Constitutional Torts: Combining Diverse Doctrines and Practicality

Constitutional Torts is, in part, a response to our sense that the upper level curriculum could be improved by courses that bring together areas of doctrine that are often studied in isolation. We think there is substantial value in bringing together seemingly disparate areas of doctrine that bear on a common real-world problem. Students benefit from learning how to put together concepts from different substantive areas in order to solve problems they will face in practice

Governmental Inaction as as Constitutional Tort: DeShaney and Its Aftermath

DeShaney v. Winnebago County Department of Social Services is the Supreme Court\u27s first major effort to define the scope of state and local governments\u27 affirmative obligations under the fourteenth amendment. The Court rejected liability against a county welfare agency and a caseworker for failing to prevent a father from severely beating his four-year-old son. The Court intimated that constitutional affirmative duties exist only where the plaintiff is in the state\u27s custody. Scholarly commentary reads the case as announcing a sweeping prohibition against the imposition of affirmative duties in other contexts. Professors Eaton and Wells demonstrate that the DeShaney opinion is more ambiguous and less categorical than the preliminary scholarly consensus suggests. They argue that much of the Court\u27s reasoning supports a more discriminating treatment of constitutional affirmative duties; one that acknowledges the various ways in which the state may play a part in making someone vulnerable to harm. Although in DeShaney\u27s aftermath some lower courts embrace the sweeping prohibition view of the Supreme Court\u27s opinion, many other courts examine the state\u27s role in exposing the plaintiff to danger. Professors Eaton and Wells prefer the latter approach, arguing that it should be combined with an inquiry into the governmental defendant\u27s state of mind, an issue the Court did not address in DeShaney

Affirmative Duty and Constitutional Tort

The Constitution ordinarily places only negative restrictions on government and does not require affirmative acts to assist individuals. The statutory vehicle for most constitutional tort litigation, 42 U.S.C. section 1983, echoes this constitutional principle. It extends liability to [e]very person who ... [under color of state law] subjects, or causes to be subjected, any ... person to the deprivation of federal rights, and makes no provision for a duty on governmental defendants to stop others from harming the plaintiff. For some courts this principle disposes of affirmative duty claims forthwith. A noteworthy example is the recent seventh circuit case Bowers v. DeVito. A man released from a state mental hospital killed a woman, and her estate brought a constitutional tort action against the officials responsible for his release. The court denied liability, explaining that [t]he Constitution is a charter of negative liberties, that it does not require ... the state to provide ... even so elementary a service as maintaining law and order, and that as the State of Illinois has no federal constitutional duty to provide such protection its failure to do so is not actionable under section 1983. In spite of these constitutional and statutory principles, other courts have upheld affirmative duty claims in constitutional tort. Their opinions, however, do not adequately explain the foundation and scope of these affirmative duties. In particular, they do not respond to the rationale of Bowers, that constitutional tort is available only to redress violations of constitutional rights. This Article argues that the Bowers principle is wrong. It examines the issues of doctrine and policy that bear on the affirmative duty question in constitutional tort and contends that affirmative duties may be imposed even though constitutional rights are generally negative in character, as a matter of federal constitutional common law. It develops a foundation in doctrine and policy, so far lacking in the opinions, to support these duties and to place proper limits upon them

Fault Slip and Exhumation History of the Willard Thrust Sheet, Sevier Fold‐Thrust Belt, Utah: Relations to Wedge Propagation, Hinterland Uplift, and Foreland Basin Sedimentation

Zircon (U‐Th)/He (ZHe) and zircon fission track thermochronometric data for 47 samples spanning the areally extensive Willard thrust sheet within the western part of the Sevier fold‐thrust belt record enhanced cooling and exhumation during major thrust slip spanning approximately 125–90 Ma. ZHe and zircon fission track age‐paleodepth patterns along structural transects and age‐distance relations along stratigraphic‐parallel traverses, combined with thermo‐kinematic modeling, constrain the fault slip history, with estimated slip rates of ~1 km/Myr from 125 to 105 Ma, increasing to ~3 km/Myr from 105 to 92 Ma, and then decreasing as major slip was transferred onto eastern thrusts. Exhumation was concentrated during motion up thrust ramps with estimated erosion rates of ~0.1 to 0.3 km/Myr. Local cooling ages of approximately 160–150 Ma may record a period of regional erosion, or alternatively an early phase of limited... (see full abstract in article)

Why Constitutional Torts Deserve a Book of Their Own

Over thirty years ago, Marshall Shapo coined the term constitutional tort to denote a suit brought against an official, charging a constitutional violation and seeking damages.\u27 In the years since Shapo\u27s pathbreaking article, the number of such suits has grown exponentially.\u27 The suits have generated a host of new substantive and remedial issues, yet conventional casebooks on constitutional law and federal courts give little attention to the area. That Professor Shapiro had four books to include in his review of “Civil Rights” casebooks in the Seattle University Law Review is some indication of a demand for teaching materials currently unmet by federal courts and constitutional law casebook offerings. The premise of our book is that “constitutional torts” present a sufficiently large and complex group of problems to warrant a casebook and a course of their own. We will first discuss why constitutional tort issues tend to receive inadequate attention in courses and casebooks on constitutional law and other civil rights topics. Then we will explain the pedagogic advantages of having a separate offering on constitutional torts

Translational evaluation of cytochrome P450-derived epoxyeicosanoids in non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH)

Non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) is an emerging public health problem without effective therapies. Cytochrome P450 (CYP) epoxygenases metabolize arachidonic acid into bioactive epoxyeicosatrienoic acids (EETs), which have potent anti-inflammatory and protective effects. However, the functional relevance of the CYP epoxyeicosanoid metabolism pathway in the pathogenesis of NASH remains poorly understood. Our studies demonstrate that both mice with methionine-choline deficient (MCD) diet-induced NASH and humans with biopsy-confirmed NASH exhibited significantly higher free EET concentrations compared to healthy controls. Targeted disruption of Ephx2 (the gene encoding for soluble epoxide hydrolase) in mice further increased EET levels and significantly attenuated MCD diet-induced hepatic steatosis, inflammation and injury, as well as high fat diet-induced adipose tissue inflammation, systemic glucose intolerance and hepatic steatosis. Collectively, these findings suggest that dysregulation of the CYP epoxyeicosanoid pathway is a key pathological consequence of NASH in vivo, and promoting the anti-inflammatory and protective effects of EETs warrants further investigation as a novel therapeutic strategy for NASH.Doctor of Pharmac

Risky Asset Substitution in the Insurance Industry: An Historical Example

In the 1980s, life insurers sold guaranteed investment contracts (GICs) to pension plan sponsors, then backed these contracts with portfolios heavily weighted with higher risk assets such as common stocks and junk bonds. Ultimately this caused considerable loss, and history has repeated itself in many respects in recent years via holdings of equities and mortgage-backed securities. We evaluate the risky asset substitution in the life insurance industry from an historical perspective to determine if organizational form or other factors might be rationale for managerial decisions to engage in asset substitution. We find evidence that stock insurer managers are more likely than their mutual counterparts to engage in this type of risky asset substitution. Our findings provide rich ground for future research as the subprime mortgage and credit default swap debacles unfold, as well as public policy implications for insurance regulators concerned with the fiscal health of the insurance industry

Risk factors for COPD exacerbations in inhaled medication users: the COPDGene study biannual longitudinal follow-up prospective cohort.

BackgroundDespite inhaled medications that decrease exacerbation risk, some COPD patients experience frequent exacerbations. We determined prospective risk factors for exacerbations among subjects in the COPDGene Study taking inhaled medications.Methods2113 COPD subjects were categorized into four medication use patterns: triple therapy with tiotropium (TIO) plus long-acting beta-agonist/inhaled-corticosteroid (ICS ± LABA), tiotropium alone, ICS ± LABA, and short-acting bronchodilators. Self-reported exacerbations were recorded in telephone and web-based longitudinal follow-up surveys. Associations with exacerbations were determined within each medication group using four separate logistic regression models. A head-to-head analysis compared exacerbation risk among subjects using tiotropium vs. ICS ± LABA.ResultsIn separate logistic regression models, the presence of gastroesophageal reflux, female gender, and higher scores on the St. George's Respiratory Questionnaire were significant predictors of exacerbator status within multiple medication groups (reflux: OR 1.62-2.75; female gender: OR 1.53 - OR 1.90; SGRQ: OR 1.02-1.03). Subjects taking either ICS ± LABA or tiotropium had similar baseline characteristics, allowing comparison between these two groups. In the head-to-head comparison, tiotropium users showed a trend towards lower rates of exacerbations (OR = 0.69 [95 % CI 0.45, 1.06], p = 0.09) compared with ICS ± LABA users, especially in subjects without comorbid asthma (OR = 0.56 [95% CI 0.31, 1.00], p = 0.05).ConclusionsEach common COPD medication usage group showed unique risk factor patterns associated with increased risk of exacerbations, which may help clinicians identify subjects at risk. Compared to similar subjects using ICS ± LABA, those taking tiotropium showed a trend towards reduced exacerbation risk, especially in subjects without asthma.Trial registrationClinicalTrials.gov NCT00608764, first received 1/28/2008

Inbreeding depresses altruism in a cooperative society

In some animal species, individuals regularly breed with relatives, including siblings and parents. Given the high fitness costs of inbreeding, evolutionary biologists have found it challenging to understand the persistence of these inbred societies in nature. One appealing but untested explanation is that early life care may create a benign environment that offsets inbreeding depression, allowing inbred societies to evolve. We test this possibility using 21 years of data from a wild cooperatively breeding mammal, the banded mongoose, a species where almost one in ten young result from close inbreeding. We show that care provided by parents and alloparents mitigates inbreeding depression for early survival. However, as adults, inbred individuals provide less care, reducing the amount of help available to the next generation. Our results suggest that inbred cooperative societies are rare in nature partly because the protective care that enables elevated levels of inbreeding can be reduced by inbreeding depression