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Masthead Volume 126, Issue 2

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Table Of Contents

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Right To Sit In West Virginia, Leif Olson

West Virginia Law Review

In 1901, West Virginia guaranteed that women working outside the home would have a place to sit down at their workplace. In 2023, despite that law, no worker in West Virginia is functionally required to be given a chair. This Note explores the use of seating laws to prevent the modern and historic workplace issue of prolonged standing, or when an employee is required to stand in one place for too long at one time. Prolonged standing in the workplace is an ergonomics problem, a medical concern, and a labor issue. The pain, discomfort, and long-term chronic disease caused by …

Noncompete Agreements In A Rigid Labor Market: The Case Of Italy, Lorenzo G. Luisetto, Tito Boeri, Andrea Garnero

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

Noncompete agreements limiting the mobility of workers have been found to be widespread in the United States, a flexible and lightly regulated labor market. We explore the use of noncompete agreements in a rigid and highly regulated labor market, where labor mobility is low, and the labor market is highly regulated via legislation and collective bargaining. Based on a novel survey of Italian workers and an analysis of the regulatory framework, our study shows how trends and patterns in the use of noncompete agreements are not specific to a flexible labor market. Even in a rigid and highly regulated labor …

Slavery.Ai, Emile Loza De Siles

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

The artificial intelligence market is swarming. Supercharged start-ups, global tech giants, and increasingly algorithmic governments target diverse use cases with new and stunningly innovative AI applications coming online every day. Where people are the computational subjects of those algorithmic machinations, however, there is no law, present or effective, to protect them against great and propagating harms. Consequently, people become data production units, the commoditized of the Data Industrial Complex and unfree, unpaid inputs to AI production.

This Article shares a new and provocative vision. It theorizes that unregulated AI systems and uses are giving rise to an emergent form of …

Colorblind And Color Mute: Words Unspoken In U.S. Supreme Court Oral Arguments, Chris Chambers Goodman

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

The U.S. Supreme Court holds oral arguments on 70 to 80 cases each year, with fewer than a dozen most years involving issues around race or ethnicity. When the salience of race is clear, Supreme Court observers would expect to hear racial terms used in the arguments by counsel, as well as in the Justice’s questions.

Surprisingly, this research study demonstrates that is not the case. These racial terms - such as color, discriminate, minority, race, and its various related terms like racial, racially, racist, as well as combinations like race-neutral, and race-blind - only sparsely appear in oral argument …

The Witch-Hunt For Spies - A Critique Of The China Initiative And National Security’S Outsized Influence In Equal Protection Analysis, Winni Zhang

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

The U.S. Government has increased its focus on Chinese espionage in the last decade in a randomized and unpredictable way. Primarily targeting Chinese scientists and academics, the “China Initiative” has resulted in widespread targeting of individuals based on their race, ethnicity, and national origin. The program was formally terminated and said to now be a part of a broader approach to nation-state threats. However, the outcomes and effect of the economic espionage charges in the last 15 years has greatly skewed towards prosecuting Chinese individuals irrespective of the name of the program. While protections typically exist in the law to …

Masthead

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Table Of Contents

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

No abstract provided.

When Public Meets Private: Private School Enrollment And Segregation In Virginia, Genevieve Siegel-Hawley, Ash Taylor-Beierl, Erica Frankenberg, April Hewko, Andrene Castro

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

Recognizing Virginia’s central role in the expansion of segregated southern private schools after the Brown v. Board of Education ruling, we review law and policy related to private school segregation. We also conduct an empirical analysis of Virginia private school enrollment and segregation since the turn of the twenty-first century, finding uneven enrollment even as the number of private schools has grown. Segregation in the sector is deepening. As public funding for private schools rises, we make the case that the increasingly blurred lines between public and private education in Virginia are rooted in adaptive discrimination.

Reflections Of A Non-Abolitionist Admirer Of The Police Abolition Movement, Corey Stoughton

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

To acknowledge that the abolition movement made reform better is not to reduce the movement to that purpose. For the non-abolitionist, the end of reform is better policing. For the abolitionist, reform is at best “a strategy or tactic toward transformation,” meaning contesting and ultimately eliminating policing. These are not compatible visions. But even if the collaboration between holders of these visions is just a tactical alliance, it is a tactical alliance that is producing good results. Perhaps those good results will lay a foundation for abolition, or perhaps they will seed in abolitionists’ fertile imaginations a positive vision of …

Battle Of The Lands: The Creation Of Land Grant Institutions And Hbcus – Fostering A Still Separate And Still Unequal Higher Education System, Jasmine Cooper

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

In HBCU culture, the Battle of the Bands is a competition between school marching bands to determine the “best of the best”. It is a cultural celebration that symbolizes friendly competition and showcases students’ pride in their school. Unfortunately, since their inception, Historically Black Colleges, and Universities (“HBCUs”) have been battling for legitimacy in America’s higher education system. From the beginning, HBCUs were often the only place African Americans could receive an education. Today, HBCUs are known for creating some of the most successful Black graduates and serve as a safe haven for Black students seeking an education in an …

More Harm Than Good: How State-Sponsored Gentrification Is Driving The Affordable Housing Crisis, And A Call For Accountability And Source-Of-Income Protections, Tolly Maloney

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

The affordable housing crisis in the United States stands at the center of conversations surrounding economic, social, and political reform. The inability of millions of Americans to afford a safe place to live is the result of decades of legislation aimed at fiscally benefitting the individuals developing and managing properties labeled “affordable” as opposed to placing low-income Americans in suitable, long-term housing. This Note argues that state-sponsored gentrification, paired with ineffective housing assistance programs and discrimination, is driving the affordable housing crisis in the Commonwealth of Virginia. This Note studies several policy examples of state-sponsored gentrification in Northern Virginia, Richmond, …

Bivens And Beyond: Creating A Meaningful Remedy For Federal Prisoners In A Post-Boule Landscape, Hannah M. Wilk

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

For nearly 50 years, the Bivens action served as a vehicle to compensate individuals when their constitutional rights had been infringed on by a federal officer. Bivens actions operated as the federal equivalent of Section 1983 claims in state courts against state officers. But in June 2022, with a conservative majority in the U.S. Supreme Court, the Bivens framework was gutted by Egbert v. Boule. Boule held that if a Bivens claim is filed in a context that differs from the three previously accepted contexts (the Fourth, Fifth, and Eighth Amendments), the claim must fail, as Congress is better equipped …

Fitting A Block Into A Sphere Mold: The Inadequacy Of Current Data Privacy Regulations In Protecting Data Privacy Within The Blockchain Space, Jenny Yang

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

Despite global imposition of data privacy laws and regulations, data privacy is a nonexistent luxury amongst the data-charged world we live in. Data privacy has long been established as a fundamental right. Entities have successfully established robust methodologies around existing data privacy laws and regulations to utilize past consumer behavior to predict, impact and manipulate current and future consumer behaviors. This phenomenon has been commonly coined as “corporate surveillance.” Emerging spaces arising through technological developments have greater access into consumer data to impact economic choices. Specifically, the blockchain space, through its unique open-source and permanent traits, has been able to …

Skirting The Fourth Amendment: How Law Enforcement Agencies Abuse Technology And Constitutional Exceptions To Surveille The Public, Matthew Lloyd

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

Existing Fourth Amendment law does not protect against law enforcement use of data gathered through the internet either by private companies who actively search their customer’s data and submit evidence of misconduct to law enforcement or from private companies who acquire the data on behalf of law enforcement. In an effort to pursue criminals, courts have permitted Fourth Amendment jurisprudence to develop in a manner that permits sweeping invasions of privacy without any probable cause through the private search doctrine or without any procedural protections through the third-party doctrine. It will require substantial judicial or legislative action to return the …

Standing Up To Bounty Laws: Examining State Standing Jurisprudence And Its Effect On Laws Enforced Through Private Rights Of Action, Olivia A. Luzzio

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

The Texas Heartbeat Act (SB 8) adopted a unique enforcement scheme that succeeded in circumventing Roe v. Wade’s protection of a woman’s right to abortion before viability. By prohibiting enforcement of the Act by public officials and instead authorizing enforcement solely through civil actions by “any person,” SB 8 effectively ended a women’s right to abortion after a fetal heartbeat is detected. The passage of this law placed the protection of other constitutionally endowed rights in jeopardy and facilitated the passage of similarly constructed legislation, such as California’s Senate Bill 1327, which authorizes “any person” to sue anyone who manufactures …

A Psa On The Csaa: How The Child Soldiers Accountability Act Should Guide The United States’ Approach To Criminalizing The Recruitment Of Minors Into Gangs, Chandler Marshall

Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice

The use and recruitment of child soldiers in situations of armed conflict has been widely documented over the past century, discussed in the media and in academia, and condemned by prominent members of the international community. Beginning in the 20th century, international legal frameworks were developed to protect children in vulnerable communities across the globe and punish those responsible for their recruitment in regions of armed conflict. While the international community and the United States have taken great strides to protect children from recruitment and militarization, the United States lacks any effective domestic laws to protect vulnerable children on American …

Mistick Speaks: A Collection Of Tribune Review Columns, 2019-2023, Joseph Sabino Mistick

Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Tort Liability For Physical Harm To Police Arising From Protest: Common-Law Principles For A Politicized World, Ellen M. Bublick, Jane R. Bambauer

UF Law Faculty Publications

When police officers bring tort suits for physical harms suffered during protest, courts must navigate two critically important sets of values—on the one hand, protesters’ rights to free speech and assembly, and on the other, the value of officers’ lives, health, and rights of redress. This year courts, including the United States Supreme Court, must decide who, if anyone, can be held accountable for severe physical harms suffered by police called upon to respond to protest. Two highly visible cases well illustrate the trend. In one, United States Capitol Police officers were injured on January 6, 2021, during organized attempts …

Introducing Law Students To Transactional Practice: From Using Precedent To Closing The Deal, Ben Fernandez

UF Law Faculty Publications

My name is Ben Fernandez. I teach contract drafting at the University of Florida, Levin College of Law, and I'm going to talk about introducing students to transactional practice from using precedents to closing the deal. Basically, what I'm going to describe is things I do to supplement Tina Stark's Drafting Contracts: How and Why Lawyers Do What They Do. I'm going to give you a whole bunch of, I hope, useful, teaching ideas on how to do that.

Contract Drafting Classes Need To Devote More Consideration To The Law Applicable To "Boilerplate" Clauses, Ben Fernandez

UF Law Faculty Publications

The law applicable to “boilerplate” provisions is often given little attention in contract drafting classes because textbooks focus too much on the textbook author’s opinion of the best words to use for various contract provisions and how to format each clause (e.g., whether to use “shall” or “will” or “must” for a covenant or obligation, whether to write numbers numerically or in words (or both), whether to use “on or about” instead of “within” for a time period, whether to bold or underline definitions, or put them in quotes, etc.). Students need to learn to draft clearly and unambiguously; and …

Everything You Want: The Paradox Of Customized Intellectual Property Regimes, Derek E. Bambauer

UF Law Faculty Publications

Special interest groups share a dream: enacting legislation customized for, and hopefully drafted by, their industry. Customized rules created via legislative capture, though, are the worst-case scenario from a public choice perspective: they enable narrow interests to capture rents without generating sufficient societal benefits. American intellectual property (IP) law offers useful case studies in legislative capture: special interests have created their own rules three times in the past forty years with the Semiconductor Chip Protection Act, the Audio Home Recording Act, and the Vessel Hull Design Protection Act. Paradoxically, though, these customized IP systems have consistently disappointed their drafters: all …

Price Discrimination And Power Buyers: Why Giant Retailers Dominate The Economy And How To Stop It, Katherine Van Dyck

University of Baltimore Law Review

No abstract provided.

Constitutional Law—Local Option Petitions: Unconstitutional Impediments To Happy Hour In Arkansas, Timothy J. Frith

University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law Review

No abstract provided.

Constitutional Law—Arkansas's Unconstitutional Attack On Transgender Children And The Rights Of Their Parents, Falyn Traina

University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law Review

No abstract provided.

Do The Community A Service And Look Into Community Service Sentencing In Arkansas At The District Court Level, Daniel R. Haney

University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law Review

No abstract provided.

Constitutional Law—Mitigating Jury Influence By Social Media Obsessions And The Trial By Tiktok, Paige Harris

University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law Review

No abstract provided.

Criminal Procedure—Vega V. Dickerson—Miranda, Prophylactic Rules, And Article Iii Legitimacy, Alex Jackson

University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law Review

No abstract provided.

Analyzing The Intersectionality Of Race And Socioeconomics In Foster Care And Child Welfare, Isabella Gallardo

Political Science Theses and Capstones

Racial disparities continue to persist in the child welfare system, resulting in disproportionate representation and differential treatment for children from diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds. Understanding the root causes, systemic factors, biases, and consequences of these disparities is vital for discovering solutions to ensure fair and equitable treatment for all children. I synthesize existing research conducted on racial disparities in child welfare, delving into systemic factors, biases, and their consequences. The dataset I most utilized is from the National Data Archive on Child Abuse and Neglect (NDACAN). Correlation analysis was used to show the relationship between racial disproportionality and systematic …