Articles Posted in Commentary and Opinion

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“On Friday, October 4, the Supreme Court agreed to hear arguments in Gutierrez v. Saenz, a case regarding death-sentenced Texas prisoner Ruben Gutierrez’s ability to sue the state for DNA testing in support of his innocence claim. The Court had issued a stay to Mr. Gutierrez on July 16, just twenty minutes before his scheduled execution. Mr. Gutierrez was convicted and sentenced to death in 1999 for the murder and robbery of an 85-year-old woman but has long maintained his innocence. Forensic evidence from inside the trailer where the killing occurred has never been tested for DNA, but the state has refused Mr. Gutierrez’s testing requests. The Court will now decide whether the Fifth Circuit was correct when it ruled that Mr. Gutierrez did not have standing to sue Texas over its refusal to give him access to DNA testing. The Court will likely hear Mr. Gutierrez’s case next spring.”  Leah Roemer. Death Penalty Information Center October 9, 2024.

In his October 7, 2024 posting in VERDICT. Amherst professor Austin Sarat argues that the Gutierrez case could expand the use of DNA evidence in criminal cases and the Court “should allow Gutierrez to challenge Texas’s restrictions on post-conviction DNA testing, asserting that such limitations in death penalty cases across the country hinder the pursuit of justice and should be reconsidered”.

Click here to read Professor Sarat’s complete posting in VERDTCT: Legal Analysis and Commentary from Justia.

 

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Surgeon and bioethicist Charles E. Brinkley is a contributor to VERDICT a service of Justia. In his August14, 2024 VERDICT posting , Does Informed Consent Alone Mitigate Responsibility: Considering Patient Harm Related to Artificial Intelligence, Dr. Brinkley “discusses the ethical implications and potential harms of using artificial intelligence (AI) in healthcare decision-making, particularly focusing on informed consent and physician responsibility. Dr. Binkley argues that patients should be informed when AI is used in their care, and that healthcare providers have a duty not only to inform patients of potential risks but also to mitigate those risks, emphasizing that the use of AI does not absolve physicians of their responsibilities to patients.”

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Constitution Day is one of our most important holidays because it commemorates the signing of the U.S. Constitution, our most foundational document, on September 17, 1787 by the delegates of the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia. It is perplexing to note that the commemoration of such an important event in our history is not observed more broadly as one of our national holidays.

As Kathleen Hal Jameson writes in her article, What Constitution Day Means and Why it Matters: “For almost three quarters of a century, advocates have worked to give comparable federal stature to September 17, the day on which we celebrate the anniversary of the 1787 signing of the U.S. Constitution by the nation’s founders. As President John F. Kennedy noted in his 1961 Constitution Day proclamation, it is a day for ‘ceremonies’ set up to ‘inspire all our citizens to keep the faith of our Founding Fathers and to carry out the ideals of United States citizenship’

I celebrated by leading a discussion about Constitution Day, centered on the question: Is now the moment for a new Constitutional Convention? The following links provide the materials used during the session, along with a Concluding Statement capturing the unanimous agreement of the group

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BOLTS* “ The Texas supreme court closed out 2023 by blocking an abortion during a medical emergency, forcing a woman to flee the state. Just days before Christmas, Wisconsin justices struck down the state’s GOP-drawn gerrymanders. So far this year, Montana’s supreme court has stepped in to protect voting rights, while a decision in Alabama threatened in vitro fertilization treatments. 

In each of these states, unlike at the federal level, voters chose who sits on the bench and which judges get to dictate such profound consequences. And the 2024 elections may now reshape who holds power on supreme courts across the country.

Thirty-three states have elections for their high courts this year; some have as many as five or six seats on the ballot. In total, 82 seats are up for voters to decide. 

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The AI Elections Accord is a voluntary agreement among leading technology companies to combat the deceptive use of AI in the 2024 elections. Recognizing the potential for AI to generate highly realistic but false content, known as deepfakes, the accord aims to protect the integrity of elections worldwide. The signatories have agreed to the following voluntary framework of principles and actions to advance seven principal goals:

  1. Prevention: Researching, investing in, and/or deploying reasonable precautions to limit risks of deliberately Deceptive AI Election Content being generated.
  2. Provenance: Attaching provenance signals to identify the origin of content where appropriate and technically feasible.
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On July 17, 2024, we noticed a posting from Wisblawg which stated in part that “In recent months web developers and SEO experts have noted significant changes in Google’s Indexing practices observing a shift toward more selective indexing of web content…” Having already received other indications over the past year of impending changes in indexing practices by Google, we decided it was time to take a deeper dive into the subject.

The following is a compilation of our findings, ending with statistical information derived from an AI search using ChatGPt:

 Introduction

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Isaac Saul and his team have published A Closer Look at the Secret Service in the July 19, 2024, issue of Tangle. The article provides a detailed and balanced description of the Secret Service as an organization from several perspectives, including its history, organizational structure, funding, and the Trump shooting.

We believe that with this article, which needs to be read widely, Isaac Saul and his team have contributed in a significant way to bringing clarity to the issues covered.  We are therefore pleased that Saul has granted us permission to post his article, with an abstract of my own, followed with a link to the entire article.

Quoting from the article: “The effects of the attempted assassination of Donald Trump are sure to reverberate across our country for months — and potentially years — to come.”  “The incident could also have a major impact on the Secret Service — the agency tasked with protecting current and past presidents, their families, and other high-profile politicians.”

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The attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump on Saturday was a dreadful and unspeakable event, marking a significant and alarming blow to America’s already tenuous grasp on democracy and the rule of law. Such an attack on an individual campaigning for the highest office in the nation is not just an act of violence against a person but a direct assault on the foundational principle that every voter has the right to choose their representatives freely and without fear.

The health of a democracy relies on the steadfast rejection of political violence as a tool to silence opponents, particularly those whose views we find most objectionable. The moment we resort to such means, we undermine the very fabric of democratic society. For democracy to thrive, it is essential to tolerate a broad spectrum of views, even those that challenge our own beliefs. Respecting the choices made by the electorate, even when they result in the election of candidates we vehemently oppose, is crucial.

.Amherst professor Austin Sarat in his essay, Trump Assassination Attempt is the Latest Threat to America’s Already Fragile Democracy, But it is Not the One, published in VERDICT, discusses this topic in greater detail. Quoting from professor Sarat’s  introduction:

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The internet, a vast tapestry of information and connection, stands on the cusp of a transformative era. Artificial intelligence (AI), with its ability to analyze, learn, and adapt, is poised to usher in a fundamental change in how we experience the digital world. This article will delve into the multifaceted impact of AI on the internet’s future, exploring both the potential benefits and challenges. While most observations will be general, a specific paragraph will be devoted to law libraries

Faster and more efficient data transmission:

AI-powered networks can transmit data more quickly and efficiently, which could lead to faster download and upload speeds and reduced latency.

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During the last few days we have been almost totally immersed in matters related to our Supreme Court–both listening and writing. Witnessing all of the anxiety and concern about the need for a Court capable of both  lending stability and being a centerpiece in preserving our representative democracy, we began searching for an authoritative source to provide clarity about the state of the  Court in these uncertain times.  Our search has  led  to the  essay The 2023-24 Supreme Court That Was – And Wasn’t by Michael C.Dorf, Robert S. Stevens Professor of Law at Cornell University:

The 2023-24 Supreme Court That Was—And Wasn’t

2 JUL 2024
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