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TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 1352 I. THE TRAFFIC STOP IN LAW AND PRACTICE 1355 A. The Reality of Traffic Stops 1356 1. Ubiquity and Scope 1356 2. Disparate Impact and [...], In 1996, the Supreme Court announced in Whren v. United States that a traffic stop is constitutional if there is probable cause to believe a traffic infraction has occurred. So long as the officers who stop an individual can point--even after the fact--to any violation of the traffic laws, their actual, subjective motivations for initiating a stop are legally irrelevant. Case-by-case determination of reasonableness is unnecessary in the traffic stop context, the Court concluded, because the balancing of interests has already been done. Unlike warrantless entries into homes, the use of deadly force, or unannounced warranted entries, a traffic stop is not an "extreme practice," and therefore the existence of probable cause invariably outweighs an individual's interest in avoiding police contact. In this Article, I argue that the Court was half right in Whren: there is little need for case-by-case adjudication of the reasonableness of traffic stops. Given that the government interest in these stops is relatively low, that such stops can result in harm to both the officer and those stopped, and that other, less intrusive means are nearly always available to serve the government's stated interest in traffic enforcement, courts should presume that the use of sworn officers to conduct traffic stops is unreasonable. While there may be some situations in which the use of armed police officers to make traffic stops is reasonable, the government should bear the burden of demonstrating that fact in each individual case. This straightforward legal change would significantly reduce needless police stops, thereby increasing overall safety for both officers and the public.

INTRODUCTION I. OVERVIEW OF THE GANG LABELING PROCESS AND ITS IMPLICATIONS A. Systemic Misidentification of Gang Members B. Conflating Racial or Cultural Identity with Gang Membership C. History of Racialized [...], The "gang" label has been so highly racialized that white people who self-identify as gang members are almost never categorized as "gang members" by law enforcement, while Black and Latino people who are not gang members are routinely labeled and targeted as if they were. Different rules attach to people under criminal law once they are labeled gang members, yet this two-track system is justified under the guise that the racially disparate treatment is legitimate because of gang association. This Article takes one concrete example--culturally specific tattoos--and unmasks how racial markers are used to attach the gang label. Specifically, I describe examples of how tattoos symbolizing Chicano cultural identity are used to categorize people as gang members. I discuss four types of tattoos that represent important aspects of Mexican-American identity, but that are regularly used to define people as gang members. Specifically, I discuss how tattoos and symbols of people's racial identities or places of origin, such as "Mexicano" or "Brown Pride," have been used as evidence of gang membership. I also describe the use of tattoos that depict Aztec or Mayan imagery, as well as tattoos of Catholic religious symbolism. The Article then builds on scholarship in the field of Critical Race Studies to criticize the current construction of the law, which keeps racially disparate treatment entrenched. Here, I rely on academic literature about tattoos to explain how central tattoos are to people's identities, and to argue that the law should evolve to acknowledge disparate impact claims in the absence of evidence of discriminatory intent, and to recognize discriminatory intent when it is masked behind language that legitimizes discrimination.

I. INTRODUCTION A. North Carolina's Document of Rescission Statute as Enacted In 2005 B. North Carolina's Document of Rescission Statute as Amended in 2011 II. NORTH CAROLINA LAW ON RESCISSION [...]

A. Introduction Easements are most commonly known as rights of way over property owned by another. (1) Referred to by some as a backwater area of Canadian property law, (2) [...]

At common law, a defendant's mistaken belief about the law was no defense, even if that mistake resulted from reasonable reliance on governmental advice. Thus, if a prosecutor or police [...]

INTRODUCTION As the saying goes, ignorance of the law is no excuse. (1) Under this maxim, which dates back to Roman law and is familiar among lawyers and laypeople alike, [...]

I. Introduction FOR SOME PEOPLE, THE VALUE OF ZONING IS IN THE CONFIDENCE it instills in a sense of place and community, as well as the belief that exercising a [...]

INTRODUCTION The Supreme Court's retreat (1) over the last thirty-plus years from the expansive Fourth Amendment and robust exclusionary rule of Katz (2) and Mapp (3)--the backwards march accompanied by [...]

INTRODUCTION I. DISTINGUISHING BETWEEN TRIAL AND STRUCTURAL ERRORS A. Four Readings of Fulminante 1. The Framework Approach 2. The Evidentiary Approach 3. The Timing Approach 4. The Reliability Approach B. [...]

A. INTRODUCTION Is actual agreement necessary for contract formation, or is apparent agreement sufficient? Famously, at least in theory, the common law and the civil law are divided on the [...]

I. INTRODUCTION II. CURRENT LAW AND COMMENTARY A. The Doctrine B. The Commentary 1. Kronman's Approach 2. Levmore's Contribution 3. Scheppele III. TWO MODELS: AN EXAMINATION OF THE ONE-SIDED MODEL [...]

The rules and principles of the common law are largely formed from the cases decided by its courts. The unique nature of the evolution of the common law has long [...]

ABSTRACT When courtroom interpreters translate a witness's testimony, errors are not just possible, they are inherent to the process. Moreover, the occurrence of such errors is not merely a technical [...]