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Transit-Oriented Development: The Quest for Sustainable Cities in the Age of the Automobile
Get PDFDuring the early and mid-twentieth century the automobile captured the imagination of the American public. Superhighways, which were the vision, became the reality with the promise of speedy and safe travel. During this visioning, little attention was given to the impacts the highway system would have on urban America. Of course, by the end of the century the impacts were quite clear and distressing. Traffic congestion and air pollution became, and now are, among the most challenging aspects of life in American cities. In contemplating measures to alleviate the negative effects of these twin challenges, federal, state, and local agencies, encouraged by the environmental movement and transit advocacy, have promoted transit-oriented development (“TOD”) as a potential remedy. Paralleling efforts in foreign cities like Munich and Singapore, U.S. cities including Denver, Atlanta, Indianapolis, San Diego, and Somerville (MA) have all invested themselves in urban development projects built at public transit nodes aimed at building walkable, bikeable communities that provide mobility from home to work and recreational sites without the use of automobiles. In the process, TOD has had to deal with its own set of issues from funding and value capture to zoning and low-income housing. This Article provides an in-depth study of five American and two international TOD projects in an attempt to discover the variety among approaches to TOD and some of the issues TOD raises
Coordinating NHPA and NEPA to Protect Wildlife
Get PDFIn addition to its ecological and intrinsic significance, wildlife is recognized as invaluable historic and cultural resources. Current laws protecting wildlife, like the Endangered Species Act (“ESA”), fail to recognize this dimension, and are limited in providing meaningful protection for culturally significant wildlife. The cultural and historic value of wildlife was recognized in Dugong v. Rumsfeld, in which the court held that a species of dugong could be considered “historic property” under the National Historic Preservation Act (“NHPA”). NHPA requires federal agencies to evaluate the impact of all federally funded or permitted projects on “historic properties.” It is a close statutory analog to the National Environmental Policy Act (“NEPA”), which requires federal agencies to evaluate the impacts of any federally funded or permitted projects that are determined to have a significant impact on the human environment. The government has recognized the close interconnection between these two acts and has provided guidance for coordination of review under the two statutes. The holding in Dugong and the eligibility of wildlife as “historical property” encourages enhanced coordination of consultation and review between NHPA and NEPA, in which a major federal action threatens culturally and ecologically significant wildlife, potentially evading categorical exclusions under NEPA.
Part I of this Article addresses some of the gaps in United States federal wildlife protection law through the limitations of federal statutes like the ESA, highlighting harm to culturally significant species, both listed and unlisted. Part II explains how the court in Dugong concluded that wildlife could be considered “historic property” under the NHPA. Part III examines the structural and procedural similarities between the NHPA and NEPA, along with federal guidance encouraging coordination of review under the two statutes and potentially avoiding categorical exclusions under NEPA. Part IV concludes that the recognition of wildlife as capable of being considered “historic properties” under the NHPA, prompting coordination of review under these statutes in which federal actions threaten culturally significant wildlife, enables more robust wildlife protection where the ESA falls short
Selected Works on Black History & the Black Experience
Get PDFThe following books were displayed with the physical exhibition of Black History at W&M Law. Links are to the W&M Libraries catalog. All books are held in print by the Wolf Law Library. Most books are also available in e-book format and may be borrowed by members of the William & Mary community.
After the Dream: Black and White Southerners Since 1965 by Timothy J. Minchin. (Lexington, Ky: University Press of Kentucky, c2011).
Are Prisons Obsolete? by Angela Y. Davis. (New York: Seven Stories Press, 2003).
The Black Revolution on Campus by Martha Biondi. (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2012).
Blinded by the Whites: Why Race Still Matters in 21st-Century America by David Ikard. (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2013).
Concordance: Black Lawmaking in the U.S. Congress from Carter to Obama by Katherine Tate. (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2014).
Daisy Turner\u27s Kin: An African American Family Saga by Jane C. Beck. (Urbana, Illinois: University of Illinois Press, 2015).
Desert Rose: The Life and Legacy of Coretta Scott King by Edythe Scott Bagley. (Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, c2012).
The Dream Is Lost: Voting Rights and the Politics of Race in Richmond, Virginia by Julian Maxwell Hayter. (Lexington, Kentucky: University Press of Kentucky, 2017).
Encyclopedia of African American History, 1896 to the Present: From the Age of Segregation to the Twenty-First Century edited by Paul Finkleman. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2009).
Fighting for Democracy: Black Veterans and the Struggle Against White Supremacy in the Postwar South by Christopher S. Parker. (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2009).
Freedom Is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine, and the Foundations of a Movement by Angela Y. Davis. (Chicago, Illinois: Haymarket Books, 2016).
Heavy by Kiese Laymon. (New York, NY: Scribner, 2018).
How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi. (New York: One World, 2019).
Julius Chambers: A Life in the Legal Struggle for Civil Rights by Richard A. Rosen and Joseph Mosnier. (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2016).
The Magnificent Mays: A Biography of Benjamin Elijah Mays by John Herbert Roper, Sr. (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, c2012).
Revolutionaries to Race Leaders: Black Power and the Making of African American Politics by Cedric Johnson. (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, c2007).
Right to Ride: Streetcar Boycotts and African American Citizenship in the Era of Plessy v. Ferguson by Blair L.M. Kelley. (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2010).
Sister Outsider by Audre Lorde. (Berkeley: Crossing Press), 2007.
So You Want to Talk About Race by Iljeoma Oluo. (New York, NY: Seal Press, Hachette Book Group, 2019).
Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America by Ibram X. Kendi. (New York: Nation Books, 2016).
Thurgood Marshall: Race, Rights, and the Struggle for a More Perfect Union by Charles L. Zelden. (New York, NY: Routledge, 2013).
A Voice that Could Stir an Army: Fannie Lou Hamer and the Rhetoric of the Black Freedom Movement by Maegan Parker Brooks. (Jackson, Mississippi: University Press of Mississippi, 2014).
The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates. (New York: One World, 2019).
Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? and Other Conversations About Race by Beverly Daniel Tatum. (New York: Basic Books, 1997; 2003).https://scholarship.law.wm.edu/blackhistorywmls/1029/thumbnail.jp
Winrock Countering Trafficking of Persons Project in Dhaka, Bangladesh
No full textThis summer, I will work to reduce the prevalence of human trafficking and child marriage in Bangladesh by elevating public awareness, improving victims\u27 access to assistance, and partnering with local leaders to aid in the prosecution of traffickers
Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation in Cape Town, South Africa
No full textThis summer, I will conduct research at individual, community, national, and international levels on conflict-based violence, focusing on individual African countries and Africa as a region. Her work will center on truth commissions, conflict-based sexual violence, and transitional justice
The Burdens of the Excessive Fines Clause
Get PDFA key component is missing from the Eighth Amendment’s Excessive Fines Clause doctrine: Who has the burden of proof? This question—which has been essentially ignored by both federal and state courts—is not just a second-order problem. Rather, the assignment of burdens of proof is essential to the Clause’s enforcement, making it harder—or easier—for the government to abuse the revenue-generating capacity of economic sanctions in ways that can entrench poverty, particularly in heavily policed communities of color.
This Article takes on this question by first sorting through a morass within the U.S. Supreme Court’s due process doctrine as it relates to assessing the fundamental fairness of procedural practices, including the assignment of burdens of proof. After offering a framework that reconciles the doctrine, it applies that framework to the excessive fines context by breaking the “burden of proof” into four component parts: (1) the burden to raise the excessive fines claim, (2) the burden of producing evidence relevant to that claim, (3) the burden of persuading the decision maker as to the result, and (4) the standard of proof to be employed in that determination. While the government and private interests at stake remain constant across these various burdens, disentangling them allows a more exacting inquiry. In particular, it allows for an examination of how lawmakers have crafted related processes and structures—such as the refusal to provide counsel or the vast array of direct and collateral consequences attached to both non-payment and conviction—that make it more likely that abuses of power will occur absent the check on authority that burdens of proof can help provide
Election Observation Post-2020
Get PDFThe United States is in the midst of a crisis in confidence in elections, despite the many process protections baked into every stage of election administration. Part of the problem is that few Americans know just how rigorous the protections in place are, and most Americans have no concept of how modern elections are run. Election observation statutes are intended to provide a window for members of the public to learn about and oversee the process and to satisfy themselves that elections are fair and that outcomes are reliable. Yet in 2020, in part due to unforeseen pandemic conditions, election observation fell short. This Essay examines the shortcomings of modern election observation in the United States, looks at reform proposals on the table, and suggests several principles that should inform efforts to address the most worrisome shortfalls
How Analogizing Socio-Legal Responses to Organ Transplantation Can Further the Legalization of Reproductive Genetic Innovation
Get PDFThe Nobel Foundation emphasized the significance of genetic innovation to society, science, and medicine by awarding the 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry to “the CRISPR/Cas9 genetic scissors.” This Article focuses on “reproductive genetic innovation,” a term that includes cytoplasmic transfer, mitochondrial transfer, and germline or heritable gene editing techniques that are all categorized as “experimental” in the United States. These techniques all use in vitro fertilization, a legal and widely available practice. Yet reproductive genetic innovation has resulted in controversy and numerous barriers including a recurring federal budget rider, threats of federal enforcement action, and the unavailability of federal funding.
At its inception, organ transplantation faced similar controversy and barriers, including prosecutorial scrutiny of surgeons and lawsuits against surgeons for the wrongful death of patients. Now, insurance coverage of organ transplantation and the opt-in system for organ donation commonly available through Departments of Motor Vehicles indicate that organ transplantation is societally accepted and routine. At first blush, organ donation and reproductive genetic innovation have little in common due to factors such as disparate senses of urgency, matters of reproductive choice, and heritable changes. Yet despite these differences, the techniques have important and underappreciated similarities such as the use of foreign biological material, genetic transfer, concerns about allocation, and extensive controversy at inception.
After highlighting these underappreciated scientific and historical similarities, the Article argues that because organ transplantation and reproductive genetic innovation share critical similarities, society should use the lens of organ transplantation when considering the legalization of reproductive genetic innovation. Using this lens will help the discourse and analysis overcome the “Yuck Factor” or moral panic that currently accompanies reproductive genetic innovation
As Muddy as the Mississippi River: An Examination of Louisiana Jury Venire Creation Procedures
Get PDFAmericans expect their constitutional rights to be respected by the federal, state, and local governments, but a lack of transparency on a government’s behalf prevents Americans from being able to trust their governments fully. This Note demonstrates the astounding lack of transparency in Louisiana parishes’ jury venire creation procedures, which prevent Louisianans from trusting that their communities are represented by a fair cross-section on jury venires. The same lack of transparency restricts any constitutional challenges of the representation on appeal, as the major test for the fair cross-section, the Duren test, requires a showing of systematic exclusion on the government’s behalf. Without access to these venire creation processes, defendants’ challenges fail on appeal, potentially increasing Louisiana’s mass incarceration problem and allowing parish governments to continue avoiding accountability. This Note examines the venire creation procedures of three Louisiana parishes, comparing their transparency to that of the federal court system. Additionally, this Note offers solutions for the Louisiana State Legislature to reform these processes, especially in light of the clear under-representation of minorities in Jefferson Parish jury venires. Louisiana is no stranger to constitutional problems, but the current generation of Louisianans no longer blindly accepts the state’s failures, such as local governments’ lack of transparency and the criminal justice system’s blatant denial of constitutional rights