Law and Society Commons^™

Localism, Labels And Animal Welfare, Samuel R. Wiseman

Scholarly Publications

The law does relatively little to improve the welfare of animals raised for food. In the short term, at least, market-based solutions appear to have more promise as a means of promoting farm animal welfare, as consumers increasingly seek out local and humanelyraised meat and eggs. To aid consumers in identifying these products, certification systems of varying degrees of rigor exist, but even these are of little use to consumers in the restaurant context, which accounts for a large percentage of meat consumption. Patrons see only finished meals, making fraud difficult to detect, and a recent newspaper investigation suggests that …

Isolation Of Mitochondrial Dna From Single, Short Hairs Without Roots Using Pressure Cycling Technology, Kathryn A. Harper, Kelly A. Meiklejohn, Richard T. Merritt, Jessica Walker, Constance L. Fisher, James M. Robertson

United States Department of Justice: Publications

Hairs are commonly submitted as evidence to forensic laboratories, but standard nuclear DNA analysis is not always possible. Mitochondria (mt) provide another source of genetic material; however, manual isolation is laborious. In a proof-of-concept study, we assessed pressure cycling technology (PCT; an automated approach that subjects samples to varying cycles of high and low pressure) for extracting mtDNA from single, short hairs without roots. Using three microscopically similar donors, we determined the ideal PCT conditions and compared those yields to those obtained using the traditional manual micro-tissue grinder method. Higher yields were recovered from grinder extracts, but yields from PCT …

A Review And Conceptual Model Of Factors Correlated With Postmortem Root Band Formation, Joseph Donfack, Hilda S. Castillo

United States Department of Justice: Publications

It is generally accepted within the forensic trace evidence community that a postmortem root band (PMRB) can appear in the root of hairs attached to remains during decomposition. Presently, the specific sequences of events and/or exact molecular signals that lead to the formation of a PMRB are not well understood. The published literature addressing the abiotic and biotic factors that correlate with the formation of PMRBs is reviewed and a conceptual model for the formation of PMRBs is proposed.

Science‐Based Interviewing: Information Elicitation, Susan E. Brandon, Simon Wells, Colton Seale

United States Department of Justice: Publications

This article describes an ethical and effective science‐based model of interviewing. An initial planning phase assists the investigative team in separating facts from inferences, decreases the likelihood of errors based on cognitive biases, and prompts careful preparation of the environment. The interview begins with an explanation of why the subject is being questioned. The interviewer then metaphorically hands the interview over to the subject, making him the talker and the interviewer the listener. The interviewer engages in active listening, soliciting as much information from the subject as possible by deploying tactics that enhance memory based on science, including elements of …

Criminal Thinking, Psychiatric Symptoms, And Recovery Attitudes Among Community Mental Health Patients, Nicole R. Bartholomew, Robert D. Morgan, Sean M. Mitchell, Stephanie A. Van Horn

United States Department of Justice: Publications

Research suggests it is important to consider criminogenic needs among individuals with severe mental illness. This study aimed to determine the severity of criminal thinking in community-based clinical samples, understand the association between criminal thinking and psychiatric and criminal justice outcomes, and compare these associations between consumers enrolled in Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) and Forensic Assertive Community Treatment (FACT) programs. Participants (N = 234) were male and female consumers enrolled in ACT and FACT programs in five states. Results revealed no significant differences in criminal thinking when comparing participants by program type or history of criminal justice involvement. There …

Integration Of Paper Spray Ionization High‐Field Asymmetric Waveform Ion Mobility Spectrometry For Forensic Applications, Chia-Wei Tsai, Christopher A. Tipple, Richard A. Yost

United States Department of Justice: Publications

Rationale: Paper spray ionization (PSI) is an attractive ambient ionization source for mass spectrometry (MS) since it allows the combination of surface sampling and ionization. The minimal sample preparation inherent in this approach greatly reduces the time needed for analysis. However, the ions generated from interfering compounds in the sample and the paper substrate may interfere with the analyte ions. Therefore, the integration of PSI with high‐field asymmetric ion mobility spectrometry (FAIMS) is of significant interest since it should reduce the background ions entering the mass analyzer without complicating the analysis or increasing analysis time. Here we demonstrate the integration …

Development And Validation Of A Solid Phase Extraction Sample Cleanup Procedure For The Recovery Of Trace Levels Of Nitro-Organic Explosives In Soil, Jennifer L. Thomas, Christopher C. Donnelly, Erin W. Lloyd, Robert F. Mothershead Ii, Mark L. Miller

United States Department of Justice: Publications

An improved cleanup method has been developed for the recovery of trace levels of 12 nitro-organic explosives in soil, which is important not only for the forensic community, but also has environmental implications. A wide variety of explosives or explosive-related compounds were evaluated, including nitramines, nitrate esters, nitroaromatics, and a nitroalkane. Fortified soil samples were extracted with acetone, processed via solid phase extraction (SPE), and then analyzed by gas chromatography with electron capture detection. The following three SPE sorbents in cartridge format were compared: Empore^TM SDB-XC, Oasis HLB, and Bond Elut NEXUS cartridges. The NEXUS cartridges provided the best …

Potential Effects Of Ionizing Radiation On The Evidentiary Value Of Dna, Latent Fingerprints, Hair, And Fibers: A Comprehensive Review And New Results, Keith L. Monson, Sherine Ali, Michael D. Brandhagen, Martine C. Duff, Constance L. Fisher, Karen K. Lowe, Carna E. Meyer, Maria A. Roberts, Kyle R. Tom, Aaron L. Washington Ii

United States Department of Justice: Publications

An extensive literature review and new post-irradiation experimental results are presented of genotyping blood stains and hair, and physical examinations of latent fingerprints, hairs, and fibers. Results indicate that successful development of nuclear short tandem repeat (STR) and mitochondrial DNA sequence profiles from human blood and hair evidence is possible—up to a point—following exposure to gamma, neutron, beta, and alpha radiation at several levels that would most likely be present at this type of crime scene (i.e., a “dirty bomb,” etc.). Commencing at gamma radiation levels between 90 and 900 kGy, DNA analysis using conventional DNA techniques was unsuccessful. In …

A Protocol For Obtaining Dna Barcodes From Plant And Insect Fragments Isolated From Forensic-Type Soils, Kelly A. Meiklejohn, Megan L. Jackson, Libby A. Stern, James M. Robertson

United States Department of Justice: Publications

Soil is often collected from a suspect’s tire, vehicle, or shoes during a criminal investigation and subsequently submitted to a forensic laboratory for analysis. Plant and insect material recovered in such samples is rarely analyzed, as morphological identification is difficult. In this study, DNA barcoding was used for taxonomic identifications by targeting the gene regions known to permit discrimination in plants [maturase K (matK) and ribulose 1,5-biphosphate carboxylase (rbcL)] and insects [cytochrome oxidase subunit I (COI)]. A DNA barcode protocol suitable for processing forensic-type biological fragments was developed and its utility broadly tested with …

Use Of The Lus In Sequence Allele Designations To Facilitate Probabilistic Genotyping Of Ngs-Based Str Typing Results, Rebecca S. Just, Jodi A. Irwin

United States Department of Justice: Publications

Some of the expected advantages of next generation sequencing (NGS) for short tandem repeat (STR) typing include enhanced mixture detection and genotype resolution via sequence variation among non-homologous alleles of the same length. However, at the same time that NGS methods for forensic DNA typing have advanced in recent years, many caseworking laboratories have implemented or are transitioning to probabilistic genotyping to assist the interpretation of complex autosomal STR typing results. Current probabilistic software programs are designed for length-based data, and were not intended to accommodate sequence strings as the product input. Yet to leverage the benefits of NGS for …

Reclaiming The Intellectual, Emily Houh

Faculty Articles and Other Publications

I was invited to deliver the September 2017 Dean's Lecture, on which this essay is based, in March of 2017, shortly after the inauguration of Donald J. Trump as the 45th president of the United States. I had originally planned to present on one of my longstanding research areas, the intersections of contract law and critical race theory, but as the spring wore on, I began to feel an urgency about using my expertise to comment more directly on the increasingly overt but trenchant race, gender, sex, and class inequalities and conflicts that have plagued our nation for centuries.

Yet, …

Severe Brain Injury, Disability, And The Law: Achieving Justice For A Marginalized Population, Megan S. Wright, Nina Varsava, Joel Ramirez, Kyle Edwards, Nathan Guevremont, Tamar Ezer, Joseph Fins

Florida State University Law Review

Thousands of persons with severe brain injury who are minimally conscious or "locked in" are wrongly treated as if they are unconscious. Such individuals are unable to advocate for themselves and are typically segregated from society in hospitals or nursing homes. As a result, they constitute a class of persons who often lack access to adequate medical care, rehabilitation, and assistive devices that could aid them in communication and recovery. While this problem is often approached from a medical or scientific point of view, here we frame it as a legal issue amenable to legal remedies. This Article comprehensively explores …

A Systematic Look At A Serial Problem: Sexual Harassment Of Students By University Faculty, Nancy Chi Cantalupo, William C. Kidder

Law Faculty Research Publications

No abstract provided.

What Lawyers Can And Should Do About Mendacity In Politics, Heidi Li Feldman

Duquesne Law Review

No abstract provided.

Slave Gambling In The Antebellum South, Robert M. Jarvis

Florida A & M University Law Review

In the Antebellum Era (c. 1800-60), Southern slaves gambled regularly, both with each other and with free blacks and poor whites. This fact has received a fair amount of scholarly attention. Curiously, however, the reported court opinions involving such gambling have been all but overlooked. Accordingly, this article collects and discusses these decisions. As will be seen, Southern judges often were exasperated by the less-than-precise wording of the laws that were put in place to punish slaves who gambled and whites who facilitated or participated in such gambling.

After Sex, Courtney Megan Cahill

Scholarly Publications

No abstract provided.

"Lieux De Memoire" In International Law: The Rights Of National And Ethnic Minorities Related To Their Memorial, Dr. Antal Berkes

Intercultural Human Rights Law Review

The term "lieux de mimoire" or sites of memory, as the historian Pierre Nora formulated it, expresses "the problem of the embodiment of memory in certain sites where a sense of historical continuity persists. "Contrary to history which is the reconstruction of the past, memory is the perpetual "transmission and conservation of collectively remembered values" by ethnic minorities, families or groups. It binds a concrete group to which it is specific, thus it is "by nature multiple and yet specific; collective, plural, and yet individual." Memory "takes root in the concrete, in spaces, gestures, images, and objects", and "lieux de …

When Popular Culture And The Nfl Collide: Fan Responsibility In Ending The Concussion Crisis, Taylor Simpson-Wood

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

State Action That Penalizes Children As Evidence Of A Desire To Harm Politically Unpopular Parents, Catherine E. Smith

Scholarly Articles

This Article is the first to advance the position that when the government takes the extreme step of denying children basic rights and benefits because of their parents, such state action should be recognized not just as evidence of animus against the children, but also as evidence of "a bare desire to harm" their "politically unpopular" parents. Identifying this type of government motivation and calling it what it is--animus toward parents--is just as important as condemning animus against the children themselves. Anti-parent animus that motivates harmful government behavior towards children should be prohibited as an impermissible means to accomplish an …

The Media’S Failure To Report On Religious Voices In The Public Square The Euthanasia Debate As A Test Case, Margaret Somerville

The University of Notre Dame Australia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Lies, Deceit, And Bullshit In Law, Lawrence M. Solan

Duquesne Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Times They Are A-Changin': Innovation In The Modern Music Festival, Molly R. Madonia

Marquette Intellectual Property Law Review

Musical festivals are, and have always been, a way for friends and families to gather together to celebrate the latest and greatest in music, food, and entertainment. From large festivals in major metropolitan cities to small, intimate shows, music festivals have long been a source of enjoyment to music fans and a source of inspiration to up-and-coming musicians. This Article will explore innovation within the modern music festival, including legal, political, and operational changes that affect festivals across the country. So, as Emerson, Lake, and Palmer so eloquently expressed, “Welcome back my friends to the show that never ends, we’re …

Celebrating Wisconsin Entrepreneurs: Lessons Learned From Wisconsin Entrepreneurs And Businesses, And Future Prospects For A Healthcare Sector That Is Healthcare Reform, Daniel S. Sem, Si Gou, Taleb Aljabban

Marquette Intellectual Property Law Review

Wisconsin has a rich history of entrepreneurial activity, which is often not appreciated beyond its well-recognized strength in the beer and cheese industries. However, Wisconsin’s entrepreneurial nature has been called into question. Recently, Wisconsin was ranked fiftieth in the United States for startup activity by the Kauffman Foundation. In contrast, Wisconsin ranks at the top of the country for startups that are local and established business with more longevity. The first half of this article will review some of the challenges and opportunities that have faced Wisconsin entrepreneurs, and will provide an overview of over 150 Wisconsin companies (Table 1), …

The Right To Creative Illegitimacy: Art And The Fallacy Of Proprietary Legitimation, John Baldacchino

Marquette Intellectual Property Law Review

When we speak of the arts, and more so when one engages with the arts as a practitioner in their various contexts, the questions of legitimacy and legitimation take a very different turn. This spans across a wide horizon, whether it is that of art-making in the studio; of showing in the gallery; of performing in the hall; or of teaching, learning and unlearning in schools, colleges or universities.

To start with, one needs to understand and find a way of differentiating between legitimacy and legitimation. Legitimacy implies a degree of conformity, whether it is with the law, agreed rules, …

Joutsing At Windmills: Cervantes And The Quixotic Fight For Authorial Control, H. Parkman Biggs

Marquette Intellectual Property Law Review

Achieving the appropriate balance between the right of first authors to control the later use of their work and freedom for follow-on authors to further develop from that text has long been challenging. Currently, under United States law in particular, fair use stands as a nebulous to buffer between the two creative camps, granting a significantly limited right to the second author to work from the first authors’ text. While that tension excites its own debate, a less considered aspect of this tension involves the degree to which the first author might be creatively and productively affected by the follow-on …

Congress Does Not Hide Elephants In Mouse-Holes: How Vimeo Paid No Heed To That Caution, Mitch Bailey

Marquette Intellectual Property Law Review

With the passage of the 1976 Copyright Act, sound recordings fixed prior to February 15, 1972 remained under the protection of the state copyright laws where the works were registered. Some incredible culturally significant songs were fixed before February 15, 1972, including songs from “The Beatles, The Supremes, Elvis Presley, Aretha Franklin, Barbara Streisand, and Marvin Gaye.” To date, state law protects the owner’s rights without interference from federal law, including the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (“DMCA”).

Given its location, the Second Circuit significantly influenced the development of intellectual property law in the United States, especially copyright law. Many businesses …

The Climate Justice Movement In Western New York, Sam Magavern, Lynda Schneekloth

Buffalo Environmental Law Journal

No abstract provided.

"The Way I Felt": Creating A Model Statute To Address Sexual Offenses Which Utilize Virtual Reality, Ryan Esparza

Criminal Law Practitioner

No abstract provided.

The Economic Justice Imperative For Lawyers In Trump Country, Priya Baskaran

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

This article serves as a call to action for rural law schools to meaningfully incorporate economic justice into transactional legal education, and in doing so, train much needed rural advocates, legal experts, and local leaders. Rural areas are continuously portrayed as “Trump Country” in today’s mainstream media coverage, which largely focuses on socio-cultural differences between urban and rural areas. Many rural scholars and activists are troubled by the “Trump Country” label as it masks the structural poverty issues that lead to housing insecurity, water insecurity, poor public health indicators, unemployment, underemployment, troubled public education systems, and environmental degradation impacting both …

Conscious Identity Performance, Leslie P. Culver

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.