The Legal Dimension

Date

1977

Citation

Richard J. Bonnie, The Legal Dimension, in Marijuana: A Study of State Penalties and Policies, The Center, 83–135 (1977).

UVA Law Faculty Affiliations

Richard J. Bonnie

Public Policy and Regulation

Center for Criminal Justice

Health Law

Family Law Center

More in This Category

The Counterintuitive Consequences of Sex Offender Risk Assessment at Sentencing

Megan T. Stevenson

Jennifer L. Doleac

Virginia adopted a risk assessment to help determine sentencing for sex offenders. It was incorporated as a one-way ratchet toward higher sentences...

Trump out on bail – a criminal justice expert explains the system of cash bail

Megan T. Stevenson

For several days, former President Donald Trump and his 18 co-defendants in a Georgia election interference case trickled into the Fulton County Jail...

Bad Faith Prosecution

Ann Woolhandler

Michael G. Collins

Jonathan Remy Nash

In our increasingly polarized society, claims that prosecutions are politically motivated, racially motivated, or just plain arbitrary are more common...

An obscure 1800s law is shaping up to be the center of the next abortion battle – legal scholars explain what’s behind the Victorian-era Comstock Act

Sonia Suter

Naomi R. Cahn

Anti-abortion groups are looking for new ways to wage their battle against abortion rights, eyeing the potential implications of a 150-year-old law...

Informal Sperm Donation and Reproductive Justice

Naomi R. Cahn

Sonia Suter

In the aftermath of Dobbs, as barriers to accessing fertility care increase, one area of growing interest is informal (“DIY”) sperm donation, which...

Law and Orders

Rachel Harmon

Coercive policing is conducted mostly by means of commands, and officers usually cannot use force unless they have ﬁrst issued an order. Yet, despite...

The Supreme Court rules mifepristone can remain available – here’s how 2 conflicting federal court decisions led to this point

Naomi R. Cahn

Sonia Suter

The U.S. Supreme Court issued an emergency ruling on April 21, 2023, that allows continued access to the abortion pill mifepristone in states where...

Addressing the School-to-Prison Pipeline Through Three Nontraditional Pathways

Gerard Robinson

He who opens a school door, closes a prison. – Victor Hugo Analogous to Nathaniel Hawthorne’s critique of his leaders’ decision to use punishment as a...

Error Aversions and Due Process

Gregory Mitchell

Brandon L. Garrett

William Blackstone famously expressed the view that convicting the innocent constitutes a much more serious error than acquitting the guilty. This...

Medication abortion could get harder to obtain - or easier: There's a new wave of post-Dobbs lawsuits on abortion pills

Naomi R. Cahn

Sonia Suter

Medication abortion now accounts for more than half of all abortions in the United States. Typically, patients take a two different pills: first...

Alzheimer’s, Advance Directives, and Interpretive Authority

Charles Barzun

Philosophers have debated whether the advance directives of Alzheimer’s patients should be enforced, even if patients seem content in their demented...

The Problem of “Relevant Experience”

Craig Konnoth

In their intriguing article “Bioethics and the Moral Authority of Experience,” Nelson and colleagues (2023) provide important insight into an...

Does Cash Bail Deter Misconduct?

Megan T. Stevenson

Aurelie Ouss

Courts routinely use low cash bail as a financial incentive to ensure that released defendants appear in court and abstain from crime. This can create...

Gametes: Commodification and The Fertility Industry

Kimberly D. Krawiec

In August of 2021, the American Society for Reproductive Medicine published its most recent opinion on the financial compensation of oocyte (egg)...

Competence for Criminal Adjudication: Client Autonomy and the Significance of Decisional Competence

Richard J. Bonnie

The practice of assessing and adjudicating competence for criminal adjudication in the United States developed largely without assistance from the U.S...

Severe Mental Illness and the Death Penalty: A Menu of Legislative Options

Richard J. Bonnie

In 2003, the American Bar Association established a Task Force on Mental Disability and the Death Penalty to further specify and implement the Supreme...

The Legal Effect of a Record of Delinquency Adjudication on Firearm Access: A Typology of State Statutes and Policies

Brett O. Gardner

Richard J. Bonnie

Katharine M. Janes

...

Gun-related violence and suicide in the United States are serious public health problems that are concentrated among young adults, especially those...

Intimate Privacy in a Post-Roe World

Danielle K. Citron

Now that the Supreme Court has revoked the constitutional right to reproductive autonomy, we must reckon with the risks that our surveillance economy...