Legal Studies Commons^™

Methylenetetrahydrofolate Reductase: Comparison Of The Enzyme From Mammalian And Bacterial Sources, Christal A. Sheppard, James S. Sumner, Phillipe Goyette, Phyllis Frosst, Rima Rozen, Rowena G. Matthews

Nebraska College of Law: Faculty Publications

Methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase catalyzes the reduction of methylenetetrahydrofolate to methyltetrahydrofolate, which serves as the methyl donor for the conversion of homocysteine to methionine in the reaction catalyzed by methionine synthase. Recent studies have provided evidence for association of a common polymorphism of methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase with elevated levels of blood homocysteine, a metabolite correlated with increased cardiovascular risk in humans. In this chapter, we review earlier studies on the properties of the mammalian enzyme, interpreting these observations in the light of the deduced amino acid sequence for the human enzyme. The catalytic portion of the human enzyme shows significant sequence homologies with …

The Narrow And Shallow Bite Of Romer And The Eminent Rationality Of Dual-Gender Marriage: A (Partial) Response To Professor Koppleman, Richard F. Duncan

Nebraska College of Law: Faculty Publications

The Supreme Court's opinion in Romer has a very narrow and shallow bite. It does not hold that homosexuals are a suspect or quasi-suspect class under the Equal Protection Clause. It does not overrule or undermine the Court's landmark decision in Bowers v. Hardwick."° It does not hold that moral disapproval of homosexual conduct is invidious or irrational, nor does it in any way state or imply-as Professor Koppelman asserts-that laws that discriminate against homosexuals are always "constitutionally doubtful ... because they will always arouse suspicion that they rest on a bare desire to harm a politically unpopular group."

The …

Wigstock And The Kulturkampf: Supreme Court Storytelling, The Culture War, And Romer V. Evans, Richard F. Duncan

Nebraska College of Law: Faculty Publications

It bears repeating that the Supreme Court's decision in Romer is of trivial doctrinal import. The Court did not recognize homosexuals as a suspect or quasi-suspect class, nor did it reverse or undermine its landmark decision in Bowers v. Hardwick. Moreover, the narrow holding of Romer suggests quite strongly that typical laws disadvantaging homosexuals--the military exclusion, the heterosexual paradigm of civil marriage, and perhaps even better-crafted and more narrow versions of Amendment 2--do not offend the Equal Protection Clause. These laws rationally advance legitimate government interests and should easily pass scrutiny under the rational basis test applied by the …

Sacrificing Legislative Integrity At The Altar Of Appropriations Riders: A Constitutional Crisis, Sandi Zellmer

Nebraska College of Law: Faculty Publications

The technique of appending substantive provisions to appropriations bills has become a favorite tool of the legislative trade in recent years. Congress has employed appropriations riders to dictate the outcome of public policy issues ranging from abortion to oil development in pristine wilderness areas. Riders have been used with particularly destructive effect to circumvent long-standing environmental policies, especially those involving the use of natural resources and public lands. In many cases, the policies affected were the result of decades of activity in Congress and in the courts, and retain broad public and legislative support. Appropriations riders have also allowed these …

The Ethics Of Implementation: Institutional Remedies And The Lawyer's Role, Susan Poser

Nebraska College of Law: Faculty Publications

The issue addressed in this article is whether and to what extent a lawyer has an ethical responsibility to pursue implementation of the remedy in institutional reform litigation. Institutional reform litigation refers to cases in which an individual or class of individuals sues a large organization in order to vindicate constitutional or statutory rights. The types of cases with which this article is concerned are the "public law" type, such as school desegregation, prisoners' rights and patients' rights cases, although included under the rubric of institutional reform can be, inter alia, antitrust, reapportionment and bankruptcy cases. The implementation stage of …

The Law Of Directed Trustees Under Erisa: A Proposed Blueprint For The Federal Courts, Colleen E. Medill

Nebraska College of Law: Faculty Publications

Situations where the direction to the trustee is made by a plan participant must be analyzed on a case-by-case basis, bearing in mind ERISA's underlying purposes and the safeguards created through the statute and its implementing regulations. The analytical approach adopted in the FirsTier Bank court decision, a literal incorporation of the common law of trusts rules into the context of ERISA, is inappropriate because in some situations more protection is needed for the plan participants than was afforded by the common law of trusts. When the direction to the trustee is made by a non-participant plan fiduciary, however, ERISA …

Transaction Exemptions In The Securities Act Of 1933: An Economic Analysis, C. Steven Bradford

Nebraska College of Law: Faculty Publications

The Securities Act of 1933 is an important restriction on capital markets in the United States. Unless an exemption is available, the Act requires companies selling securities to the public first to file with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) a registration statement containing detailed information about the company, its business, its finances, and the contemplated offering. Offers cannot be made (except to underwriters) until the registration statement is filed, and the securities can be sold only after the registration statement survives the sometimes lengthy SEC review process and becomes effective. In addition, the securities seller must at some point …

Verdicts Of Conscience: Nullification And Necessity As Jury Responses To Crimes Of Conscience, Robert F. Schopp

Nebraska College of Law: Faculty Publications

Consider three types of atypical criminal defendants. The first trespasses at a nuclear weapons plant (or a segregated bus station or women's health clinic) in order to publicly protest a law or public policy represented by that facility or by the activity that occurs there. The second operates an underground railroad in violation of the Fugitive Slave Act (or smuggles South American residents into the United States or breaks into a women's health clinic in order to disable equipment and prevent scheduled abortions). The third causes the death of a loved one by disconnecting that person from life sustaining medical …

Homosexual Marriage And The Myth Of Tolerance: Is Cardinal O'Connor A "Homophobe"?, Richard F. Duncan

Nebraska College of Law: Faculty Publications

Duncan explains why he believes the heterosexual norm should be defended in what well may be the decisive moment of the sexual revolution--the battle over the meaning of marriage in human community. In particular, Duncan will focus on an aspect of this controversy that he notes often goes unnoticed--the impact of a paradigm shift on the "old order," on those who continue to affirm the conventional understanding of sexual morality and marriage.

Public Schools And The Inevitability Of Religious Inequality, Richard F. Duncan

Nebraska College of Law: Faculty Publications

This article discusses the political and social implications of current attempts to amend the Constitution to ensure "religious equality." Two specific proposed amendments to the U.S. Constitution will be analyzed--the Istook Amendment and the Hyde-Hatch Amendment. This article concludes that although the Hyde-Hatch Amendment is the more acceptable of the two, neither amendment achieves the elusive goal of ensuring religious equality.

A Candidate Genetic Risk Factor For Vascular Disease: A Common Mutation In Methylenetetrahydrofolate Reductase, P. Frosst, H. J. Blom, R. Milos, P. Goyette, Christal A. Sheppard, R. G. Matthews, G. J.H. Boers, M. Den Heijer, L. A.J. Kluijtmans, L. P. Van Den Heuvel, Rima Rozen

Nebraska College of Law: Faculty Publications

Hyperhomocysteinaemia has been identified as a risk factor for cerebrovascular, peripheral vascular, and coronary heart disease. Elevated levels of plasma homocysteine can result from genetic or nutrient-related disturbances in the trans-sulphuration or re-methylation pathways for homocysteine metabolism. 5,10-Methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) catalyzes the reduction of 5,10-methylenetetrahydrofolate to 5-methyltetrahydrofolate, the predominant circulatory form of folate and carbon donor for the re-methylation of homocysteine to methionine. Reduced MTHFR activity with a thermolabile enzyme has been reported in patients with coronary and peripheral artery diseases. We have identified a common mutation in MTHFR which alters a highly-conserved amino acid; the substitution occurs at a …

United States V. Steinmetz: The Legal Legacy Of The Civil War, Revisited, Susan Poser, Elizabeth R. Varon

Nebraska College of Law: Faculty Publications

One of the enduring and yet unresolved issues concerning the Civil War is its legal nature: Was it an insurrection or an international war? During the war and since, the United States courts have repeatedly been called upon to determine the status of property which was under the control of the Confederacy and its agents during the Civil War. In the process of making such determinations, the courts have reopened questions about the war's legal status. United States v. Steinmetz is such a case.

Homosexual Rights And Citizen Initiatives: Is Constitutionalism Unconstitutional?, Richard F. Duncan, Gary L. Young

Nebraska College of Law: Faculty Publications

Grassroots initiatives like Amendment Two are the product of a populist revolt against restrictive homosexual rights laws. These initiatives are an attempt by the people to protect their basic civil liberties and to promote equal citizenship values. Homosexual rights legislation stigmatizes, marginalizes, and fences out groups and individuals who hold traditional beliefs about sexual morality. Citizen initiatives operate to remove this stigma and its harmful consequences by restoring government to a position of benign neutrality regarding competing visions of human sexuality.

When initiatives like Amendment Two are approved by vote of the people, they are likely to be challenged under …

As I Lay Writing: How To Write Law Review Articles For Fun And Profit: A Law-And-Economics, Critical, Hermeneutical, Policy Approach And Lots Of Other Stuff That Thousands Of Readers Will Find Really Interesting And Therefore You Ought To Publish In Your Prestigious, Top-Ten, Totally Excellent Law Review, C. Steven Bradford

Nebraska College of Law: Faculty Publications

You've made it onto a law faculty, and you're wondering what to do. Teaching obviously isn't going to occupy much of your time. You prepare your notes the first year, and you're home free. To fill the gap in your life, why not publish something in a law review?

Publishing an article in a law review is an honor and a privilege. "[L]aw reviews hold a special place of trust and importance in the legal system and in society"; they "play a vital role in the preservation of society." Most important, they make it much easier for a law professor …

Regulation A And The Integration Doctrine: The New Safe Harbor, C. Steven Bradford

Nebraska College of Law: Faculty Publications

Critics have long charged that the Securities Act of 1993 (Act) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which administers the Act, are insensitive to the capital formation needs of small businesses. The Act's regulatory regime, it has been argued, is too rigid and expensive and discourages or precludes small businesses from selling securities. In 1992, in reaction to such criticism, the SEC proposed a variety of rule changes designed "to facilitate capital raising by small businesses and reduce the compliance burdens placed on these companies by the federal securities laws." Among these "small business initiatives," adopted in the summer …

Battered Woman Syndrome, Expert Testimony, And The Distinction Between Justification And Excuse, Robert F. Schopp, Barbara J. Sturgis, Megan Sullivan

Nebraska College of Law: Faculty Publications

Robert Schopp and his coauthors, Barbara Sturgis and Megan Sullivan, discuss the practical effects and the viability of the battered woman syndrome as a support for self-defense. The authors detail the conflict inherent in demonstrating the "reasonableness" of the defendants' actions through the premise that she was psychologically impaired. They argue that current research on battered women does not show key characteristics posited by the theory. The authors conclude that, use of the syndrome to support a legal defense is misleading and may harm the credibility of women in their claims of self-defense.

Who Wants To Stop The Church: Homosexual Rights Legislation, Public Policy, And Religious Freedom, Richard F. Duncan

Nebraska College of Law: Faculty Publications

Religions that make peace with the spirit of the age have little to fear from the rulers of the day. But believers who refuse to adapt their religious practices to the Zeitgeist are vulnerable under Smith, unless the Court decides to protect religious pluralism by giving full scope to Smith's exceptions.

I have tried to show that homosexual rights legislation imposes heavy costs on the right of employers and landlords to take character into account when making business decisions. These costs are particularly heavy when borne by religiously-motivated persons, who are declared outlaws merely for trying to obey God …

Ten Reasons To Attend Law School, C. Steven Bradford

Nebraska College of Law: Faculty Publications

Each year, approximately 1.5 billion otherwise sane college graduates enter law school. (This figure includes at least 350 students a year in countries other than the United States. ) These new law students come from all walks of life-laid-off brokers, laid-off autoworkers, unemployed M.B.A.s, disillusioned public school teachers, political science majors, political science majors, and more political science majors. Three years later, they emerge-the best and brightest nonproductive professionals that any struggling debtor nation has ever produced, the core of America's hopes for the twenty-first century.

Why do they do it? What is it about law school that attracts so …

What Happens If Roe Is Overruled? Extraterritorial Regulation Of Abortion By The States, C. Steven Bradford

Nebraska College of Law: Faculty Publications

Since 1973, states have effectively been prohibited from regulating most abortions. As every lawyer, law student, and almost every other American adult knows, the United States Supreme Court held in Roe v. Wade that a woman has a constitutional right to have an abortion. It is also common knowledge that in recent years the Supreme Court has been slowly restricting, or refusing to extend, that right.

The future of Roe v. Wade is uncertain, particularly after the Supreme Court's most recent abortion decision, Planned Parenthood v. Casey. The actual restrictions on abortion upheld in Casey are less important than the …

Justification Defenses And Just Convictions, Robert F. Schopp

Nebraska College of Law: Faculty Publications

The fully competent, culpable, and malevolent Spike azttacks Mother Beneficence with a tire iron in order to steal the alms she has collected for the poor. Mother Beneficence defends herself by kicking Spike in the shins, and Dudley Doright rushes to her rescue, punching Spike in the nose, knocking him to the ground, and holding him until the police arrive. Dudley acts solely for the purposes of preventing harm to Mother Beneficence and bringing Spike to justice.

Both Mother Beneficence and Dudley fulfill the offense elements for assault in that they purposely cause bodily injury to another human being. Most …

International Human Rights, Morality In War, And The Structure Of Rights, Edward C. O'Dowd, Robert F. Schopp

Nebraska College of Law: Faculty Publications

A careful analysis of certain issues of morality in war demonstrates important differences in the duties recognized by Western and Chinese military) officers toward their soldiers. These differences reflect fundamentally different theories of social morality in the societies these officers represent. Although Western countries and China have endorsed a common set of internationally recognized human rights, a meaningful consensus regarding human rights must remain consistent across three levels of analysis. The putative contemporary) consensus among Chinese and liberal societies fails because the fundamental differences in underlying principles of social morality that give rise to divergent principles of morality in war …

Transforming The Role Of The Social Security Administration, Colleen E. Medill

Nebraska College of Law: Faculty Publications

Social Security benefits were never designed to be one’s sole source of retirement income. Due to fiscal constraints, it is likely that Social Security benefits in the future will be less generous when the young workers of today retire. In the future, retirement income security will depend heavily on wealth accumulated during one’s working years. The role of the Social Security Administration must be transformed to one of motivating, informing, and educating the young workers of today about retirement financial planning so that they can adequately plan and prepare for a financially secure retirement tomorrow.

The Gettysburg Address As Written By Law Students Taking An Exam, C. Steven Bradford

Nebraska College of Law: Faculty Publications

A Cameroonian proverb states that "[h]e who asks questions cannot avoid the answers,"' and, unfortunately, that proverb applies to law professors. At the end of each semester, law professors must endure the agony of creation that Mary Shelley's Dr. Frankenstein had to experience only once in his life. We are horrified to see the monsters we have created, so different from what we intended. The joy of teaching is the constant challenge and interaction with students in the classroom; the agony of teaching is reading what some of those same students have written on their examinations.

Of course, not all …

Following Dead Precedent: The Supreme Court's Ill-Advised Rejection Of Anticipatory Overruling, C. Steven Bradford

Nebraska College of Law: Faculty Publications

Stare decisis is an integral, accepted principle of American and common-law jurisprudence. The idea that courts should follow past decisions, whether of the same or a higher court, was accepted before this nation was born and continues to be generally accepted today. Criticism of stare decisis is equally ancient, however. A countervailing tradition allows a court to overrule precedent to correct its errors and develop the law. "The life of the law has not been logic," Holmes wrote; "it has been experience." Stare decisis has never been an inexorable command in the American system; courts have always been willing to …

The Possible Future Of Private Rights Of Action For Proxy Fraud: The Parallel Between Borak And Wilko, C. Steven Bradford

Nebraska College of Law: Faculty Publications

This is a story of parallels-two cases decided by the United States Supreme Court eleven years apart, one now overruled, the other unchallenged for over twenty-five years. Both cases are important federal securities law decisions, but substantively they are quite different. In Wilko v. Swan, a 1953 decision, the Supreme Court held that predispute agreements to arbitrate claims arising under the Securities Act of 1933 (1933 Act) were unenforceable because arbitration would not adequately protect the rights the 1933 Act gave injured investors. In J.I. Case Co. v. Borak, decided in 1964, the Court held that persons injured …

Conflict Of Laws And The Attorney-Client Privilege: A Territorial Solution, Steven Bradford

Nebraska College of Law: Faculty Publications

Choice-of-law issues have always been among the most difficult legal issues. Legal questions that are difficult when only one state is involved become herculean when a choice must be made from among the different laws of several jurisdictions. The difficulty of conflicts law is increased by the theoretical quarrels among courts and scholars. Scholars and judges are unable to agree on an underlying theory of choice of law, much less the result in particular cases. A number of different approaches compete for attention, producing an eclectic body of case law.

Originally, "vested rights" territorialism dominated choice of law. Courts applied …

Wake Up And Die Right: The Rationale, Standard, And Jurisprudential Significance Of The Competency To Face Execution Requirement, Robert F. Schopp

Nebraska College of Law: Faculty Publications

Contemporary American criminal law prohibits the execution of those who are not competent to face execution. The state cannot execute convicted offenders, including those who have been sentenced to death for capital crimes under valid law and through acceptable procedures, unless those offenders are competent at the time of execution. Although this requirement applies in all states that practice the death penalty and traces its heritage deep into the common law, its exact formulation remains controversial as does the appropriate rationale and the corresponding procedure.'

Five identifiable questions have troubled courts and commentators. First, what rationale justifies this requirement? Second, …

The Psychotherapist's Duty To Protect The Public: The Appropriate Standard And The Foundation In Legal Theory And Empirical Premises, Robert F. Schopp

Nebraska College of Law: Faculty Publications

Several states have established a duty on the part of psychotherapists to protect the public from harm caused by their dangerous patients. The Supreme Court of California initially articulated this duty in the widely discussed Tarasoff case where the court stated:

When a therapist determines, or pursuant to the standards of his profession should determine, that his patient presents a serious danger of violence to another, he incurs an obligation to use reasonable care to protect the intended victim against such danger. This discharge of this duty may require the therapist ... to warn the intended victim or others... to …

Stampeding Shareholders And Other Myths: Target Shareholders And Hostile Tender Offers, C. Steven Bradford

Nebraska College of Law: Faculty Publications

Hostile tender offers have captured broad public attention. Almost every businessman, business lawyer, and student of corporate law knows the basic script. A bidder, often described pejoratively as a raider, makes a public tender offer to purchase a controlling block of the stock of another corporation, known as the target. Target management opposes the offer, but because board approval is not necessary to complete a tender offer, the decision rests in the hands of the target shareholders. If enough of the target shareholders tender, the bidder gains control, and any remaining shareholders are cashed out in a merger between the …

Education And Contraception Make Strange Bedfellows: Brown, Griswold, Lochner, And The Putative Dilemma Of Liberalism, Robert F. Schopp

Nebraska College of Law: Faculty Publications

Future historians may contend that the Supreme Court decisions in Brown v. Board of Education and Griswold v. Connecticut represent the apex of liberal legal and political thought. Thirty-five years after Brown, however, the attempt to clarify and implement the jurisprudence of equal protection represented by that case remains incomplete. Programs designed to effectuate the equal protection mandate of Brown through methods such as busing, hiring quotas or goals, preferential treatment, and affirmative action continue to incite controversy. The Supreme Court's recent ruling in City of Richmond v. Croson Co. demonstrates that the justices remain deeply divided regarding the …