Notes Category
I See Dead People: Examining the Admissibility of Living-Victim Photographs in Murder Trials
Oct. 17, 2016—I See Dead People Examining the Admissibility of Living-Victim Photographs in Murder Trials ABSTRACT This Note examines the problems with the rising yet underexplored trend in state evidence law of “Living-Victim Photo Statutes.” Photographs of a victim while alive would be—and often have been—excluded from evidence during a trial as lacking relevance or being unfairly...
How to Assert State Sovereign Immunity Under the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure
Apr. 19, 2016—How to Assert State Sovereign Immunity Under the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure ABSTRACT For the past twenty years, the Supreme Court has charted a broader course for its state sovereign immunity doctrine, which immunizes states and their officers from suit. But while the Court has broadened the doctrine’s substantive elements, it has neglected how...
Bruton on Balance: Standardizing Redacted Codefendant Confessions Through Federal Rule of Evidence 403
Apr. 19, 2016—Bruton on Balance: Standardizing Redacted Codefendant Confessions Through the Federal Rule of Evidence 403 ABSTRACT In joint criminal trials, prosecutors are constitutionally barred from introducing the confession of a non-testifying defendant (a “declarant-defendant”) that inculpates other codefendants. In Bruton v. United States, the Supreme Court held that the wholesale introduction of the declarant-defendant’s confession would...
Finding “Tapia Error”: How Circuit Courts Have Misread Tapia v. United States and Shortchanged the Penological Goals of the Sentencing Reform Act
Apr. 19, 2016—Finding “Tapia Error”: How Circuit Courts Have Misread Tapia v. United States and Shortchanged the Penological Goals of the Sentencing Reform Act AUTHOR J.D. Candidate, 2016, Vanderbilt University Law School; B.A., 2009, New York University. This Note is the beneficiary of incredible support from my peers on the Vanderbilt Law Review. In particular, I wish...
The Right to Domain Silent: Rebalancing Tort Incentives to Keep Pace with Information Availability for Criminal Suspects and Arrestees
Apr. 19, 2016—The Right to Domain Silent: Rebalancing Tort Incentives to Keep Pace with Information Availability for Criminal Suspects and Arrestees AUTHOR J.D. Candidate, May 2016, Vanderbilt University Law School; B.A., 2011, New York University. I would like to thank Professor Alex Little for his help in sparking the idea that became my solution and his valuable...
Human Trafficking in Multinational Supply Chains: A Corporate Director’s Fiduciary Duty to Monitor and Eliminate Human Trafficking Violations
Mar. 21, 2016—Human Trafficking in Multinational Supply Chains: A Corporate Director’s Fiduciary Duty to Monitor and Eliminate Human Trafficking ABSTRACT When Congress passed the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008 (“2008 TVPRA”), it included language criminalizing and creating civil liability for any person who “knowingly benefits, financially or by receiving anything of value, from participation in...
No Clean Hands in a Dirty Business: Firing Squads and the Euphemism of “Evolving Standards of Decency”
Mar. 21, 2016—No Clean Hands in a Dirty Business: Firing Squads and the Euphemism of “Evolving Standards of Decency” ABSTRACT When it comes to executions, “the enterprise is flawed.” While this statement from Judge Kozinski was chiefly concerned with the problems of lethal injection, it applies with equal force to America’s development of execution methods in general....
The Great Balancing Act: The Effect of the America Invents Act on the Division of Power Between the Patent and Trademark Office and the Federal Circuit
Jan. 15, 2016—The Great Balancing Act: The Effect of the America Invents Act on the Division of Power Between the Patent and Trademark Office and the Federal Circuit ABSTRACT The United States Constitution grants Congress broad authority to issue patents and effect patent policy, and Congress primarily delegates this authority to two actors: the United States Patent and...
The Price of Silence: How the Griffin Roadblock and Protection Against Adverse Inference Condemn the Criminal Defendant
Jan. 15, 2016—The Price of Silence: How the Griffin Roadblock and Protection Against Adverse Inference Condemn the Criminal Defendant ABSTRACT For fifty years, Griffin v. California has denied prosecutors the tactical ability to comment on a defendant’s invocation of her Fifth Amendment right to silence as substantive evidence of guilt. However, a defendant’s right to silence is...
A Laboratory of Regulation: The Untapped Potential of the HHS Advisory Opinion Power
Nov. 23, 2015—A Laboratory of Regulation: The Untapped Potential of the HHS Advisory Opinion Power ABSTRACT Facing mounting cost and quality pressures, healthcare providers are in a difficult position. The rigid structure of the federal anti-kickback statute compounds the problem by restricting providers’ abilities to pursue innovative business arrangements in response to those pressures. Recognizing the need for thoughtful experimentation with...
Efficiency Run Amok: Challenging the Authority of Magistrate Judges to Hear and Accept Felony Guilty Pleas
Nov. 23, 2015—Efficiency Run Amok: Challenging the Authority of Magistrate Judges to Hear and Accept Felony Guilty Pleas ABSTRACT Since the passage of the Federal Magistrates Act in 1968, district judges with overloaded dockets have been able to delegate many of their most time-consuming duties to magistrate judges. In theory, this system allows district judges to spend...
Empowering Shareholders, or Overburdening Companies? Analyzing the Potential Use of Instant Runoff Voting in Corporate Elections
Oct. 14, 2015—Empowering Shareholders, or Overburdening Companies? Analyzing the Potential Use of Instant Runoff Voting in Corporate Elections ABSTRACT In the corporate context, shareholder proxy access and short-slate elections of directors have been praised by proponents of shareholder rights for their ability to give minority shareholders greater say in the control of corporations. In the political world,...
Hung Up on Words: A Conduct-Based Solution to the Problem of Conspiracy in Military Commissions
Oct. 14, 2015—Hung Up on Words: A Conduct-Based Solution to the Problem of Conspiracy in Military Commissions ABSTRACT In the wake of the 9/11 attacks, the United States established military commissions to try foreign nationals for violations of the law of war. These commissions soon came under a number of constitutional challenges, prominent among them being Ali...
The Incompatibility of Due Process and Naked Statistical Evidence
Oct. 14, 2015—The Incompatibility of Due Process and Naked Statistical Evidence ABSTRACT Numerous articles and commentaries have grappled with an undeniable feeling of injustice that comes from wrestling with naked statistical evidence. Even if, from a purely quantitative standpoint, the weight of the evidence supports the imposition of liability on a defendant, the sole use of probabilities...
Putting an End to False Claims Act Hush Money: An Agency-Approval Approach to Qui Tam Prefiling Releases
May. 15, 2015—Putting an End to False Claims Act Hush Money: An Agency-Approval Approach to Qui Tam Prefiling Releases AUTHOR J.D. Candidate, May 2015, Vanderbilt University Law School; B.A., 2011, The University of Georgia.
The Emergency Aid Doctrine and 911 Hang-ups: The Modern General Warrant
May. 2, 2015—The Emergency Aid Doctrine and 911 Hang-ups: The Modern General Warrant AUTHOR J.D. Candidate, 2015, Vanderbilt University Law School; B.S., 2010, University of South Dakota; former law enforcement officer.