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A Victim\u27s Right to Confer Under the Crime Victim\u27s Rights Act
Full text linkThe federal Crime Victims’ Rights Act (CVRA) grants a victim the right to confer with the United States attorney serving on his or her case. However, in practice, the attorney’s criminal charging decisions can impede the victim’s access to this right. This Comment analyzes a crime victim’s right to confer in light of the recent In re Wild case, in which a survivor of Jeffery Epstein’s alleged sex-trafficking crimes was effectively denied the right to confer with the government attorney on her case because criminal charges were never filed. This Comment advocates for an interpretation of the CVRA that allows a victim to confer with the attorney irrespective of the filing of criminal charges, in accordance with In re Wild’s dissenting opinion
Black Lives Matter and The Blue Line Clashed Across the United States in 2020, Raising a Necessary Question for the U.S. Supreme Court: Whether the \u3cem\u3eHeck\u3c/em\u3e Doctrine Bars a Convict\u27s Challenge for Equal Protection Claims of Racial-Profiling
Full text linkDiscussions of race and criminal convictions became a matter of necessity in 2020 after thousands gathered across the country in anger and protest following the death of George Floyd, many peaceful, others inflamed and dangerous. The Heck doctrine, taken from Heck v. Humphrey, serves to generally bar a collateral attack on a plaintiff’s criminal case unless a conviction has been set aside in some fashion. Although the doctrine is seemingly straightforward, the lower federal courts have grappled with the application of this doctrine, especially when a convict files a civil suit alleging that the conviction is a result of an arrest from racial profiling. The Roberts Court, with its reputation for deftly handling respective matters of race and objective reasonableness of criminal procedure, is uniquely situated to bring closure to this issue during a year in which America’s law enforcement faced targeted assassinations and a frightening record number of line-of-duty deaths for officers
The Return to and Expansion of \u3cem\u3eEscobedo\u3c/em\u3e
Full text linkIn 1966, the Supreme Court of the United States set out to correct the problems in America’s criminal justice system by creating procedural safeguards in a ground-breaking case: Miranda v. Arizona. These safeguards were created to protect innocent citizens from the psychological pressures and interrogation techniques used by police. However, these intended protections have failed. Subsequent Supreme Court cases have continued to rip apart Miranda’s procedural safeguards by placing a multitude of limitations on the doctrine, causing legal scholars everywhere to question Miranda’s effectiveness. This Comment explores both the history of the Fifth and Sixth Amendments and the foundational cases that Miranda was based upon. Additionally, this Comment will assess the subsequent limitations placed on Miranda itself and how those limitations have created “holes” for law enforcement to work through during interrogations. Lastly, this Comment will look at previous scholars’ arguments on “fixing” Miranda and proposes that the Court should revert to and extend Escobedo v. Illinois in order for Miranda’s intended protections to be successfully carried out
Rear-View Mirror: Statutory and Constitutional Issues Raised Amidst Governor Roy Cooper\u27s COVID-19 Shutdown Orders
Full text linkThe COVID-19 pandemic rattled the world. Upon its arrival in the United States, the virus resulted in governors across the country using broad emergency powers to deal with the pandemic. North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper’s executive orders, beginning in March of 2020, pushed statutory and constitutional boundaries. This Comment assesses the limits of Governor Cooper’s emergency authority under the North Carolina Emergency Management Act and the North Carolina Constitution. Additionally, this Comment evaluates whether the North Carolina Emergency Management Act should be amended and whether Governor Cooper’s orders violated individuals’ rights under both the North Carolina Constitution and the Federal Constitution
How Qualified is Qualified Immunity: Adding a Third Prong to the Qualified Immunity Analysis
Full text linkThis Article addresses the controversial “third prong” that some courts add to the qualified immunity analysis in 42 U.S.C. § 1983 cases. Under the doctrine of qualified immunity, public officials are immune from liability for civil rights violations so long as they do not violate clearly established law. Courts have generally analyzed this qualified immunity defense via a two-prong test—asking whether the official (1) violated the plaintiff’s constitutional right, and (2) if so, asking whether that right was “clearly established” at the time of the violation. However, certain circuits add a third prong to the test, asking whether the official’s actions were objectively reasonable in light of the clearly established law. Applying this prong creates an additional barrier to plaintiffs in suits against government officials in their individual capacities. Courts are not in agreement about the propriety of the third prong, and in at least one circuit various panels of the court are not even in agreement about its use. This Article addresses how the prong can change the outcome in qualified immunity cases and argues that its use is permitted and, in many cases, serves to better achieve the goals of the qualified immunity doctrine
The Gig Is Up: California\u27s Crackdown on the Gig Economy
Full text linkThe typical nine-to-five job, exemplified by traditional office spaces, steady incomes, and comfortable retirements, is fundamentally shifting. Technological innovation, necessity, and the human yearning for autonomy has forged a new economic reality: the gig economy. Theoretically, the gig economy facilitates individuals’ abilities to make money and preserve personal freedom while permitting companies to categorize workers as independent contractors, not employees. The ride-hailing companies Uber and Lyft notably utilize this model in treating their drivers as independent contractors. But this choice has sparked outrage, legislation, and lawsuits by advocates arguing that such drivers are not independent contractors but employees under the law. The controversy unearths the tension between preserving traditional employee classifications versus adapting to the economic reality of work in the modern era.
This Comment explores the gig economy’s rise in California, focusing on the spate of litigation disputing whether app-based Uber and Lyft drivers are employees or independent contractors. The ongoing conflict demonstrates how the gig economy upsets traditional notions undergirding employer–employee relationships and seemingly settled agency law paradigms. Using California as a bellwether, this Comment assesses the gig economy’s impact not only on workers and companies, but also on deeply-seated presumptions of what earning a living looks like in America
The District Court and the Ongoing Pursuit of Local Justice in North Carolina
Full text linkThe state of North Carolina’s system of district courts is a prominent example of the success of legal reform, but also of the difficulties that reform can encounter. From the earliest days of the Lords Proprietors, Old English law played a significant role in colonial judicial administration. As North Carolina expanded, however, growing pains emerged; among the most severe were the availability of courts for small matters, the qualifications of those appointed to serve as judges, and the challenges brought on by interference in the court system by the executive and legislative branches of government. This Article tracks North Carolina’s long journey from judicial pariah to a model of effective governance, including the influence of other states, legal scholars, and public opinion. It concludes that the establishment of a dedicated system of district courts in the state fundamentally improved and continues to maintain—despite recent changes—a robust administration of justice in North Carolina
Civil Justice Reform in the COVID-Era
Full text linkReducing the NC\u27s Overreliance on Psychiatric Residential Treatment Facilities to Provide the Care and Treatment to Children with Mental Health Disabilities (Coste). Advancing Racial Equity in the Criminal Justice Syste
