The Lost Child: A Critique On Transracial Adoption Rhetoric,
2025
Seattle University School of Law
The Lost Child: A Critique On Transracial Adoption Rhetoric, Hallie Conyers-Tucker
Seattle University Law Review
Transracial adoption in the United States reflects a deeply rooted history of colonialism, cultural assimilation, and racial hierarchy, masked by rhetoric focused on the “best interest of the child.” The author critiques that rhetoric and traces how adoption practices and policies, both domestic and international, have evolved to reinforce systemic inequities. Through historical analysis of the forced adoption of Native American, Black, and Asian children, it reveals how the best interest standard has been wielded not to protect children but to uphold political and racial ideologies. The author argues that the prevailing adoption framework relies on child-saving and color-blind narratives …
A Global Reconstruction: Black Internationalism And The Human Rights Regime,
2025
Seattle University School of Law
A Global Reconstruction: Black Internationalism And The Human Rights Regime, Britta Redwood
Seattle University Law Review
Black American advocates for civil, political, and economic rights have long taken an internationalist approach and fostered connections with international organizations and transnational movements. This engagement has also been a generative force and played role in shaping international law. Beginning in the early years of the twentieth century, Black intellectuals and leaders, spearheaded by the NAACP and the UNIA, focused on human rights as a means for addressing and repairing the harms wrought by slavery, Jim Crow, and racism. From the Paris Peace Conference of 1919 through the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Genocide Convention, and the drafting of …
The Gap: Addressing The Missing Piece In HawaiʻI’S Anti-Discrimination Laws On Credit And Lending,
2025
Seattle University School of Law
The Gap: Addressing The Missing Piece In HawaiʻI’S Anti-Discrimination Laws On Credit And Lending, Wendy Mun
Seattle University Law Review
This author addresses the significant gap in Hawaiʻi’s anti-discrimination laws, specifically the lack of explicit protections for LGBTQ+ individuals against credit and lending discrimination. Although federal laws like the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA) and recent interpretations by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) extend some protections, they remain vulnerable to shifting federal priorities and interpretations. The author explores how other states, particularly California and Washington, have enacted robust statutory protections that clearly prohibit credit discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. They argue that Hawaiʻi, despite its large LGBTQ+ population, must amend its credit protection laws to reflect …
The U.S. Drug Policy Hamster Wheel: A Critical Discourse Analysis Of Seattle’S New Drug Ordinance,
2025
Seattle University School of Law
The U.S. Drug Policy Hamster Wheel: A Critical Discourse Analysis Of Seattle’S New Drug Ordinance, Hallie Conyers-Tucker
Seattle University Law Review
The author critically examines Seattle’s new drug ordinance using Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) to reveal how legislative language influences the policy's actual effect. Although the ordinance claims to prioritize diversion and community health, the use of permissive language such as “may” and “shall” grants broad discretionary power to law enforcement and undermines the stated intent. The author situates the ordinance within a broader historical context, highlighting how drug policy in the United States has consistently been shaped by racialized and stigmatizing narratives. Additionally, the author argues that meaningful reform requires reframing the discourse around substance use to support public health …
Something Concrete: How Labor Advocates Can Best Respond To The Ambiguity Of Glacier Northwest,
2025
Seattle University School of Law
Something Concrete: How Labor Advocates Can Best Respond To The Ambiguity Of Glacier Northwest, Ateş Serifsoy
Seattle University Law Review
The Supreme Court’s much-anticipated decision in Glacier North-west, Inc. v. International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local No. 174 (Glacier) marked a critical moment for workers’ rights under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) and the longstanding practice of Garmon preemption. Yet, initial fears of a significant rollback of workers’ rights, driven by sensational headlines, were met with an unexpectedly narrow Court opinion. This Comment examines Glacier’s implications for Gar-mon preemption and the right to strike. It offers the historical background of the doctrine of labor law preemption before Glacier; presents a detailed analysis of Glacier itself, including its …
A New Exclusionary Rule To Protect Bodily Integrity And Discourage Pretext Stops,
2025
Seattle University School of Law
A New Exclusionary Rule To Protect Bodily Integrity And Discourage Pretext Stops, Josephine Ross
Seattle University Law Review
The author proposes a novel state-level exclusionary rule to reduce racial profiling and protect bodily autonomy during police encounters. The current Fourth Amendment jurisprudence fails to deter pretextual stops and frisks because the exclusionary rule often turns on officer fault and "good faith," allowing racially motivated practices to go unchecked. As federal rollbacks on diversity and data collection hinder efforts to track racial bias, the author argues for a statutory evidentiary rule that automatically excludes drug evidence found during (1) traffic stops, (2) pat-downs for weapons, and (3) consent searches, regardless of an officer’s intent or the legality of the …
Navahine V. HawaiʻI Dept. Of Transportation: The Keiki Will Lead Us,
2025
Seattle University School of Law
Navahine V. HawaiʻI Dept. Of Transportation: The Keiki Will Lead Us, Catherine Smith
Seattle University Law Review
The author analyzes the landmark case Navahine v. Hawaiʻi Department of Transportation, which culminated in the world’s first constitutional climate settlement. Catherine Smith, serving as an expert for the youth plaintiffs, situates the case within Hawaiʻi’s legal tradition of prioritizing children’s rights and intergenerational equity. She explores the evolution of children’s constitutional protections, contrasting Hawaiʻi’s progressive jurisprudence with the dominant adult-centric legal framework on the mainland. She critiques four recurring analytical missteps in U.S. courts that marginalize children’s interests and highlights Hawaiʻi’s public trust doctrine and cultural values, such as the Aloha Spirit, as models for addressing climate-related harms. …
Constitutional Futurism As Pedagogy,
2025
Seattle University School of Law
Constitutional Futurism As Pedagogy, Jeremiah Chin
Seattle University Law Review
Constitutional Law has transformed from a course on history to a discussion of current events. Cases like Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard College, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, and Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo reveal that the study of constitutional law is not a static, or even linear, discussion of constitutional text and history. Law is a shifting, changing enterprise that reflects social constructions of power, authority, and identity. How do we teach, learn, and understand constitutional law that is so laden with history, riddled with theories of consistency and adherence to precedent, but ultimately subject …
Table Of Contents,
2025
Seattle University School of Law
Can The Law Protect My Craft? How Gaps In Copyright Of Knitting Patterns Symbolize A Greater Struggle For Protecting Traditionally Feminine Forms Of Intellectual Property,
2025
Seattle University School of Law
Can The Law Protect My Craft? How Gaps In Copyright Of Knitting Patterns Symbolize A Greater Struggle For Protecting Traditionally Feminine Forms Of Intellectual Property, Kysa Walzer
Seattle University Law Review
The purpose of this article is to demonstrate the application of intel-lectual property rights within the context of copyright protection of knit-ting patterns. The article will discuss the underutilization of copyright pro-tection for knitters and crafters and its larger impact upon craft and indus-try traditionally comprised of women. Part I introduces knitting patterns and a short history of copyright protections. Part II discusses the specific areas within knitting patterns and the knitting community which give rise to legal grey areas for copyright protection. Part III discusses the larger implications of copyright and intellectual property in spaces where women traditionally make …
Skirmishing Toward A General Theory Of Evidence And Proof,
2025
Cornell Law School
Skirmishing Toward A General Theory Of Evidence And Proof, Kevin M. Clermont
Cornell Law Faculty Publications
Traditional probability fundamentally assumes bivalence and additivity: there is only truth and falsity, whose odds add to one. The consequence is many problems and paradoxes for factfinding, all attributable to the assumptions’ exclusive focus on random uncertainty. By contrast, multivalent belief theory abjures those two assumptions, thereby allowing consideration of epistemic uncertainty. This theory divides the factfinder’s state of mind into three, not two, gradated concepts: belief, uncommitted belief representing epistemic unknowns, and disbelief. This theory utilises a more general but perfectly valid logic that accounts for all relevant kinds of uncertainty and so explains the law’s wise practices. In …
A Beacon Trying To Signal Heading: The Ninth Circuit Interprets The California Whistleblower Protection Act In Killgore V. Specpro Professional Services, Llc,
2025
Villanova University Charles Widger School of Law
A Beacon Trying To Signal Heading: The Ninth Circuit Interprets The California Whistleblower Protection Act In Killgore V. Specpro Professional Services, Llc, Naseem Memari
Villanova Environmental Law Journal (1991 - )
No abstract provided.
The Overlooked Witness Memory Risk,
2025
Georgia State University College of Law
The Overlooked Witness Memory Risk, Sue Provenzano, Sarah Brown-Schmidt
Faculty Publications By Year
No abstract provided.
The Objective Observer: The Washington State Supreme Court's Remedial Aspirations And Experience On The Ground,
2025
University of Washington School of Law
The Objective Observer: The Washington State Supreme Court's Remedial Aspirations And Experience On The Ground, David B. Owens
Washington Law Review
The Washington State Supreme Court has adopted an “objective observer rule” for addressing whether race impacted jury selection and extended this rule to evaluating all aspects of Washington courts, including jury trials. The objective observer rule allows courts to evaluate whether decisions in those courtrooms could be viewed as the result of racial bias, even where there is no evidence of specific racial animus and in the absence of racial slurs. The rule, which covers a form of disparate impact, has now existed for over half a decade. This Article outlines the Washington State Supreme Court’s development of the objective …
How Experts View The Legal System's Use Of Scientific Evidence,
2025
University of Michigan Law School
How Experts View The Legal System's Use Of Scientific Evidence, Shari Seidman Diamond, Richard Lempert
Articles
Legal scholars and courts frequently write about how scientific evidence is vetted and presented in legal proceedings, but the views of experts themselves have received little attention. Our research aims to fill that gap. This paper reports some of what we learned from a series of surveys we conducted, beginning with a survey in 2016 of scientists who had been elected to membership in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.3 Subsequent surveys were directed to subscribers of the journal Science who identified as scientists and engineers and to self-identified experts who advertised their availability as experts to lawyers or …
Say It Once, Say It Twice: Abrogating The Rebuttal Requirement Of The Prior Consistent Statement Hearsay Rule,
2025
Pepperdine University
Say It Once, Say It Twice: Abrogating The Rebuttal Requirement Of The Prior Consistent Statement Hearsay Rule, Natashja Atherton
Pepperdine Law Review
Federal Rule of Evidence 801(d)(1)(B) limits the introduction of a witness’s prior statements during court proceedings, even if those statements are consistent with the witness’s in-court testimony. A witness’s previous declarations can only be solicited if (a) the adversarial party directly attacks the witness’s credibility and (b) the offered prior consistent statement directly rebuts the basis of the attack. This Comment refers to these restrictions as the “rebuttal requirement” of Rule 801(d)(1)(B) and argues for its revocation to make statements substantially consistent with a witness’s in-court testimony admissible, subject to the other rules of evidence, regardless of whether the witness’s …
The Rape Kit Backlog: Problems And Solutions,
2025
San Jose State University
The Rape Kit Backlog: Problems And Solutions, Tracey Cao
Themis: Research Journal of Justice Studies and Forensic Science
This literature review examines the ongoing issue of rape kit backlog in the United States. Rape kits are a means of evidence collection from victims of sexual assault that can be used in court. Across the nation, many state jurisdictions have hundreds and thousands of rape kits left untested and locked away in storage facilities. Consent for testing, police bias, and funding issues are the main issues that will be addressed. Many victims choose not to have their kits tested. Other kits never get tested due to police choosing not to submit a kit due to their bias against some …
Privileged Communications: A Case By Case Approach,
2025
University of Maine School of Law
Privileged Communications: A Case By Case Approach, Josephine Citron
Maine Law Review
Privileged communications are communications which, because of a special relationship, are protected from revelation during the course of litigation. In the past, grants of privilege have been made by reference to professional groups rather than to the content of the particular communication, resulting in inconsistent treatment. Some professionals have secured absolute privileges for their relationships while others have been partially or totally unsuccessful. The inconsistencies are most clearly demonstrated by examining grants of privilege to medical, psychotherapeutic, and social work personnel, although it is not intended that the case by case approach suggested in the proposed statute at the end …
Preliminary Questions Of Fact: Respective Roles Of Judge And Jury In Maine Courts,
2025
University of Maine School of Law
Preliminary Questions Of Fact: Respective Roles Of Judge And Jury In Maine Courts, Maine Law Review
Maine Law Review
Virtually indisputable in the law is the notion that the trial judge determines questions of admissibility of evidence. However, when admissibility depends upon the evaluation of a preliminary question of fact, both courts and commentators disagree as to whether the judge should continue to occupy the role of sole decision-maker. The intertwining of fact, the preliminary condition, and law, the admissibility decision, raises some havoc with accepted views of the judge as arbiter of the law and the jury as fact finder. If the judge determines both questions, he is resolving not only legal, but also factual issues traditionally within …
No Lawyer, No Jail: A Critical Case Study Of Pragmatism And The Flaws Of “Purposeful” Decision Making In Argersinger V. Hamlin,
2025
Seattle University School of Law
No Lawyer, No Jail: A Critical Case Study Of Pragmatism And The Flaws Of “Purposeful” Decision Making In Argersinger V. Hamlin, Alisa Smith, Sarah K. Stice
Seattle University Law Review
By releasing conference notes and internal communications, Supreme Court Justices provide insight into the otherwise private decisionmaking process, shedding light on how case outcomes and legal reasoning are framed and negotiated. The watershed case of Argersinger v. Hamlin (1972) extended the constitutional right to counsel to some, but not all, misdemeanor defendants. The case was argued twice, and the Court relied on empirical and authoritative sources to answer complex and practical questions about requiring counsel. This case study employs critical discourse analysis to uncover what influenced the Justices’ decisions and how they framed, shaped, and constructed social realities to foreground …
