Constitutional Law Commons^™

From Deliberate Indifference To Civil Negligence: Protecting Male Prisoners From Sexual Violence In United States Prisons, Olivia Martini

Immigration and Human Rights Law Review

Sexual violence in United States prisons is a pervasive issue that disproportionately impacts male inmates, revealing systemic failures in the current legal framework designed to protect incarcerated individuals. The deliberate indifference standard, established by the United States Supreme Court, imposes an excessively high burden of proof on survivors, requiring evidence of prison officials’ subjective awareness of specific, substantial risks.

This article critiques the shortcomings of the deliberate indifference standard and proposes a civil negligence framework as a promising alternative. Grounded in an objective duty of care, a civil negligence approach emphasizes proactive measures that institutions must take to avoid liability. …

Pleading For The Fifth: How Assisting Law Enforcement For T & U Visas Violates Immigrants’ Right Against Self-Incrimination, Maya Huffman

Immigration and Human Rights Law Review

Human trafficking is a transnational crime that has decimated the lives of many innocent victims, especially those seeking to immigrate to the United States. In 2000, Congress enacted the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, which created T and U visas for victims of severe forms of trafficking and other crimes, respectively. Although these visas were created to protect especially vulnerable immigrants, they ultimately are more harmful than helpful. A condition for being granted a T or U visa is that the applicant must assist law enforcement in the investigation and prosecution of the perpetrator of the crime they are a victim …

The Relationship Between Religion And The State “Islam And The Constitution As A Model”, Ahmad Hosni Ashqar, Majed Abbadi

An-Najah University Journal for Research - B (Humanities)

Objective: This study aims to investigate the relationship between religion and the state within its constitutional framework when constitutional texts include a specific religion for the state, which makes this - when applied legislatively - a thorny and ambiguous issue. Methodology: This study, through the descriptive analytical approach, examines the different forms of possible relations between religion and the state to develop democratic constitutions. Results: The study concluded several results, the most prominent of which is that considering Islam the official religion of the state involves respecting the rights of Muslims to practice their duties and organize …

Adopting Permissioned Blockchain Models To Enhance Consumer Protection And Comply With Consumer Protection Laws, Erika Buenrostro

Featured Student Work

Blockchain technology enables decentralized, peer-to-peer transactions and data management, offering transparency while raising data privacy and consumer protection concerns. As the current administration promotes blockchain adoption, including cryptocurrency, more users and businesses will likely integrate the technology. This thesis provides a framework to help businesses adopt blockchain while ensuring compliance with the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA). To prevent data mishandling and legal penalties, consumers and businesses must stay informed about the risks and evolving state privacy laws.

A CCPA-compliant approach retains blockchain’s benefits through a permissioned model, storing only non-personal (neutral) data on-chain while keeping personal information off-chain in …

Growing Pains: The Evolution Of Jlwop Sentences In Washington, Selena M. Galvan

Washington Law Review

In 2021, the Washington State Supreme Court abolished de facto life sentences— those that amount to a life sentence despite not carrying the life without parole label—for juvenile offenders, finding them unconstitutional under article 1, section 14 of the Washington Constitution. In 2022, less than a year later, the Court reversed course in the case of State v. Anderson by upholding a sixty-one-year sentence for crimes a juvenile offender committed at age seventeen. The Washington State Supreme Court’s decision in Anderson runs contrary to what modern science demonstrates about the diminished culpability of juvenile offenders, and it runs contrary to …

Social Contracts: The State Convention Drafting History Of The Lockean Natural Rights Guarantees, Anthony B. Sanders

UMKC Law Review

No abstract provided.

Us V. Rahimi, Originalism's Loaded Weapon, And The Lost Boys Of The Supreme Court, Mary Anne Franks

Articles

No abstract provided.

Not Demented Enough: Dementia And Competency To Stand Trial, Rashmi Goel

Nevada Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Justice Kavanaugh’S Tee: What Is The Court Brewing?, Elijah J. Miller

Nevada Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Original Understanding Of The Western State Constitutions' Protections From Searches, Seizures, And Self-Incrimination, Greg Sergienko

UMKC Law Review

No abstract provided.

Compromised Guilt: Systemic Denial Of The Right To A Unanimous Verdict In Arkansas, Bryan Altman

University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law Review

Currently, the State of Arkansas curiously stands alone in opposition to the rest of the nation when it comes to honoring the individual’s right to a unanimous verdict in a criminal trial. While never explicitly adopted by the Arkansas Supreme Court, Arkansas law has passively permitted two illegitimate practices to develop. First, prosecutors are permitted to submit evidence of multiple, separate acts to sustain a single criminal charge. Second, jurors are permitted to disregard factual disagreements and render patchwork verdicts, especially in the context of sex crime cases.

Arkansas practice and custom currently does not protect against a conviction based …

Constitutional Law—Arkansas’S Unconstitutional Gun Restrictions For The Formerly Mentally Ill, Michael Frost

University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law Review

No abstract provided.

Rethinking Article I, Section 9: State Protections Against Self-Incrimination In The Wake Of Gr 37, Zachary L. Hentzel

Washington Law Review

When adopted by Washington courts in 2018, General Rule 37 marked a significant advance in the fight against racial discrimination. Modifying the third step of Batson v. Kentucky, GR 37 requires that peremptory challenges must be denied if an “objective observer” could view race or ethnicity as a factor in the strike. Applying the objective observer standard to contexts beyond jury selection—such as evaluation of jury verdicts, seizures of persons, and prosecutorial misconduct—has led to major statewide victories toward establishing a more equitable justice system. However, courts have not granted all requests to extend the objective observer standard to …

Dobbs And The New Doctrine Of Stare Decisis, Russell A. Miller

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

Alongside the historic and troubling annulment of the half-century-old Substantive Due Process right to abortion, Dobbs produced another significant outcome. To get its substantive constitutional law result, the Court’s majority also had to reconceive—and significantly weaken—the doctrine of stare decisis. This was necessary because, following Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey, the constitutional right to abortion largely depended on respect for precedent as the basis for its survival. To overturn Roe, the Dobbs majority had to blast through the established practice of precedent and articulate a new doctrine of stare decisis. It seems that precedent …

Ai And The Press Clause, Jared Schroeder

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

Generative AI took a massive leap forward in late 2022 and early 2023 with the introduction of public access to ChatGPT and Bard. OpenAI, whose ChatGPT tool garnered more than 100 million users in fewer than two months, upgraded to GPT-4 in March 2023. These AI tools, and those who create and use them, almost certainly represent the vanguard of a new generation of publishers, which will join the long queue of communicators who have challenged courts to define the role and place of the Press Clause. AI publishers raise substantial legal questions in fields including defamation, intellectual property, and …

The Article V Convention Threat Awakens: Looking Within, Abroad, And Ahead, Willow Hasson

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

The Convention of States (COS) movement likely represents the passionate factions that Founders, like Madison, warned against and should thus be taken seriously. COS is now practicing its Article V Convention simulations every few years so that when it reaches its threshold of captured state legislatures, its processes will be fine-tuned, and there will be no going back. Not only could COS one day succeed, as evidenced by their supporters reaching new heights of politics, but their concerns are also worth focusing on as they point to an American constitutional flaw. Their frenzy for change is misdirected, and they aim …

Camera-Shy Courtrooms: Balancing Extraordinary Transparency And The Appearance Of Justice, Caroline Olsen

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

High-profile trials alert us to the dissonance between transparency and accountability in the federal judiciary. This Note will explore this tension and argue that when policymakers respond to calls for “extraordinary transparency,” transparency should be subordinate to fairness. Part I will discuss the principles underlying public adjudication and how, through various constitutional challenges, the limits of public access have changed over time. Analyzing modern high-profile trials, Part II will demonstrate how those very principles are inadequately protected in jurisdictions that allow unrestrained public access to the courtroom. Part III will describe how transparency, when conflated with accountability, threatens procedural due …

Fame, Fakes, And The First Amendment: A Three-State Analysis Of The Right Of Publicity In Addressing Deepfakes, Alexandra Reilly

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

Part I of this Note will set the scene of current concerns with deepfakes by those in media and pending changes in the right of publicity landscape. Part II discusses the standing of the right of publicity in three states. Parts III and IV address the current balancing tests for the First Amendment and intellectual property statutes. Part V examines the pathway for expansion of the right of publicity federally to combat the threat posed by deepfakes and Part VI analyzes the interplay with intellectual property doctrines and the First Amendment.

This abstract has been taken from the author's introduction.

State And Federal Constitutional Right To Counsel In An Age Of Case Specific Inadequacies, Brent R. Appel

UMKC Law Review

No abstract provided.

Smoking Guns In The Rearview Mirror: Defending Washington's Firearm Regulations With Historical Analogues, Hyejin Lee

Washington Law Review

Mass shootings and gun violence are inescapable facts of American life. America is the only developed country where mass shootings occur almost daily. Despite the widespread sentiment of hopelessness surrounding this problem, state and local governments have been enacting various gun restriction laws. However, in a series of recent cases, the U.S. Supreme Court established an originalist standard for evaluating Second Amendment claims that poses significant challenges to the constitutionality of state and local gun laws. To survive constitutional muster, gun laws today must share common regulatory purpose and mechanism with historical analogues from the period between the founding and …

Rest In The Mourning: Navigating Assisted Suicide And Autonomy, Jada Rhome

Journal of Law and Health

Life, in all its diversity, has always been revered for its beauty, be it in the myriad opportunities it presents, the relationships we forge, or the cyclical changes that shape our journey. Yet, life’s harsh winters, those prolonged periods of suffering, often push the boundaries of endurance, prompting the question: Should we insist on perseverance when the hope of relief seems distant? This paper aims to explore this very question in the context of assisted suicide. This paper delves into the intricate ethical landscape of assisted suicide, navigating the complex interplay between autonomy, dignity, and the sanctity of life. At …

Cannabis In The Clink: An Argument In Favor Of Medical Marijuana For Disabled Inmates, Sophia Dechurch

Journal of Law and Health

In recent decades, medical marijuana programs have become commonplace, and most states in the United States of America are ready to accept marijuana as a natural alternative to treat symptoms of certain conditions such as chronic pain, cancer, mental illness, multiple sclerosis (MS), HIV/AIDS, and substance use disorder; as such, medical marijuana is readily accessible to those who have a qualifying diagnosis – the exception being those who are incarcerated. Although disability, substance abuse, and mental illness are prevalent among those under state supervision, these individuals are effectively prohibited from enjoying the benefits of medical marijuana. This Note will provide …

Leveraging The History And Tradition Framework In Support Of Transgender Americans’ Fundamental Right To Choose A Name, Abigail Franke

Marquette Benefits and Social Welfare Law Review

Transgender people are facing waves of new legislation limiting their right to exist. However, there is an enormous amount of preexisting state laws which limit transgender people’s right to choose a gender affirming name on their own terms. Many current state laws severely restrict the ability of transgender people with prior felony convictions to change their name. These laws limit the ability of people with felony convictions from changing their name: based on the offense, pursuant a time limit, or force transgender people to out themselves. In this note I argue that these state-level laws place an unconstitutional barrier between …

Can Prosecutors' Offices Preserve Public Confidence In Their Nonpartisanship - And, If So, How?, Rebecca Roiphe, Bruce Green

Articles & Chapters

Politicians, the media, and others erode public confidence in prosecutors by accusing them of “weaponizing” their power in cases with political implications. This essay argues that prosecutors’ offices have a responsibility not only to do their work in accordance with professional norms, training and policy that call for nonpartisan decision-making, but also to make affirmative efforts to restore and preserve public faith that prosecutors are in fact acting neutrally, objectively and impartially. Despite limits to what prosecutors’ offices can do in the current climate, this essay suggests some possible measures to counteract the perception of political bias.

Conservative Legal Advocacy Organizations And Constitutional Change In The Roberts Court, Ann Southworth

Fordham Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Illusion Of Inclusion: The False Promise Of The New Governance Project For Content Moderation, Brenda Dvoskin

Fordham Law Review

Because private companies now control the most prominent communication platforms, the most pressing question in the field of content moderation is how to ensure that the governance of public discourse responds to public values. The prevailing approach, given that the state cannot regulate speech directly, is that state regulation can be substituted with audited self-regulation, broad stakeholder participation, and negotiated rulemaking. In this model, which this Article refers to as the “new governance model for content moderation,” companies include advocates as representatives of the public in their processes to govern online speech. Ideally, they negotiate policy goals and share responsibility …

Democratic Self-Defense, Claudia E. Haupt

Fordham Law Review

Four U.S. states recently took diametrically opposed approaches to address fundamental problems that their respective state legislatures identified in the online speech environment. While controversial legislation in Florida and Texas sought to limit the ability of platforms to remove users or content, New York and California passed laws ultimately aimed at curbing hate speech and other forms of abuse on platforms. In isolation, each of these legislative approaches raises significant First Amendment concerns, and all are likely insufficient to address the problems posed by online speech. But what if the impetus behind these laws were combined into a unified regulatory …

Properly Partitioning Prejudice: Analyzing Mixed Brady And Napue Claims, Patrick Scariano

Fordham Law Review

Due process affords criminal defendants the right to receive evidence possessed by the government that would aid in their defense. This right was codified in Brady v. Maryland. Brady’s lesser-known ancestor is Napue v. Illinois, which gave defendants the right to a new trial if the government knowingly offered perjured testimony in their original trial. The U.S. Supreme Court has held that these rights are critical to support verdicts worthy of confidence necessary to ensure due process.

Unfortunately, defendants victimized by misconduct are often affected by multiple violations of their rights. Courts have developed ways to examine …

The Pro-Defense Constitution, Zamir Ben-Dan

Utah Law Review

The pro-defense Constitution envisioned by the framers had its shortcomings. State power was unconstrained by it. More importantly, the Constitution’s protections only applied to white people; African Americans had no legal rights. The drafters of the Reconstruction Amendments attempted to change this reality in the field of criminal law by making the Bill of Rights applicable to the states. Put another way, the pro-defense Constitution was to protect all persons charged with crimes in the United States. The author avers that this vision of the Constitution must be reclaimed.

Policing’S Free-Speech Problem, G. Alex Sinha

Utah Law Review

The central claim of this Article is that a significant share of typical policing activity is wildly and egregiously unconstitutional. More precisely, police regularly, predictably, and systematically violate the hardest, most settled core of free-speech law under the First Amendment. We have grown to tolerate these violations—we have not even noticed them!—because they are difficult to litigate. But they are inescapable. Having seen them, we cannot abide these violations without entirely overturning the modern understanding of free-speech rights under the First Amendment.

It is well-settled that, under the First Amendment, the government generally may not discriminate against (or in favor …