The Roundtable
Welcome to the Roundtable, a forum for incisive commentary and analysis
on cases and developments in law and the legal system.
on cases and developments in law and the legal system.
Warning: This blog post discusses sexual violence and assault.
By Iris Zhang Iris Zhang is a rising junior at University of Pennsylvania. The statistic that 1 in 5 college-aged women has experienced rape and sexual assault is frustrating; and we’ve heard it over and over. [1] What’s even more frustrating is that 40% of these victims will never have the chance to seek justice – of every 100 rapes, 40 get reported to the police, 10 will lead to an arrest, 8 will get prosecuted, and only 3 will see the rapist serving time. [2] The criminal justice system is ill-equipped to handle sexual assault, but universities are arguably even worse, with campus sexual assault slowly beginning to come under the nationwide spotlight. Just this past month, the New York Times has published numerous articles on the issue: [3] the Times picked up news around the country about students rising up against school administrators for mishandling allegations of rape. [4] In response, the Obama administration spearheaded a White House Task Force to oversee various enforcement actions undertaken by government legal agencies against offending schools. [5]
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By Natasha Kang
Natasha Kang is a rising senior at University of California, Davis. Email is usually the first stop when someone opens an internet browser. You would probably see a flyer or two from stores you have subscribed to, bank e-statement notifications, some work emails, and maybe a few personal emails. But with some certainty, if you are an active professional, you will see an email from LinkedIn asking you to upgrade to premium; a status that allows you to see who is looking at your profile and to connect more easily with someone you may only vaguely remember. On September 17, 2013, a 46-page complaint was filed against LinkedIn for sending emails to users’ contacts without their consent in a class-action-seeking lawsuit. [1] LinkedIn is a professional networking site based in Mountain View, California that helps its 300 million users get access to people, jobs, news, tips and more in your professional field in over 200 countries and territories. [2] When creating an account with the network, an external email account is required. If given access to the account by users, LinkedIn is able to send emails on behalf of the user advertising its products and services, as well as gather any email addresses in the account for LinkedIn’s servers. [1] 
By Steven Jacobson
Steven Jacobson is a rising freshman at University of Pennsylvania. Detroit's descent into urban decay has been well documented. Formerly a beacon of the United States' industrial might, “Motown” soon became the capital of the rust belt when US automakers outsourced their factories to cheaper manufacturing hubs. The deterioration culminated in last summer's declaration of Chapter 9 bankruptcy, a nadir reached through declining economic fortunes and years of mismanagement by city officials. It was the largest declaration of bankruptcy by an American municipality. Detroit’s ties to the auto industry have also been largely severed over the past half-century. While American carmakers have had some of their best years after their 2009 bailout, the city to which they were once inextricably linked has never been worse. 
By Tanner Bowen
Tanner Bowen is a rising freshman at University of Pennsylvania. “I will not stand idly by while our citizens are under assault and little children from Central America are detained in squalor. We are too good of a country,” said Texas Governor Rick Perry. Governor Perry's comments reflect just one of the recent actions taken by leaders of border states to combat the immigration problems that have divided the United States for the last few centuries. [1] This desire to deport illegal immigrants in the U.S. is not unprecedented. After former Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano enacted the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) initiative on August 15, 2012, Arizona Governor Jan Brewer signed an executive order on the same day that prevented these DACA recipients from becoming eligible for state identification. This case applied particularly to the issuance of drivers licenses. 
By Natasha Kang
Natasha Kang is a rising senior at University of California, Davis. Abortion, long considered a controversial issue, has gotten even more complicated. The debate no longer focuses solely on what happens in an abortion clinic, but also on what happens around the clinic. To protect prospective patients entering abortion clinics, Massachusetts law placed a fixed thirty-five foot “buffer zone” around facilities. The statute stipulates that the “entrance, exit or driveway” of a reproductive health care facility is protected by the buffer zone from anyone who is not: (1) a person entering or leaving the facility, (2) employees or agents of the facility, (3) a municipal agent such as an ambulance or law enforcement doing their job, or (4) a person merely passing the facility to reach another destination. [1] The law specifically does not mention those attempting to persuade prospective patients against terminating their pregnancies. 
By Iris Zhang
Iris Zhang is a rising junior at University of Pennsylvania. The scholarship on the link between lack of education and the disproportionately high rates of imprisonment of minorities is clear. According to Wald and Losen, “68% of state prison inmates in 1997 had not completed high school. 75% of youths under age 18 who have been sentenced to adult prisons have not completed 10th grade.” [1] Researchers claim that being “suspended, expelled or held back” during middle school is the “single largest predictor” of an adolescent female’s arrest. Thus, we have the “school-to-prison” pipeline, whereby youth are criminalized for their behaviors in school and sent directly into the prison system. It doesn’t help that schools facing a dearth of resources are increasingly relying on “zero-tolerance” policies that push out low-performing students or students who commit minor infractions through the use of suspensions and expulsions. [2] Schools have significant discretion when it comes to the use these disciplinary measures, and, overwhelmingly, a disproportionate amount of students who are suspended or expelled are minorities. [3] |
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