Maintaining Educational and Athletic Integrity: How Will Schools Combat Performance-Enhancing Drug Use?

Jun 8, 2007 | Case Comments, Number 4, Print Edition, Volume 40

The recent steroid controversy in professional sports may only be the beginning of this nation’s relationship with physical and cognitive enhancement drugs.  The market for enhancement drugs is growing at an alarming rate, raising serious ethical, legal, and social...

Constitutional Law—The First Circuit Denies Private Parties Standing to Assert Tenth Amendment Commandeering Claims—Medeiros v. Vincent, 431 F.3d 25 (1st Cir. 2005), cert. denied, 126 S. Ct. 2968 (2006)

Jun 8, 2007 | Case Comments, Number 4, Print Edition, Volume 40

The Tenth Amendment reserves state sovereignty where the federal government is not constitutionally authorized to act.  Although states have the right, under the Tenth Amendment, to challenge federal regulatory schemes that “commandeer” state legislatures, it is...

Criminal Procedure—Court of Appeals Independently Reviews Evidence While Claiming to Defer to District Court’s Factual Findings—United States v. Smith, 423 F.3d 25 (1st Cir. 2005), cert. denied, 126 S. Ct. 2287 (2006)

Jun 8, 2007 | Case Comments, Number 4, Print Edition, Volume 40

The United States Constitution guarantees “[t]he right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures.”  A seizure of the person occurs when a law enforcement officer takes control of a person by...

Constitutional Law—Congress’s Authority to Abrogate State’s Eleventh Amendment Immunity Under Title II—Toledo v. Sanchez, 454 F.3d 24 (1st Cir. 2006), cert. denied No. 06-779, 2007 WL 789372 (U.S. Mar. 19, 2007)

Jun 8, 2007 | Case Comments, Number 4, Print Edition, Volume 40

The Eleventh Amendment prohibits private individuals from suing nonconsenting states in federal court. Congress, however, may abrogate a state’s Eleventh Amendment immunity under certain conditions. In Toledo v. Sanchez, the United States First Circuit Court of...

Criminal Law—Federal Sentencing Guidelines Remain an Important Consideration in the Sentencing Process—United States v. Jimenez-Beltre, 440 F.3d 514 (1st Cir. 2006)

Jun 8, 2007 | Case Comments, Number 4, Print Edition, Volume 40

In 1984, Congress enacted the Sentencing Reform Act (SRA) with the purpose of restoring fairness, consistency, and proportionality to the practice of sentencing in the federal courts.  Pursuant to the SRA, Congress adopted the Federal Sentencing Guidelines...

Immigration Law—Nunc Pro Tunc Relief Unavailable Where Erroneous Legal Interpretation Rendered Alien Ineligible for Deportation Waiver—Pereira v. Gonzales, 417 F.3d 38 (1st Cir. 2005)

Jun 8, 2007 | Case Comments, Number 4, Print Edition, Volume 40

An alien convicted of an aggravated felony is deportable from the United States.  Under former section 212(c) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), however, certain classes of lawful permanent residents convicted of deportable offenses are eligible to apply...