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Disabling Fascism: A Struggle for the Last Laugh in Trump’s America
Get PDFSix years before the start of the Second World War and seven months after Hitler’s appointment as Chancellor of Germany, the German government instituted the “Law for the Prevention of Progeny with Hereditary Diseases.” The moral depravity that started as a sterilization program targeting “useless eaters” and lives “unworthy of life” degenerated into a “euthanasia” program that murdered at least 250,000 people with mental and physical dis/abilities as an “open secret” until 1941, when the Bishop of Munster, Clemens August Count von Galen, delivered a sermon protesting the killing of “unproductive people.”2 Although the Trump Administration has not yet driven the United States to implement systematic killings of undesirables, informed reflection cautions that the cultural and legal shifts we are witnessing in the era of Trump arc back to pre-World War II Germany. In order to understand how and why that disturbed time resonates with our own, it is necessary but not sufficient to reflect on images and stories served up by the 24/7 news cycles of major cable networks or by the glitter of our contemporary art markets.3 Understanding the present requires understanding the past precisely because repetition is taking place. The Trump Administration’s policies target people with dis/abilities, veterans, the poor, the foreign and displaced—for exclusion and dispossession in ways that reveal the elements of a resurgent fascism. In this essay, I probe evidence linking the emergence of fascism to the treatment of these vulnerable groups and reflect on the implications of Trump’s current day policies for the future of Latinx peoples, both within the United States and beyond its borders. The linkages connecting the era of Trump to the period in Germany just before the rise of Hitler include the debasement of public discourse about vulnerable groups, the aggressive promotion of spectacular militarism, vilification of otherness and polarization of difference, as well as the use of state legislative and administrative power to exacerbate, rather than combat or remedy, the further dispossession and exclusion of political scapegoats targeted to distract and confuse a national majority disoriented by the consequences of military defeat and economic crisi
Facing the Future with FOSTA: Examining the Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act of 2017
Get PDFOn April 11, 2018, President Trump signed the Stop Enabling Sex Trafficking Act (SESTA) and Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act (FOSTA) package into effect. This law amends Section 230 of the Communications and Decency Act that provides safe harbors for website hosts. Under the amended law, these safe harbor laws that provide websites civil liability immunity for the actions of their users would now exclude enforcement of federal and state sex trafficking laws. While many praised the passage of this law, many others raised concerns about its effect on free speech, prosecution, and sex workers. This comment will explore the history of its passage, what the law does, examine both the claimed effectiveness of the law and some of its unintended consequences, and call for Congress to further evaluate the effectiveness of this law and its consequences
The Untouchable Executive Authority: Trump and The Section 232 Tariffs on Steel and Aluminum
Get PDFIn 2018, President Trump championed his way through the imposition of the Section 232 Tariffs—a heavy tax on various imports, including steel and aluminum—by broadcasting a supposedly-imminent threat to the U.S. national security. This plea, however, has been criticized as a veil for President Trump’s economic protectionism policy. Meanwhile, others have questioned the constitutionality of the statute creating the President’s authority to impose these tariffs in the first place. This Comment explores the issues arising from President Trump’s Section 232 Tariffs on steel and aluminum: (1) the validity and justiciability of President Trump’s actions under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962, and (2) the constitutionality of Section 23
Resolving Corporate Insolvencies in China: the Gap Between Law and Reality
Get PDFThis article examines how corporate insolvencies in China, the second largest economy, are handled under the current legislation, the China Enterprise Bankruptcy Law of 2006. Relying on the fresh empirical data arising from the first ten years on the use of China’s three insolvency procedures, reorganization, composition and liquidation, this article reveals the huge gap between the law in the books and the law in action, arguing that the implementation of this law in China perhaps has not achieved the legislative objectives. The constitutional and institutional weaknesses affecting the application of this law are analyze
Exactly What They Asked For: Linking Harm and Intent in Wire Fraud Prosecutions
Get PDFRecent opinions have obscured the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit’s guidance on federal criminal fraud prosecutions. In 2016, the court decided United States v. Takhalov and found no crime of wire fraud where the alleged victims received the benefit of their bargain. Just three years later, the concurring opinion in United States v. Feldman criticized that prior reasoning as puzzling, inviting problematic interpretations that become untethered from the common law of fraud. This Article tracks the development of the court’s view and argues for an interpretation of Takhalov that links harm to the specific intent necessary for a federal criminal fraud charge
The Neglect of Persons with Severe Brain Injury in the United States: An International Human Rights Analysis
Get PDFBrain injury contributes more to death and disability globally than any other traumatic incident. While the past decade has seen significant medical advances, laws and policies remain stumbling blocks to treatment and care. The quality of life of persons with severe brain injury often declines with unnecessary institutionalization and inadequate access to rehabilitation and assistive technologies. This raises a host of rights violations that are hidden, given that persons with severe brain injury are generally invisible and marginalized. This article highlights the current neglect and experiences of persons with severe brain injury in the United States, analyzing the rights to life, health, benefit from scientific progress, education, freedom of expression, community, family, and equality
The Court and the Suspect: Human Frailty, the Calculating Criminal, and the Penitent in the Interrogation Room
Get PDFThe Middle Ground: A Meaningful Balance Between the Benefits and Limitations of Artificial Intelligence to Assist with the Justice Gap
Get PDFAccess to justice continues to be an ongoing battle for those who cannot afford an attorney in civil legal matters. These civil legal matters touch issues that significantly impact daily life, from issues relating to health, such as advance directives, to family, such as custody of children. Lawyers, courts, and scholars have attempted to tackle this ongoing problem in our justice system. Some suggest that providing free counsel for all civil legal matters is the solution, while others suggest that self-help materials provide more immediate access to services and information. Regardless of the position one takes, the need is clear and there is room for additional solutions. Artificial intelligence (“AI”) is a necessary tool for the development of these additional solutions. AI solutions are often met with skepticism from those who believe that utilizing them would constitute the unauthorized practice of law, while proponents believe it can provide lawyer-like services superior to those of actual lawyers. Current technology in the legal field falls on a spectrum from programs that act like a lawyer, for example, litigation strategy programs, to programs that do not act like a lawyer at all, such as online self-help materials. A similar spectrum exists for current pro se solutions, ranging from programs that would provide significant assistance from a lawyer, such as “Civil Gideon,” to those that provide no services from a lawyer, such as printed self-help materials. Additionally, comparable problems exist for the use of AI lawyering solutions and traditional pro se assistance methods, including the unauthorized practice of law, questions of reliability, and whether the offering lacks the complexity and support many individuals need. Between these two ends of the spectrum lies a middle ground where many of the needs of low-income civil litigants can be met. While many pro bono legal services have long been occupying that middle ground to assist those in need, technology, specifically the limited use of AI, can extend and improve available services. We are not yet at a point where AI will provide the panacea of “Civil Gideon,” but that does not mean it cannot help bridge the gap
