Religion Law Commons^™

Table Of Contents

Seattle University Law Review

Table of Contents

The Roots Of Credit Inequality, Andrea Freeman

Seattle University Law Review

Debt oppression began before the United States became a country. Settlers enslaved Africans and Indigenous people, treating them as property that they could buy and sell for their economic and personal benefit. When enslavement became illegal, new economic systems and laws that included sharecropping, Black Codes, and Jim Crow kept Black people in servitude. Laws that prohibited enslaved people from owning property or selling goods to white people evolved into restrictions on Black people’s occupations and market participation, both formal and informal. When Black entrepreneurs overcame these obstacles and built wealth within Black business enclaves, white people enforced their racist …

“A Plain Denial”: Reclaiming Equal Protection In American Juvenile Law, Addie C. Rolnick, David S. Tanenhaus, Justin Iverson, Danielle L. Silvestri

Seattle University Law Review

Juvenile courts are based on the premise that children are different from adults and should therefore be treated differently. Children may be treated more informally by courts, punished for different purposes, and brought before the court for different behaviors. Since In re Gault, the Supreme Court has been clear that there are limits to how different juvenile courts can be. Juveniles are entitled to many of the same procedural protections as adult criminal defendants, although the Court has preserved some procedural differences where it has determined that their benefit is outweighed by the need to preserve the informality, flexibility, …

Mandating Fluoride: A Constitutional Exercise Of Police Power, Anita Jahangiri

Seattle University Law Review

This Note addresses the ongoing debate over fluoridation: the regulation of fluoride levels in public water systems. Extensive research indicates fluoridation, when regulated at the recommended concentration, is both safe and highly effective in preventing dental caries. Better known as cavities, dental caries is a preventable yet widespread health issue that disproportionately affects low-income populations. Reducing dental health disparities among economic classes is a pressing public health issue. Fluoridation is not merely a policy option, but a critical, proven tool to address such disparities and uphold the collective welfare of Washingtonians. This Note focuses on fluoridation as a public health …

Neurodiversity In The Courtroom: Expanding Jury Service Accessibility Beyond Physical Disability, Samantha L. Mabe

Seattle University Law Review

The Americans with Disabilities Act has required equal access to jury service for decades; however, efforts to accommodate jurors with disabilities have been slow to develop beyond some minor accommodations for physical disabilities. While neurodivergent people frequently struggle to navigate a world catered toward neurotypical people, jury service remains inaccessible for many neurodivergent people who need accommodations to attend trial and engage in jury deliberations. If courts and advocates do not consider how to develop accommodations to secure the service of neurodivergent jurors, they will miss out on the unique skillsets that neurodivergent people can bring to resolving disputes.

Disabled …

Redefining Section 230 Immunity, Lucas Dini

Seattle University Law Review

Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act has provided broad immunity to online platforms for third-party content which was the foundation for the internet's growth. However, the rise in the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to produce algorithms to curate content to users of online services has blurred the line between being a passive host of third party content and active editorial control. This Note examines the legal, policy, and constitutional implications of applying Section 230 immunity to platforms that use AI to curate and promote third-party content. This analysis argues that algorithmic promotion of third-party content constitutes a platform's …

Overcrowding The System: Rethinking Juvenile Justice In Washington State, Mckenna White

Seattle University Law Review

The recent crisis at Green Hill School highlights the detrimental consequences of severe overcrowding in Washington State’s Juvenile Rehabilitation system—a problem exacerbated by the implementation of the JR to 25 legislation. This Note argues that the juvenile rehabilitation system, which is currently struggling to manage a wide age range of offenders, necessitates a fundamental rethinking of juvenile justice practices. By examining neurological research indicating continued brain development into the mid-twenties, along with the high prevalence of trauma among justice-involved youth, this Note proposes the creation of a dedicated third system of care within the Department of Children, Youth, and Families …

Addressing The Root Of Housing Insecurity: Washington Should Divest From “Crime-Free” Housing Programs, Sarah Cerdena

Seattle University Law Review

Crime-Free Rental Housing Properties (CFRHPs) have proven to be an ineffective and inequitable approach to public safety. Often, tenants in these properties are evicted—at times, extrajudicially—as a result of conduct that does not rise to violations of their lease provisions, much less criminal behavior. By placing extraordinary power in the hands of local law enforcement to carry out these ordinances, CFRHPs predictably pose significant harm to Black and Latinx communities, survivors of domestic violence, disabled tenants, and low-income tenants generally. Recently, the Washington State Supreme Court grappled with the tensions arising between CFRHPs and the enforcement of Washington landlord-tenant law. …

Volume 49 Masthead

Seattle University Law Review

Volume 49 Masthead

Esg Investing Breaches Erisa Fiduciary Duties? A Closer Look At Spence V. American Airlines, Inc., Eric Chin-Ru Chang

Seattle University Law Review

In Spence v. American Airlines, Inc., the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas found that American Airlines breached its fiduciary duties due to BlackRock’s ESG investing practices. Contrary to some reports suggesting that the ruling prohibits ESG investing under ERISA, a closer look at the ruling shows that the court only targeted American Airlines’ failure to manage conflicts of interest appropriately, rather than the legality of ESG investing itself. In light of the intensifying ESG backlash in the United States, this Article cautions against further restrictive measures on ESG investing. Such measures would exacerbate the widening …

Formalism In Jewish Law, Chaim Saiman

Faculty Publications

Scholars differ as to the degree to which Jewish law is formalistic. This chapter aims to make sense of the debate surrounding formalism in Jewish law by distinguishing between three types of legal formalism: classic formalism, modern formalism, and detail-following formalism. Viewed through the lens of modern formalism, Jewish law is likely less formalistic than commonly assumed as it is not primarily concerned with constraining decision makers. Nor is Jewish legal discourse typified by its unified conceptual schemas that proceed from abstract concepts to bottom-line decisions in the way that classical formalism proceeds. This chapter introduces an alternative framing termed …

From Ambiguity To Accountability: The Case For A Legal Definition Of Antisemitism In Academia, Andrea J. Martin

Pepperdine Law Review

Following the October 7, 2023, Hamas attacks on Israel, U.S. college campuses experienced a sharp rise in antisemitic incidents, driven by an antizionism movement aimed at demonizing and delegitimizing the Jewish state and its supporters. A congressional investigation found that antisemitism persisted at prominent universities because administrators repeatedly failed to denounce antizionist conduct that functions as a vehicle for harassment of Jewish students and neglected to enforce their own nondiscrimination policies. The congressional committee, as well as several university antisemitism task forces, identified antizionism as a primary driver of campus antisemitism and strongly recommended that university leaders recognize and address …

Ten Commandments In The Public Square And Public Schools, Mark David Hall, Andrea Picciotti-Bayer

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

The Ten Commandments are of paramount importance to the Jewish and Christian faiths, and they are viewed by many as a source of Western law. In America, they have been (and are) taught in churches and synagogues, and throughout much of this nation’s history they have been taught by parents, tutors, and teachers in private and public schools. They are regularly displayed in courthouses and statehouse grounds, and some states have desired to display them in public schools. Predictably, those who would scrub religion from the public square have argued that Ten Commandment displays on public property violate the First …

The Endorsement Test’S Early Years, 1983–1985: Notes From The O’Connor Files, Jay Wexler

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

One of Justice Sandra Day O’Connor’s signature contributions to U.S. constitutional law was the endorsement test, a subtle but critically important reformulation of the Court’s then prevailing approach to applying the Establishment Clause that focused on the message sent by government action supporting religion and the potentially harmful effects of that message on religious minorities and the political community. Now that the current Court has discarded the endorsement test, leaving the government freer than ever to support religion in a variety of ways, we should expect to see the harms that Justice O’Connor cared about become increasingly widespread and prevalent. …

303 Creative For Everyone?, Mark Satta

West Virginia Law Review

Does the holding in 303 Creative v. Elenis give businesses open to the public a constitutional right to refuse to provide expressive services for interracial couples’ weddings, interfaith couples’ weddings, or for couples’ weddings in which one or both partners are disabled? As indicated by questions raised during oral arguments, this is one of the troubling new legal questions created by the Supreme Court’s 303 Creative decision where the Court held that a Colorado web design business had a First Amendment free speech right to refuse to provide wedding website services for same-sex couples’ weddings. Understandably, both the Court’s conservative …

The Shadow Of Legal Pluralism In Indonesian Islamic Courts: Child And Spousal Maintenance, Stijn Cornelis Van Huis

The Indonesian Journal of Socio-Legal Studies

This paper is inspired by Franz von Benda-Beckmann’s notion of “bargaining in the shadow of legal pluralism” and applies this notion to spousal and child maintenance negotiations that take place between judges, husbands and wives within divorce processes at Indonesian Islamic courts. I will argue that in the context of Muslim family law practice in Indonesia, the legal plural situation does not only influence out-of-court negotiations, but formal legal processes within the Islamic courts as well. It follows Keebet von Benda-Beckmann’s example in analyzing the legal plural dynamics of women’s claiming process comprehensively, by investigating the interconnectedness of the pre-trial, …

Louisiana's Ten Commandments Statute: With Litigation Updates From Arkansas And Texas, Carl H. Esbeck

Faculty Publications

Legislators in conservative states are drawn to a belief that the Ten Commandments [“10/Cs”] underscore American’s moral, jurisprudential, and historical heritage. First the State of Louisiana, and thereafter Arkansas and Texas, enacted legislation requiring the posting of the 10/Cs in every public school and university classroom in the state. This quickly brought on legal challenges by students and their parents, along with a smattering of local clerics, together contending that these laws were unconstitutional, most prominently violations of the Establishment Clause. State attorney generals leaped to defend these statutes making the facial assertion that the 10/Cs are not so much …

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 …

Table Of Contents

Seattle University Law Review

Table of Contents

Volume 48 Masthead

Seattle University Law Review

Volume 48 Masthead