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Volume 110 - Fall Issue

Note: Disrupting the Pickering Balance: First Amendment Protections for Teachers in the Digital Age

By Emily McNee. Full text here. Engaging in speech on Facebook has led teachers to be investigated, suspended, and even fired. The nature of online speech on social networking websites like Facebook presents novel concerns in First Amendment law. As Facebook and other forms of social media have become increasingly popular, teachers have been disciplined and…

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Note: Death by Arugula: How Soil Contamination Stunts Urban Agriculture, and What the Law Should Do About It

By Steven A. Platt. Full text here. More and more people are growing food in urban environments. The benefits of urban farming are well documented. The government sees increased economic activity, society enjoys new social and educational opportunities and blight reduction, and the individuals farming eat inexpensive, fresh, locally sourced food. However, cities have fostered and…

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Note: Healthy Compromise: Reconciling Wellness Program Financial Incentives with Health Reform

By Heather Baird. Full text here. Soaring health care expenditures coupled with plummeting insurance coverage suggest something is seriously wrong with the American health care system. One way that the ACA proposes to control health care costs is through support for employee wellness program initiatives. Wellness programs with financial incentives based upon health status risk create…

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Note: Going Back in Time: The Search for Retroactive Rulemaking Power in Statutory Deadlines

By Chris Schmitter. Full text here. Congress regularly enacts complex laws that require administrative agencies to promulgate rules by specific deadlines. Yet, as agencies do the work of creating rules and, from time to time, miss statutory deadlines, a question remains as to whether an agency can promulgate a rule that is retroactive to the statutory…

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Note: Up or Out: Why “Sufficiently Reliable” Statistical Risk Assessment Is Appropriate at Sentencing and Inappropriate at Parole

By Pari McGarraugh. Full text here. Sentencing judges and parole release authorities are increasingly using statistical risk assessments to guide their decision-making. Risk assessment instruments rely on statistical research and modeling to predict an individual’s chance of recidivating based on information about the individual like age and number of prior arrests. These instruments are subject to…

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Note: First Amendment and the Right to Lie: Regulating Knowingly False Campaign Speech After United States v. Alvarez

By Staci Lieffring. Full text here. With the people relying more and more on political advertising to inform them about candidates and elections, it is imperative to try to stop or limit false speech about candidates and the election procedures. False speech undermines the integrity of elections. This has led some states to enact laws banning…

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Note: Stifled Justice: The Unauthorized Practice of Law and Internet Legal Resources

By Mathew Rotenberg. Full text here. Advances in computer technology are effectively commoditizing the law and revolutionizing the ways in which individuals seek and receive legal services. Internet Legal Providers (ILPs) present tremendous potential for increased access to legal services, which is vital to an increasing number of unrepresented litigants, as well as to combat shrinking…

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Note: Jurisprudential Innovation or Accountability Avoidance? The International Criminal Court and Proposed Expansion of the African Court of Justice and Human Rights

By Kristen Rau. Full text here. From Nuremburg to The Hague, international criminal justice has evolved dynamically and at times unpredictably. Among recent developments is a proposal to expand the subject matter jurisdiction of the African Court of Justice and Human Rights (ACJHR) to include a mandate to prosecute individuals for serious international crimes. Expansion of…

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Note: Warrantless Search Cases Are Really All the Same

By Will Stancil. Full text here. Fourth Amendment jurisprudence confounds. Even with thousands of cases and hundreds of repeated fact patterns to rely on, courts are not able to come up with consistent rules. In order to address the problem, this Note proposes a new way of thinking about warrantless searches. It ignores the debate over…

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