The 2016 presidential election campaign and its aftermath have underscored worrisome trends in the present state of our democracy: the extreme polarization of the electorate, the dismissal of people with opposing views, and the widespread acceptance and circulation of one-sided and factually erroneous information. Only a small proportion of those…

A persistent problem in the professional literature in school psychology and related fields, such as special education, is the insufficient treatment of legal issues in terms of not only quantity (e.g., Zaheer & Zirkel, 2014) but also quality (e.g., Zirkel, 2014). The quality dimension is illustrated in the coverage of the Supreme Court's…

The Fair Use exemption to copyright infringement is a difficult concept for those within the legal community because of its unique "case-by-case" application. Without any red line rules, providing guidance to typical users is even more challenging. This paper reviews several recent cases regarding the application of Fair Use and how the…

This article discusses concerns about how Neil M. Gorsuch, a U.S. Supreme Court nominee, might influence decisions regarding cases involving the appropriate scope of services guaranteed by federal special-education law, government aid to religious institutions providing educational services, and how intellectual property law applies to sports…

This dissertation explored the constitutionality of a Georgia law, under both the Georgia Constitution and the United States Constitution, which allows for the removal of elected school board members based on threatened loss of district accreditation. The problem is that elected board members are being removed from office based on district…

This article reviews the impacts of the civil rights policies framed in the 1960s and the anti-civil rights political and legal movements that reversed them. It documents rising segregation by race and poverty. The policy reversals and transformation of U.S. demography require a new civil rights strategy. Vast immigrations, the sinking White…

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…

The status as of October 9, 1986 of higher education-related Supreme Court litigation is outlined concerning: accreditation, affirmative action, asbestos, bar examinations, collective bargaining, creationism, racial discrimination, infectious disease, liquor sales, pensions, pregnancy benefits, revocation of degree, sexual harassment, and student…

Public school leaders often find themselves caught between groups with passionately held--but widely varying--views regarding the appropriate role for religion in public schools. Tensions are heightened by the growth of well-funded special interest groups inclined to litigate anywhere a test case arises. By reviewing the most recent judicial…

A study examined the quantity and quality of libel decisions of the Warren and Burger Supreme Courts to determine how changes in libel law came about, how individual justices voted on libel compared to other issues of freedom of expression, and how permanent constitutional libel rules will be as the more conservative Rehnquist Supreme Court takes…

The present article, a cross-case analysis, analyzes one aspect of the implementation of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) that has generated conflict between the U.S. Department of Education and the federal court system. The conflicts arose between the courts' oversight of desegregation and the implementation of the public school choice…

This study explores the antecedents of the Newspaper Preservation Act of 1970 (a provision which allowed for limited exemption from federal antitrust laws), including the case of "United States vs. Citizen Publishing Company" and the failing-company doctrine as enunciated in "International Shoe Company vs. Federal Trade…

To examine the status of opinion as protected speech, a study sought answers to three questions: (1) Is opinion protected under the constitution? (2) If protection exists for opinion, has it usurped the common law fair comment defense in libel litigation? and (3) How do the courts define opinion in the context of libel? Answers were sought in…

As a means of providing additional search warrant protection for the news media and others engaged in public communications, the United States Congress adopted the "Privacy Protection Act of 1980." Legal and documentary research conducted over a period of two years has revealed a potential defect of the statute relating to the court…

The development of community antenna television (CATV) is traced from its beginnings in various local efforts to bring television to areas of poor reception. The history of federal, state, and municipal regulatory practices and problems are examined, and the potential applications of cable television are discussed in some detail. (JY)