Juris Blog

Marriage Settlement Agreements: An Avenue for Children to Enforce Their Parents’ Promises

  By Mariah Mandy, Staff Writer Typically, parents are immune from being sued by their children.  Only in limited circumstances can children actually bring their parents to court. One of these narrow exceptions arises in an unlikely setting – the enforcement of marriage settlement agreements between divorced parents. Marriage settlement […]

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PA Medical Marijuana Industry Off to a Hazy Start

By Jennifer Carter, Staff Writer February 15, 2018 marked the first day that dispensaries in the state of Pennsylvania could legally sell medical marijuana to those with patient identification cards. The first sale occurred nearby at CY+ dispensary in Butler County. Local news reported that customers included the mother of […]

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Snitches Get Riches: The SEC Whistleblower Program

By Kurt Valentine, Staff Writer In 2002, Congress enacted the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) “[t]o safeguard investors in public companies and restore trust in the financial markets following the collapse of Enron Corporation.”[1]  SOX included “the first federal enactment providing whistleblower protection for insiders with knowledge of financial fraud.”[2] In 2010, […]

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Mass Shootings in America: What is the Answer?

By Elizabeth Echard, Staff Writer Since 1966, 1,077 victims, ranging from the unborn to the elderly, have been killed in America in mass shootings.[1] While no universally accepted definition for “mass shooting” exists, these statistics look to the 150 shootings in America where four or more people were killed by […]

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The Constitutionality of Launching Sticky GPS Darts During a High-Speed Car Chase

By Amy Kerlin, Staff Writer On the multiple occasions that the United States Supreme Court opined about vehicles and the Fourth Amendment, it considered competing policy interests like officer safety or an individual’s privacy rights.  These frequently clashing policy interests come to the forefront in the realm of high-speed pursuit […]

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Pennsylvania Supreme Court Calls “Implied Consent” DUI Law into Question

By Kyle Steenland, Associate Editor Pennsylvania’s driving under the influence laws may be unconstitutional after a recent Pennsylvania Supreme Court holding. The Court interpreted the constitutionality of “implied consent” roadway statutes – to which vehicle operators automatically consent by simply using that state’s roads – and their interaction with accidents […]

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How a Court Determines Custody: The Sixteen Factors that Decide a Child’s Future

By Mariah Mandy, Staff Writer A child’s custody is a weighty decision with lasting effects. The role a parent plays influences the child’s environment, which undoubtedly impacts a child’s development. Recognizing the significance of these decisions, the Pennsylvania legislature passed The Child Custody Act.[1] Included in the statute is a […]

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