Criminal Terms
By Anna Roberts. Full Text. Core terms used by criminal legal academics bolster the criminal system and ward off radical critique. They do this by conveying implicit messages of three types: that the criminal system is generally accurate, that it is necessary, and that it is well-intentioned and moving in the right direction. While recent…
Continue ReadingLocalism, Pretext, and the Color of School Dollars
By Derek W. Black. Full Text. Educational inequality is embedded in the structure of education itself. School districts, not individual schools, are the gatekeepers of educational opportunity. Racial isolation exists between school districts, not within them. Enormous funding gaps exist between neighboring school districts, sometimes in the same city, but not within them. These fault…
Continue ReadingTattoos, Norms, and Implied Licenses
By Aaron Perzanowski. Full Text. This Essay considers the legal questions raised by a recent flurry of tattoo copyright disputes and their intersection with industry norms. In particular, Perzanowski argues that public displays, reproductions, derivative works, and other uses of tattoo designs fall within the scope of a broad implied license when they are employed…
Continue ReadingAn (Un)reasonable Expectation of Privacy? Analysis of the Fourth Amendment When Applied to Keyword Search Warrants
By Helen Winters. Full Text. In the “digital age,” perpetual changes in technology have brought increased opportunities for exchanges of personal data between individuals and third parties. Often, this information-sharing is a necessity to fully participate in modern society. Yet, investigative techniques such as reverse keyword search warrants have called into question the applicability of…
Continue ReadingSchool Curricula and Silenced Speech: A Constitutional Challenge to Critical Race Theory Bans
By Dylan Saul. Full Text. In 2021, conservative politicians, activists, and media personalities ignited a culture war over teaching critical race theory (CRT) in public schools. Something about this manufactured conflict struck a chord with American voters: school board meetings have devolved into screaming matches, education became a critical wedge issue in elections across the…
Continue ReadingPublic Law, Private Platforms
By Andrew Keane Woods. Full Text. Our law—both our constitutional law and much of our statutory law—has long drawn a fraught distinction between public and private domains. Indeed, debates about the public/private distinction date as far back as liberalism itself. But today’s private digital platforms strain that distinction to a new degree. Platforms have become…
Continue ReadingAmericans, Beyond States and Territories
By Tom C.W. Lin. Full Text. For over a century, the law has systemically marginalized over three million Americans living in the unincorporated Territories of the United States. The law has long defined the Territories homogenously and subserviently to States. It has segregated the rights and privileges of citizenship between those living in States and…
Continue Reading“Can You Hear Me Now?”: The Right to Counsel Prior to Execution of a Cell Phone Search Warrant
By Nathaniel Mensah. Full Text. As advances in technology allow law enforcement to gain ever more expansive surveillance powers, the criminal justice system scrambles to keep up. The Fourth Amendment has been the primary vehicle through which modern criminal procedure has adapted to new technologies. That limited approach risks undue harm to criminal defendants and…
Continue ReadingDeals in the Heartland: Renewable Energy Projects, Local Resistance, and How Law Can Help
By Christiana Ochoa, Kacey Cook, and Hanna Weil. Full Text. Rural communities in every windblown and sun-drenched region of the United States are enmeshed in legal, political, and social conflicts related to the country’s rapid transition to renewable energy. Organized local opposition has foreclosed millions of acres from renewable energy development, impeding national and state-level…
Continue ReadingThe Old Hand Problem
By Xiao Wang. Full Text. Senior status is a special form of retirement for federal judges. When a judge takes senior status, they open a vacancy on their court, yet continue to hear and decide cases. Most active judges today eventually go senior. Yet many do not do so the very moment they become eligible.…
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