The Human Journey Toward Justice: Reflections in the Wake of the Murder of George Floyd from a Community of Practitioners
By Dr. Raj Sethuraju et al. Full Text. Dr. Raj Sethuraju, Brent Lehman, Natasha Lapcinski, Taylor Saver, Kara Beckman, and Dr. Tamara Mattison are all restorative justice practitioners in the Twin Cities metro area. This Article examines the community impact following the killing of George Floyd.
Continue ReadingEducational Adequacy Challenges: The Impact on Minnesota Charter Schools
By Wendy Baudoin. Full Text. This Article explores the challenges to the educational systems in Minnesota, analyzing the history of public education and segregation within the Midwest.
Continue ReadingCorrection of Monumental Judicial Malpractice: The Case for Clearing Secessionist and Slaveholding Symbols of “Justice” from the Courthouse
By Michael J. Pastrick, Esq. Full Text. This Article illustrates the reasoning behind why historical figures who engaged in or supported slavery and segregation in the United States cannot symbolize justice today, and calls on courts to replace such antiquated figures to better symbolize equal justice for all.
Continue ReadingReassessing the Judicial Empathy Debate: How Empathy Can Distort and Improve Criminal Sentencing
By Warren Cormack. Full Text. This Article examines the science of empathy, suggesting that attempts to remove it from the courtroom may have been counterproductive and that a more equitable society may require a thoughtful embrace of empathy in legal decision making.
Continue ReadingRefunding the Community: What Defunding MPD Means and Why It Is Urgent and Realistic
By JLI Vol. 39 Editorial Board. Full Text. Minnesota Journal of Law and Inequality’s (JLI) editors trace the history of policing in the United States since its colonial days, outline the decades of failure to achieve meaningful progress in Minneapolis, and advocate for the redirection of MPD funding to violence prevention and alternative responses.
Continue ReadingThe $2 Billion-Plus Price of Injustice: A Methodological Map for Police Reform in the George Floyd Era
By David Schultz. Full Text. Professor David Schultz conducts a methodological exploration of what it would take to reform the institution of policing in the United States.
Continue ReadingGeorge Floyd’s Legacy: Reforming, Relating, and Rethinking Through Chauvin’s Conviction and Appeal Under a Felony-Murder Doctrine Long-Weaponized Against People of Color
By Greg Egan. Full Text. Ramsey County Public Defender Greg Egan takes an empirical look at second-degree felony murder convictions sentenced from 2012 through 2018 in Hennepin and Ramsey counties to detail the racial inequities in Minnesota’s felony-murder doctrine.
Continue ReadingEntrenched Racial Hierarchy: Educational Inequality from the Cradle to the LSAT
By Kevin Woodson. Full Text. For my contribution to this special issue of the Minnesota Law Review, I will attempt to situate the problem of black underrepresentation at America’s law schools within the broader context of racial hierarchy in American society. The former has generated an extensive body of legal scholarship and commentary, centering primarily…
Continue ReadingThe Nineteenth Amendment as a Generative Tool for Defeating LGBT Religious Exemptions
By Kyle C. Velte. Full Text. In the summer of 1920, women gained the right to be free from discrimination in voting when the Nineteenth Amendment was ratified. One hundred years later, in the summer of 2020, LGBT people gained the right to be free from discrimination in the workplace when the U.S. Supreme Court…
Continue ReadingReclaiming the Long History of the “Irrelevant” Nineteenth Amendment for Gender Equality
By Tracy Thomas. Full Text. The Nineteenth Amendment has been called an “irrelevant” amendment. The women’s suffrage amendment has been deemed insignificant as a constitutional authority, reduced to a historical footnote. In the Supreme Court canon, it has been diminished as a text that “merely gives the vote to women.” With the accomplishment of that…
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