Oregon Law Review : Vol. 97, No. 2 (2019)
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Item Open Access Purged by Press Release: First Responders, Free Speech, and Public Employment Retaliation in the Digital Age(University of Oregon School of Law, 2019-06-19) Scoville, George S. , IIIRacial tensions are rising in the United States, with no signs of abating anytime soon. The tragic number of African American deaths resulting from euphemistically titled “officer-involved shootings” has dramatically increased in the last decade, which has spurred heated, sometimes violent, protests. In addition, police departments nationwide are grappling with increased threats to officers’ safety. Social media platforms add fuel to the fire because they enable nearly instantaneous, bidirectional transmission of both accurate and inaccurate information around the globe. Accordingly, many municipalities have implemented restrictive social media policies for both the public and government employees. Firing a government employee for violating such a social media policy in his or her use of digital communications tools, however, especially when the employee does so on his or her own time, raises stark questions regarding whether and to what extent the policy violates the First Amendment.Item Open Access Rational Justice: Equal Protection Problems Amid Veterans Treatment Court Eligibility Categorizations(University of Oregon School of Law, 2019-06-19) Pomerance, BenjaminThis Article fills a gap in the existing legal scholarship by conducting this Equal Protection Clause examination. Part I provides an overview of the basic Veterans Treatment Court model and describes classification-based eligibility criteria that frequently differ among various courts. Part II discusses the appropriate legal framework for evaluating classification-based distinctions that Veterans Treatment Courts often use when determining eligibility and ultimately concludes that rational basis review is the proper standard to apply in such instances. Part III summarizes the history of rational basis review, points out the practical uncertainties of this court-made test, and addresses some of the ways that the judiciary has historically resolved these ambiguities. Lastly, Part IV applies the rational basis test to several classification-based distinctions that Veterans Treatment Courts commonly draw when determining which veterans are eligible for their services, which proves that some of these classifications cannot satisfy even this low-level standard of review.Item Open Access The National Football League: Action Versus Activism(University of Oregon School of Law, 2019-06-19) Holden, John T.; Tweedie, Joanna WallThe National Football League (NFL) has faced public scrutiny in recent years for the way it has handled domestic violence incidents involving players. After Ray Rice, a star running back, was caught on camera striking his then fiancée, domestic violence in the NFL was thrust into the spotlight. Public backlash ensued, and the NFL handled that backlash by introducing and publicizing a new Personal Conduct Policy, which outlined stricter penalties for players involved in domestic violence. The NFL also became an activist against domestic violence. Through a content analysis, this Article compares the NFL’s activism to its action against players who are involved in domestic violence.Item Open Access Congressional Plenary Power and Indigenous Environmental Stewardship: The Limits of Environmental Federalism(University of Oregon School of Law, 2019-06-19) Hoffmann, Hillary M.This Article will discuss the history and rise of the Plenary Power Doctrine in federal Indian law and the sources of congressional plenary power and illustrate its questionable foundation in Article III of the Constitution.Item Open Access Scientific Knowledge Fraud(University of Oregon School of Law, 2019-06-19) Henricksen, Wes E.The tobacco, asbestos, and fossil fuel industries, among others, have misled the public about the dangers posed by their products by lying about the science behind the products. Individuals harmed by these misrepresentations should be able to sue for fraud. Plaintiffs in fraud cases of this kind—where the misrepresentation pertains to scientific knowledge—face far greater obstacles to proving falsity, a required fraud element, than do typical fraud plaintiffs. Accordingly, a different falsity standard should apply in such cases. This Article answers three questions about how that standard should be crafted and applied.Item Open Access “Do Not Resuscitate” Tattoos: Adequate Evidence of a Patient’s Intent to Die?(University of Oregon School of Law, 2019-06-19) Elzweig, BrianIn late 2017, paramedics brought an unconscious, unidentified, and unaccompanied seventy-year-old man to the Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami, Florida. The man’s blood alcohol content was elevated, and he had a history of diabetes mellitus, atrial fibrillation, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Upon the man’s chest was a tattoo that read “DO NOT RESUSCITATE.” The tattoo also included his signature. This left his doctors with a legal and ethical dilemma: Is a “do not resuscitate” (DNR) tattoo a valid advance directive?