Section 230: Should the Interactive Computer Service Provider Shield Be Repealed?

Katherine Fruge Corry

During a joint session of Congress convened on January 6, 2021, to count the electoral votes and confirm the electoral victory of President Joseph Biden, a radical faction of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol building in an unsuccessful attempt to thwart the democratic process.[1] Tragically, several lives were lost in connection with these activities.[2] Despite the attack, democracy prevailed when order was restored to the Capitol, and President Biden was formally declared victor of the 2020 Presidential election, in accordance with the will of American voters.[3] Two days later, Twitter, Facebook, Snapchat, and Instagram, among others, permanently or indefinitely suspended former President Donald Trump’s social media accounts.[4] In the aftermath of these suspensions, media consumers throughout the world could hear the resounding silence. To many, the silence ushered in relief, and an end to a stream of election misinformation emanating from Donald Trump’s social media accounts.[5] For others, these actions were seen as an Orwellian precedent for a broader framework towards censorship of conservatives by Big Tech companies.[6]

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2019-20: We the Jury

Program Description

On Friday, January 31, 2020, the Louisiana Law Review and the Pugh Institute for Justice will present We The Jury: Conversations on the American Jury’s Past, Present, and Future in the McKernan Auditorium at the LSU Law Center.

The Louisiana Law Review’s 2020 Symposium explores the American jury’s history, contemporary challenges, and future role. Legal practitioners and scholars from across the country, as well as locally, will discuss and analyze a variety of issues relating to the history of the jury, jury selection and representation, the Sixth Amendment and non-unanimous juries, as well as the role of the jury as a political and cultural institution.

The Symposium features renowned scholars and academics, including Professor Shari Seidman Diamond, Professor Paul Finkelman, Professor Daniel S. Harawa, Professor Alexis Hoag, Professor Brooks Holland, Professor Mary Graw Leary, Professor Renée Lettow Lerner, Professor Nancy S. Marder, Professor Gregory Parks, Paula Hannaford-Agor, C. Renée Manes, and local judges and lawyers, including Judge Piper D. Griffin, Harry J. “Skip” Philips, Jr., J.E. Cullens, Jr., William Snowden, and Sam Crichton. LSU Law Center professors will moderate panels of scholars and practitioners in addressing these issues.

The Law Review Symposium is free and open to the public and can count for up to 7.5 hours of CLE Credit (CLE Course Title: We the Jury: Conversations on the American Jury’s Past, Present, and Future; Course #: 5170200131).

Registration Link: https://law.lsu.edu/forms/symposium/
LSU Law Symposium Website Link: https://law.lsu.edu/symposium/

Registration and Breakfast 8:00 – 8:20 A.M.
Opening Remarks – Lee Ann Wheelis Lockridge, LSU Law Interim Dean, David Weston Robinson Professor of Law, and McGlinchey Stafford Professor of Law 8:20 – 8:30 A.M.
Panel 1 – Historical Perspectives

Moderated by Professor Raymond T. Diamond, Jules F. and Frances L. Landry Distinguished Professor of Law and James Carville Alumni Professor of Law, LSU Law Center

PRESENTERS:

Paul FinkelmanPresident of Gratz College

Renée Lettow Lerner, Donald Phillip Rothschild Research Professor of Law, George Washington University Law School

8:30 – 9:30 A.M.
Break 9:30 – 9:40 A.M.
Panel 2 – “An Impartial Jury”

Moderated by Professor Melissa T. Lonegrass, Harriet S. Daggett – Frances Leggio Landry Professor of Law, Bernard Keith Vetter Professor in Louisiana Civil Law Studies, and Wedon T. Smith Professorship in Civil Law, LSU Law Center

PRESENTERS:

Alexis HoagPractitioner-in-Residence, Eric H. Holder Jr. Initiative for Civil and Political Rights, Lecturer, Columbia Law School

Gregory ParksProfessor of Law, Wake Forest University Law School

Daniel S. HarawaAssistant Professor of Practice, Director, Appellate Clinic, Washington University School of Law

Brooks HollandProfessor of Law, Donald J. and Va Lena Scarpelli Curran Faculty Chair in Legal Ethics and Professionalism, Director, Global Legal Education, Gonzaga University School of Law

Sam CrichtonAssistant District Attorney, Caddo Parish

9:40 A.M. – 12:10 P.M.
Lunch 12:10 – 12:50 P.M.
Panel 3 – The Jury as a Political and Cultural Institution

Moderated by Associate Professor of Law Raff Donelson, LSU Law Center

PRESENTERS:

Shari Seidman DiamondHoward J. Trienens Professor of Law, Professor of Psychology, Director, JD/PhD program, Northwestern University, Pritzker School of Law

Nancy S. MarderProfessor of Law, Director, Justice John Paul Stevens Jury Center, Chicago-Kent College of Law

Paula Hannaford-AgorDirector, Center for Jury Studies, National Center for State Courts, Adjunct Professor of Law, William & Mary Law School

Mary Graw LearyProfessor of Law, Catholic University of America, Columbus School of Law

12:50 – 2:50 P.M.
Break 2:50 – 3:00 P.M.
Panel 4 – Perspectives on Ramos v. Louisiana

Moderated by Professor Robert E. Lancaster, J. Nolan and Janice D. Singletary Professor of Professional Practice, Judge Earl E. Veron Professor of Law, and Director of Clinical Legal Education, LSU Law Center

PRESENTERS:

William SnowdenDirector, Vera Institute of Justice, New Orleans Office

C. Renée ManesAssistant Federal Public Defender, Office of the Federal Public Defender, District of Oregon

3:00 – 4:00 P.M.
Panel 5 – Louisiana’s Civil Jury Threshold: A Roundtable Conversation

Moderated by Judge Guy P. Holdridge, Louisiana First Circuit Court of Appeal, Adjunct Professor of Law, LSU Law Center

PRESENTERS:

Piper D. GriffinJudge, Civil District Court, Orleans Parish

Harry J. “Skip” Philips, Jr.Partner, Taylor, Porter, Brooks & Phillips, L.L.P., Adjunct Professor of Law, LSU Law Center

J.E. Cullens, Jr.Member, Walters, Papillion, Thomas, Cullens, LLC, Adjunct Professor of Law, LSU Law Center

4:00 – 5:00 P.M.

Volume 82 Board Announced!

The Louisiana Law Review Volume 81 Board of Editors is proud to announce the Junior Associates selected to serve on the Volume 82 Board of Editors. The Volume 81 Board received excellent candidates for the Volume 82 Board, and we thank everyone who applied. Serving on the Louisiana Law Review Board of Editors is an incredible honor, and we wish the best of luck to the Volume 82 Board!

Editor-in-Chief

Olivia Guidry

 

Managing Editor

Kennedy Beal

 

Articles Editors

Emma Looney

Andrew Chenevert

 

Production Editors

Victoria Montanio

Casey Thibodeaux

 

Executive Senior Editor

Sara Grasch

 

Senior Editors

Madeleine Breaux

Justine Ware

Christopher Vidrine

Patrick McDonald

Andrew Young

 

Online Editor

Gabrielle Domangue

One – “NIL”: A Score for Student-Athletes in their Fight for Name, Image, and Likeness Rights

Braedon B. Morrow

I. Introduction

Since its inception in 1906, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) has prohibited student-athletes from promoting or endorsing a commercial product or service, even if they are not paid to do so.[1] Put simply, this means that student-athletes may not profit off of their name, image, and likeness (NIL) if they wish to maintain their NCAA eligibility.[2] For decades the system made sense; however, the current modernization of college athletics has given rise to the need for change. In its 2018–2019 fiscal year, the NCAA earned $1.12 billion in revenue, most of which was generated from its Division I Men’s Basketball Tournament.[3] In 2018, all Division I Football Bowl Subdivision schools earned revenues totaling $8.78 billion.[4] College athletics is no longer all about amateurism. Plainly put, it is now a multi-billion-dollar business that allows everyone to make money but the student-athletes themselves. Make no mistake, student-athletes receive several valuable benefits such as a full scholarship, room, board, healthcare, and a stage to showcase their talents to professional scouts, but a blanket restriction on the ability of student-athletes to make money from third parties is outdated and archaic. The issue ultimately boils down to fairness: all non-athlete college students can profit from their name, image, and likeness, but the students who are actually in the public eye, the student-athletes, cannot do so without losing their eligibility to compete.[5]

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Smile and Waive: The Enforceability of Waivers of Liability During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Virginia Stewart

I. Introduction

On March 1, 2020, President Trump proclaimed that the outbreak of coronavirus, or COVID-19, in the United States constituted a national emergency.[1] In response, several states took legislative action in order to protect businesses, among other things, against tort claims related to  COVID-19.[2] The Louisiana Legislature followed other states by enacting Louisiana Revised Statutes § 9:2800.25, which grants to certain types of entities protection from liability for claims related to COVID-19.[3] Although effective June 13, 2020, the law is retroactive to March 11, 2020, when Louisiana declared its state of emergency related to COVID-19.[4] In relevant part, the statute provides:

No natural or juridical person, state or local government, or political subdivision thereof shall be liable for any civil damages for injury or death resulting from or related to actual or alleged exposure to COVID-19 in the course of or through the performance or provision of the person’s, government’s, or political subdivision’s business operations unless the person, government, or political subdivision failed to substantially comply with the applicable COVID-19 procedures established by the federal, state, or local agency which governs the business operations and the injury or death was caused by the person’s, government’s, or political subdivision’s gross negligence or wanton or reckless misconduct. If two or more sources of procedures are applicable to the business operations at the time of the actual or alleged exposure, the person, government, or political subdivision shall substantially comply with any one applicable set of procedures.[5]

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