Legislation Commons^™

Texas Disenfranchisement Of Felons, Michelle Baker

Quest

Policy Research Project

Research in progress for GOVT 2306: Honors Texas Government

Faculty Mentor: Tiffany Cartwright, Ph.D.

Michelle Baker wrote the following research paper as an assignment for my online GOVT 2306: Honors Texas Government class during the Fall 2020 semester. The class assignment helps students begin to formulate a classic policy paper, in which alternative policy options are discussed and analyzed, ultimately leading to a preferred policy option. Students submitted just a few paragraphs of the paper at a time over the course of the fall semester before finally pulling everything together in one cohesive research paper. As Michelle’s …

Statement Of The District Task Force On Jails And Justice. Before The Committee On The Judiciary And Public Safety Of The Council Of The District Of Columbia, Katherine S. Broderick

D.C. Council Testimony

No abstract provided.

Tech And Authoritarianism: How The People’S Republic Of China Is Using Data To Control Hong Kong And Why The U.S. Is Vulnerable, Bryce Neary

Seattle Journal of Technology, Environmental, & Innovation Law

The aim of this article is to analyze and compare current events in the People's Republic of China and the United States to discuss the moral dilemmas that arise when establishing the boundary between national security interests and individual privacy rights. As we continue to intertwine our lives with technology, it has become increasingly important to establish clear privacy rights. The question then becomes: at what point should individuals sacrifice their rights for what the government considers the "greater good" of the country?

Further, this article analyzes the development of U.S. privacy law and its relationship to national security, technology, …

Learning From South Korea’S Covid-19 Response: Why Centralizing The United States Public Health System Is Essential For Future Pandemic Responses, Meghan Ricci

Seattle Journal of Technology, Environmental, & Innovation Law

The COVID-19 pandemic revealed stark differences in governmental preparedness across the globe. The United States, once thought of as a global leader in public health, had the theoretical skill and efficiency to handle the pandemic but failed to utilize those skills and resources during an actual health crisis. In the spring of 2020, everyone watched the U.S.’s reaction to the unfolding of the COVID-19 pandemic due to its historic placeholder as a global leader and innovator. However, the performance of the U.S. in response to the global pandemic disappointed both global commentators and U.S. citizens. This paper will compare the …

The Long-Term Problem With Electric Vehicle Batteries: A Policy Recommendation To Encourage Advancement For Scalable Recycling Practices, Lauren Fricke

Seattle Journal of Technology, Environmental, & Innovation Law

With the growing popularity of electric vehicles, the demand for lithium ion (Li-ion) batteries, which are the dominant energy source for electric vehicles, are skyrocketing. By default, this means a growing demand for the raw materials needed to manufacture these complex batteries such as lithium, cobalt, and nickel. Economic, environmental, and political supply chain factors bring into question the sustainability of these batteries as a solution to the issues surrounding gasoline powered transportation, creating a need for large scale Li-ion battery recycling. By 2030, 140 million EVs are predicted to be on the road worldwide. In that time, eleven million …

Uranium 233: The Nuclear Superfuel No One Is Using, Maris Hanson

Seattle Journal of Technology, Environmental, & Innovation Law

Nuclear power offers more energy in less physical space than solar and wind and yields more energy per pound than fossil fuels. However different nuclear fuels yield different waste profiles and create different beneficial products. Uranium 233 (U233) resists use in nuclear weapons, yields beneficial daughter products, and produces dramatically less of the most problematic waste products than Uranium 235 (U235). U233 results from reactions with Thorium, a plentiful, ubiquitous element currently considered waste from rare earth mines. Additionally, U233 functions well in a liquid fuel reactor resulting in safer, more efficient reactors than current solid fuel U235 or Plutonium …

On The Horizon: Nanosatellite Constellations Will Revolutionize The Internet Of Things (Iot), Diane Janosek

Seattle Journal of Technology, Environmental, & Innovation Law

The Internet of Things has experienced exponential growth and use across the globe with 25.1 billion devices currently in use. Until recently, the functionality of the IoT was dependent on secure data flow between internet terrestrial stations and the IoT devices. Now, a new alternative path of data flow is on the horizon.

IoT device manufacturers are now looking to outer space nanosatellite constellations to connect to a different type of internet. This new internet is no longer terrestrial with fiber cables six feet underground but now looking up, literally, 200 to 300 miles above the earth, to communicate, connect …

Giving The Equal Rights Amendment Teeth: A Proposal For Gender Equality Legislation Modeled After The Civil Rights Act Of 1964, Samantha Gagnon

St. John's Law Review

(Excerpt)

Contrary to the belief of eighty percent of Americans, the U.S. Constitution does not prohibit discrimination on the basis of sex. The effect of this lack of protection can be seen in every corner of our society, including economic inequalities and a lack of representation in leadership. For almost one hundred years, women’s organizations and activists have attempted to rectify this by advocating for the inclusion of an Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) in the Constitution. In the past few years, there has been a revived push for the ERA due to the amendment’s first congressional hearing in thirty-six years, …

We Shouldn't Need Roe, Carliss Chatman

Scholarly Articles

In the face of state-by-state attacks on the right to choose, which result in regular challenges to Roe v. Wade in the U.S. Supreme Court, this essay asks whether Roe is needed at all. Decades of state law encroachments have caused Roe to fail to properly protect the right to choose. Building on prior works that challenge the premise of fetal personhood and highlighting the status of Roe-based rights after decades of challenges, this essay proposes an alternative solution to Roe. Federal legislative and executive efforts, including the Women’s Health Protection Act, are necessary to ensure the right …

Courts As Auditors Of Legislation?, Daniel Pi, Giampaolo Frezza, Francesco Parisi

Law Faculty Scholarship

Sources of law vary greatly across geography and human history. Some legal systems identify democratic lawmaking with political deliberation, while others rely on judicial process and judgemade law. This Essay argues that the normative problem of determining a hierarchy of legal sources may be usefully understood in terms of mechanism design, and that legislation and judicial precedent operate complementarily. If the ultimate policy objective is to create legal rules that reflect the "will of the people," judge-made law can function as an audit on the rules promulgated by elected legislatures. The two sources of law, working in conjunction, thereby correct …

How Rhetoric Reveals Judicial Motives In Employment Discrimination Cases, Susan E. Provenzano

Tennessee Law Review

Employment discrimination plaintiffs tend to lose on summary judgment. In these cases, judges are acting like juries and undermining anti-discrimination legislation while paying lip service to the law and the judicial role. How and why are courts doing this? Legal scholars blame bad doctrine and biased judging. But neither one tells the full story. The tell is in the opinions' strategic use of language, which shows how the court, as an institution, "sized up" the case and the motives of key actors the parties, the lawmakers, other courts, and the court itself. Conducting the first-ever rhetorical analysis of this problem, …

A Call To Dismantle Systemic Racism In Criminal Legal Systems, Cynthia J. Najdowski, Margaret C. Stevenson

Psychology Faculty Scholarship

Objectives: In October 2021, APA passed a resolution addressing ways psychologists could work to dismantle systemic racism in criminal legal systems. The present report, developed to inform APA’s policy resolution, details the scope of the problem and offers recommendations for policy and psychologists to address the issue by advancing related science and practice. Specifically, it acknowledges the roots of modern-day racial and ethnic disparities in rates of criminalization and punishment for people of color as compared to White people. Next, the report reviews existing theory and research that helps explain the underlying psychological mechanisms driving racial and ethnic disparities …

U.S. Drug Reform: A Cultural Shift, Leionah J. Noah

St. Thomas Law Review

When a human body ingests a lethal dose of heroin, the body goes through an enormous physiological transformation. The functions of the central nervous system begin to depress, breathing is shallowed, the pulse is weakened, and the skin turns blue or gray with dark lips and fingernails. An alert person must quickly administer naloxone, an opioid antagonist, to reverse the effects of a heroin overdose, as symptoms typically begin after ten minutes. For many, however, their lives end with an overdose, despite this outcome being preventable. This paper will establish that drug overdose deaths are preventable for an entirely different …

State Supreme Court Responsiveness To Court Curbing: Examining The Use Of Judicial Review, Meghan Leonard

Faculty Publications – Politics and Government

State legislatures introduce court-curbing legislation as they threaten to restrict the independence of state high courts. While scholars have examined when this legislation is introduced and what drives the introduction, we know little about how state supreme courts react to this legislation. In this paper I begin the examination into how state courts react to court-curbing legislation by looking to the court’s exercise of its judicial review power. I theorize that state supreme courts are less likely to invoke their power of judicial review when facing increased court-curbing legislation because judicial review is the most direct form of communication between …

When A Second Change Gets A Second Chance: Reasonableness Review Reigns For Motions Under Section 404 (B) Of The First Step Act On Appeal, Patrick W. Riley

American University Law Review

The First Step Act of 2018 was an historic criminal justice reform bill that, among its many provisions, retroactively reduced the disparity in sentencing for offenses involving crack and powder cocaine. Before 2010, federal law mandated the same minimum criminal penalties for conduct involving an amount of crack cocaine one hundred times smaller than an amount of powder cocaine. In 2010, Congress passed the Fair Sentencing Act, which reduced this disparity from 100:1 to 18:1. However, the updated penalties only applied to sentences imposed after the passage of the Fair Sentencing Act. Those already sentenced under the 100:1 ratio were …

Lawmaking Without Law: How Over Reliance On Economics Fails Financial Regulation (And What To Do About It), Steven L. Schwarcz, Theodore L. Leonhardt

American University Law Review

This Article examines a fundamental failure of process in lawmaking: the overreliance of lawmakers on economists and economic scholarship when designing and implementing financial regulation, to the virtual exclusion of lawyers and legal scholarship. This overreliance leads to regulation that often is based on theoretical models and assumptions that are poorly informed by experience and may not withstand real-world testing. The Article examines how to improve financial regulation by better integrating legal scholarship and lawyerly insights into the lawmaking process. Among other things, that will require law professors to gain the attention, and earn the respect, of lawmakers by writing …

Sharenting Is Here To Stay, So Now What?, Anonymous Author

Seattle University Law Review

This Note explores the concept of sharenting, its real-world consequences, and the daunting task of creating a workable solution. Part I of this Note provides a broad overview of sharenting and its implications. Part II describes the current state of the law and why sharenting remains a difficult issue to address. Part III discusses four legal frameworks posed by legal scholars to combat sharenting: anti-bullying, privacy, erasure, and child labor laws—and, ultimately, why each fails to offer an airtight solution. Part IV offers an alternative solution: the regulation of data brokers and outlawing advertisement-based social media platforms to protect children’s …

Regulating Fraud On The Marketplace Of Ideas: Federal Securities Law As A Model For Constitutionally Permissible Social Media Regulation, Michael M. Epstein

Seattle University Law Review

This article begins with an introduction discussing speech falsity and the duty under U.S. law by comparing commercial and noncommercial speech. Part I explores the problem of online disinformation. Part II addresses online disinformation in a non-commercial context. Part III contains three subsections assesses non-transactional commercial speech as a basis for non-commercial disinformation regulation. Part IV advocates for a fiduciary duty to fashion a remedy. Part V of this article concludes by suggesting a possible solution for creating a online disinformation law that could survive the First Amendment.

A Hot Topic: Is The Fda’S Approach To Sunscreen Regulation Failing Consumers?, Haley Westman

Seattle University Law Review

This Note suggests a better balance between allowing sunscreen innovation and protecting the public from unsafe products. Part I of this Note will review the factual background of the public’s attention to sunscreen, explain the current sunscreen issues in the news, and highlight the different actors involved in the growing discourse surrounding sunscreen. Part I will also show that the actors involved in the sunscreen industry—scientific researchers, social media influencers, and the public at large—have considerable influence on consumers’ trust in sunscreen, their buying habits, and the FDA’s approach to sunscreen regulation. Part II of this Note will outline the …

Children, Disability, And The Digital Classroom: Rethinking Access And Assistive Technology For Low-Income Children With Disabilities In The Digital Age, Ashley R. Nyce

Connecticut Law Review

As U.S. public schools increasingly incorporate digital learning tools at home, primary and secondary classrooms have come to transcend their traditionally brick-and-mortar walls. While these hybrid learning environments provide powerful spaces to build digital literacy skills, low-income children with disabilities—among the most vulnerable students in the U.S. education system—are increasingly left behind. Recent data suggest that children with disabilities, particularly low-income children with disabilities, are less likely than their peers to have the fundamental technology necessary to access classrooms’ increasingly digital spaces. This discrepancy exacerbates disparate outcomes between children with and without disabilities, as those with disabilities receive lower test …

Standardizing State Vote-By-Mail Deadlines In Federal Elections, Jason Nagel

Cardozo Law Review de•novo

The litigation over the vote-by-mail process during the 2020 general election revealed that absentee ballot voting disputes should not be left entirely to the courts. Rather, this Note argues that Congress should utilize its constitutional Elections Clause power to standardize federal vote-by-mail processes, and proposes specific elements that Congress should include in such legislation.

Recommendations On Mature Minors, Constance Macintosh

Reports & Public Policy Documents

Recommendation: The Committee should remove the requirement from the Criminal Code that candidates for Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID) be at least 18 years old. This is for the following reasons, elaborated upon below.

1.The MAID regime should always turn on the actual capacity of any person requesting MAID

2.The MAID regime’s approach to consent and capacity should be consistent with Canadian law on health care decision-making by minors

3.The MAID regime will likely be found unconstitutional if it maintains an age-based bar

4.The vulnerability of youth may require a different approach but does not justify an age-based bar

5.Removing …

The New Major Questions Doctrine, Daniel Deacon, Leah Litman

Law & Economics Working Papers

This article critically analyzes significant recent developments in the major questions doctrine. It highlights important shifts in what role the majorness of an agency policy plays in statutory interpretation, as well as changes in how the Court determines whether an agency policy is major. After the Supreme Court’s October 2021 term, the “new” major questions doctrine operates as a clear statement rule that directs courts not to discern the plain meaning of a statute using the normal tools of statutory interpretation, but to require explicit and specific congressional authorization for certain agency policies. Even broadly worded, otherwise unambiguous statutes do …

A 180 On Section 230: State Efforts To Erode Social Media Immunity, Leslie Y. Garfield Tenzer, Hayley Margulis

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

The turmoil of the 2020 presidential election renewed controversy surrounding 47 U.S.C § 230. The law, adopted as part of the 1996 Communications Decency Act (CDA), shields Interactive Computer Services (ICS) from civil liability for third-party material posted on their Platforms--no matter how heinous and regardless of whether the material enjoys constitutional protection. Consequently, any ICS, which is broadly defined to include Internet service providers (ISPs) and social media platforms (Platforms), can police its own postings but remains free from government intervention or retribution.

In 2022, members of the Texas and Florida legislatures passed laws aiming to limit the scope …

Table Of Contents, Seattle University Law Review

Seattle University Law Review

Table of Contents

Foreword, Seattle University Law Review

Seattle University Law Review

Foreward

Cannabis Receiverships: The Alternative For State Legal Cannabis Businesses Seeking Financial Rehabilitation Locked Out Of Bankruptcy Court By The Controlled Substances Act, Ryan C. Griffith

Seattle University Law Review

This article explores how cannabis businesses suffer by being unable to utilize federal bankruptcy and explore state law receiverships as an alternative remedy to help cannabis businesses weather financial storms.

Part I explores the limitations and differences between a receivership and a bankruptcy. Part II discusses how state legal cannabis companies cannot seek financial rehabilitation in bankruptcy court due to cannabis being listed as a schedule I drug federally. Part III explores how receivership be used to help cannabis companies that cannot seek bankruptcy protection to financially rehabilitate themselves. Part IV details how a receiver can help a cannabis company …

Legal And Market Initiatives To Increase Diversity In Corporations—A Cross-Jurisdictional Analysis, Akshaya Kamalnath

Seattle University Law Review

This Article will critically examine various legal and market initiatives to increase diversity in corporations, with the aim of assessing their effectiveness. The initiatives explored in this Article include quota laws in Europe (including recent amendments in France and Germany which introduce quotas for executive director positions) and California; disclosure laws in the U.S., Nasdaq, and U.K.; and initiatives by institutional investors. The main argument this Article makes is that both quotas and quantitative disclosures do not provide the right incentives for corporations to make genuine efforts to improve diversity. The alternative this Article proposes is not to simply leave …

Do We Own What We Post?: The Fundamental Property Right To Destroy Your Presence On The Internet, Olivia Shangrow

Seattle University Law Review

This Note will explore the well-established right to destroy your own property and how such a fundamental right can and should be applied to our online property to develop more protective data privacy legislation. Part I highlights the longstanding pillar of property law establishing a right to destroy one’s property, and how that can and should be applied to your digital identity. Part II will discuss the ambiguity of personal data ownership online and the ill effects resulting from the lack of control of our personal information on the Internet. Part III examines the current state of data privacy legislation …

The United States Is Enabling An Outer Space Arms Race: An Overview Of The Current Framework And Recommendations For Abating An Outer Space Arms Race, Valerie Shmigol

Seattle University Law Review

This Note explores the possibility of future armed outer space conflict as global powers create and test counterspace weapons. Part I of this Note overviews current space security threats, focusing on China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea’s capabilities. Part II provides a primer on international agreements governing outer space. The 1967 Outer Space Treaty serves as the legal framework for outer space activities; however, it is woefully inadequate in addressing escalating tensions. Finally, Part III provides recommendations and advocates for the United States to revise its position, which seeks voluntary “transparency and confidence building measures.”