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Compelling Choice: Forcibly Medicating Death Row Inmates to Determine Whether They Wish to Pursue Collateral Relief

August 30, 2009

By Dominic Rupprecht.  114 Penn St. L. Rev. 333. It is unclear exactly how many of the 3,228 inmates on death row are mentally incompetent. A BBC report placed the number at approximately 10%. Some clinical studies have found as many as 40% or even 70% of surveyed inmates are psychotic. Whether the actual number [...]

Damned If You Don’t . . . Damned If You Do? Creating Effective, Constitutionally Permissible University Sexual Harassment Policies

August 30, 2009

By Alexis Snyder.  114 Penn St. L. Rev. 367. In the past two decades, the tension between the First Amendment’s free speech guarantee  and harassment policies has been the subject of much commentary.  This tension is particularly strong in the university setting.   On the one hand, universities are seen as beacons of free thought and [...]

Plurality Rule: Concurring Opinions and a Divided Supreme Court

February 1, 2009

By Linas E. Ledebur. 113 Penn St. L. Rev. 899. Justices become binding precedent? What about one signed by three Justices? Can you go so far as to say an opinion signed onto by only a single Justice can be binding precedent? The answer is yes, and many opinions signed onto by less than a [...]

Praising the Enemy: Could the United States Criminalize the Glorification of Terror Under an Act Similar to the United Kingdom’s Terrorism Act 2006?

February 1, 2009

By Michael C. Shaughnessy. 113 Penn St. L. Rev. 923. At 8:50 in the morning on July 7, in a subway car packed with morning commuters on their way to work in a major metropolitan city, a suicide bomber detonates the explosives concealed in his backpack. Across town on another subway car, commuters observe a [...]

The Purse’s Pardon: How an Amendment to H.R. 3093 Challenges Executive Power

October 1, 2008

By Erin R. Kawa. 113 Penn St. L. Rev. 599. The system of governance in the United States is a dynamic one. Power is divided between the federal and state governments, and then further divided between the three branches of the Federal Government itself. At the most basic level within the Federal Government, the Legislature [...]

Falling Through the Cracks: How the 20/40 Rule Discriminates Against Women Seeking Social Security Disability Insurance Benefits and What Congress Can Do About It

October 1, 2008

By Sarah E. Hoffman. 113 Penn St. L. Rev. 621. The Social Security Administration (“SSA”) determines eligibility for Social Security Disability Insurance (“SSDI”) benefits on the basis of both the disability and the work history of the applicant.  The 20/40 rule is a tool used by the SSA to evaluate whether an applicant’s work history [...]

National Interest Electric Transmission Corridors: Will State Regulators Remain Relevant?

October 1, 2008

By Erich W. Struble. 113 Penn St. L. Rev. 575. Electric transmission lines transport much needed energy to homes and businesses across the United States. Electric utilities traditionally provided electric transmission service in a market regulated primarily by state authorities.  An important part of such state regulation included approving or disapproving utilities’ applications to site [...]

Justice for Dusty: Implementing Mandatory Minimum Sentences for Animal Abusers

October 1, 2008

By Kirsten E. Brimer. 113 Penn St. L. Rev. 649. In July 2001, Michael Welch beat Dusty to death over a period of two hours. Taking breaks only to consume more alcohol, Welch continued to bludgeon his victim with a sledgehammer and a baseball bat until his neighbor, hearing cries of pain, called the police.  [...]

“No Saggy Pants”: A Review of the First Amendment Issues Presented by the State’s Regulation of Fashion in Public Streets

June 1, 2008

By Angelica M. Sinopole.  113 Penn St. L. Rev 329. In an effort to restrain a popular fashion – saggy pants – and to remedy the problems allegedly associated with that fashion, cities across the nation are passing so-called “anti-sag ordinances.”  Critics have protested the bans on saggy pants, including the proposed ordinance in Atlanta, [...]

Overturning Matula: How the Third Circuit Court of Appeals Will Impact Other Courts’ Decisions on the Availability of § 1983 as a Remedy for IDEA Violations

June 1, 2008

By Sara Tussey.  113 Penn St. L. Rev 297. Over the last twenty years, the United States courts of appeals, including the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, have struggled with the question of whether to award compensatory and punitive damages in IDEA cases. In 1995, the Third Circuit held, in W.B. v. Matula, that § [...]

Ambiguity in the Air: Why Judicial Interpretation of Insurance Policy Terms Should Force Insurance Companies to Pay for Global Warming Litigation

June 1, 2008

By Travis S. Hunter.  113 Penn St. L. Rev 267. As the United States begins to confront global warming and global climate change, the question remains as to how these regulations will affect society. Presumably, corporations producing greenhouse gases will be sued for breaching carbon emissions statutes set by the EPA, and presumably, someone will [...]

An Investment to Die For: From Life Insurance to Death Bonds, the Evolution and Legality of the Life Settlement Industry

June 1, 2008

By Kelly J. Bozanic.  113 Penn St. L. Rev 229. Profiting from death may strike one as morally offensive, but the life settlement industry has created just such an opportunity.  A life settlement is a transaction wherein an insured assigns the ownership interest (contract rights to the death benefit) of a life insurance policy to [...]

The Key to Unlocking the Partial Lockout: A Discussion of the NLRB’s Decisions in Midwest Generation and Bunting Bearings

February 1, 2008

By  C. Quincy Ewell. 112 Penn St. L. Rev. 907. Collective bargaining consists of negotiations between an employer and a group of employees, who are usually represented by a labor union, in an effort to determine the conditions of employment.  Collective bargaining is governed by the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA or the Act), which [...]

Kourkounakis v. Della Russo: Should a Trial Judge Be Permitted to Independently Google an Expert Witness to Determine Credibility?

February 1, 2008

By  Katrina Hall.  112 Penn St. L. Rev. 885. While justice is contemporarily depicted by a blindfolded goddess carrying scales and holding a sword, earlier versions of this image portray the woman without a blindfold, which was added only within the last four hundred years.  The blindfold represents a safeguard against “information that could bias [...]

Splitting the Ninth Circuit: An Administrative Necessity or Environmental Gerrymandering?

February 1, 2008

By Frank Tamulonis III.  112 Penn St. L. Rev. 859. The debate to divide the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals (the “Ninth Circuit” or the “Circuit”) is not a new one. Indeed, the debate has raged for decades. Nonetheless, the Ninth Circuit split debate continues and is just as heated today as at any point [...]

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