THE
CIVILIAN CIVILIAN
A STUDENT PUBLICATION FOR THE LSU LAW CENTER COMMUNITY MARCH 2018 | VOLUME 15 | ISSUE 5
#DELETEFACEBOOK Cavett Feazel Staff Writer
Is Facebook spying on you through your phone’s microphone, or is this idea just another internet conspiracy run amok? While millions of people believe Facebook is using their phone’s microphone to listen in on private conversations, the social media giant has defended itself, with Rob Goldman, the head of advertising, tweeting, “We don’t—and have never—used your microphone for ads—just not true.”
The digital conglomerate admittedly uses your phone’s microphone, but not for the Orwellian purposes many would have you believe. As expected, Facebook claims they are not using your microphone to inform ads or change what you see in your newsfeed. The company says that a phone’s microphone is only accessed when a user has granted the Facebook app permission and is using a feature that requires audio, such as recording a video. It should come as no surprise to anyone that Facebook is collecting information on its userbase. The tech-giant is, in all senses, a collector of user data, which
they use to “provide, improve, and develop services.” The information is shared with a wide array of people, apps, and other companies to enhance user experience. However, anecdotal accounts of Facebook’s alleged spying practices have become rampant the past couple of years. You can easily find amateur experiments purporting to show that Facebook is indeed spying on you. These experiments often consist of people discussing a certain topic or placing their phone next to audio in foreign languages. However, these experiments lack any scientific value and a reasonable person would assume that the user has, in one way or another, granted Facebook some level of access to their phone. Most likely, users complaining of the spying allowed access to their phone and simply forgot about it; people do this regularly without questioning the implications. While the company does not spy on people through microphones, Facebook is in deep trouble concerning the ways in which they use and share the information they collect. To further their PR problems, Facebook is facing a scandal in
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THE CIVILIAN | MARCH 2018
Now Entering:
St. George
A village south of Interstate 12 has expressed growing discomfort with Baton Rouge city officials. Citizens of St. George, a selfdeclared 60-squaremile portion of Taylor Falcon southern Baton Staff Writer Rouge, are pushing to become Louisiana’s newest city. Though, in order to do so, the village faces several state requirements. The requirements to become a city are set forth in the Lawrason Act of 1898. This Act establishes what is needed to set up a municipal government in the state of Louisiana. Currently, the St. George initiative needs to satisfy the first requirement of the Lawrason Act. This step entails the signing of a petition of incorporation by 25 percent of the designated population. However, this is not the first time the community has attempted to break away from the City of Baton Rouge. Two years ago, the village attempted a similar plan, an attempt which was met by harsh backlash from city officials and politicians. The mayor at the time, Kip Holden, was largely responsible for the annexation of major properties in southern Baton Rouge such as Celtic Studios and the Mall of Louisiana. These annexations ultimately took away a large revenue base from the proposed city and resulted in legislation that would prevent a similar occurrence to property while there is a proposed vote for apportionment. Now, after a two-year ban on proposals,
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the village is once again collecting signatures in an attempt to put the matter on the ballot. If the initiative is able to get the required signatures, leaders will then need to get the petition certified and submitted to Governor Edwards. Edwards would then need to call for a special election, involving the members of the proposed district, to vote on whether there would be a separate city. Just as before, those in opposition to the movement worry that the creation of a new city will largely impact Baton Rouge’s general fund. According to city officials, the creation of St. George could lower the general fund by as much as $29 Million, a sum which the city claims is enough to fund multiple city departments. Without this funding, citizens of Baton Rouge worry that budget cuts and higher taxes loom on the horizon. Those in support of St. George claim that the proposed hit on the general fund would be manageable for this city and could be done by cutting done the workforce over a few years. In an attempt to appease the community, city officials have proposed offering amenities which could stay the St. George initiative. East Baton Rouge Superintendent Warren Drake stated that there has been approval for two or three schools to be built within South Baton Rouge. Mayor Sharon Weston Broome has also stated that she intends to show the quality and efficiency of services that can be provided in the area. Still, city officials have been vocal about concerns regarding the financial planning of St. George. As it stands, the potential city of St. George still leaves
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The Civilian Staff 2017-2018 Editorial Board Editor-in-Chief Taylor Degruise News Editor Brooklee Hurst Columns Editor Tori Watson Production Editor Randee Iles Web Director Blair Boles
Staff Writers Carlos Coro Connor Fagan Taylor Falcon Cavett Feazel Caitlin Mullaney Rachel Warren
Columnists Joe Cooper Conner Graham Leslie Knowles Adrienne Wood
THE CIVILIAN | MARCH 2018
LETTER FROM THE EDITOR Dear Reader, A lot has happened since our last issue. We celebrated a few of our annual milestones: Barrister’s Bowl and Barrister’s Ball. But, there’s one more big event left, Assault & Flattery. We hope to see you all at the Varsity! Taylor Degruise Editor-In-Chief
With finals approaching faster than anyone would like, it’s appropriate that we opened this issue with an article that might just convince you to delete everyone’s favorite procrastination destination: Facebook. If looming deadlines get to be too
much, you’ll also find a great suggestion for a relaxing brunch! Since March is Women’s History Month, we’ve also included a column celebrating the Women of PMH, as well as part II of our #METOO article series. As always, we’ve tackled some political topics as well. Look for information on the new push to establish the City of St. George, a discussion of how money influnces politics, and a debate on politician morality. Next month, look for our annual April Fool’s issue! Best wishes,
Taylor Degruise Editor-in Chief
SBA ELECTION
s lt u s re
Executive Officers Carlos Coro - President Wesley Davis - Vice-President Christine “CC” Colwell - Secretary Kate Wempe - Treasurer Marianna Knister - Director of Programming 3L Class Officers Meagan Johnson - President Alex Geissman - Vice President Henry Pittman - Secretary Chris Roy & Nena Eddy Representatives
2L Class Officers Danny Bosch - President Reed Kreger - Vice President Peyton Robertson - Secretary Lindsay Rich & Indigo Diekmann Representatives
Amendments Amendment #1 - To change the official name of the SBA to the LSU Law Student Bar Association PASSED Amendment #2 - To insert language regarding the SBA’s non-profit status - PASSED 3
THE CIVILIAN | MARCH 2018
s t a r g n o C
Louisiana Law Review Vo. 79 Board of Editors
Editor-in-Chief
Milton J. Hernandez, IV
Managing Editor
Senior Editors
Production Editors
Bradley C. Guin
Carmen A. Guidry Casey C. Bordelon
Articles Editors
Executive Senior Editor
Christine M. Colwell Nena Eddy
Christopher Handy Anna Reed Sara G. Daniel Danielle M. Kinchen Mary Grace Richardson
Brooke Claire Bahlinger
FACEBOOK CONTINUED...
the wake of revelations that Cambridge Analytica, a data mining and analytics company focused on electoral process strategies, mined data of more than 50 million users under Facebook’s data rules. According to The Guardian, Cambridge Analytica used data derived from Facebook users, without users’ permission or knowledge, to create psychological profiles which were used to influence political elections. In October 2016, Alexander Nix, then CEO of Cambridge Analytica said, “Today in the United States we have somewhere close to four or five thousand data points on every individual. . . . So we model the personality of every adult across the United States, some 230 million people.” Nix was suspended as CEO amidst the recent news.
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Catherine Briley
at which Cambridge was able to do so is tremendous and is reminiscent of George Orwell’s tyrannical Inner Party, infamous for their public manipulation. Cambridge’s use of the data may have affected recent U.S. elections, including the 2016 Presidential race. Certainly, Congress will investigate the alleged wrongdoing and provide more information as that investigation unfolds. While Cambridge’s use of the data may implicate campaign finance laws, among other things, it is important to point out that the data was collected legitimately through Facebook’s archaic privacy policies, making the company complicit in the immoral underpinnings that comprise the data mining enterprise.
Today in The United STates, we have somewhere close to four or five thousand data points on every individial... Alexander Nix
While profiling for political reasons is not new, the scale
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Online Editor
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George Orwell warned 69 years ago that Big Brother would disrupt privacy rights. The means employed in the famous 1984 novel may be extreme compared to today’s technologies, but they do lead to questioning how technology is being used and if those technologies are being used in a moral fashion.
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Barrister’s Bowl
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THE CIVILIAN | MARCH 2018
Part two:
The Aftershock There is a social change occurring, social dynamics are changing, and things once spoken about in hushed tones are being brought to light and. #MeToo and #TimesUp are two phrases that are impossible for anyone with a social media account not to be aware of. Both movements came into the national spotlight and conversation as a result of the Caitlin Mullaney events discussed in Part One of this feature, Staff Writer as powerful men both in Hollywood and out began to fall as a result of sexual harassment allegations – the movements began to rise.
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On October 15, 2017, exactly ten days after the initial New York Times article about the Harvey Weinstein allegations was published, Alyssa Milano one of Weinstein’s accusers tweeted, “If all the women who have been sexually harassed or assaulted wrote ‘Me too’ as a status, we might give people a sense of the magnitude of the problem.” Thus, the social viral-ness of the Me Too movement, spurred by the hashtag of the same name began.
reaching throughout the United States and beyond, with individualized hashtags arising out of over 85 countries including Afghanistan, Canada, Ethiopia, Germany, Palestine, Kenya, Pakistan, India and China. There have also been narrowed hashtag movements that have arisen to draw attention to sexual harassment issues in specific areas such as #MeTooK12, #MeTooMilitary, and #ChurchToo. On December 6, 2017, the week after Matt Lauer was fired, Time magazine’s Editor-In-Chief was present on the Today show to announce that the “Silence Breakers” - the women and men of the #MeToo movement had been selected as Time’s 2017 Person of the Year. The Time cover featured six women of the movement in recognition of their “galvanizing actions.” Ashley Judd, one of the first women to come forward with allegations against Weinstein; Taylor Swift, who made headlines in a court case against a former radio DJ, who groped her; Susan Fowler, a former Uber engineer who spoke out about Uber’s culture of harassment; Adama Iwu, a Visa lobbyist who spearheaded a campaign to expose sexual misconduct in California politics; Isabel Pascual, a “pseudonym for a woman from Mexico who works picking strawberries and was one of 700,000 female farm workers to march in solidarity against sexual assault; and most notable the sixth woman whose face cannot be seen; who represents the unnamed women and men who have told their stories anonymously.
If all the women who have been sexually harrassed or assaulted wrote “me Too” as a status, we might give peoplem we might give people a sense of the magnitutde of the problem. Alyssa Milano
Within the first 24 hours of Milano’s tweet being posted, #MeToo had been tweeted more than 500,000 times and used by 4.7 million people in 12 million posts on Facebook, with showings of support and personal ‘Me Too’ stories coming from women (and men) around the world. Shortly after her initial tweet Milano took to twitter again, acknowledging an earlier creation of the Me Too movement by Tarana Burke, a social activist and community organizer who created the phrase back in 2006 on Myspace as part of a grassroots campaign to promote “empowerment through empathy” among women of color who had experienced sexual abuse. The Me Too movement has had a resounding effect
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One of the most visible results of the Me Too movement was the creation of the Time’s Up movement, which was officially founded on January 1, 2018 by a large group of Hollywood celebrities. The Times Up movement created in conjunction with a letter published in Time magazine in November 2017, written by the Alianza Nacional de Campesinas the letter was a showing of solidarity to the Hollywood women CONTINUED ON PAGE 8...
THE CIVILIAN | MARCH 2018
Family Day
2018
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THE CIVILIAN | MARCH 2018
d e r e tt a l F , d e lt au
Bring your
Ass
Masses to the Varsity
Law school requires a sense of humor. As a study break, many law students turn to comedy shows like Trevor Noah’s The Daily Show, John Oliver’s Last Week Tonight, and Samantha Bee’s Full Frontal. But these shows pale in comparison to the law school classic, Assault and Flattery, which features a live law school audience, Connor Fagan professor appearances, and drink Staff Writer specials for those who need to numb the pain of being roasted. After months of preparation, the Assault and Flattery Committee is proud to present skits, sketches, and more at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, April 4 at the Varsity Theatre. Much like The Daily Show writers, the Assault and Flattery Committee has professional staff that works hard to truly make the show special. According to members of the Committee, Assault and Flattery is a well-humored roast of professors, classmates, and friends. Assault and Flattery is not just a roast, it is a legendary rite of passage for upperclassmen. Even before attending LSU Law, this THE AFTERSHOCK CONTINUED...
involved in exposing the sexual abuse allegations against Harvey Weinstein. The Times Up movement was founded with four core initiatives advocating for legislation to punish companies that tolerate persistent harassment, moving toward gender parity in studio and talent agencies, and calling for women to wear black on the red carpet of the 75th Golden Globe Awards, an initiative that was adopted by both men and women alike with all but three women wearing black on the red carpet.
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writer had already heard of Professor Trahan’s infamous rap, accurately titled “Gunning Down Gunners.” Other past Assault and Flattery skits have involved similar raps, “Unnecessary Censorship” with Professor Church, and “Mean Girls-style” improvisations featuring Professors Carter, Carroll, Sautter, and Lonegrass. For 1Ls, who are generally in their own first year bubble, the Assault and Flattery’s high-brow humor might be difficult to grasp, since many jokes are geared toward poking fun at upperclassman. Not to worry, Class of 2020, the upperclassmen company, professor cameos, and drink specials make Assault and Flattery an event worth missing a night of studying. Like past shows, this year’s Assault and Flattery is sure to be a memorable event. Assault and Flattery is a tradition beloved by students and professors alike, as evidenced by passionate performances from professors like Yiannopoulos and Trahan. This year’s Assault and Flattery Committee is poised for another historic roast of professors, students, and faculty. This author, along with the rest of PMH, is on the edge of his seat. The fourth initiative of the Times Up movement was a $13-million legal defense fund, administered by the National Women’s Law Center, to support lower-income women seeking justice for sexual harassment and assault in the workplace. While the initiative started at $13-million, as of the end of February the fund had raised over $21-million and has already started filing with lawsuits. As these lawsuits continue to be filed and the movements continue to gain momentum, this is just the beginning of social dynamic tidal change.
THE CIVILIAN | MARCH 2018
ST. GEORGE CONTINUED...
many questions unanswered. The movement, which started as Other opponents to the movement have called attention an attempt to form a new school district within the area, now to the neighborhoods not included in the proposed city. must include plans for all basic city functions. Gardere, which is largely an African-American and Hispanic Absent from the financial plans are both a police department community, was in the original 2015 proposal, but is notably and a school district. Critics say that with the addition of absent in the 2017 proposal. While St. George organizers a school district, the city will not be able to hold on to its claim this is because the community did not want to be claim of maintaining tax levels. David Barrow, a former included, others have noted that the 2017 proposal lacks chief administrative officer of Central, which split from ethnic diversity and looks like a “white flight.” Baton Rouge in 2005, claims St. George’s calculations used population to estimate the amount to be spent on city services. A such, Barrow expressed concern that the population size may not indicate the amount that the city should spend for services.
Going forward, it is unclear whether St. George will be successful in its bid for incorporation. Nevertheless, citizens have left this city with a choice. Address the problems of a portion of the community or risk losing another part of Baton Rouge.
(BR)unch PSA: The Pelican House is permanently closed. I know that because I tried to have brunch there this past Sunday. Not to worry, though. Olive or Twist was there to save the day! As far as back-up plans go, this one was a winner.
We arrived around 11:00 a.m., only to be informed that the wait would be 30 Leslie Knowles minutes to an hour . . . Columnist and that’s how we knew we needed to try it! I will say this was one of the most comfortable waiting-for-a-table experiences I’ve ever had. The entire bar area (couches included) is self-seating, and the bottomless mimosa special is available at the bar. At $10.00, it’s not the cheapest bottomless deal I’ve ever encountered, but it’s certainly not the worst either. The service was very impressive; servers came by with pitchers of mimosas and refilled our glasses each time they got past the halfway point. The wait flew by, and the service remained excellent after we got seated. The menu, while not extensive, is unique and features quite a bit of variety. If you
are looking for something sweet, the bananas foster French toast will certainly satisfy your sweet tooth. And if you are in the mood for something savory, the menu features a wide variety of Louisiana-inspired dishes like boudin crepes topped with andouille and tasso white beans, or BBQ shrimp-topped gorgonzola grit cakes. All entrees are served with a choice of fruit or skillet potatoes and cost around $10.00. I decided on the Eggs Boudreaux, an eggs benedict-inspired dish with buttermilk biscuits instead of English muffins as the base, and andouille instead of ham as the meat. The food did take a little longer than I am used to; however, the service was so good that I barely noticed. All in all: our mimosa glasses were never empty, and the food came out warm and looking fit for an Instagram photo (and tasted as good as it looked). Given the amount of food you get, and the care they put into preparing it, everything is very reasonably priced. If you are looking for a comfortable place to have a drink, watch the game, and enjoy some delicious brunch food, Olive Twist on Perkins Palm is a great choice! Brunch is served from 11:00 am to 2:00 pm.
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THE CIVILIAN |MARCH 2018
He S a i d ,
PMH on Politics:
Why do we care about the private lives of politicians? Why do we pay attention to the TV screen and the scintillating details of yet another scandal involving someone in power doing the dirty with another woman? There is an easy answer: it is actually interesting. So much of politics is boring. Simply look at last week’s omnibus spending bill. It was 2,332 pages long detailing $1.3 Conner Graham trillion worth of spending. No one has the Columnist attention span for that. You know what is much more fun than going line by line through appropriations bills? Finding out which playboy bunnies the president did NOT sleep with. That’s important, right? That is TOTALLY going to make a bigger impact on my life and well-being than the $1.3 TRILLION worth of tax-payer money my elected officials just voted to spend because you know what, maybe, just maybe, if our politicians could just have sex with their spouses they might not need to spend so freaking much of our, yes OUR money! This brings us back to why these scandals are reported on so widely. News media only reports things for two reasons: viewers want to tune in to find out about it, or they can use it to push an electoral outcome. Sex scandals by politicians check both boxes. Simply look no further than the Governor’s mansion S-Curve of death just a few traffic-jam clogged miles north of our stately oak-shaded inspiring halls to see how a good sex scandal can change the political landscape of a state or a country. John-Bel Edwards defeated 3-time Senator David Vitter to become governor of a relatively red state by hammering his opponent on his decade-old scandal involving an alleged tryst with a high-class D.C. call girl. Vitter’s refusal to acknowledge the attacks and to debate opponents resulted in his candidacy being defined by that scandal, despite having been re-elected to the Senate years after the scandal had become common knowledge. John-Bel used that scandal to convince Christian voters, especially in uber-conservative North Louisiana, to vote for him over the alleged diaper-wearing deviant. The strategy worked. John-Bel Edwards, was elected governor, of the Great State of Louisiana.
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So I guess the real question is not “why do we care,” but maybe “should we care”? After all, does one’s sex-life really have a major impact on their ability to manage the responsibilities of elected office? It is easy to look back at history and see dozens of men who accomplished great things while also bedding a multitude of women outside of their marriages. Clearly, adultery did not hold back John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr., Huey P. Long, Edwin Edwards, Bill Clinton, or Franklin Delano Roosevelt from accomplishing great things which have lasted the test of time, so why should we write off candidates like Donald Trump and David Vitter as being marked untouchable by their misdeeds? Perhaps the real answer is that morality is relative, and so is politics. Success in politics requires not only the perceived quality of one candidate, but also that of the one they are running against. While some politicians seem to recover from sex scandals, others are brought down by them. Perhaps the answer is that we, as people, naturally see sex outside of marriage as an offense, but not the most damning one possible. People naturally trust adulterers less because if they cannot be trusted to be faithful to someone who could divorce them at a moment’s notice and take half of their accrued assets with them, what collateral do “we the people” really have? How can we expect them to be honest and responsible to make decisions impacting our lives with our money? The truth is, when people have the opportunity to replace an adulterer with a statesman who hasn’t been known to break their marital vows, with all else being equal, the adulterer loses. John-Bel ran a fantastic campaign, hit Vitter where he was weak, and presented himself as an honest moderate alternative to his political adversary. Hillary Clinton failed to capitalize on one of arguably the greatest sex-scandal soundbites in American political history because she simply could not convince enough Americans that she would be more trustworthy than a man who cheated on multiple wives with models and porn stars. The American people have shown that they often do not put up with serial adulterers, but they still trusted one more than Hillary Clinton. The truth is: Americans care about our politician’s sex lives, but only so much. Or, maybe they just care when the adulterer is running as a Republican. Either way, our country just added another trillion dollars to the national debt.
THE CIVILIAN | MARCH 2018
S h e S a i d morality in politics The era of Trump has sparked some interesting considerations of moral relativism, especially given the recent scandal involving Stormy Daniels. Witnessing staunch evangelicals flock to a thrice-married man with children from multiple marriages, numerous alleged affairs with playboy models and porn stars, Adrienne Wood and video recordings bragging about sexual assault has been nothing short of shocking. Columnist The logical gymnastics required to defend Trump by the religious right has ranged from less creative excuses (“blame the ‘liberal media’”) to the slightly absurd (“God uses rulers who aren’t godly themselves”). At the end of the day, does it matter if our leaders are good and moral, or should Americans stop obsessing about personal matters and focus on the public service at hand? Let’s take a look at some of Europe’s finest leaders. First, France’s President Emmanuel Macron has a noteworthy love story with
his wife, Brigitte, which began when Macron was just a 15-year-old boy crushing hard on his 39-year-old married teacher. Despite the 24-year age gap and Macron’s parents’ attempt to separate the couple by sending him off to Paris for his final year of school, their love endured and they married in 2007. Although Macron’s popularity is plummeting over his economic and employment policies, the French people can’t get enough of his 64-year-old wife. Would a scandalous relationship like this end an American politician’s career? In 2006, Mark Foley, a member of the United States House, resigned over revelations that he had been sending sexually explicit emails to teenage male congressional staffers. More recently, Roy Moore, a former congressional candidate from Alabama, lost what should have been an easy win when numerous women came forward and alleged inappropriate behavior by Moore when they were teenagers and he was a local prosecutor. Clearly, American voters do prefer their politicians to uphold the wholesome and family friendly values they run on. CONTINUED ON PAGE 13...
Congratulations
Manfred Lachs Space Law Moot Court Competition Team (Zach Miller and Max Robert) were named North American competition champions, and they won Best New Team
National Admiralty Law Moot Court Competition Purple Team (Jessie Finley, Sara Kuebel and Jacob Cunningham) were named National Champions and won Best Brief award
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THE CIVILIAN | MARCH 2018
n Of pmh e m o W Many students at PMH are familiar with our famous female graduates - like the first woman to be elected to the Louisiana Supreme Court, Catherine “Kitty” Kimball, and current Chief Justice of the Louisiana Supreme Court, Bernette Johnson. However, there are students and faculty here that are making history before our eyes.
field for her. She began taking intellectual property classes based only on a recommendation from a classmate. While she generally enjoyed practicing intellectual property law, teaching was a stronger draw, and she became a law professor at LSU in 2005. While there were few female faculty members here when Professor Lockridge joined, she notes that there has been a steady increase of female professors joining the faculty in recent years.
Anyone who has taken a class with Associate Dean Andrea Carroll knows that she means business. From her rapid-paced teaching style to her no-nonsense attendance policies, Associate Dean Carroll is known to be a stickler for performance. However, she’s not without reason for her rigorous requirements. She believes that the academic rigor that LSU Law students experience prepares them well for law practice. Associate Dean Carroll knows what it takes to convert good students into great lawyers, and she herself is a shining example of how academic success can translate into success in practice. She finished her undergraduate degree from LSU with high honors, received her J.D. from PMH, and went on to clerk for the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and to work as an associate at a large Texas law firm. Associate Dean Carroll returned to Baton Rouge and to PMH because of her love for teaching. After more than a decade of teaching at the Law Center, her passion for education propelled her into an associate deanship, and she now enjoys working with both students and faculty to improve the Law Center every day. Associate Dean Carroll is an example of excellence for many students here at PMH who continue to look to her to show them the way to success. Of course, she recommends hard work, and as Associate Dean Carroll always says, “It ain’t rocket science!”
Professor Lockridge seems to “have it all”—a successful career and a family—but she cautions against using the phrase “having it all.” She advises students that “it” is different for each person, and that we should try to take the long view of our lives and careers. She shared some advice from one of her mentors: “You can have it all, just not at the same time.” In other words, you don’t have to achieve all of your goals in the next five or ten years. Professor Lockridge is an excellent example of how taking the long view can lead to great results.
Candace Square Columnist
Another favorite professor amongst students is Lee Ann Lockridge. Professor Lockridge has the unique perspective of being a woman whose career goals have changed over time. She began law school wanting to work in environmental science and law before realizing that this wasn’t the right
97%
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of firms report their top earner is a man, and nearly 70% of firms have 1 or no women in their top 10 earners.
19%
These professors have been inspirational to many of our female students, particularly 1L Breana Harris. A pioneer in her own right, Breana is the first Black woman to be elected to president of her class. When asked what women inspire her, Breana quickly mentions former first lady Michelle Obama and Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg, both successful lawyers who reached the highest levels of achievement in our country. Breana is not only attempting to emulate these women through her service as class president, but has been involved with helping women become free from domestic violence and troubled personal situations for years before she came to PMH. Her interest in the areas of law that affect women began when she served as Advocacy and Awareness Chair at the Houston Area’s Women Center helping victims of abuse. She hopes that she will leave behind a legacy of change both in how students see women generally and women of color particularly. As women still face challenges such as pay inequity or implicit bias against them in the workplace, these three women have proven that societal barriers cannot stand in the face of persistent achievement. of equity parters in firms are women, despite being hired in nearly equal numbers as men at the associate level.
31%
of Louisiana state court judges were women in 2016, the same as the national statistic.
THE CIVILIAN | MARCH 2018 SHE SAID CONTINUED...
Another unusually popular European politician who has had his fair share of scandals is Italy’s infamous Silvio Berlusconi. Just a quick Google search of Berlusconi reveals multiple assgrabbings, serial philandering, and a slew of raunchy jokes. Despite all of this incriminating evidence, Italians love him! In addition to Berlusconi’s media empire, he is also a fourtime PM of Italy, which ended in his resignation over a tax fraud conviction. Even so, he’s currently making a political comeback. Are Italian voters more merciful than their American counterparts? Former President Bill Clinton might represent Americans’ ability to forgive our politicians better than anyone else. Miraculously, he had his highest approval ratings (73% on December 19-20 1998) during his impeachment hearings. The Monica Lewinsky scandal happened in his second term; would Clinton have won another election if it had happened in his first term? What does this say about us? Do we enjoy the scandals while they are happening but we value our vote too much to expend it upon someone that we don’t deem “moral” or “wholesome?” The biggest political scandals seem to occur where candidates portray themselves one way, until their secrets come to light that show a less decent side. The greatest recent example of voter betrayal is Tim Murphy, the former Congressional
Representative from Pennsylvania, who was known for being a staunch conservative and adamantly pro-life; that is, until it came out that he had an extramarital affair and then asked his mistress to have an abortion. Needless to say, he tendered his resignation rather quickly. Would an event like this ruin a politician who was openly pro-choice? Someone who was open about his or her “sexcapades”? What makes democracy so beautiful is that even the most uninformed and downright stupid voters have a voice that is equal to the rich, powerful, and educated. Some people vote on the issues, some vote based on whether there is an “R” or “D” next to the name, and some just vote with their gut. Those who vote with their natural instincts want to feel like they can trust their public officials and, at the end of the day, no matter how great a politician is, scandals leave voters with a feeling of distrust. Public trust in our officials in Washington is at a historic low Maybe it is time for our politicians to take the European approach and own their shadiness. If they want to earn voters trust, perhaps they should be their authentic selves, warts and all, and let the voters make up their minds. We all have our own skeletons in the closet. Lets all agree to cut the crap and stop expecting our representatives in government to be sexless and vanilla angels.
Congratulations
Journal of Energy Law and Resources Volume VII Board Editor-in-Chief Leah Catherine Voth Managing Editor Laura Pousson Notes and Comments Editor Wesley Davis Senior Articles Editor Brandon Pang
Production Editors Matthew Braquet Michael Heaton Senior Editors Bret Guepet Marianna Knister Will Patrick Emily Tastet
Online Articles Editor Spencer Johnson 13
THE CIVILIAN | MARCH 2018
More Money,
More Problem$ Hollywood has always had its hand in politics, but more recently, stars like Jennifer Lawrence have been doing their part to encourage more young people to get involved.
Lawrence announced in February that she planned to take a year-long break from acting to venture into the political world. Rachel Warren For the next year, she’ll be working with Staff Writer Represent.Us, a nonpartisan organization dedicated to fighting corruption in American politics. The non-profit organization was founded in November 2012, but has become more well-known in recent years thanks to its celebrity supporters like Lawrence, Kerry Washington, J.J. Abrams, and Spike Jonze, all of whom are listed as members of the organization’s Creative Council.
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Federal Election Commission and it receives or spends more than $1,000 during a federal election. Federal multi-candidate PACs can only legally contribute $5,000 to a candidate or candidate committee per election and $15,000 to a political party per year. Each PAC may also donate up to $5,000 of its funds to another PAC. A new type of PAC emerged in 2010 — the Super PAC. Super PACs can accept unlimited donations from individuals and corporations. They can use their funds to support or oppose candidates, but they’re prohibited from contributing directly to parties or candidates. Under most state laws, Super PAC donors may remain anonymous — a practice which Represent.Us says encourages corruption and allows the country’s wealthiest citizens to directly influence elections.
It Doesn’t Actually Matter who we have in office, these problems are According to the website, under Going To Exist. Jennifer Lawrence organization’s the Anti-Corruption Act,
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The group’s Advisory Council spans the political spectrum — it’s comprised of college and law school professors, CEOs, presidents of major companies, and even Louisiana’s own former governor, Buddy Roemer.
“any organization that spends meaningful funds on political advertisements is required to file a timely online report disclosing its major donors.”
According to its website, Represent.Us advocates for the American Anti-Corruption Act, a model policy for local, state, and federal laws intended to fix broken elections, stop political bribery, and end what it calls “secret money.”
The act would also make it illegal for politicians to accept money from lobbyists. Lawrence explained her stance in an interview in Marie Claire magazine last month:
This “secret money” is donated by anonymous donors in an attempt to influence an election through Political Action Committees (“PACs”). PACs are organizations dedicated to collecting monetary contributions. The PACs can then donate those funds to a party or specific candidate, use them to campaign for or against a candidate, or use the funds to support legislation.
“The more I educated myself on our government and our economic system, the more I realized everything that I care about—from the environment to public education, public healthcare, and immigration – is all affected by corruption. It doesn’t actually matter who we have in office, these problems are going to exist. That is what we have to fix.”
An organization becomes a PAC when it registers with the
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The organization encourages individuals to advocate for the Anti-Corruption Act at state and local levels to bypass the
THE CIVILIAN | MARCH 2018 issues they would likely face at a Congressional level. Represent.Us boasts more than 40 chapters across the country, though none have been founded in Louisiana. But if newspaperconducted polls are any indication, the organization’s numbers may continue to rise. The New York Times conducted a poll in 2015 to gauge Americans’ opinions of money and politics. According to that poll, 84 percent of the respondents believe money has too much influence in American political campaigns, while five percent believed it has too little influence and ten percent believed the amount of influence is just enough. These Respondents were asked to choose from three statements: 1) On the whole, the system for funding political campaigns works pretty well and only minor changes are necessary to make it work better; 2) There are some good things in the system for funding political campaigns but fundamental changes are needed; and 3) The system for funding political campaigns has so much wrong with it that we need to completely rebuild it.
In response, 46 percent said the system should be completely rebuilt, 39 percent said it needed fundamental changes, and 13 percent said it required only minor changes. A more recent poll conducted by The Washington Post and the University of Maryland in Oct. 2017 showed only four percent of respondents strongly believed the current political system in the United States was functional and 31 percent somewhat believed it was functional, while 27 percent believed the system was strongly dysfunctional and 37 percent believed it was somewhat dysfunctional. Of the respondents in the 2017 poll, 24 percent identified as Republican; 34 percent identified as Democrat; 31 percent identified as Independent and ten percent identified as “other.” In another section of the poll, 65 percent of respondents assigned “a lot” of the blame for dysfunction on money in politics and 31 percent assigned it “some” of the blame. Only four percent assigned no blame and one percent had no opinion.
Barrister’s Bowl Raises Over
$13,000 for Geaux Teal! 15
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THE CIVILIAN | MARCH 2018
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