The Legal Eagle’s winter 2025 issue contains articles on the NCAA settlement and how it will transform college sports, as well as banning cellphones in school. In addition, a sneak peek of an article that will appear in NJSBF’s new publication, Constitutionally Speaking. The first edition will be devoted to the U.S. Supreme Court. A PDF of the Legal Eagle’s winter 2025 edition can be downloaded or individual articles can be read and/or printed from The Legal Eagle’s blog, The Lowdown.
Any questions, contact the editor of The Legal Eagle, Jodi L. Miller. She can be reached via email at jmiller@njsbf.org.
Here are the headlines from The Legal Eagle’s Winter 2025 Issue:
Cracking Down on Cellphone Use in School
For years, teachers have been competing with cellphones for students’ attention in class. In an effort to cut down on the distractions that cellphones cause, 18 states have passed either total bans or restrictions on using them in school, according to an analysis by Education Week.
In September 2024, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed the Phone-Free Schools Act into law, joining Indiana, Minnesota, Ohio and Virginia, in requiring that all schools adopt a policy to restrict cellphone use during the school day. For example, Indiana enacted a law that went into effect in July 2024 prohibiting students from using “any portable wireless device,” including cellphones, tablets and laptops, while class is in session. The ban may be lifted in emergencies, for health reasons or if the phone is needed for a student’s Individualized Education Plan (IEP).. READ MORE
NCAA Settlement Transforms College Sports
Whether college athletes should be paid to play their sport has been debated for decades. Some say that student athletes provide the labor that generates revenue for their school so why shouldn’t they reap the benefits. Others say scholarships and eventual degrees from top tier schools should be payment enough.
For the first time, beginning with the 2025-2026 academic year, college athletes from Division 1 schools will be eligible to receive direct payments from their universities for participation in their school’s sports teams. Division 1 represents sports programs operating at the most competitive level among the three existing divisions in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). The NCAA counts 363 Division 1 schools among its membership. READ MORE
SNEAK PEAK–Is the U.S. Constitution Dead or Alive?
When the U.S. Constitution was written in 1787 it took at least 30 seconds to load a musket. Could the framers of the Constitution have envisioned automatic weapons? In a time when writing daily letters was the norm could they have imagined the legal issues related to email, texting or the internet?
How do courts, from lower courts all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, interpret the U.S. Constitution to decide 21st Century issues? Two schools of thought on interpreting the U.S. Constitution—originalism and living constitutionalism—take differing views.
Stay tuned for Constitutionally Speaking, the latest publication from the New Jersey State Bar Foundation. The first edition will be published in February 2025.
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