University of Arkansas at Little Rock
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Salad, a Glass of Red Wine, and a Discussion about How to Effectively Answer Questions in Appellate Argument
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Junior Seau, Head Trauma, and the NFL\u27s Concussion Problem
Get PDFBy all accounts, Tiaina “Junior” Seau was an extraordinary professional athlete. Seau’s career in the National Football League (“NFL”) spanned two decades as he battled furiously as a linebacker for the San Diego Chargers, Miami Dolphins, and the New England Patriots. His performance on the field of play was exceptional; he was selected to the Pro Bowl twelve times and will most certainly be voted into the NFL Hall of Fame when he becomes eligible in 2015. Despite Seau’s unparalleled career, athletic accomplishments, and financial rewards, he committed suicide on May 2, 2012, at the age of 43, just two years after his retirement from professional football. While newspaper accounts in the immediate aftermath of Seau’s suicide recounted an impulsive man who became disconnected, volatile, and erratic following his retirement from the NFL, his family speculated that this erratic behavior and disconnectedness were uncharacteristic of the man that befriended thousands, and was unfailingly committed to representing the Seau name with honor. Upon his suicide, some speculated that repeated concussive head trauma and brain disease led to Seau’s devolving behavioral changes and ultimate suicide.
During Seau’s twenty-year NFL career, he was never diagnosed with a concussion, nor did he miss a game because of concussion-like symptoms. This single fact alone is stunning because following Seau’s suicide, the National Institute of Health (NIH) conducted neutral/blind examinations of his brain tissue and found widespread evidence of “chronic traumatic encephalopathy [(“C.T.E.”)], a degenerative brain disease widely connected to athletes who have absorbed frequent blows to the head.” According to reports, Seau had privately complained that in the final five or six years of his life, he endured a headache that never relented. Indeed, at age forty three, Junior Seau’s brain was found to contain “abnormal, small clusters called neurofibrillary tangles of protein known as tau” which are found “in the brains of those with Alzheimer’s disease and other progressive neurological disorders.” Junior Seau was afflicted with late-stage chronic brain disease when he committed suicide.
Emerging medical evidence confirms that Seau is not alone. Recent studies conducted by teams of researchers led by both Dr. Julian Bailes at West Virginia University and Dr. Ann McKee at Boston University have uncovered jarring evidence that an overwhelming percentage of former NFL players, those who have allowed their brains to be autopsied and studied, are afflicted with C.T.E. The issue of brain disease and traumatic head injury has become so clamorous, that President Barack Obama recently speculated that if he had a son, he would most likely not let that son play tackle football. To that end, the NFL and the sport of American football seem to be quickly approaching a crossroads. A strong probability exists that many of the athletes that have played tackle football, at all levels, but particularly those that played for many years, are at some level of risk of serious brain disease. Questions abound.
This article seeks to answer a few of those questions. Will American football continue its meteoric rise in popularity as a cultural phenomenon in the United States as more is learned about the damage that its athletes are enduring? Did the NFL incur liability by ignoring and actively discounting the seriousness of head trauma to thousands of athletes that played in the league, as alleged by a class of former players currently suing the NFL for damages (including the Seau family)? Will a player of Junior Seau’s magnitude bring the kind of attention to traumatic head injuries in football that will require determined action by pee-wee, middle school, high school, college and professional football organizations to protect its players? Can American football continue in its trajectory of rising popularity or will it eventually decline in relevance and become a relative afterthought, much like boxing or horseracing, because of its insidious dangers
The Con Law Professor with Judicial Appointment Power
Get PDFThis essay explores whether, how or, perhaps, to what extent President Barack Obama’s time as a constitutional law professor at the University of Chicago is reflected in his approach to judicial appointments. Three things are striking about President Obama’s initial approach to judicial selection. First, he has appointed the most diverse bench of any President. Second, he has appointed judges rather slowly compared to his predecessors. And, finally, he has appointed a rather politically moderate bench. How might these particular and in some ways surprising aspects of President Obama’s judicial appointments reflect – or not reflect – his time as a constitutional law professor
Still Fugacious After All These Years: A Sequel to the Basic Primer on Arkansas Oil and Gas Law
Get PDFThis sequel to the authors\u27 2007 article, Fugacious 1, follows the same outline and considers the same topics as the original article while considering the major developments since Fugacious 1 was published. Whereas Fugacious 1 was a basic primer on Arkansas oil and gas law, this article supplements the development of Arkansas oil and gas law over the last five years through an overview of the litigation concerning the Fayetteville Shale Play. Specifically, the article expands on those topics covered by Fugacious 1 needing revision or supplementation, while simply noting as such the sections where no revision or supplementation is necessary.
The authors begin their supplementation by considering the ownership of natural gas found within coal formations and conclude that a coal owner may vent coal-bed methane away from its operations pursuant to safe mining practices while owing nothing to the gas owner for the gas lost as a result thereof. However, the coal owner may not capture and sell the coal-bed methane without the gas owner\u27s permission. Next, the article discusses two recent Arkansas Court of Appeals cases considering reservation language in reservation deeds. The article then discusses the evolution of the Strohacker doctrine in Arkansas, concluding that the area where evidence of knowledge of oil and gas as mineral is relevant is not precisely limited to the county containing the lands.
The authors then consider problems with severing minerals, and Arkansas\u27 Duhig doctrine, a bright line rule of property regarding mineral interests which applies to warranty deeds but not to quit-claim deeds. The authors examine a recent case where their opinion from Fugacious 1, that every purported tax forfeiture of a severed mineral interest for a tax year prior to 1986 was void for failure of the tax assessors in Arkansas\u27s various counties to properly subjoin mineral assessments to surface assessments of the same lands prior to 1985 legislation, which removed the subjoinder requirement, was proven correct. The authors discuss ingress and egress, and a recent Arkansas Supreme Court holding where the Court found that Arkansas Oil and Gas Commission\u27s General Rule B-42 requires express permission to conduct seismic testing despite the tester\u27s ingress and egress right. Regarding oil and gas leases, the authors provide a thorough analysis of the revised Ark. Code Ann. § 15-73-701 and its implications to the oil and gas business.
The authors finish their supplementation with a discussion of implied covenants in leases and the prudent operator standard codified in Ark. Code Ann. § 15-73-701, the Rule of Capture, and the Arkansas Oil and Gas Commission\u27s jurisdiction to interpret contracts. In conclusion, the article notes that as this area of the law continues to develop and generate complex litigation, more issues are sure to sure to arise in the years to come
Western Universalism and African Homosexualties
Get PDFThis article draws on original historical research, queer theory, communitarian philosophy, and an array of anthropological sources to suggest that efforts by Western liberals to protect practitioners of same-sex intimate conduct in Africa may be relatively unsuccessful and could further endanger the intended beneficiaries of advocacy