Alabama Law Scholarly Commons - The University of Alabama
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The Disappearing First Amendment
No full textThe standard account of the First Amendment presupposes that the Supreme Court has consistently expanded the scope of free speech rights over time. This account holds true in some areas, but not in others. In this illuminating work, Ronald J. Krotoszynski, Jr acknowledges that the contemporary Supreme Court rigorously enforces the rules against content and viewpoint discrimination for those who possess the wherewithal to speak but when citizens need the government\u27s assistance to speak - for example, access to public property for protest - free speech rights have declined. Instead of using open-ended balancing tests, the Roberts and Rehnquist Courts have opted for bright line, categorical rules that minimize judicial discretion. Opportunities for democratic engagement could be enhanced, however, if the federal courts returned to the Warren Court\u27s balancing approach and vested federal judges with discretionary authority to require government to assist would-be speakers. This book should be read by anyone concerned with free speech and its place in democratic self-government.https://scholarship.law.ua.edu/fac_books/1039/thumbnail.jp
Antebellum and Postbellum Testamentary Transfers in Three Kentucky Counties Symposium: Empirical Analysis of Wealth Transfer Law
Get PDFThis Article analyzes wills and inventories probated in three Kentucky counties, Boone, Woodford, and Wayne Counties, between 186 and 187. The results of the study show that married women in the three counties generally did not execute wills during the sample period, which is an expected result given the testamentary limitations imposed upon married women by Kentucky law. Despite dual encumbrances imposed by common and statutory law during the sample period, legislative and judicial action before, during, and after the sampled decade illustrates the advance of women\u27s property rights in Kentucky. The Kentucky General Assembly passed a number of private and public bills that expanded the testamentary authority of married women after 1848, which is striking given the relative absence of legislation that authorized wills by married women before 1848. Furthermore, a number of testators placed assets in separate use trusts for the benefit of daughters thereby allowing those daughters to transfer separate estates by will after marriage pursuant to Kentucky common and statutory law. The authority to execute a will to dispose of a separate estate provided a married woman with an opportunity to express her intent on paper with the sanction of law. The largest difference between wills probated before and after 1865 is the distribution of slaves. Notably, sampled testators opted to distribute slaves to females (wives and daughters) with greater frequency than to males (sons). Although women are historically depicted as bystanders to the slave economy, testamentary gifts of slaves to women suggests a greater degree of participation in the slave market than suggested by the traditional narrative. Regardless of the distribution of slaves by gender, each and every recipient of slaves by will did so before the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment in 1865. The passage of the Thirteenth Amendment not only transformed enslaved persons to free persons, but also had a visible effect in the recorded pages of probate books-- slaves are listed in testamentary instruments probated before 1865 but vanish in the wills and inventories of decedents\u27 estates after 1865
Caged to kill
No full textWhen convicted cop-killer Phillip Dawkins is finally sprung from prison after decades in solitary, everything about him and the outside world has changed. Phillip is a prisoner of his past and turns to friend and lawyer David Thompson for help dealing with his new life of freedom. Convinced that someone or something is out to kill him, Phillip is ensnared in a tangled web of memory lapses, paranoid delusions, insidious desires, and horrific nightmares. Soon David gets caught up in it, endangering himself, his wife, and his son. Can David quickly untangle Phillip\u27s dark web of secrets, free him from his demons, and save the family? Or will the shocking, diabolical truth unleash a serial killer first? When a life is built on lies, the truth can be a killer . .https://scholarship.law.ua.edu/harper_lee_prize_books_2020/1017/thumbnail.jp
A Republic If [We] Can Keep It: A Prolegomenon on Righting the Ship of State in the Wake of the Trumpian Tempest Book Review
Get PDFAn Empirical Analysis of Sexual Orientation Discrimination
Get PDFThis study is the first to empirically demonstrate widespread discrimination across the United States based on perceived sexual orientation sex and race in the mortgage lending process Our analysis of over five million mortgage applications reveals that any FHA loan application filed by samesex male coapplicants is significantly less likely to be approved compared to the white heterosexual baseline holding lending risk constant The most likely explanation for this pattern is sexual orientation based discrimination ” despite the fact that FHA loans are the only type of loan in which discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation is prohibited brbrMoreover we find compelling evidence to support the intersectionality theory According to this theory when sex and race unite a new form of discrimination emerges that cannot be explained by sexism and racism alone The data unequivocally indicates that the race and sex of samesex applicants play a role and result in a unique and previously unobserved pattern This discriminatory pattern plagues every region in the US and it transcends party lines ie it is present in red blue and swing states Furthermore upending conventional wisdom the data reveals that big banks discriminate at the same rate as small banks and lenders in urban environments are as discriminatory as rural lenders Prior studies failed to reveal this phenomenon due to data constraints and design flaws These studies relied on testers posing as applicants and none could investigate how intersectionality influences lending practices brbrDespite the grim results a silver lining exists We find that the pattern of discrimination diminishes or disappears in states and localities that pass antisexual orientation discrimination laws These findings have important and timely implications In 2017 a new bill offering nationwide protection from sexual orientation credit discrimination was introduced The same year has experienced tectonic changes in Title VII jurisprudence Our study can reinvigorate the debate and help policy makers tailor remedies that would correct the discriminatory pattern this study unravel
A Few Grains of Incense: Law, Religion, and Politics from the Perspective of the Christian and Pagan Dispensations
Get PDFRodrigo and Ressentiment I Don\u27t Want It if You are Going to Get It, Too -- Why Classical Economic and Political Theory Fails to Explain the Obamacare Vote, but Legal Realism and CLS Can
Get PDFSorry Is Never Enough: How State Apology Laws Fail to Reduce Medical Malpractice Liability Risk
Get PDFBased on case studies indicating that apologies from physicians to patients can promote healing, understanding, and dispute resolution, thirty-nine states (and the District of Columbia) have sought to reduce litigation and medical malpractice liability by enacting apology laws. Apology laws facilitate apologies by making them inadmissible as evidence in subsequent malpractice trials.
The underlying assumption of these laws is that after receiving an apology, patients will be less likely to pursue malpractice claims and will be more likely to settle claims that are filed. However, once a patient has been made aware that the physician has committed a medical error, the patient\u27s incentive to pursue a claim may increase even though the apology itself cannot be introduced as evidence. Thus, apology laws could lead to either increases or decreases in overall medical malpractice liability risk. Despite apology laws\u27 status as one of the most widespread tort reforms in the country, there is little evidence that they achieve their goal of reducing litigation.
This Article provides critical new evidence on the role of apology laws by examining a dataset of malpractice claims obtained directly from a large national malpractice insurer. This dataset includes substantially more information than is publicly available, and thus presents a unique opportunity to understand the effect of apology laws on the entire litigation landscape in ways that are not possible using only publicly available data. Decomposing medical malpractice liability risk into the frequency of claims and the magnitude of those claims, we examine the malpractice claims against 90% of physicians in the country who practice within a particular specialty over an eight-year period.
The analysis demonstrates that for physicians who regularly perform surgery-a context in which patients are more likely to be aware of potential risks-apology laws do not have a substantial effect on the probability that a physician will face a claim or the average payment made to resolve a claim. For nonsurgeons, we find that apology laws increase the probability of facing a lawsuit and increase the average payment made to resolve a claim, a finding which is consistent with the presence of asymmetric information. Overall, our findings indicate that on balance, apology laws increase rather than limit medical malpractice liability risk
Thriving in the legal profession: three pillars of success
No full textBased on a successful law school course, Thriving in the Legal Profession is designed for use as a course book, as a supplement in ongoing related courses such as legal professions or law office practice, and as a resource for law school auxiliary programs such as Career Services, Student Support, and Financial Aid and Counseling. Law students and lawyers are encouraged to base their careers on “Three Pillars of Success”: 1. Economics―Understanding the changing economics of the legal marketplace and what these changes mean for lawyers: Technology and its impact on the delivery of legal services Being competitive in today’s legal market Advantages and disadvantages of public interest and government employment vis à vis private practice 2. Finance―Mastering the strategies for personal financial success: Financial implications of various career paths Repaying educational loans Savings and retirement 3. Emotional Intelligence―Building the EQ skills needed by every lawyer: Happiness and effectiveness at work Managing Stress Maintaining resilience in the face of hardshiphttps://scholarship.law.ua.edu/fac_books/1045/thumbnail.jp