Impact of the Strict Scrutiny Standard of Judicial Review on Abortion Legislation Under the Kansas Supreme Court’s Decision in Hodes & Nauser v. Schmidt

This paper is focused on a narrow matter, namely, the nature of the standard of judicial review adopted by the Kansas Supreme Court in Hodes & Nauser v. Schmidt. 2 The most important (and decisive) point to emphasize is that the standard of judicial review adopted by the court in Hodes is so rigorous that it is likely to unsettle existing abortion law in Kansas and result in a legal landscape for abortion in this state that is more permissive of abortion than either the current federal standard or the original federal standard established by Roe v. Wade. In order to appreciate the expansiveness of the court’s holding, one needs to understand Roe v. Wade and the 1992 case which altered its impact, Planned Parenthood v. Casey. This paper provides a brief sketch of the key, relevant aspects of those two cases, background which demonstrates the astonishing breadth of the Hodes decision

Pope John Paul II and the Law: Foreword

Given John Paul II\u27s significant presence on the world stage, it is appropriate to ask what his impact might be on particular fields of inquiry or professional vocations. As lawyers, then, we might ask: what were John Paul II\u27s thoughts on the nature of law and jurisprudence? What will be his legacy in terms of the civil law? How can we, as civil lawyers, best mine the rich lode of his intellectual legacy? To begin to answer these questions and to suggest a way forward under the guidance of John Paul II, it is fitting that the Notre Dame Journal of Law, Ethics & Public Policy should publish a symposium issue to honor him and to explore his influence on the law

Parental Rights: In Search of Coherence

The Supreme Court has referred to parental rights as “the oldest of the fundamental liberty interests recognized by this Court.”1 Yet, disagreements about the nature and scope of parental rights have proliferated in recent years

THE MONTREAL PROTOCOL OR THE PARIS AGREEMENT AS A MODEL FOR A PLASTICS TREATY?

The notion that a plastics treaty is necessary is gaining traction, but there is less agreement as to its content. Some, including this author, have suggested that a plastics treaty should be modelled on treaties such as the Montreal Protocol, which sets out a broad commitment to end the use of a particular material and then introduce regulations to ban particular forms of that material over time. This approach has an immediate appeal—it sends a signal to states and to industry that they must change their behaviors and products, while giving time to adapt to the new regulation and develop alternative materials or ways of working. The potential drawback of this approach is that some states simply will not accept such rigid standards. In addition, some states may prefer a second approach that is more obviously rooted in the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities, which assigns different obligations to parties according to their respective capacities. Within the climate change regime, the Paris Agreement takes both approaches, asking states to set their own nationally determined contributions (NDCs) to emissions reductions (common but differentiated responsibilities) and then to revise these NDCs over time through an iterative process to deliver progressively more ambitious targets for emissions reduction (moving toward a ban) or mitigation. In reality, neither approach is entirely suited to regulating plastics, so a new approach to treaty-making is required. This new approach should focus on the outcomes desired rather than the practices that need to be regulated

The Role of Adoption in Dobbs-Era Pro-Life Policy

It is incumbent upon those who wish to provide alternatives to abortion for pregnant women to advance policies that highlight the unique gifts of adoption in a way that ensures it is a meaningful option. Of course, there are many venues for this to occur, whether in education, media, advertising, private initiative, or legislation. The particular policy appropriate for each state will depend on many factors, including the availability of legal abortion

The Meaning of Kansas: Lessons From A Pro-Life Defeat

The recent defeat of a pro-life constitutional amendment in Kansas was not a consequence of strategic overreach, nor was it a rebuke of Dobbs. In fact, it followed from the difficulty of communicating complex legal and political principles, as well as navigating the fear and distortion generated by abortion advocates and their media allies. To help secure a pro-life future, we must learn the correct lessons of the Kansas loss, including the need to harness the emotional power of truthful narrative to shape political choices

Mind-Mindedness in Mothers of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

This document is the Accepted Manuscript version of the following article: Elizabeth Kirk, and Shivani Sharma, ‘Mind-mindedness in mothers of children with autism spectrum disorder’, Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders, Vol. 43-33: 18-26, November 2017. Under embargo until 23 March 2019. The final, published version is available online at DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rasd.2017.08.005.Background: Little is currently understood about the ways in which caregivers represent the internal mental states of their child with autism. Previous research has shown that being mind-minded can limit the experience of parenting stress in typically developing samples. The current study explored mind-mindedness in mothers of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and examined whether this related to the experience of parenting stress. Method: Mind-mindedness was coded from mothers’ descriptions of their child obtained from an online survey (N = 55). A subsample of these mothers also provided data on a non-ASD sibling (n = 27). We compared mothers’ mind-mindedness when describing their child with ASD and a non-ASD sibling. Results: Mothers predominantly described their child with ASD using mental and behavioral attributes. There were no overall differences in mothers’ use of mental state descriptors when referring to their child with ASD or a sibling, however, when considering the valence of descriptors, a significantly higher proportion of the mental attributes used to describe the child with ASD were negative. Associations between mind-mindedness and overall parenting stress failed to reach significance. Conclusions: Parenting a child with ASD does not appear to limit the parent’s ability to tune-in to their child’s mind. Maternal mind-mindedness scores were similar for the ASD and non-ASD sibling, although there were differences in the valence of representations. Being mind-minded did not protect against parenting stress, however we suggest that the high levels of stress experienced by our sample were beyond the protective reach of mind-mindedness.Peer reviewe

Giving voice to equitable collaboration in participatory design

An AHRC funded research project titled Experimenting with the Co-experience Environment (June 2005 – June 2006) culminated in a physical environment designed in resonance with a small group of participants. The participants emerged from different disciplines coming together as a group to share their expertise and contribute their knowledge to design. They engaged in storytelling, individual and co-thinking, creating and co-creating, sharing ideas that did not require justification, proposed designs even though most were not designers …and played. The research questioned how a physical environment designed specifically for co-experiencing might contribute to new knowledge in design? Through play and by working in action together the participants demonstrated the potential of a physical co-experience environment to function as a scaffold for inter-disciplinary design thinking,saying, doing and making (Ivey & Sanders 2006). Ultimately the research questioned how this outcome might influence our approach to engaging participants in design research and experimentation