Is the Contempt Power Obsolete?

Contempt power has been with us for as long as we’ve had courts in this country. Through summary contempt proceedings, judges may imprison any person they deem insufficiently respectful to the authority of the court—with significantly less due process than a person would be entitled to under any other criminal offense. In theory, this is necessary to maintain order in the court. But in practice, summary contempt power is serially and seriously abused. Judges use incarceration to deal with piddling offenses or for no real reason at all. This Article argues that the concept of allowing judges nearly unbridled discretion to jail people for rudeness is outdated and should be reformed

Disparities on Judicial Conduct Commissions

Every state has a judicial conduct commission responsible for investigating complaints against judges and issuing sanctions where appropriate. But the judicial disciplinary system needs fixing. This Article examines 466 cases of public discipline from five states to illustrate the shortcomings of the present system. The status quo hides judicial misconduct from the public, fails to punish judges who abuse their office, and gives judges greater protections than criminal defendants, even when the stakes are lower

The Reprieve Power: May the Uniform Code of Military Justice Limit Executive Clemency?

Article 57 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice states the President may commute, remit, or suspend the sentence, or any part thereof, as the President sees fit. That part of the sentence providing for death may not be suspended. This seemingly contradicts Article 2 of the United States Constitution, which states that the President shall have the power to grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offenses against the United States, except in Cases of Impeachment. This Article looks at whether the power to reprieve offenses includes the power to suspend sentences, including military sentences, and concludes that it does. The historical definition of reprieve, historical practice of presidents, state court interpretations of similar language, and legislative history of Article 57 all indicate that the President may suspend sentences and Congress may not stop him. For practical reasons, challenging Article 57 would be difficult, but a court would likely declare it unconstitutional if a challenge was ever brought

Bulwark of Equality: The Jury in America

Many decry the state of societal inequality in modern America. Juries are not normally thought of as part of the solution, but history shows that they should be. It reveals that juries oftentimes advanced the interests of the poor and lowly when no one else would. It also reveals that powerful interests—government and corporate—have sought to disempower juries that rule in favor of marginalized groups. This Article examines four contexts throughout our history where juries have enhanced societal equality. (1) In early America, they resisted the British government and in the nascent republic were friends to debtors and farmers. (2) When Congress passed fugitive slave laws to enable slaveholders to haul accused runaways back into bondage, Northern juries effectively invalidated the laws. (3) During the Industrial Revolution and railroad boom, juries acted as a check on land seizures and compensated victims of grievous industrial injuries. And (4) throughout the labor movements of the last two centuries, juries tended to support workers agitating for better wages and conditions. Each time, those in power fought back by trying to eliminate or weaken juries in response. And each time, courts or legislatures brought juries to heel. Still, history teaches us the valuable role juries play in creating a more equal society

Task-dependent eye-movement patterns in viewing art

In art schools and classes for art history students are trained to pay attention to different aspects of an artwork, such as art movement characteristics and painting techniques. Experts are better at processing style and visual features of an artwork than nonprofessionals. Here we tested the hypothesis that experts in art use different, task-dependent viewing strategies than nonprofessionals when analyzing a piece of art. We compared a group of art history students with a group of students with no art education background, while viewing 36 paintings under three discrimination tasks. Participants were asked to determine the art movement, the date and the medium of the paintings. We analyzed behavioral and eye-movement data of 27 participants. Our observers adjusted their viewing strategies according to the task, resulting in longer fixation durations and shorter saccade amplitudes for the medium detection task. We found higher task accuracy and subjective confidence, less congruence and higher dispersion in fixation locations in experts. Expertise also influenced saccade metrics, biasing it towards larger saccade amplitudes, advocating a more holistic scanning strategy of experts in all three tasks

Role of Fibrinogen in Vascular Cognitive Impairment in Traumatic Brain Injury

Fibrinogen (Fg) is one of the biomarkers of inflammation and a high risk factor for many cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases. Elevated levels of Fg (hyperfibrinogenemia, HFg) are also associated with traumatic brain injury (TBI). HFg in blood alters vascular reactivity and compromises integrity of endothelial cell layer that ultimately can result in extravasation of Fg and other plasma proteins. Proteins deposited in extravascular space may form plaques which can lead to neurodegeneration. Among these plasma proteins are amyloid beta (Aβ) and/or cellular prion protein (PrPC) that can form degradation resistant complexes with Fg and are known to be involved in memory impairment. The purpose of this chapter is to propose and discuss some possible mechanisms involved in HFg-mediated cerebrovascular dysfunction leading to neuronal degeneration during TBI

Insects as a Source of Phenolic Compounds and Potential Health Benefits

The use of insects in traditional medicine and unveiling the chemical structure of the bright pigments in butterfly wings led to the discovery of bioactive phenolic compounds in the insect bodies. These metabolites have been found not only due to the insect absorption and metabolisation of the plant-derived phenolic present in their diet, but also from the ability of insects to synthesise phenolic compounds de novo through the sclerotisation process. Plant phenolics are secondary metabolites involved in the protection of tissues against UV radiation, herbivores, and pathogens, as well as pigmentation of fruits and flowers. These bioactive compounds exhibit antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anticancer, and antimicrobial activities, demonstrated through in vitro and in vivo studies. This bioactive potential is thought to occur due to their chemical characteristics that allow them to stabilise reactive oxygen species (ROS), chelate prooxidant metal ions, interact with key enzymes and signal cascades involved in biological pathways. Bioactivity of plant phenolics and both in vitro, in vivo studies, suggest that the dietary compounds absorbed by the insect maintain their chemical and bioactive properties. Further characterisation of the phenolic composition in edible insects and evaluation of their bioactive capacity as well as their bioavailability, could result in discovering additional health benefits of entomophagy apart from macro-nutritional (e.g. protein) content