February 2011

This article has been written by guest author Erica Goldberg, B.A., Tufts University, 2002; J.D., Stanford University, 2005. Earlier this month, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), a nonpartisan nonprofit organization where I serve as the Justice Robert H. Jackson Legal Fellow, announced that Arizona State University (ASU) had become one of only 14 colleges and universities across the nation to receive our “green light” rating with regard to policies governing speech on campus. This distinction, earned by seemingly small revisions in ASU policy language, means that ASU no longer maintains any university policies that clearly and substantially restrict speech protected by the First Amendment. ASU joined the ranks of universities without unconstitutional speech codes by shifting its advertising policy applicable to student organizations from a mandatory requirement to…

This article has been written by guest author Russell G. Murphy, Professor of Law, Suffolk University Law School EXECUTION WATCH is an FM radio show out of KPFT 90.1 Houston, Texas.  Its unique character is that it only broadcasts on the day that the State of Texas executes a death row inmate.  On Tuesday, February 15, one of these inmates, Michael Wayne Hall, was put to death by lethal injection.  EXECUTION WATCH was live and on the air that night.  Outside of the show and its listeners, no one really paid any attention.  Yet, this execution illustrates much of what is wrong with the practice of capital punishment in the United States. I was asked to appear on the February 15 program to talk about my book VOICES OF THE…

Arizona State Law Journal is previewing its upcoming articles in the spring publication.  This article is written by third-year student, Rob Gordon. This article proposes a series of amendments to the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) (9 U.S.C. §§ 1-16) to increase consumer protection. The article is drafted, in part, to address abuses designed to exploit loopholes in the FAA.  These abuses were spotlighted by the Minnesota Attorney General in a lawsuit against the National Arbitration Forum (NAF), formerly, the nation’s largest consumer arbitration firm. The Minnesota lawsuit alleged that the NAF partnered with consumer debt firms to perpetuate a “rigged-game” against the American consumer. Allegedly, the NAF colluded with the debt-collection industry by accepting a massive capital infusion, paying commissions to business leaders to include mandatory arbitration agreements in consumer contracts,…

Arizona State Law Journal is previewing its upcoming articles in the spring publication.  This article is written by third-year student, Sara Cummings. In the summer of 2009, a crime of sexual violence took place in Phoenix that sent shock waves into the local community. Tragically enough, the victim was an eight year old girl, but the assailants who raped her were also alarmingly young: four boys ranging in age from nine to fourteen. The crime raised implications far beyond Phoenix. Both the victim and her attackers were refugees from Liberia, a country with a troubled history marked by violent atrocities, including fourteen years of recent civil war in which rape and sexual violence were used by factions on all sides as tools for terror and control. Whatever may have motivated the…

Friday, February 18, Judge Hawkins and a panel of his former and current clerks will discuss the clerkship experience. The event will begin at 12:15pm in room 105. Career Services will provide clerkship application information. The Judge and panelists will take questions from students. Thursday, March 10, the MCBA Diversity Committee is hosting a panel on the importance of Journal experience. The event will begin at 12:15pm in room 105. The MCBA panelists will take questions from students. Lunch provided by Quarles and Brady. Thursday, March 24, the Arizona State Law Journal is hosting an open house. Interested in learning more about Law Journal? Come visit the Law Journal office and meet with current members. The open house will begin at 12:15pm. Lunch provided. Thursday, April 7, the Arizona State…

Arizona State Law Journal is previewing its upcoming articles in the spring publication.  This article is written by third-year student, Melissa Bogden. Fixing Fixation: The Ram Copy Doctrine explores what it means for a copy to be sufficiently “fixed” to a constitute a “copy” within the meaning of the Copyright Act in the Digital Age.  Particularly, are temporary copies created in RAMalways sufficiently fixed to constitute infringing copies under the Copyright Act?  This Comment questions how courts, administrative agencies, and scholars have interpreted the Ram Copy Doctrine over the last two decades to reveal a fundamental misunderstanding of early Supreme Court precedent.  Drawing on recent court decisions from the Fourth Circuit and Second Circuit Courts of Appeals, this Comment reinterprets the Ram Copy Doctrine and crafts a standard that balances the need for protection…