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Policing Veterans: What the Veterans Affairs Police Can Illustrate About the Policing of Disability in America
No full textThe Department of Veterans Affairs Police (“VA Police”), a federal law enforcement agency tasked with law enforcement on Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) properties, has a shocking record of misconduct and brutality against veterans. Because the VA is the largest integrated healthcare system in the United States, the VA Police are primarily responsible for policing VA medical facilities. While issues facing the veteran community have largely been analyzed as separate from those facing the American public at large, VA medical facilities replicate broader socioeconomic trends in policing of vulnerable populations. Veterans receiving VA healthcare services are disproportionately likely to be diagnosed with a physical or mental disability relative to the general population, and are significantly more likely to have experienced trauma. They are also disproportionately Black, younger, female, unmarried, less educated, of lower incomes, combat veterans, or some combination of these factors. Thus, in conjunction with the unique health challenges facing the veterans’ community, veterans receiving VA healthcare services are disproportionately vulnerable to the harms of aggressive policing.
Even though policymakers have failed to collect quantitative data regarding the VA Police program, enough qualitative data exists to demonstrate the need for reform. This existing data is contextualized by the historical evolution of the VA Police into a militarized police force with little oversight. This enabled VA Police policies and procedures that created barriers to healthcare at VA medical facilities through reinforcing a “warrior” police culture and aggressive policing towards veterans. This article specifically examines deficiencies in VA Police training and oversight and the overbroad role and authority of VA Police. It further asserts that training reform, while necessary, is insufficient without reevaluating the propriety of policing at VA medical facilities. It then proposes starting points for VA Police reform, targeted towards ameliorating deficiencies in training and oversight, reducing the role and authority of the VA Police, and comprehensive data collection and transparency. It addresses public safety concerns regarding the proposed reforms by asserting that they are tailored to prevent both workplace violence and police violence. The road to implementation for these policy interventions is relatively clear. The legal and regulatory framework the VA Police operate within authorizes the VA Secretary to pursue them with meaningful collaboration from the veterans’ community, whose control of the reform process is critical. While the immediate intent of these reforms is to promote an equitable model of public safety at VA medical facilities, their implications extend beyond the veterans’ community. The distinct demographics of the veterans’ community and the situation of the VA within the administrative state provide opportunities to demonstrate the efficacy of an equitable public safety model to stakeholders nationwide, pushing for transformation to American policing
Cash Kid: The Need for Increased Financial Protections of Internet Child Stars on YouTube
Get PDFThis Note explores the gaps in California’s child entertainment law and the dangers of leaving child internet stars unprotected. This Note argues that while California could update their “Coogan Law” to include young internet stars, a previous attempt (and failure) to do so suggests that this may not be the best way to address the issue. In the alternative, YouTube itself has the framework to address this problem through its Partner Program. If YouTube were to fix the problem directly, it would leave child stars on other online platforms unprotected; but it could set a precedent among other platforms that this is a problem worth solving. Part I of this Note provides background information on YouTube monetization policies, child entertainment laws, and child privacy concerns. Part II explores the feasibility of California expanding its Coogan Law to include online child stars within its protection. Part III discusses the alternative solution of YouTube addressing this issue directly by modeling a portion of its Partner Program after California’s Coogan Law.
This abstract has been taken from the author\u27s introduction
DeFi: Shadow Banking 2.0?
Get PDFThe growth of so-called “shadow banking” was a significant contributor to the financial crisis of 2008, which had huge social costs that we still grapple with today. Our financial regulatory system still has not fully figured out how to address the risks of the derivatives, securitizations, and money market mutual funds that comprised Shadow Banking 1.0, but we are already facing the prospect of Shadow Banking 2.0 in the form of decentralized finance, or “DeFi.” DeFi’s proponents speak of a future where sending money is as easy as sending a photograph—but money is not the same as a photograph. The stakes are much higher when money is involved, and if DeFi is permitted to develop without any regulatory intervention, it will magnify the tendencies towards heightened complexity, leverage, rigidity, and runs that characterized Shadow Banking 1.0.
Fortunately, though, there is still time to prevent DeFi from becoming Shadow Banking 2.0. This Article argues for precautionary regulation of DeFi, designed to limit its growth and to cordon off whatever remains from the established financial system and real-world economy. While proponents of DeFi will contend that such regulation will limit innovation, this Article argues that DeFi innovation has limited benefits for society. DeFi does not aspire to provide new financial products and services—it simply aspires to provide existing financial products and services in a decentralized way (meaning, without intermediaries). This Article will demonstrate that the DeFi ecosystem is, in fact, full of intermediaries and explain why full disintermediation of financial services is an entirely unrealistic aspiration. This Article will then proceed from that finding to argue that if DeFi cannot deliver on decentralization, regulators should feel emboldened to clamp down on DeFi in order to protect the stability of our financial system and broader economy
Emerging Technology\u27s Language Wars: Cryptocurrency
Get PDFWork at the intersection of blockchain technology and law suffers from a distinct linguistic disadvantage. As a highly interdisciplinary area of inquiry, legal researchers, lawmakers, researchers in the technical sciences, and the public all talk past each other, using the same words, but as different terms of art. Evidence of these language wars largely derives from anecdote. To better assess the nature and scope of the problem, this Article uses corpus linguistics to reveal the inherent value conflicts embedded in definitional differences and debates related to developing regulation in one specific area of the blockchain technology ecosystem: cryptocurrency. Using cryptocurrency as a case study reveals the delicate balance necessary to develop law in even the best popularly understood area of blockchain technology. In doing so, the Article demonstrates that corpus linguistics offers a tool for identifying specific linguistic ambiguities before they are embedded in law, ultimately enhancing the clarity, predictability, and coherency of the regulatory regimes to which cryptocurrency is subject
Optimizing Cybersecurity Risk in Medical Cyber-Physical Devices
Get PDFMedical devices are increasingly connected, both to cyber networks and to sensors collecting data from physical stimuli. These cyber-physical systems pose a new host of deadly security risks that traditional notions of cybersecurity struggle to take into account. Previously, we could predict how algorithms would function as they drew on defined inputs. But cyber-physical systems draw on unbounded inputs from the real world. Moreover, with wide networks of cyber-physical medical devices, a single cybersecurity breach could pose lethal dangers to masses of patients.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is tasked with regulating medical devices to ensure safety and effectiveness, but its regulatory approach—designed decades ago to regulate traditional medical hardware—is ill-suited to the unique problems of cybersecurity. Because perfect cybersecurity is impossible and every cybersecurity improvement entails costs to affordability and health, designers need standards that balance costs and benefits to inform the optimal level of risk. The FDA, however, conducts limited cost-benefit analyses, believing that its authorizing statute forbids consideration of economic costs.
We draw on statutory text and case law to show that this belief is mistaken and that the FDA can and should conduct cost-benefit analyses to ensure safety and effectiveness, especially in the context of cybersecurity. We describe three approaches the FDA could take to implement this analysis as a practical matter. Of these three, we recommend an approach modeled after the Federal Trade Commission’s cost-benefit test. Regardless of the specific approach the FDA chooses, however, the critical point is that the agency must weigh costs and benefits to ensure the right level of cybersecurity. Until then, medical device designers will face continued uncertainty as cybersecurity threats become increasingly dangerous
William & Mary\u27s Wythepedia
No full textJoin Professor Robert Allison (Suffolk University Department of History, Language & Global Culture) to explore Wythepedia with Linda Tesar, Managing Editor, and Steve Blaiklock, Site Administrator & Associate Editor.
The encyclopedia provides historical and bibliographic information for the George Wythe Collection, The Wolf Law Library\u27s ongoing re-creation of Wythe\u27s Library, and is a compilation of material relating to the life of George Wythe, signer of the Declaration of Independence, chancellor for the Commonwealth of Virginia, and first professor of law in America
Let My People Go, Part Two: The Second Amendment Political Necessity Defense and the Storming of Capital Hill
Get PDFThe Article examines the traditional political necessity defense, extracting elements that are compatible with the Second Amendment and discarding elements that are not. The Article also explores the historical and legal background of the right to rebel and then uses the right to rebel to define the contours of the Second Amendment political necessity defense. Finally, the Article applies the Second Amendment political necessity defense to the storming of the Capitol on January 6, 2020.
Part I of this Article discusses the constitutional basis for the political necessity defense. Part II articulates the political necessity doctrine refined by its Second Amendment underpinnings. Part III applies the Second Amendment political necessity defense to the storming of Capitol Hill.
This abstract has been taken from the author\u27s introduction
Dispelling Sex Trafficking Conspiracy Theories: The Truth Behind Who Is Recruited by Traffickers and How
Get PDFThrough an analysis of the 1,954 sex trafficking cases prosecuted federally from 2000 to 2020, this Article aims to provide insight into how sex traffickers commonly operate in the United States. Part I explains the damaging consequences of misinformation on an effective anti-trafficking response. The Article then details how traffickers within sex trafficking schemes across the country intentionally target individuals with particular vulnerabilities and recruit them for exploitation. Part II outlines the vulnerabilities that sex traffickers commonly target, highlighting that many of the children that traffickers exploit have run away from home, were experiencing homelessness, were part of the foster care system, and/or had a substance dependency. Traffickers also targeted adult victims with similar vulnerabilities, including substance dependencies and those experiencing homelessness. In addition, many adult victims were vulnerable to traffickers due to their lack of legal status in the United States. Part III then analyzes the recruitment tactics of traffickers, emphasizing the ways in which online platforms, pre-existing relationships, and fraudulent job offers are commonly used to recruit and exploit vulnerable victims.
This abstract has been adapted from the authors\u27 introduction
Reducing Septic-Reliant Households: How a Comprehensive Legal Scheme Could Improve Water Quality, Environmental, and Human Health
Get PDFConsidering the [...] concerns of septic reliance in Virginia, this paper will present and explicate three issues pertaining to the Maryland Sustainable Growth and Preservation Act (the “Septic Law”). Maryland\u27s Septic Law represents an effort at a statewide legal scheme for approaching the issue of rapid development on septic. It may function as a useful starting point for Virginia to approach the danger that failing septic poses to Virginian citizens and the health of the Chesapeake Bay, a vital contributor to the state economy and cultural heritage. Part II opens with an overview of Maryland’s Septic Law. Part III evaluates three issues with the law: (1) the effects of the limited scope of the Septic law; (2) the impact of geography on the Septic Law with an exploration of current scientific breakthroughs and understanding of pollution methodology; and (3) the lack of enforcement due to the voluntary nature of the Septic Law. In Part IV, this paper discusses and presents statutory schemes from other jurisdictions as examples of how to bulwark the identified weaknesses in Maryland’s Septic Law. Part V identifies some observations and elucidates implications for Virginia should the Commonwealth consider implementing the presented legislative and statutory schemes. Finally, Part VI offers a brief conclusion.
This abstract has been taken from the authors\u27 introduction
An Interview with Alemante Gebre-Selassie
Get PDFSo when I came here, I wrote back that experience of Law and Development as an important subject... We have to study the actual realities of a country, their culture, their geography, their history, their economic conditions, their social conditions before you propose some kind of recommendation to them. -- Alemante Gebre-Selassie
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The interview starts with Professor Selassie’s background and family. He was educated first as a law student at University of Haile Selassie in the 1960s, followed by a J.D. in UW-Madison. He discusses life prior to teaching at W&M and about his home country.
Professor Selassie emphasizes that the single most important value for the legal profession is dedication. He also stresses the importance of U.S legal scholars to respect regional differences and traditions of other countries before applying “universal” legal doctrines.
Professor Selassie stresses several times the importance of a closely-knit community of faculty members, which he believes has been diminished, possibly as a result of the global pandemic, during his years as emeritus faculty.https://scholarship.law.wm.edu/oralhist_all/1001/thumbnail.jp