By Dr. Mark Leinauer. Psychologists have long known that gay male sexuality elicits feelings of disgust in a sizeable portion of the general population, and that individuals highly sensitive to disgust tend to evaluate gay males more harshly than individuals lowly sensitive to disgust. But while prior experimental studies have shown that this bias impacts support for LGBTQ+ related policies in the political arena, its impact on judicial decision making has not been fully explored. I focus on the judicial evaluation of gay male fathers during custody disputes, and I conduct a randomized controlled experiment, an observational case law analysis and semi-structured interviews to examine the issue. I conclude that disgust bias significantly threatens the parental rights of gay male fathers during custody adjudications. Specifically, I argue that judges highly sensitivity…
By Mugambi Jouet. Gun violence in modern America persists in the face of irreconcilable views on gun control and the right to bear arms. Yet one area of agreement between Democrats and Republicans has received insufficient attention: punitiveness as a means of gun control. The United States has gravitated toward a peculiar social model combining extremely loose regulations on guns and extremely harsh penalties on gun crime. If someone possesses a gun illegally or carries one when committing another crime, such as burglary or drug dealing, draconian mandatory minimums can apply. These circumstances exemplify root causes of mass incarceration: overreliance on prisons in reaction to social problems and unforgiving punishments for those labeled as “violent” criminals. Contrary to widespread misconceptions, mass incarceration does not primarily stem from locking up petty, nonviolent…
By Adam Crepelle & Thomas Stratmann. In 2013, Congress reaffirmed tribes’ inherent authority to prosecute all persons who commit dating violence, domestic violence, or violate a protective order against Indian women on tribal land in the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act (VAWA). Congress required tribes to comply with strict procedural safeguards to implement VAWA. Although VAWA was not designed to stimulate tribal economies, its due process provisions may be considered judicial improvements. Stronger judiciaries have been consistently linked to greater economic performance. Accordingly, we test whether implementing VAWA improved tribal economies. This analysis compares the income growth of VAWA-implementing tribes in Arizona to neighboring non-implementing tribes. Our findings show that incomes grew faster for VAWA-implementing tribes than for non-implementing tribes in Arizona. Full Article.
By Madison Condon. A growing number of investors, insurers, financial services providers, and nonprofits rely on information about localized physical climate risks, like floods, hurricanes, and wildfires. The outcomes of these risk projections have significant consequences in the economy, including allocating investment capital, impacting housing prices and demographic shifts, and prioritizing adaptation infrastructure projects. The climate risk information available to individual citizens and municipalities, however, is limited and expensive to access. Further, many providers of climate services use black box models that make overseeing the scientific rigor of their methodologies impossible— a concern given scientific critiques that many may be obfuscating the uncertainty in their projections. Municipalities that want to challenge insurance and bond rating determinations must rally significant resources for modeling and data, a scattershot policing method at best. And…
By Or Cohen-Sasson & Ofer Tur-Sinai. In recent years, the scientific community has faced a considerable problem—the replication crisis. Replication is the process of verifying scientific findings by repeating a published study. It is considered a cornerstone of the scientific enterprise, contributing to the credibility of research findings. Over the past two decades, however, replication has become increasingly difficult; in fact, in some disciplines the nonreplicability rate is over 50%. A major factor accounting for this is diminished access to research materials required for replication (replication materials). This problem is particularly acute in computational studies, where the code, software documentation, datasets, and other information are often not shared. In this Article, we address the replication crisis from the perspective of intellectual property (IP) law . . . Full Article.
By Gilat Juli Bachar. Are tort victims ever obligated to disclose the wrongdoing they suffered? This unanswered question demands our prompt attention given two recent trends: the prevalence of non-disclosure agreements concealing injustices such as sexual wrongdoing and police misconduct; and a new wave of sunshine-in-litigation laws attempting to curb confidentiality in at least a dozen states, from Tennessee to California. Such laws have sought to prioritize the public interest in information regarding certain harmful behavior over the interests of individual litigants. But, to date, scholars and policymakers have failed to identify one of the key justifications for curtailing the widespread practice of confidentiality in tort settlements. This Article is the first to fill this crucial gap, conceptualizing and delineating a disclosure duty owed by tort victims to others . .…
By Andrew D. Appleby & Tomer S. Stein. The binary legislative choice between state and federal regulation of a firm’s internal affairs is deeply entrenched in the existing literature and policy discussions. Alas, this regulatory menu contains a false and distortive dichotomy. The state-federal dichotomy is false because multistate formation and regulation of business entities are possible as well. This dichotomy is distortive because it deprives policymakers of the advantages of multistate corporations and other business entities. In this Article, we demonstrate that a multistate business entities regime can resolve multiple predicaments that presently bring about unfairness and inefficiencies in both business entities law and business entities taxation . . . Full Article.
By Mackenzie Holden. The Phoenix Zoo’s Elephant Exhibit In 2022, an animal welfare organization, In Defense of Animals (IDA), added the Phoenix Zoo to its 2021 list of the worst zoos for elephants. IDA noted the small size of the elephant enclosure, the high temperatures of Phoenix summers, and inadequate access to water. In response, an official at the Phoenix Zoo, Heather Wright, asserted that the enclosure has ample access to water and that their elephant has access to three separate exhibits. But the criticisms did not end there: IDA also emphasized the complex cognitive abilities of elephants and how captivity is detrimental to their mental health—especially when they live alone. Currently, the Phoenix Zoo’s elephant enclosure comprises a single elephant, Indu. Indu has been the sole elephant at the…
By Caroline Anton. On March 17, 2023, Arizona Governor, Katie Hobbs, signed Executive Order 2023-09 banning race-based hair discrimination in all State agencies. Under the Executive Order, State agencies, as well as State contractors and subcontractors are prohibited from discriminating against job applicants and employees for the style in which they wear their hair. The Order covers children in public schools as well. History of Hair Discrimination Race-based hair discrimination has a long and deep-rooted history in the United States. Minstrel songs mocked the texture of Black hair, and New Orleans passed laws requiring Black women to cover their hair with scarves. By the end of the 19th Century, hair straightening combs were widely utilized “to tame black hair” into a white style. The 1960s saw a growing wave of…
By Ashley Liu. At 677 W. 19th St. in Tempe, Arizona, you can see a one-of-a-kind home for yourself. At a glance, you’ll notice that the walls look a little unusual: they seem to be laid in horizontal layers. That’s because all of the home’s internal and external walls are 3D-printed. Just as unique as the home’s construction method is the team that brought it to life. This project was nonprofit-driven: Habitat for Humanity Central Arizona spearheaded the project in partnership with the City of Tempe. The project also relied on pro bono contributions from various organizations, including Germany-based printer manufacturer PERI and Scottsdale-based architecture firm Candelaria Design. Candelaria provided the home with extra design flair, including exterior columns, transom windows, and even a 3D-printed kitchen island. As Habitat for…
