Research examining disparities in sentencing outcomes under federal sentencing guidelines has focused almost exclusively on aggregate national data. Although these studies contribute considerably to the criminological literature on sentencing disparity, their findings may have masked contextual variation in relation to case processing across…

Utah is the only state that prohibits its state institutions from barring guns on its campuses. The University of Utah fought that statutory requirement vigorously in court, but the interests of pro-gun groups prevailed. In 2006 the Supreme Court of Utah held that the university lacked the authority to issue firearms policies, including barring…

Beginning in the early 1970s, plaintiffs initiated a veritable tidal wave of litigation over financing public education in states with unequal funding for students in poor school systems. In the only case on school finance to reach the United States Supreme Court, "San Antonio Independent School District v. Rodriguez" (1973), the…

Equity issues in public school finance have been discussed in terms of three waves. The first wave was a challenge to the U.S. Supreme Court to provide equal education to all students as a fundamental right. After a ruling against the plaintiffs in "San Antonio v Rodriguez" (1973), the fight shifted to a second wave in the state courts.…

This study examined federal and state court decisions related to student Fourth Amendment rights following the "New Jersey v. T.L.O." ruling in 1985. There has been minimal research in judicial treatment of students' Fourth Amendment rights across regions of the country and less to what extent regional rulings implicitly or explicitly…

In 1978 Congress passed an astonishing piece of legislation that gave Native American tribes a considerable amount of jurisdiction over matters of child custody and the adoption of their children. In 1976, the Association of American Indian Affairs gathered statistics relevant to the adoption of Indian children that Congress found "shocking…

On July 9, 1996, the Connecticut Supreme Court issued its landmark school desegregation decision, "Sheff v. O'Neill". More than a decade later, Hartford's schoolchildren are as segregated as they were when the case was first filed in 1989. Based on data from a statewide survey and data collected from two focus groups of white parents…

After the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in "Zelman v. Simmons-Harris," only state religion clauses represent a potential constitutional bar to the inclusion of religious options in properly designed school choice programs. The two most significant are compelled support clauses and Blaine Amendments. Both are frequently misinterpreted by state…

There have been many studies done and much research completed on the problem of academic dishonesty at the college and university level. However, there is a dearth of studies done on academic dishonesty as it relates to the legal issues and trends related to higher education administration. The purpose of this research is to analyze the issues,…

The Fourteenth Amendment to the U. S. Constitution holds that states must provide due process and equal protection to those with a life, liberty, or property right. College students have a property and liberty interest in the public education that they receive and the courts require notice and hearing before a deprivation of one of these…

Brian Lindsay, a chemistry major, participated in a summer research program at St. Olaf College. The 10-week program required him to work in a laboratory under the direction of a chemistry professor. Lindsay received a $3,500 stipend and free housing. On July 11, 2002, he was performing a procedure to clean, or "quench," a flask. The…

Prior to the United States Supreme Court's decision in "Brown v. Board of Education" (1954), educational finance litigation focused almost entirely on the equitable distribution of state educational financing, ending preferential disbursement of state funds. This ended in 1973, with the United States Supreme Court's decision in "San…

Over the past thirty-five years, federal courts have dramatically retreated from actively promoting school desegregation. In the meantime, state courts have taken up the mantle of promoting the vision of educational equity originally articulated in "Brown v. Board of Education". "Courts and Kids" is the first detailed analysis…

For over ten years, the State of Arizona has implemented an innovative statewide process for financing and building school facilities and purchasing other capital items for its schools. Spawned by an education quality lawsuit, the 1998 Students FIRST Act established the School Facilities Board, which succeeded in helping rural, suburban, and urban…

This article reports on a conflict between the inventor of a medicine for dry eyes and the university where she worked, which highlights the pitfalls in commercialization of academic discoveries. Renee L. Kaswan, the former professor of veterinary medicine at the University of Georgia has been prodding the institution to be more aggressive in…