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Neurodiversity in the Courtroom: Expanding Jury Service Accessibility Beyond Physical Disability
No full textThe 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 jurors have a legal right to access jury service. Further, neurodivergent criminal defendants remain uniquely disadvantaged in the criminal legal system—a dynamic that is exacerbated by an absence of neurodivergent jurors serving as a jury of these defendants’ peers. Finally, plaintiffs and defendants in civil disputes need a jury less prone to decide the case on biased grounds, a need that can only fully be met by employing a representative number of neurodivergent jurors.
This Comment explores existing accommodation structures for neurodivergent people in other aspects of society, most notably employment, while also considering the current resources that courts can access in order to propose an initial accommodation structure that can be deployed in the courtroom
Complexities of AI Trends: Threats to Data Privacy Legal Compliance
Full text linkThis paper examines the intersection of artificial intelligence and data privacy, analyzing how innovations such as generative AI, large language models, and deepfakes are challenging current privacy laws and compliance frameworks. Through a comparative study of the GDPR and CCPA, this paper assesses regulatory gaps, identifies risks such as data misuse and security breaches, and proposes practical solutions, including privacy-by-design and stronger governance protocols. It offers a forward-looking approach to fostering legal and ethical accountability in AI deployment
Kansas
Full text linkThe Kansas system of public sector collective bargaining grants very limited rights to bargaining to both police and non-police units. In particular, the Kansas Public Employer Employee Relations Act (PEERA) sets the scope of bargaining very narrowly, and Kansas Public Employee Relations Board (PERB) construes its own authority to order bargaining even more narrowly. For those reasons, there are very few PERB decisions and even fewer that deal with the scope of bargaining. Of the bargaining decisions that exist, most are in the police or firefighter context, which may be an indication that the Board is more likely to order bargaining in those contexts
Florida
Full text linkIn general, Florida Public Employment Relations Commission (PERC) decisions and statute demonstrate a dramatic divergence between police and non-police mandatory subjects of bargaining, particularly in the area of discipline. In addition, Duty to Bargain Discipline More Expansive for Police. The duty to bargain disciplinary rules in the non-police setting is much more expansive in the police setting. Duty to Bargain Work Reassignment More Expansive For Police. The reassignment rules are dramatically different in the police and non-police context. Duty to Bargain Change of Duties Broader for Police. There are few cases about changes of duties, but those that exist are more broadly interpreted in the police setting. Inconsistency of Decisions. The Commission decisions make no effort to acknowledge or explain the differences between police and non-police cases. In addition, the uses the concept of “impact bargaining” to selectively bring subjects back within the requirement to bargain even while finding the subject is not mandatory. 2023 Statute Imposes Restrictions on All Unions Except Police. A 2023 Florida law requires unions to meet a 60% membership threshold to be certified and removes the longstanding practice of deducing union dues directly from an employee’s paycheck. The law exempts police unions from coverage
Missouri
Full text linkMissouri law allows for both police and non-police collective bargaining, but before 2018 there were no agency mechanisms to adjudicate a failure to bargain.
In 2018, however, the state passed a statute dramatically constraining public sector unions, but the law exempted police. The Missouri Supreme Court found that exclusion to be an equal protection violation
Iowa
Full text linkIn general, the differences between police and non-police units are dramatic. This is mostly due to statutory changes in 2017, making the scope of bargaining much more constrained for non-police bargaining units. Those amendments also constrained the scope of an interest arbitrator’s decision, again excluding police units. There are not many Board decisions in Iowa, and even fewer after 2017, but in the cases that exist, there are differences even before the statutory amendment
Living Property
No full textThe Supreme Court has increasingly defined property rights that are per se exempt from regulation in the absence of compensation, most recently in Cedar Point Nursery v. Hassid (2021) and Tyler v. Hennepin County (2023). The Court claims that it can identify property rights that are categorically protected from regulation by reference to history, tradition, and precedent. Yet this approach is oddly ahistorical; it is inconsistent with the fact that property law changed dramatically over U.S. history, as well as varying tremendously among the states. It is also inconsistent with the historical context of the Founding era. At that time, both courts and legislatures thought that property law must change over time in light of “reason and common sense.” That meant rejecting remnants of feudal property rights like quit-rents and quarter-sale rights, along with primogeniture, presumptions in favor of life estates, and conveyances that did not comply with recording statutes. It also meant the invention of a new estate in land that applied only to Native nations, a novel development designed to smooth the way to dispossession of Native lands.
In reality, American history and tradition evinces a living property system that evolves over time as social conditions and needs change, as conceptions of public policy evolve, and as our notions of fairness and justice develop to promote both equality and liberty norms central to constitutional rights. Regulatory takings law would be better if the courts focused, not just on “traditional” or “established” property rights, but on the reasons for regulation and whether the obligations imposed by the regulation are unfair to impose on owners without compensation. That requires attention, not just to abstract conceptions of property that are defined in an ahistorical manner, but to the ways property law changes over time and the reasons why such changes are or are not justified in the absence of compensation. Because conceptions of fairness change over time, so must both the law of property, whether common law or statutory law. Because we have a living system, constitutional law cannot justify limits on regulation without attention to the norms and values that animate the property system as it changes over time
Overcrowding the System: Rethinking Juvenile Justice in Washington State
No full textThe 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 specifically for emerging adult offenders aged twenty-one to twenty-five. This distinct system, offering tailored secure facilities, specialized programming informed by developmental science and trauma-informed principles, and robust re-entry support, presents a crucial pathway to alleviating the dangerous overcrowding in existing juvenile rehabilitation facilities. Furthermore, this Note underscores the importance of addressing overincarceration at the county level, using King County’s success in reducing youth detention rates as a potential model for statewide reform. Ultimately, establishing a third system alongside a commitment to evidence-based community alternatives offers a comprehensive strategy to enhance rehabilitation, improve public safety, and better serve the unique needs of both juvenile and emerging adult offenders in Washington State