Law Commons^™

Editorial, Léna Gannagé

Proche-Orient, Études juridiques

This new issue is released at a time when Saint Joseph University of Beirut, despite the severity of the crisis affecting Lebanon, is committed to advancing a sustained research policy accompanied by the renewal of its scientific journals.

Penanggulangan Masalah Preman Ditinjau Dari Sudut Politik Kriminil, M. Hamdan

Jurnal Hukum & Pembangunan

Abstract

Constitutional Theory At A Catholic University, J. Joel Alicea

Catholic University Law Review

I argue that the study of constitutional theory is ideally suited to benefit from the intellectual climate of a Catholic university. To make that argument, I address three questions. First, in what ways does constitutional theory benefit from the intellectual disposition of a Catholic university? Second, what might be the potential drawbacks or risks involved in studying constitutional theory at a Catholic university? And finally, how can one gain the benefits of being a constitutional theorist at a Catholic university while avoiding any potential risks that attend that setting?

Aquinas, Wilson, And Continuity On Crime And Punishment, Brian M. Murray

Catholic University Law Review

This Article compares the legal thought of James Wilson, a leading jurisprudential figure during the American Founding, and Thomas Aquinas, perhaps the most well-known medieval philosopher, on crime and punishment. It argues their theories are closer than the historical gulf between them suggests would be the case. Both limit the definition of crime to morally culpable acts involving public harm. Each considers redressing the public disorder crime causes as the primary justification for punishment. While Wilson defers to the English common law to emphasize protecting certain natural rights and to prevent crime, Aquinas points to his understanding of natural law …

Reasonable, Legal, Voluntary? Grants Pass Decision Sparks Need For A Revised Fourth Amendment Search Analysis In The Context Of Homelessness, Hali R. Woods

Catholic University Law Review

On June 28, 2024 the Supreme Court decided City of Grants Pass, Oregon v. Johnson.  The case addressed whether the enforcement of city ordinances regulating camping on public property against individuals including respondents, unhoused individuals residing in the city of Grants Pass, constituted cruel and unusual punishment under the Eighth Amendment.  The Court upheld enforcement of the ordinances and since then approximately 150 cities across the United States have passed similar ordinances or strengthened existing similar laws.  This comment evaluates how Grants Pass is an Eighth Amendment case with Fourth Amendment consequences which sparks a need for a revised …

Endowmentball, Doron Narotzki

Northwestern Journal of Law & Social Policy

This Article presents a policy and a structural response to a national capacity failure in American higher education: the concentration of endowment wealth in a handful of elite institutions, while most colleges, those that educate the majority of Americans, including most low-income, first-generation, and underrepresented students, operate under permanent financial constraint, and remain drastically underfunded. This imbalance carries a profound social cost. It weakens equity, limits inclusion, and undermines the promise of upward mobility that higher education is supposed to deliver.

The proposed framework introduces a progressive excise tax on endowment investment returns, scaled by per-student wealth. Universities with excessive …

The Freedom To Be Bound: Anti-Discrimination Theology And The Ministerial Exception, Brooke Girley

Northwestern Journal of Law & Social Policy

The ministerial exception is generally seen as safeguarding the autonomy of religious institutions in employment decisions, but does it also serve as a roadblock to religious freedom? The recent dismissal of the gender discrimination lawsuit by Rev. Dr. Eboni Marshall Turman against the historic Abyssinian Baptist Church calls into question whether the breadth of the exception promotes religious freedom in all contexts. This article argues that the ministerial exception, although designed to protect religious autonomy, may paradoxically undermine that very autonomy when applied to faith communities, like Abyssinian, that have voluntarily embraced anti-discrimination as part of their theology and praxis. …

Frozen Identity: How Rigid Conceptions Of Sexuality Endanger Lesbian Asylum Claims, Mariajose De La Hoz

Northwestern Journal of Law & Social Policy

Bias, stereotypes, and antiquated conceptions of sexual orientation erect systemic barriers for lesbian women seeking asylum in the United States. Decision-makers with a limited understanding of LGBTQI+ identities impose expectations that reinforce stereotypes while discrediting applicants’ lived experiences. This results in adverse credibility determinations that distort evidentiary burdens and deny relief to applicants with legitimate claims. This Note examines how fixed conceptions of identity endanger the asylum process for lesbian women fleeing persecution based on their sexual orientation. Proposed solutions include statutory reforms, updated training for asylum officers, and a shift toward evaluating claims through the applicant’s lived experiences rather …

2025 Annual Report, University Of Maine School Of Law

Clinic Annual Report

3 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

4 2025: YEAR IN REVIEW

6 GENERAL PRACTICE CLINIC

8 PRISONER ASSISTANCE CLINIC

10 PROTECTION FROM ABUSE PROGRAM

12 REFUGEE AND HUMAN RIGHTS CLINIC

14 RURAL PRACTICE CLINIC

16 YOUTH JUSTICE CLINIC

18 CENTER FOR YOUTH POLICY & LAW

20 BUSINESS & LAW CLINIC

22 ALUMNI SPOTLIGHTS

24 DONORS AND FUNDING

26 FACULTY AND STAFF

Institutional Timidity: Reading Len Rubinowitz Toward A Structural Theory Of Civil Rights Enforcement, Sheldon Bernard Lyke

Northwestern Journal of Law & Social Policy

This Article first documents institutional timidity in fair housing enforcement through Rubinowitz’s empirical account of HUD and then extends the analysis to higher education admissions. It shows that universities defending affirmative action uniformly adopted the diversity rationale while declining to argue that race-conscious admissions correct for bias embedded in their own criteria. These choices did not merely weaken outcomes; they also helped produce the doctrinal frameworks that later constrained them. In identifying institutional timidity as a mechanism of doctrinal production, this Article extends Rubinowitz’s insights across domains and into constitutional law. It concludes by proposing strategies that shift civil rights …

“Downstream People:” Lessons From The Tar Creek Superfund Site And Quapaw Nation In Pursuit Of An Environmental Justice-Informed Cercla Regime, Leah Fitter

Northwestern Journal of Law & Social Policy

In 1983, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) designated Tar Creek, a former productive zinc and lead mining zone located in northeastern Oklahoma on land predominantly owned by the Indigenous Quapaw people, as a Superfund site. Its designation came in the wake of findings in 1980 that drainage and tailings from the site’s mining days had polluted the zone’s surface water into some of the most toxic water in the country. Tar Creek was an environmental justice disaster that disproportionately exposed the historically marginalized Quapaw Nation to hazardous mining waste and resulted in detrimental health impacts. Despite numerous demonstrations …

Federalist Politics And The Elusive Original Meaning Of The Free Exercise Clause, Jack Thorlin

Catholic University Law Review

Originalism requires interpreting the Constitution by reference to a provision’s original public meaning. But there is very little evidence of original public meaning for some constitutional provisions, most notably the Free Exercise Clause. Originalists have splintered into several different methodological approaches toward the Clause. Justices Scalia and O’Connor staked out opposing originalist views on the Clause thirty years ago in Employment Division v. Smith and City of Boerne v. Flores. In the Roberts Court, some of the conservative justices have attempted to apply a simple textualist interpretation of the Clause, but those efforts have not attracted most of the …

Commonsense And Convoluted: Revisiting Scott V. Harris And Its Effect On Summary Judgment, Zachary P. Novak

Catholic University Law Review

The traditional summary judgment standard across state and federal courts has long been that facts are viewed in the light most favorable to the nonmovant; this has developed as both a baseline measure to test whether the claims are even fit for a trial, but also as a measure of fairness – it is the movant who wants to dispose of the case before trial, so this standard gives the nonmovant a more level playing field. However, the Supreme Court decision of Scott v. Harris carved out a unique exception to this standard: when there is video evidence that so …

Transparency In Third-Party Litigation Funding: A Pathway To Protect America’S National Security Interests, Madison D. Gonzalez

Catholic University Law Review

Third-party litigation funding (TPLF) has opened the courtroom doors for many Americans who may otherwise not be able to afford to seek justice in America’s civil court system. The democratization of the civil court system has benefitted many Americans but the lack of transparency as to the true identities of those behind the litigation has sparked concerns that America’s foreign adversaries may weaponize TPLF to harm America’s national security interests through lengthy and costly litigation. To address this threat, Congress and state legislatures have begun to explore policy changes to increase transparency in TPLF. Several states have adopted disclosure requirements …

Restrain, Seclude, Repeat: Seeking Solutions To End The Troubled Teen Industry’S Cycle Of Harm, Elizabeth James

Northwestern Journal of Law & Social Policy

Although there is a consensus that children receiving mental health treatment in youth residential programs should only be restrained and secluded in emergency situations, youth residential program staff routinely restrain and seclude children in non-emergency situations, causing significant physical and psychological harm to the child and, on occasion, leading to the child’s death. Current federal and state laws do not adequately regulate this practice, nor correct a business model that wrongly prioritizes profits over a child’s well-being, but private action through 42 U.S.C. § 1983 may provide a powerful remedy to victims of the troubled teen industry and the necessary …

Dedication To Professor Len Rubinowitz Upon His Retirement

Northwestern Journal of Law & Social Policy

No abstract provided.

The Double-Edged Rhetoric Of Parental Rights: Conflicts Between Freedom And Control In Cases Concerning Transgender Youth, Susan Etta Keller

Northwestern Journal of Law & Social Policy

This Article examines the rhetorical structures courts and advocates deploy in two distinct lines of cases adjudicating parental rights claims affecting transgender youth: cases challenging state bans on gender-affirming care, and cases challenging school policies supportive of transgender students. Although the legal basis for the parental rights claims in each set of cases is the same—substantive due process rights under the Fourteenth Amendment—the alignment of parental interests with those of their children diverges between the two sets. In the gender-affirming care cases, parents act in concert with their children’s expressed interests; in the school policy cases, parents seek to override …

My Right To Dominate You: The Populist Perversion Of Human Rights, James A. Gardner

Journal Articles

A constitutional “right” is a legal technology designed to protect the weak from the strong. In the twenty-first-century United States, however, constitutional rights have increasingly been interpreted and deployed, by both litigants and courts, to secure the ability of the strong to dominate the weak. It is quickly becoming standard practice among right-wing American populists to claim that the deployment of rights in ways that limit the ability of the strong to dominate those weaker than themselves is to make victims of the strong. Freedom, in the imagination of American populists, means the freedom to dominate disfavored others.

This paper …

Las Vegas Review-Journal, Inc V. Eighth Judicial Dist. Ct., 142 Nev. Adv. Op. 31 (April 23, 2026), Randolph Anderson

Nevada Supreme Court Summaries

Prior restraints or gag orders may be imposed only if they are narrowly tailored and the least restrictive means available to prevent a clear and present danger.

Table Of Contents, Cleveland State Law Review

Cleveland State Law Review

No abstract provided.

Looking For Loopholes: Are Suicide Notes Really Admissible As Dying Declarations?, Marc D. Ginsberg, Hugh M. Mundy

Cleveland State Law Review

The “classic” dying declaration under Federal Rule of Evidence 804(b)(2) is made by a person near death from fatal wounds or illness who makes a statement to a third party about who inflicted the wounds or caused the illness. The rule is based on the belief that persons making such statements are unlikely to lie as the sense of impending death removes “all temptation to falsehood.” Thus, in theory, the dying declaration bears an imprimatur of trustworthiness justifying its admission as a hearsay exception.

Still, the exception for dying declarations has been described as “the most mystical in its theory …

From Cowboys To Corner Crossers: Reviving The Unlawful Inclosures Act To Protect Public Land Access, Brittany Kjerstad Mcknight, Ryan Mcknight

Cleveland State Law Review

As disputes over public land access intensify, “corner crossing” (the act of stepping from one parcel of public land to another at a shared corner with private property) has ignited legal and political battles across the West. At stake is not just the meaning of trespass, but the public’s right to enjoy land it lawfully owns. This Article argues that corner crossing is lawful and should be recognized as such under existing property law principles. It situates the modern corner-crossing controversy within a broader historical and doctrinal framework, tracing its roots to the Unlawful Inclosures Act of 1885 and the …

Dignity For The Deceased: The Abolition Solution To The Laws Governing Unclaimed Body Donation, Lauren Bayerl

Cleveland State Law Review

This Note explores the dangers bubbling under the surface of body donation law across the United States. Specifically, this Note investigates the little-known contours of Ohio law that open the door for body donation practices that may bypass an individual’s consent. While data is slim on the real-world outcomes that such quirks in state law have produced, a recent news story out of Texas highlights the very real danger that the structure of these state body donation laws can produce. This Note first details the laws in place in Ohio that govern body donation, using one state’s laws as a …

Ad Astra: Now Is The Time To Allow States To Claim Territory In Space, John Swansinger

Cleveland State Law Review

The Outer Space Treaty is based on the idealistic principle that space is the common heritage of mankind and prohibits the acquisition of territory by states in space. However, as space becomes increasingly accessible, this principle has come under threat. Private actors and more developed states are far more capable of accessing space than less developed states. Accordingly, these developments have threatened the basic ideals of the Outer Space Treaty that a vast majority of states have agreed to. This Note will introduce and explore the background and development of the Outer Space Treaty to explain these idealistic principles and …

A Harmonious Legal System: True Justice Through Modernized Platonic Marxism, Cian R. Batarla

Departmental Honors & Graduate Capstone Projects

The Marxist theory of the law is underdeveloped compared to the rest of Marx and Engels works. This can be chalked up to legal systems merely being part of the superstructure, by which the ruling class use to maintain power. In this essay I push back on this notion that the rule of law can be dismissed, arguing that if Marx's true community is to be as such then the addition of a just legal system is not an issue. However, Marx's true community on its own is not enough to satisfy the inclusion of a legal system. Thus necessitating …

Masthead, Cleveland State Law Review

Cleveland State Law Review

No abstract provided.

Unprotected In Public: Street Harassment And The Legal Control Of Female Resistance, Joanne Sweeny

Cleveland State Law Review

This Article traces the historical development of street harassment from its emergence in the Victorian era to its contemporary manifestations, situating it within broader social, legal, and gendered frameworks. It explores the cultural and structural forces that have enabled street harassment to persist over time, examining how it functions as both a method of gendered control and a reflection of public space dynamics. While street harassment has long been recognized by those who experience it as a form of violence and domination, the law has consistently failed to treat it as such. Instead, legal responses have often focused not on …

The Supreme Court Vs. Federal Prosecutors, Scott Ingram

Et Cetera

For the past forty years, the United States Supreme Court and federal prosecutors have waged an ongoing battle over statutory interpretation. As federal prosecutors have applied broad statutory interpretations to a variety of offenses, the Supreme Court, in a rare show of unanimity, have pushed back by interpreting the statutes narrowly. Throughout this process, the Supreme Court has employed a variety of rationales to support the narrow interpretations. Beginning with federalism concerns, the Court has more recently turned to fears about arbitrary and politically-motivated prosecutions. This article traces the evolution of this battle and concludes with insights about its future …

Public Means Public: A Call For Amendment Of The Copyright Act Of 1976'S Public Display Right To Immunize Private Businesses From Unintentional Infringement, Lucy Greaney

Et Cetera

Private businesses increasingly face copyright liability and burdensome licensing fees under the Public Display Provision of the Copyright Act of 1976, despite engaging in activities that cannot be truly considered public. This Note examines the historical development of the Public Display Provision, analyzes case law involving public accommodations and semi-private entities, and explores the intersection between copyright enforcement and U.S. antitrust principles. It argues that Congress did not intend for private, employee-only business settings to fall within the scope of the Public Display Provision and that the current enforcement regime enables anticompetitive licensing practices by performing rights organizations. To resolve …

Politics, Preemption, And Minimum Labor Standards: The Union-Led Erosion Of The National Labor Relations Act, Alexander T. Macdonald

William & Mary Law Review Online

[Courts] should no longer ask simply whether a law is a “minimum labor standard.” Instead, they should look to context: They should ask whether the law skips or overrides some important part of the NLRA’s process. They should also ask whether the law was enacted for that purpose—whether it was meant to address some perceived gap in federal labor policy. If it was, they should look more closely. They should ask whether the law as applied contradicts Congress’s vision, either by taking away one side’s discretion or giving the other side new advantages. And if it does, they should find …