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Asadi: Renegade or Precursor of Who Is a Whistleblower Under the Dodd-Frank Act?
Get PDFWhistleblowers have a long and honorable history. From Ralph Nader blowing the whistle on the hazards of GM’s Corvair in Unsafe at Any Speed1 in the 1960’s to Jeffrey Wigand in 1996 exposing the duplicity of the tobacco industry, whistleblowers have put conscience ahead of career and personal success to expose corporate fraud and wrongdoing. Not surprisingly, they have had to endure ridicule and ostracism as well as financial hardship. Legislation has sought to protect them from retribution, often with mixed success. The most recent legislative effort is the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Dodd-Frank) that allows whistleblowers to collect a bounty for the whistleblowing and also protects the whistleblower from retaliatory acts by his or her employer. One of the challenges currently dividing the courts is determining who should come within the protection of the legislation. The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, in Asadi v. GE Energy, interpreted the definition of “whistleblower” quite narrowly to encompass only those individuals who make information available directly to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). This interpretation by the Fifth Circuit not only rejects the broader interpretation of SEC regulations, but is also inconsistent with the decisions of various district courts that have considered this question. Part I opens with a discussion of the requirements of “whistleblower” status under both the statutory language of Dodd-Frank and the accompanying SEC regulations. Part II reviews the Asadi decision and calls into question the soundness of the court’s decision to disregard SEC regulations. Part III explores the circumstances in which administrative regulations are entitled to deference and those situations in which they may be disregarded as an overreach of power. Part IV surveys several district court decisions that have interpreted the term “whistleblower” under Dodd-Frank. Part V argues that even public policy dictates that the courts should adopt a broad interpretation of “whistleblower” so as to provide maximum safeguards against fraud and abuse. The paper concludes that the Fifth Circuit in Asadi reached an incorrect result, and, therefore, that this renegade decision which advocates a narrow scope of whistleblower protection should be rejected in future judicial interpretations of who is a whistleblower
The Assessment of Cognitive Inefficiency and its Psychiatric Correlates in a Child Sample
No full textCognitive efficiency is a construct that refers to one\u27s ability to proficiently process novel information, allowing the individual to devote more cognitive resources to higher order processes, including reasoning and problem solving. The present study sought to explore the utility of the construct of cognitive inefficiency within a child psychiatric sample. The study examined the discrepancies between individuals\u27 GAI, which represents their reasoning abilities, and CPI, a measure of their proficiency in processing cognitive information, on the WISC-IV and differences in individuals\u27 performance across the CAS simultaneous and successive (labeled Processing) scales and the attention and planning scales (labeled Efficiency) which focus more specifically on cognitive efficiency. In addition, the relationship between cognitive efficiency and parent ratings of internalizing symptoms, externalizing symptoms, and symptoms of reality distortion was assessed using the Personality Inventory for Children - 2 (PIC-2) scales, in order to gain a better understanding of the utility of these measures within the psychiatric population. The sample was composed of 249 children (167 males, 82 females) between the ages of 6 and 12 (M = 10.05, SD = 1.91) who had been hospitalized on an inpatient psychiatric unit. A series of bivariate correlations were conducted to understand the relationship between WISC-IV and CAS factors and inefficiency scores, and parent ratings across the four symptom groups. In addition, regressions were carried out to determine the extent to which the GAI and CPI on the WISC, and Processing and Efficiency scores on the CAS predicted parent ratings of psychopathology. Results revealed that the overall efficiency scores of the WISC-IV and CAS shared 18% of the variance. This demonstrates that while the two measures are related and share some variability, overall, they are not entirely assessing the same construct. However, despite the relatively small shared variance, both measures seem to operate in the same way and demonstrate similar psychiatric correlates. With regard to the cognitive patterns associated with different psychiatric symptoms, the results varied across the symptom categories. The findings that examined the relationship between cognitive domains and parent ratings of depression demonstrated that there were no statistically significant relationships between WISC-IV and CAS factors or inefficiency scores and parent ratings of internalizing symptoms on the PIC-2. The analyses examining the relationship between cognitive variables and parent ratings of psychosis reveal that more general impairments in overall cognitive ability, rather than specific weaknesses in cognitive efficiency, predict higher parent ratings of symptoms of reality distortion. The results reveal that across the WISC-IV and CAS variables, children\u27s reasoning abilities as assessed by the WISC-IV GAI, most strongly predict parent ratings of externalizing psychopathology. Limitations of the study and suggestions for future research are also discussed
Koontz v. St. Johns River Water Management District: Can Environmental Impact Analysis Preserve Sustainable Development from the New Reach of the Supreme Court\u27s Exactions Jurisprudence?
Get PDFThe United States Supreme Court has raised the legal standard for a municipality to use land use exactions for sustainable development. Land use exactions frequent local government affairs and occur when a government demands a dedication of land or money in exchange for a municipal approval, such as a permit. Koontz v. St. Johns River Water Management District found certain proposed government exactions for land use permits as “demands” on the applicant and required a “‘nexus\u27 and ‘rough proportionality’ between the property that the government demands and the social costs of the applicant\u27s proposal,” regardless of whether the exaction was a condition precedent or a condition subsequent. Even without incurring a “takings” for purposes of the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution, if government-imposed exactions are found to be “[e]xtortionate demand[s],” this would still “run afoul of the Takings Clause not because they take property but because they impermissibly burden the right not to have property taken without just compensation.” Thus, if there is no “essential nexus” and “rough proportionality,” the exaction is an actionable “unconstitutional condition.” After Koontz, this standard now applies even if an applicant has only been asked to make payments to improve public land. However, this comment argues that municipalities can use environmental impact review to shield themselves from the threat of uncertain, broad, and costly litigation during negotiations with developers.
Part II of this paper discusses the import of municipal exactions to environmental stewardship and sustainable development. Part III provides an overview of the Unconstitutional Conditions Doctrine, which played a decisive role in the Koontz case. Part IV centers around the majority and dissenting opinions in Koontz, as well as the issues settled, and those now raised, by the Court\u27s ruling. Part V analyzes the New York State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA) and focuses on its procedural and substantive requirements. Comparative treatment is also given to the environmental review statutes in the States of California and Washington. Part VI concentrates on case illustrations that reveal how these statutes satisfy the Unconstitutional Conditions Doctrine, as extended by Koontz. This Part focuses chiefly on SEQRA, but also explores possible outcomes under its analogous state counterparts. Part VII concludes with potential ramifications for local environmental law and sustainable development
The Declaration of Interdependence: A New Declaration to Overthrow the Tyranny of Small Decisions and Achieve Sustainability
Get PDFTwo declarations are the foundation of modern international environmental law and policy: the Stockholm Declaration on the Human Environment and the Rio Declaration on the Environment and Development. Both of these declarations include well-established principles of international environmental law and policy such as state responsibility, territorial sovereignty, the necessity of ecosystem protection, and the importance of international cooperation. In addition, they both embrace revolutionary ideas. For example, the Stockholm Declaration held out the possibility of a human right to a healthy environment and suggested the need to integrate economic development and social development with environmental protection, which is the seed from which the concept of sustainable development grew. The Rio Declaration fully endorsed that concept and included in it the principle of equitable rights of present and future generations, the necessity of a precautionary approach to environmental protection, an equitable polluter pays approach through the principle of “common but differentiated responsibility,” and the necessity of eliminating unsustainable patterns of consumption if sustainable development is to be achieved
A Comparative Legal Approach for the Risks of Offshore Methane Hydrates: Existing Laws and Conventions
Get PDFThis article provides a review of the existing laws and conventions that might be applied to the development of offshore methane hydrates. Offshore methane hydrates are an exciting emerging new energy resource; one with great potential to provide vast energy supplies, and also one with substantially novel risks and hazards to the environment, marine flora and fauna, and adjacent human communities. Some of these new risks include cataclysmic levels of greenhouse gas emissions, subsea landslides, and tsunamis. As such, it is important to take a survey of the existing laws and conventions that could be applied to such risks, examine them for their ability to efficiently govern those risks, and take account of where risks from offshore methane hydrates are insufficiently addressed by current laws and conventions. This article undertakes that task in order to compare and contrast existing rules against recommended legal policies, and to offer potential solutions to existing shortfalls.
The first section of this article provides an introduction and review of the potential impacts from the development of offshore methane hydrates. It will discuss the potential economic and public welfare improvements to be gained from the development of offshore methane hydrates. It will also provide an exposition of the risks posed by that same development. The second section of this article will demonstrate the application of law and economics theory to the choice of risk governance mechanisms. Within the rules of civil liability, a rule of strict liability is found to better fit the facts and circumstances of offshore methane hydrates, and would thus be more robust in the efficient governance of its risks compared against a rule of negligence. Arguments for the application of both public and private regulations will be provided. The resultant risk governance strategy is a mechanism of complementary implementation of strict liability, public regulations, and private regulations.
The third section provides a review of the major international laws and conventions that have a nexus to the development of offshore methane hydrates as well as the federal laws of the United States and the legal instruments of the European Union. Because so many laws or conventions might have some minimal application to the governance of offshore methane hydrates, only those with the greatest a priori expected nexus are reviewed. For each law or convention, two levels of analysis are provided: an examination of the nexus and potential applicability of the law, and an examination of the law\u27s risk governance mechanisms. Thus, each law is examined for both applicability and for alignment with the recommended three-prong risk governance strategy. Conclusions are provided on the state of the existing laws and conventions to address the potential risks and harms from the development of offshore methane hydrates. Potential improvements to the existing laws and conventions and efficient means to that end are discussed. Finally, looking at the whole article: are the world\u27s laws and conventions ready for the development of offshore methane hydrates? No, not quite yet, but they could readily be amended and extended to better provide for the efficient protection of the environment, marine biota, and impacted human communities
Teachers\u27 Perceptions of School Psychologists: The Impact of Response to Intervention (RtI) Services
No full textPast research has shown varied perceptions of the role of school psychologists. Administrators and teachers have been surveyed to assess their knowledge of the roles of school psychologists and whether school psychological services are helpful. As Response to Intervention (RtI) has been implemented in the schools since the 2004 reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), another layer has been added to the role of school psychologists. There is limited research assessing the impact RtI has had on teachers\u27 perceptions of school psychologists. The present study assessed teachers\u27 perceptions of the role of school psychologists and explored the impact that RtI has had on these perceptions, particularly whether RtI implementation changes teachers\u27 perceptions. This study explored how knowledgeable teachers were about school psychologists\u27 roles, how helpful school psychological services were perceived and characteristics associated with school psychologists. A total of 110 teachers from Baldwin Union Free School District, in Baldwin, NY completed the survey; teachers\u27 responses were examined based on their background regarding RtI implementation, as well their teaching experiences in special vs regular education. Results indicated that teachers who implemented RtI reported more knowledge of RtI services (p \u3c .001), and more awareness of how often school psychologists engaged in team meetings (p = .04) and RtI services (p \u3c .001) than teachers who had not implemented RtI. Teachers who implemented RtI services also reported more awareness of various services offered by school psychologists including, in-service training (p = .01), Functional Behavioral Assessment/Behavior Intervention Plan (FBA/MP) development (p = .03) and providing RtI services (p \u3c .001). Special education teachers reported more awareness of how often school psychologists engaged in individual counseling (p = .04) and in FBA/BIP development than general education teachers (p \u3c .001). Special education teachers also reported more awareness of the various services offered by school psychologists including, in-service training (p = .01), team meetings (p = .01) and FBA/BIP development (p = .04). Special education teachers reported utilizing the services of the school psychologist ( p \u3c .001), and the recommendations in a psychological report more (p \u3c .001) than general education teachers. An unexpected result was found regarding teachers\u27 ratings of the degree of problem severity required to involve the school psychologist, the difference between special and general education teachers\u27 ratings was actually significantly greater (p \u3c .01) when RtI was implemented. There were significant relationships between school psychologists\u27 interpersonal skills, problem solving skills, consultation skills, professionalism and likability and teachers\u27 ratings of perceived helpfulness (p \u3c .01) and general satisfaction (p \u3c .05) of their school psychologist. These findings appear to underscore the importance of teachers\u27 experience with RtI and special education as factors that significantly influence differences in their knowledge of perceived satisfaction with and helpfulness of certain school psychological services. With RtI implementation, general education teachers may be more inclined to seek help from school psychologists sooner. Implications for school psychologists and future research are discussed
Naquin v. Elevating Boats, LLC: The Fifth Circuit’s Improper Expansion of Jones Act “Seaman Status” Qualification
Get PDFThe story began nearly a century ago, when Congress enacted the Jones Act and effectively made “seamen the most generously treated personal injury victims in American law.” But defining a Jones Act seaman has not come easy, as it took the United States Supreme Court seventy five years to arrive at the modern seaman status test. This commentary examines the “tortured history” of the Jones Act, how qualification for the statute’s protections has evolved, the modern seaman status test, and the implications of the Fifth Circuit’s recent application thereof. Section II gives a brief history and explanation of maritime law in the United States and the sources of federal court jurisdiction over maritime cases. Section III discusses pre-Jones Act maritime personal injury claims and the significance that the statute’s enactment has had on the maritime industry. Section IV discusses the evolution of the seaman status test to the modern framework. Section V discusses the Fifth Circuit’s decision in Naquin v. Elevating Boats, L.L.C. Section VI discusses the implications of this holding and proposes an adjustment to the seaman status test
Attachment Style, Defense Style, and Resiliency in People with Substance Abuse
No full textExcessive use of drugs and alcohol is a worldwide phenomenon dating back thousands of years. Many different cultures have adopted a variety of uses for illicit substances, including increasing energy and arousal, and treating sleep problems, symptoms of depression, sexual dysfunction, and pain. With improvements in technology, drugs have stronger effects than they used to, and the marketing and accessibility of drugs has increased. Consequently, there has been a dramatic increase in the prevalence of substance abuse and dependence. Based on the diagnostic criteria outlined by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual o f Mental Disorders, 4th edition, there were approximately 22.2 million Americans, or 8.9% o f the population aged 12 or older, classified with substance dependence or abuse. This staggering statistic is likely an underestimate as many substance abusers do not accurately report their usage, and many others minimize the presence and impact of their substance abuse
The Jaguarundi, Herpailurus Yagouaroundi and the Florida burrowing Owl, athene cunicularia Floridana: A quest for survival.
No full textUniversities as intermediaries: Impact investing and social entrepreneurship
No full textMetropolitan universities are well poised in communities to be intermediaries among various actors involved in social innovation. Pace University established one of the first institutes on social entrepreneurship. Its unique position at the university level allows programming to transcend certain institutional challenges. The emerging field of impact investing is fertile ground for partnerships allowing the university to serve as resource provider, while benefiting from myriad opportunities for student and faculty engagement, experiential learning, and access