Law and Politics Commons^™

The Role Of Courts In Government Today, James L. Oakes

Akron Law Review

It is elementary constitutional law that American courts have the power of judicial review. While a case can be made (and is still sometimes made by critics of too much judicial intervention) against the courts' power to review federal actions against the Constitution or state actions contrary to the Federal Constitution or statutes, the principle of judicial review is so well ingrained in the American system that it need not be reargued here. Rather I shall examine the principal arguments counseling caution and restraint in the exercise of the power, even though some of these arguments seem to run against …

Lawyers Without Rights: Jewish Lawyers In Germany Under The Third Reich: An Exhibition At Roger Williams University School Of Law, Roger Williams University School Of Law

School of Law Conferences, Lectures & Events

No abstract provided.

"The Monster Approaching The Capital:" The Effort To Write Economic Policy Into The United States Constitution, Maryanne R. Rackoff

Akron Law Review

It is not within the scope of this comment to answer all the above issues. The focus of this paper will be a review of solutions suggested by Constitutional scholars with an emphasis on current proposed legislation. The Constitutional Implementation Act of 198116 (hereinafter S.817) and S.J. Res. 58.17 The current Congressionally-proposed amendment will be discussed in relation to the state applications. A brief review of the legislative history behind Article V will highlight the current efforts by Congress to provide some procedural guidelines for a state-summoned convention. Finally, the provisions of the various state applications will be compared. As …

Sovereign Immunity For Political Subdivisions, Kathy Sue Magoline

Akron Law Review

The Ohio Supreme Court continued in 1983 to expand and define its abrogation of the doctrine of sovereign immunity for municipal corporations and political subdivisions. The court's decisions in this area have resulted in a significant increase in tort liability for local governments and school districts, who may now be found liable for tortious acts in the same manner as private individuals.

The Original Understanding Of The Fourteenth Amendment In Illinois, Ohio, And Pennsylvania, James E. Bond

Akron Law Review

This article reviews the state ratification debates in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Illinois. Then as now these states were major electoral battlegrounds. In all three states the two parties fielded strong candidates and ran well-organized campaigns. Many of the nationally recognized proponents of the 14th amendment hailed from these states. Those among them who faced re-election were marked men. President Johnson himself made his famous "swing around the circle," defending "My Policy" in major cities in all three states. The President was only the most prominent of the many well-known outsiders who criss-crossed these states in a desperate attempt to influence …

Classifying Political Similarity Of Twitter Users, William K. Paustian

Computer Science Summer Fellows

The emergence of large scale social networks has led to research in approaches to classify similar users on a network. While many such approaches use data mining techniques, recent efforts have focused on measuring the similarity of users using structural properties of the underlying graph representing the network. In this paper, we identify the Twitter followers of the 2016 presidential candidates and classify them as Democrat, Republican or Bipartisan. We did this by designing a new approach to measuring structural similarity, PolRANK. PolRANK computes the similarity of a pair of users by accounting for both the number of candidates they …

Keeping Pace: The U.S. Supreme Court And Evolving Technology, Brian Thomas

Politics Summer Fellows

Contemporary mainstream discussions of the Supreme Court are often qualified with the warning that the nine justices are out of touch with everyday American life, especially when it comes to the newest and most popular technologies. For instance, during oral argument for City of Ontario v. Quon, a 2010 case that dealt with sexting on government-issued devices, Chief Justice John Roberts famously asked what the difference was “between email and a pager,” and Justice Antonin Scalia wondered if the “spicy little conversations” held via text message could be printed and distributed. While these comments have garnered a great deal of …

Northeast Women's Center, Inc. V. Mcmonagle: A Message To Poltical Activists, Jo Anne Pool

Akron Law Review

This note examines Northeast Women's Center, Inc v. McMonagle a successful civil RICO claim brought by an abortion clinic against antiabortion activists who "used force, threats of force, fear and violence in their efforts to force the clinic out of business " As a background to examining the case, this note will explore the RICO statute, the judicial extension of RICO, and the current congressional action concerning reform.

Analysis of Northeast reveals an emerging extension of civil RICO. Civil RICO is applied to curb unlawful political protest. Such an extension allows certain victims of domestic terrorism private recovery of damages. …

Federal Judges And Presidential Power: Truman To Reagan, Craig R. Ducat, Robert L. Dudley

Akron Law Review

While there is a considerable literature consisting of commentaries on the substance of federal court decisions about presidential power, there has been little quantitative investigation of political factors influencing judicial decision-making in those cases. Analyzing the votes cast by judges at all levels of the federal judiciary during the post-World War II era, this study examines several conventional expectations about the impact of such political factors as political party affiliation and presidential appointment, the difference between the foreign and military affairs and domestic policy areas, length of judicial tenure, and judges' possession of prior legislative or executive experience.

The Legal And Political Foundations And Meaning Of President Wilson's Great Western Tour, H. Newcomb Morse

Akron Law Review

September 4, 1919 is a red-letter date in history. On that date President Woodrow Wilson, wearing a sailor straw hat after Labor Day revealed his famous smile when he arrived in Columbus, Ohio. There, he delivered the first of forty-two speeches which concluded on September 25, in Pueblo, Colorado. Those twenty-two days marked the most memorable train trip in history - President Wilson's Great Western Tour: a journey through sixteen states aboard the special seven-car Presidential train, the Mayflower. The train was aptly named, for the President's speaking tour symbolized the hope of the world, just as the Pilgrims' hope …

Prospects For An Independent Judiciary: The Russian Constitutional Court And The Cpsu Trial, Lynne M. Tracy

Akron Law Review

This Comment will explore the role of law in Russian and Soviet history. It will then consider the legal reforms that arose under Mikhail Gorbachev's program of perestroika. Particular attention will be devoted to judicial reform and the creation of the Constitutional Court. Second, there will be a description of the events that led to the CPSU trial and the trial itself. Finally, there will be an examination of the impact of the Constitutional Court's verdict on: (1) the future of the Constitutional Court as an independent third branch of the government; (2) the Russian political scene; and (3) the …

The Present Developments Of Legal Regulations Of Space Activities In Russia And Commonwealth Of Independent States, Elena Kamenetskaya

Akron Law Review

The purpose of this article is to give general information about basic legal documents on the exploration and use of outer space which appeared in Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States in the recent past.

Imagery, Politics, And Jury Reform, Christopher E. Smith

Akron Law Review

The Rodney King cases focused a public spotlight on the role and consequences of jury decisions at a moment in history when juries have become the objects of politically-motivated reform efforts. The juxtaposition of political reactions to the King cases and contemporary efforts to reform the power of juries provides an enlightening illustration of underlying issues about both the jury's proper role in the American governing system and the political interests pushing for jury reform.

Newsroom: Mckay '96 To Head Christie Campaign, Roger Williams University School Of Law

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

Trading Privacy For Angry Birds: A Call For Courts To Reevaluate Privacy Expectations In Modern Smartphones, Jeremy Andrew Ciarabellini

Seattle University Law Review

Of all the smartphone uses, the calling function is probably used the least. Rather, individuals more commonly use their smartphone for surfing the web, checking Facebook, and playing games. Highlighting the “smart” in smartphone, these phones often know more about their users’ daily activities than the users. Without requiring any sort of input, smartphones can tell the user how many steps they walk each day, when it is time to leave for work (also, of course, determining the traveling time with the most up-to-date traffic reports), and when an item recently ordered on Amazon will be delivered. Smartphone users may …

Opening The Barnyard Door: Transparency And The Resurgence Of Ag-Gag & Veggie Libel Laws, Nicole E. Negowetti

Seattle University Law Review

Over the past several decades, as the agricultural system became increasingly industrialized and the steps from farm to plate multiplied, consumers became farther removed from the sources of their food. Until recently, most consumers in America were content to eat their processed, cheap, and filling foods without giving a second thought to how these foods were produced. The tides are changing. Increasingly, consumers are calling for more transparency in the food system. Repulsed by images of animal cruelty and shocked by unsavory food production practices, consumers want the food industry’s veil lifted and are demanding changes in food production. The …

Ag Gag Past, Present, And Future, Justin F. Marceau

Seattle University Law Review

While the animal rights and food justice movements are relatively young, their political unpopularity has generated a steady onslaught of legislation designed to curtail their effectiveness. At each stage of their nascent development, these movements have confronted a new wave of criminal or civil sanctions carefully tailored to combat the previous successes the movements had achieved.

Intestacy Concerns For Same-Sex Couples: How Variations In State Law And Policy Affect Testamentary Wishes, Megan Moser

Seattle University Law Review

As the number of same-sex couples increases in the United States, concerns regarding the evolution of federal and state law, with respect to rights for same-sex couples, also continue to rise. As marriage is not always available to same-sex couples, they often face very different legal issues than couples in a traditional marriage. Because marriage is typically not a legal cause of action, the question of a marriage’s validity often arises incidentally to another legal question, such as the disposition of a decedent’s estate.

Authorized Investigation: A Temperate Alternative To Cyber Insecurity, Casey M. Bruner

Seattle University Law Review

This Note aims to show that legal structures created to protect the Internet in its original form are completely insufficient to protect what the Internet has become. This antiquated legal framework is exacerbating the problem. The breadth of activity that the current law restricts severely limits the remedies that cyberattack victims can pursue, and it must be updated. While full hack-back may prove necessary in the long run, I argue for a more temperate initial response to the problem—I call this response “authorized investigation.” Specifically, the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act should be amended to allow victims access to their …

Public School Funding And Mccleary V. State Of Washington—A Violation Of The Separation Of Powers Doctrine Or A Legitimate Exercise Of Judicial Autonomy?, Jessica R. Burns

Seattle University Law Review

Public school funding has been contentiously litigated throughout the United States, and the Washington Supreme Court has addressed the inadequacy of public school funding in two pivotal cases: Seattle School District No. 1 v. State and McCleary v. State. In both decisions, the Washington Supreme Court held that the State failed to provide an adequate basic education for its public school students; however, in its attempt to remedy the situation, the court took drastically different approaches.