in the public schools, have almost universally held that the rights of teachers as individuals are subordinate to the rights of school boards as public employers. In applying the principle of stare decisis, courts had continuously relied upon cases reasoned along the lines of early American decisions in which the courts considered the exemplar responsibility of the teacher as the only material issue. Because of this judicial outlook, teachers have had great difficulty defending against dismissal or other disciplinary action by their employing …

Role Of The Attorney In Juvenile Court, Julian Greenspun

Cleveland State Law Review

An attorney once commented that the effect of Gault was to place him in his proper role, that of an advocate whose sole purpose was to defend constitutional rights, and that he did not have to be a social worker or psychologist. But the effect of Gault is to bring counsel into the Juvenile Court, which is a court with compassion. Thus, being a special court, it requires special skills, so that the client may not only receive due process, but if needed, will receive proper care.

Constitutional Rights In Juvenile Court, Joseph L. Rubin

Cleveland State Law Review

On June 20, 1966, the United States Supreme Court noted that it had probable jurisdiction in the case of In Re Gault. Ten months and three weeks later, the Supreme Court reached a landmark decision on judicial handling of juvenile delinquency matters. On May 15, 1967, the court handed down a ruling that many of the constitutional procedural protections previously observed only in adult trials are also applicable to children in juvenile court proceedings. This decision portends a major change in the manner in which most of the nation's three thousand juvenile courts have been functioning. The significance of this …

Right To Counsel In Criminal Cases, Edward T. Haggins

Cleveland State Law Review

"The right to be heard would be, in many cases, of little avail if it did not comprehend the right to be heard by counsel. Even the intelligent and educated layman has small and sometimes no skill in the science of law... He requires the guiding hand of counsel at every step of the proceedings against him." These words, written in 1932 by Mr. Justice Sutherland for the majority in the famous case of Powell v. Alabama underline the fundamental right of a defendant in American criminal proceeding to have the assistance of counsel.

Ex Parte Deprivation Of Telephone Service To Alleged Gamblers - Police Power Vs. Constitution, Jules L. Kaufman

Cleveland State Law Review

The question is still much in a state of flux as to whether or not such regulations as Ohio Public Utilities Commission, Order No. 22,305,and actions taken thereunder, constitute an unconstitutional denial of due process. The large majority of cases, many of which have been decided by public utilities commissions, however, uphold the right of the telephone company to discontinue service summarily at the request of a law enforcement agency without the necessity of any further proof of illegal use of the equipment. With respect to the burden of proof as regards the legality or illegality of use and the …