by Anna Katherine Sherman The Alabama Code Title 13A. Criminal Code § 13A-6-60 defines “forcible compulsion” with regards to rape and sexual assault cases as “physical force that overcomes earnest resistance or a threat, express or implied, that places a person in fear of immediate death or serious physical injury to himself or another person.” The problem with this definition is the phrase ‘earnest resistance’ that must be involved in order for it to be considered a sexual assault. This […]
The World Bank as an Instrument of American Foreign Policy
by Claire Faivre Established in 1944 as a pillar of the Bretton Woods system for European post-war reconstruction, the World Bank’s mission and member base has since evolved to become a fundamental player among international economic institutions. The employment of a weighted voting system that allocates voting power according to member countries’ contribution to the Bank’s capital stock, accompanied by the traditional control over the Bank’s presidency, and the physical location of the Bank itself in the US capital, are […]
Clearing the Backlog: An Analysis of Our Current Immigration Court System
by Tanner D’Ortenzio The United States Refugee Act of 1980 was an amendment to the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965. The main goal of this amendment was to establish a permanent and transparent system for the admission of refugees into the United States. The INA with the addition of The United States Refugee Act provides the U.S. government with a legal obligation to accept potential refugees and asylum seekers. With the steadily increasing amount of asylum seekers, this piece […]
Violence Against Women Act
by Anna Katherine Sherman Less than a week ago, the House of Representatives voted to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA). This act has had a complicated past of expiring and being passed through Congress multiple times to get reinstated. Originally, the bill was intended to provide funding for prosecuting perpetrators of violent crimes against women when it was passed in 1994. The large debate now is that, as Republicans argue, the act may infringe upon one’s Second Amendment […]
Conviction
by Jaleel Washington In a typical conviction, members of the police force gather evidence and eventually arrest the perpetrator. Prosecutors use this evidence to try to prove that beyond a shadow of a doubt the perpetrator committed the crime. If they are found guilty, sentencing follows, and the rest is history. We do a good job of punishing the right people, but what happens when we punish the wrong person? According to the Cambridge Dictionary, wrongful conviction, also known as […]
Punishment, Prison, & Necessary Changes
by Mackenzi Barrett In 1992, a hitchhiker killed the man that picked him up. He was sent to prison and then paroled in 2005. In 2011, after earning his baccalaureate degree, Tulane University granted him admission into their law school. His name is Bruce Reilly, and to say that his fellow classmates at Tulane were wary of him would be an understatement, to say the least. However, as a 2011 article by Elie Mystal points out, “what is the point […]
Effective Counsel and the Sixth Amendment
by Rachel Sharma A public defender’s office exists in every city and state in America. These attorneys are appointed to represent criminal defendants who cannot afford to pay for their own, private legal counsel [1]. While these attorneys have heavy caseloads, they are not provided the resources to give each case its due care and thus cannot provide adequate counsel to those they represent. The lack of resources of public defenders amounts to a violation of the Sixth Amendment of […]
Human Trafficking: One Step Forward, Two Steps Backwards
by Elizabeth Railey The implementation of new legislation, such as the FOSTA, has served to exacerbate the sex trafficking epidemic rather than to decrease its proclivity as intended. The release of the documentary I Am Jane Doe in February of 2017 exposed the online aspect of sex trafficking and ignited discussion about the lack of human rights protection provided by existing cyber legislation.[1] Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996, which protected companies from liability due to third […]
Minimum Wage Laws in Alabama
by Kaitlin Tindol The United States Department of Labor requires that employees be compensated at a federal minimum wage rate of $7.25 per hour.[1] The Department also mandates that employees who work a job where they are regularly tipped more than $30 dollars per month are only required to be compensated by their employers at a wage rate of $2.13 per hour.[2] This is known as the “tipped wage policy.” However, these long-standing traditions of adopting tip wage and the […]
Privacy or Trespass: The Fight Over the Fourth Amendment
by Rachel Sharma The Supreme Court of the United States, in its attempts to interpret the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution, has struggled with one overall question: what is the best reasoning to protect people from unreasonable searches and seizures? Earlier case law concerning the Fourth Amendment focused on the property rights of private citizens and their freedom against trespass. However, in 1967, the decision in Katz v. United States changed the Court’s focus from property rights to a right […]