Authors:Casey Marsh Abstract: Guardianship proceedings under New York Mental Hygiene Law Article 81 are intended to protect the personal needs and property management of an alleged incapacitated person. A guardian appointed for a person is responsible for making decisions in line with the best interests and wishes of his or her ward. While guardians serve a very important purpose, the current procedures of guardianship proceedings allow too much room for family members to bring a proceeding without the alleged incapacitated person’s best interests in mind. Often, people bring guardianship proceedings to fish for information on family members or to circumvent a future Surrogate’s Court proceeding. These reasons are not in accordance with the purpose of guardianship proceedings. New York Mental Hygiene Law Article 81, as it stands, allows too much room for people to bring guardianship proceedings for reasons outside the intent and purpose of the proceeding. Recognizing the sensitive nature of these proceedings, the legislature should amend the statute to protect alleged incapacitated persons from proceedings brought without their best interests in mind. PubDate: Mon, 18 Sep 2023 09:09:16 PDT
Authors:Min Li Abstract: Why should patent inventors be limited to only natural persons under the current United States patent law' In fact, the present US patent law should be expanded to allow an Artificial Intelligence (“AI”) to be a named inventor of a patent. This would incentivize patent owners to use AI to produce more inventions that would benefit the public. There is no negative impact to expand the current US patent law. Many scholars, law professors, and practitioners believe that the patent law (or intellectual property law in general) is outdated due to the massive growth of modern technology. This Note argues that Congress should amend the patent law to permit an AI to be a named inventor or alternatively the Supreme Court should expand the interpretation of the patent law to encompass AI within the meaning of an inventor. Accordingly, such an expansion will promote the intent of article I, section 8, clause 8 of the United States Constitution. PubDate: Mon, 18 Sep 2023 09:09:12 PDT
Authors:Mary D. Fatscher Abstract: In 2020, the coronavirus disease (“COVID-19”) dominated the world. Although the public has progressively become more informed about the disease and how to safeguard itself, challenges persist as there is still much unknown. Aside from wearing masks, social distancing, and despite its undetermined consequences, the COVID-19 vaccination has emerged as a primary solution to substantially reducing the incidence and severity of the virus in our country. Many COVID-19 vaccine mandates were initiated once three pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies including Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson received Emergency Use Authorization from the Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”). PubDate: Mon, 18 Sep 2023 09:09:07 PDT
Authors:Nancy L. Zisk Abstract: This Article addresses the legal standard by which school admissions programs may be judged and validated as school districts struggle to achieve student body diversity. As the Supreme Court recognized in its seminal decision, Brown v. Board of Education, education “is the very foundation of good citizenship.” Twenty years after that case was decided, Thurgood Marshall, who had argued that separate was not equal in the Brown case, observed as a Justice of the Court that “unless our children begin to learn together, there is little hope that our people will ever learn to live together.” Because achieving student body diversity cannot be separated from a consideration of the race of the students, school admission programs face a constitutional challenge, whether they consider race as part of its selection process or do not consider the racial composition of their student bodies and are, therefore, not diverse. Taking center stage in this struggle is Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, a highly selective magnet school that was recently sued by a coalition of parents of Asian American students challenging changes it made to its admissions policy. A federal district court has invalidated the program on equal protection grounds, and an appeal of that decision is currently pending before the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. Although the Supreme Court has twice upheld race-conscious plans used by colleges and universities, there is some question whether the Court will apply this precedent to elementary, middle, or high school plans or whether the Court will continue to allow race to be considered in any admissions program at any level of education. In light of the importance of diversity in this nation’s classrooms, which the Supreme Court has repeatedly noted, the principles established by the Supreme Court upholding race-conscious admissions plans should continue to apply and should not be limited to colleges and universities but should apply with equal force to elementary, middle, and high school admissions programs. If these principles are not applied to these programs or if the Supreme Court invalidates any consideration of race in admissions programs at all levels of education, then the late Justice Ginsburg’s warning will come to pass: Schools will not stop considering every characteristic of applicants, including race, to achieve student body diversity but will instead resort to “winks, nods, and disguises” to achieve that goal. If the principles are applied, and schools are permitted to consider race as one factor of many for each applicant, then the Brown v. Board of Education legacy will endure, and schools can work openly to achieve diversity at all levels of education. PubDate: Mon, 18 Sep 2023 09:08:58 PDT
Authors:Larry M. Roth Abstract: This Article provides a comparative analysis of Judge Benjamin Cardozo’s tort decisions in Palsgraf v. Long Island Railroad Co., one of his most famous tort decisions, contrasted with a lesser-known tort opinion in Hynes v. New York Central Railroad Co. The Author attempts to address Cardozo’s humanistic and intellectual dichotomies which are exemplified by these two real-life tort precedents—one of which, Palsgraf, most practitioners may only have a distant recall. A historical overview of Cardozo’s life is also discussed. These two decisions portray Cardozo as an emotive human being exercising hit-or-miss judging. This theme provides a differ viewpoint from Cardozo’s historical image as a rigid, cold, and detached Jurist. It was this latter image that Cardozo sought to publicly display during his lifetime. These internal enigmatic personality conflicts are what memorialize Benjamin Cardozo in the Law almost a century later. Cardozo remains perceived in legal historicism as some distant Moses-like, true to his Jewish faith “Lawgiver.” In the larger sense, however, at least Biblically, Cardozo did not view himself that way since despite an Orthodox family he was not religious. Any judgment the Reader reaches after analyzing this hypothesis will provide, at a minimum, an updated, more modern vision of Benjamin Cardozo. If this occurs, then my efforts have not been in vain. PubDate: Mon, 18 Sep 2023 09:08:54 PDT
Authors:Charlie Penrod Abstract: Hazing in university fraternities has become an epidemic. Most hazing involves new pledges who are coerced to endure physical, emotional, or psychological harm to prove themselves worthy of admission to the group. Sadly, many students suffer severe injuries from hazing, up to and including death. Many states have passed specific laws banning hazing and expanded the universe of persons guilty of hazing to possibly include non-participants who aided the hazing. In 2020, a Florida appellate court broadened this further, potentially holding a fraternity president responsible for hazing for making the mistake of allowing liquor at an off-campus party. The fraternity president in that case did know hazing would occur and was not present when it occurred. In light of this holding and the broad wording of state statutes across the country, this Article sets forth recommended practices to minimize the likelihood of criminal prosecution for hazing for fraternity presidents. The impact on the culture of the fraternity may be significant; however, these recommendations will further the twin goals of reducing hazing incidents and minimizing criminal responsibility for those who are non-participants of the hazing. PubDate: Mon, 18 Sep 2023 09:08:49 PDT
Authors:Andrew W. Eichner Abstract: The federal penalty for possession of a contraband phone by an inmate is currently a statutory maximum of one year of imprisonment, which is a Class A misdemeanor. This Article surveys 56 jurisdictions from across the United States (the 50 States, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealths of Puerto Rico and the Northern Mariana Islands, American Samoa, Guam, and the U.S. Virgin Islands) and discovers that the federal penalty for this offense is much lower than the national average for comparable offenses, which is an average statutory maximum of five years of imprisonment. To rectify this discrepancy, the Article proposes increasing the federal statutory maximum for the offense from one year to five years, based on supporting data from the surveyed jurisdictions and policy arguments based on recidivism studies. PubDate: Mon, 18 Sep 2023 09:08:40 PDT
Authors:John M. Breen et al. Abstract: A mission-driven institution requires personnel who are competent for the realization of the mission. The following article examines the practice of Catholic law schools hiring Catholics as law professors throughout the over 150-year history of Catholic legal education in the United States. This history shows that Catholic law schools alternately sought to hire Catholics as law professors or to hire individuals without regard to their religious affiliation as these schools’ self-understanding of mission changed over time. PubDate: Mon, 18 Sep 2023 09:08:36 PDT
Authors:Lucia A. Silecchia Abstract: In the United States, numerous law schools identify themselves as “religiously affiliated.” There are many opportunities and challenges that come with such affiliation. What “religiously affiliated” may mean for a law school’s faculty is a particularly critical aspect of this question. I was grateful to have been invited to reflect on what religious affiliation might mean for faculty hiring at the “Past, Present, and Future of Religiously Affiliated Law Schools” conference. What follows are reflections that consider not merely that question—important as it is—but also explore what happens after the hiring decision to make the vocation to teach at a religiously affiliated school a happy and, yes, holy one. It will begin by examining what I believe to be the four primary types of religiously affiliated law schools. Then, it will briefly discuss some considerations for the hiring process. It will then explore some of the ways in which religiously affiliated law schools have the opportunity and the obligation to support faculty who seek to live a full vocation to academic life in a religiously affiliated law school. It will conclude with some personal reflections on my three decades living that vocation at a religiously affiliated law school. PubDate: Mon, 18 Sep 2023 09:08:32 PDT
Authors:Joel A. Nichols Abstract: Many of us are prone to thinking in binaries—in “either/or” categories, or in black-and-white thinking. Lawyers seem to be especially skilled at this, as we are trained to identify two things and then try to navigate between them or name their similarities and differences. But staying within that framework can be unhelpful, and even stifling, at times. This Essay explores the intersection of faith and the practice of law, especially the idea of vocation. It offers an approach to get out of the binary by suggesting that looking at a third thing is essential. For vocation, this includes (1) listening to one’s own call (self); (2) connecting relationally and serving others (others); and (3) acknowledging that God, the Holy One, is always and already present in every space that we walk into and every situation that we are in. By adding this “third thing” and living into it more fully, we can approach our vocation—our calling—with a strong sense of meaning that is simultaneously coupled with a heavy dose of humility. PubDate: Mon, 18 Sep 2023 09:08:27 PDT
Authors:Judith A. McMorrow Abstract: There are multiple ways in which Catholic law schools can provide an education that supports and reflects a Catholic vision. Some schools align more closely to an orthodox view in which text and doctrine are the starting lens. Catholic law schools closer to the secular end of the spectrum play a powerful role by actively building bridges with the secular world. These schools, either implicitly or explicitly, start with values framed in more universal terms -- a moral or ethical worldview that can implement the common good in the secular world. A Catholic law school that emphasizes the universal generally offer multiple doors into their mission: a door through which faith is the dominant motivator; a door through which embracing the universal values is the dominated motivator; and one through which individuals seeking a good education can enter without regard to faith or universal values. Catholic law schools that emphasize universal values should state those values publicly and are always seeking to bring community members into a shared vision of those values. Members of the community who enter through the universal values door are not “guests” but integral members in the university. Under this vision, you are more likely to see student groups and faculty who promote positions that are inconsistent with Catholic doctrine. They are pursuing the central goal of a university, which is a place that facilitates the God-given power of reason to explore questions of the common good. PubDate: Mon, 18 Sep 2023 09:08:23 PDT
Authors:Randy Lee Abstract: Having interpreted the topic of our panel liberally, what I want to talk about today is why Sam Levine, director of Touro’s Jewish Law Institute, is here at the conference, or, to put it differently—why does Touro Law School have a Jewish law institute'” PubDate: Mon, 18 Sep 2023 09:08:18 PDT
Authors:Randy Lee Abstract: Jesus’s final command at His final meal before His death was to “love one another.” No less than Jackson Browne insisted that the ultimate absurdity in an absurd world is a “lawyer in love.” Thus, Jesus has commanded that even lawyers must love, but Jackson Browne has emphatically stressed that lawyers are incapable of love. Given the apparent conflict for lawyers between these two observations of Jesus and Jackson Browne, one might wonder whether one can be a Christian and a lawyer both. Can both God and Jackson Browne be right' Of course, the government could seemingly make the answer to that question “come easy.” The government could make it illegal for those within whom “the dogma lives loudly” to be lawyers. Beginning in 2010, the Affordable Care Act was understood to make it unlawful for many Christians to operate a hospital, a college, or even a craft store. What if it had been a law office—what if the government made it unlawful for a Christian to practice law' PubDate: Mon, 18 Sep 2023 09:08:14 PDT
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