The Unreasonable Search and Seizure On January 10, 2020, a San Francisco Superior Court judge, at the request of a San Francisco Police officer, issued an arrest warrant in connection with a residential burglary. Mot. Suppress Evid. Off’d Against Def. Prelim. Hr’g, 6:1-2. The warrant listed suspects to be arrested and described a residence in…
Publications
star_border Mandatory Minimums Require a Much-Needed Facelift
A PEAK INTO A BROKEN SYSTEM Hamedah Hassan was an overall upstanding member of our society until she became a victim of her extenuating circumstances. When Hamedah was 21 years old, she made a brave choice to flee from an extremely abusive relationship with her two children. At the time, Hamedah’s only option was to…
star_border Communitas (IM)perfecta: How the Internal Organization of the Catholic Church Heightens Obstacles to Remedies for Clerical Sexual Assault Survivors and Recommendations to Remove These Obstacles
The true character of a society is revealed in how it treats its children.Nelson Mandela Abstract Although the Catholic Church has been referred to as a “communitas perfecta” (the perfect community), more than 30,000 incidents of child clerical sexual abuse have been reported by survivors in the United States. The rampant sexual abuse of minors…
Supreme Court Presages Broad Religious Exemptions to State and Local Non-Discrimination Provisions
Fulton v. City of Philadelphia, Pa., 141 S. Ct. 1868 (2021). I. Introduction In Fulton, both the district court and court of appeals held in favor of the defendants, citing Employment Division v. Smith as controlling precedent regarding “neutral laws of general applicability.” Fulton v. City of Philadelphia, 320 F. Supp. 3d 661, 704 (E.D.…
Is Using Preferred Gender Pronouns Important in the Courtroom?
In relation to the Farmer v. Brennan, a case discussed in this blog, it is important to note that triggering language is used in the opinion, as the incorrect pronouns are used to refer to the petitioner throughout. The use of proper gender pronouns is important to nearly every person in the world. In all…
Farmers Versus the State: The Tenacious Fight for India’s Democracy
Abstract During the height of the global COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi enacted three agricultural reform laws that adversely impacted the livelihood of Indian farmers. The three laws weakened restrictions that have protected Indian farmers from the free market for decades and consequently left them vulnerable to big corporations that would…
A SEAT AT THE TABLE: WHY YOU DESERVE IT, BUT YOUR BRAIN MIGHT BE TELLING YOU OTHERWISE
MY PERSONAL STRUGGLE WITH IMPOSTER SYNDROME As a queer person of color, it took me a long time to come to terms with my sexuality. Until recently, I was not proud of being gay; I was deeply ashamed of who I was. No matter what I accomplished in my life, my accomplishments were never good…
Social Equity: Will the Cannabis Industry Choose to Overcome Its Lack of Diversity?
Image by Terre Di Cannabis from Pixabay. In the world of legal cannabis, a new phrase has taken over: Social Equity. What does this really mean? Social Equity in the cannabis industry is an attempt to level the playing field for individuals who were negatively impacted by the prohibition of cannabis. Long before the re-legalization…
Constitution-Free Zones: How the Fourth Amendment Rights of Americans are Violated at and Near the Border
A Not So “Welcome Home” on a Scorching Summer Drive Across the Border Imagine driving through miles upon miles of dry, barren, flat roads into Laredo, a border town in southern Texas, on a scorching hot August day. You are returning home after a long trip to Mexico. The car is packed with your belongings.…
Pray the Gay Away: Conversion Therapy, Suicide, Religion, and the First Amendment
Image by waldryano from Pixabay. Your sexuality is a result of your childhood abuse. You are only the person you are because your father was absent. If you had only had more male influence in your life, you would not be the person that you are, but it can be fixed. Perhaps you need God,…