Self-Defense Goes Cyber: Congress Considers a Bill Permitting Victims of Cyberattacks to “Hack Back”

Meghan Noone*

Criminal law doctrine has embraced the concept that a person may use deadly force in self-defense, if reasonable, when there is an intruder in his or her home.  See Mark Randall & Hendrik DeBoer, The Castle Doctrine and Stand-Your-Ground Law, Conn. Gen. Assembly Off. Legis. Res. (Apr. 24, 2012), https://www.cga.ct.gov/2012/rpt/2012-R-0172.htm.  But what happens if there is an intruder to his or her computer network?  United States House Representatives Tom Graves of Georgia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona have sought to answer that question with the proposed Active Cyber Defense Certainty Act, which would allow victims of cyber hacking to “hack back” in retaliation under certain circumstances.  See Iain Thomson, US Congress Mulls First ‘Hack Back’ Revenge Law. And Yup, You Can Guess What It’ll Let People Do, Reg. (Oct. 13, 2017, 10:36 PM), https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/10/13/us_hack_back_law/.  Continue reading “Self-Defense Goes Cyber: Congress Considers a Bill Permitting Victims of Cyberattacks to “Hack Back””

Title IX Revamped: Further Victimizing Survivors

                       Lauren Fleming*

“But if everything is harassment, nothing is.”  Betsy DeVos.[1]

Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 “is a federal civil rights law that prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in federally funded education programs and activities.”  Office for Civil Rights, U.S. Dep’t of Educ., Questions and Answers on Title IX and Sexual Violence i (2014), https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/docs/qa-201404-title-ix.pdf [hereinafter Title IX Answers].  All educational institutions, including elementary schools and institutions of higher education, that receive federal funding are subject to the Title IX provisions.  Id.Continue reading “Title IX Revamped: Further Victimizing Survivors”

Fighting for a Second Chance: Maryland to Hear Cases Claiming Unconstitutionality of State Parole System in Resentencing Juvenile “Lifers”

Dominic DiMattia*

On October 19, 2017, the Maryland Court of Appeals granted three petitions for writs of certiorari in cases seeking to overturn life without parole sentences dealt to individuals for crimes they committed as juveniles.  Petitions for Writ of Certiorari: September Term, 2017, Md. Cts., http://www.courts.state.md.us/coappeals/petitions/201710petitions.html (last visited Jan. 18, 2018).  A recent line of United States Supreme Court cases decided within the last decade has forced states to retroactively provide new sentences to juvenile “lifers.” Continue reading “Fighting for a Second Chance: Maryland to Hear Cases Claiming Unconstitutionality of State Parole System in Resentencing Juvenile “Lifers””

“Error: Website Inaccessible.”

Adrianne C. Blake*

When President George H. W. Bush signed the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) into law in 1990, its purpose was to ban employment discrimination and to “eliminate[] unnecessary physical barriers to commercial and government buildings.”  Mark Pulliam, Is Your Company’s Website Accessible to the Disabled? You’d Better Hope So, L.A. Times (June 11, 2017, 4:00 AM), http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-pulliam-ada-websites-20170611-story.html.  The ADA was “the nation’s first comprehensive civil rights law addressing the needs of people with disabilities, prohibiting discrimination in employment, public services, public accommodations, and telecommunications.”  Continue reading ““Error: Website Inaccessible.””

Protecting Domestic Violence Victims: Expanding the Court’s Interpretation of Grave Risk

                                                                                                                        Emily Schmidt*

The Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction is a multilateral treaty that provides the procedure for returning children to their home countries following abduction out of the country.  Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction art. 1, Oct. 25, 1980, 1343 U.N.T.S. 98.  The intentions behind the drafting of the treaty were both to “secure the prompt return of children wrongfully removed to or retained” in any State that is a signatory, and to “ensure that rights of custody and of access under the law” in one State are recognized in other States.  Id.  In other words, the treaty promotes returning children to their homes and works to prevent venue shopping in custody cases.  In order to return a child to their home country, the left behind parent petitions for their return.Continue reading “Protecting Domestic Violence Victims: Expanding the Court’s Interpretation of Grave Risk”