Volume VII

Volume VII, Spring 2017 | Law Journal for Social Justice

Editor’s Note:

The 2017 Law Journal for Social Justice Symposium, “Criminal Justice System Reform,” focused on mandatory minimums, mass incarceration, and issues in policing in two panels moderated by Professor Charles Calleros and former Phoenix Mayor and former Attorney General of Arizona Terry Goddard. Panelists included Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery, State Senator Martin Quezada, Federal Public Defender Jon Sands, 2016 Pima County Attorney Democratic candidate Joel Feinman, Will Gaona, Maricopa County Deputy Sheriff Ben Henry, Phoenix Police Department Commander Kevin Robinson, and civil rights attorney Steve Benedetto. Special thanks to our Symposium Editor, Jane Ahern, for her hard work on this wonderful event.

This academic year, the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law relocated to its new home at the Beus Center for Law and Society in downtown Phoenix, a ‘monument to inclusion and accessibility’ where the public may learn about the law. Similarly, it is the mission of this journal to publish accessible legal literature for the public to engage with. Special thanks to our staff for their hard work and dedication in bringing these important legal issues into the public domain.

This issue begins with a discussion on the opportunity cost between diversity and electoral competitiveness in Competing Liberal Values: The Effects of VRA Sec. 2 Litigation on Electoral Competitiveness, written by Dr. Mathew Manweller, Dr. George Hawley, and Kristen Evans Hawley, JD. Next, Raneta Lawson Mack, J.D., reflects on the trials and tribulations of one of the most important cases in our constitutional history in Miranda V. Arizona in From the Sublime to the Ridiculous and Everything In-Between: Fifty Things You May or May Not Know About Miranda V. Arizona. Zachary Williams, J.D. weaves stories from actual victims of racial discrimination into the War on Drugs narrative in Race and the War on Drugs: It’s Story Time. Katherine Spindler then reflects on her experience managing a misdemeanor caseload as a Public Defender intern in Bethel, Alaska, an off-road bush community with a predominantly Yup’ik Native Alaskan population in Ask Me First: Why Making Plea Offers to Unrepresented Yup’ik Defendants in Bethel, Alaska Before Securing Counsel Perpetuates Racial Harm and Violates the Law and Professional Ethics. Next, in Black Death, Shannon Prince provides a literary tour through aspects of prejudice that African American writers have observed, while complementing black authors’ artistic depictions of the criminal justice system with legal scholarship. This issue ends with two of LJSJ’s own. Elisabeth Friedman argues for the explicit protection of transgender students’ rights under Title IX in Informal Rulemaking and “Sex”: How the Federal Government Defined Gender Identity as “Sex Discrimination” While Relying on the Unstable Auer Deference. Finally, Catherine Fu explains How Federal and State Law Enforcement Agencies Can Effectively Use Social Media in Their Cooperative Efforts to Combat Human Trafficking.

Chrisanne M. Gultz, Editor-in-Chief, Law Journal for Social Justice