HIRING SHOULDN’T GIVE LICENSE FOR FIRING: AFFORDING THE SAME ACTOR INFERENCE APPROPRIATE WEIGHT By: Bailey Drexler, Volume 101 Staff Member In 1991 the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals articulated what would come to be known as the “same actor inference” in the context of employment discrimination cases. In Proud v. Stone,[1] the court announced that…

SEE YOU IN COURT: ANALYZING JUDGE GORSUCH’S VIEWS ON THE SEPARATION OF POWERS By: Nathan Rice, Volume 101 Staff Member Judge Neil M. Gorsuch has been cast into a political warzone since his nomination on January 31 to fill the late Antonin Scalia’s now long-vacant seat on the Supreme Court.[1] As he prepares for his…

COMPARING AND CONTRASTING THE LEGAL CHALLENGES TO PRESIDENT TRUMP’S TRAVEL BAN By: Richard Canada, Volume 101 Staff Member In the whirlwind first month of Donald Trump’s tenure as President, perhaps no issue has been as controversial or received as much attention as the Executive Order banning travel to the United States from a group of…

LEGAL ANALYSIS OF TRUMP EXECUTIVE ORDER ON REFUGEES By: Stephen Meili, Clinical Professor in Law, University of Minnesota Law School† On January 27, 2017, President Trump issued an Executive Order (“Order”) curtailing entry to the U.S. by immigrants, non-immigrants and refugees in three significant ways: (1) Creating a 120-day moratorium on the U.S. refugee resettlement…

DEFYING CONSERVATIONIST ETHICS: A LOOK AT PRESIDENT TRUMP’S ENERGY PLAN By Karrah Johnston, Volume 101 Staff Member Over the course of his presidential campaign, President Donald Trump routinely championed former President Theodore Roosevelt’s conservation legacy. Trump continually asserted that he would follow in the “great environmentalist[’s]” footsteps by bolstering domestic production of energy resources such…

MICROSOFT CORP. V. UNITED STATES: SHOULD CONGRESS REVISE THE STORED COMMUNICATIONS ACT? By: Adam Frudden, Volume 101 Staff Member On July 14, 2016, the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit issued its ruling in the case of Microsoft Corp. v. United States.[1] The long-awaited decision pertaining to the scope of the Stored Communications Act…

THE PRESIDENTIAL CLEMENCY POWER AND CHELSEA MANNING: AN ORIGINALIST PERSPECTIVE By: Caitlin Opperman, Volume 101 Staff Member On his last day in office, President Obama commuted the sentences of 330 people serving time for drug offenses, bringing the total number of commutations issued throughout his presidency to 1,715.[1] Issued mostly throughout his second term, President…

UNPRECEDENTED: PRESIDENT TRUMP’S DIVIDED LOYALTIES By: Emily Atmore, Volume 101 Staff Member Donald Trump’s prominence as an international businessman has raised widespread concerns about conflicts of interest in his newest venture: as President of the United States.[1] Legal experts have relied on a little known section of the Constitution, the Emoluments Clause, in calling on…

READING THE TEA LEAVES OF PRETEXTUAL PROTECTIONISM: THE FUTURE OF THE U.S.-CUBA RELATIONSHIP By: Charles Barrera Moore, Volume 101 Lead Online Editor In the wake of the death of Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, both President Obama and President Trump acknowledged that the United States is faced with a crucial moment in its relationship with the…

WHEN FOOD TURNS DEADLY: CRIMINAL LIABILITY FOR RESTAURATEURS THAT DISREGARD PATRONS FOOD ALLERGIES By: Taylor Gess, Volume 101 Staff Member On January 28, 2016, the mother of a five-year-old girl used Panera’s online ordering system to purchase a grilled cheese sandwich for her peanut-allergic daughter.[1] The order’s special instructions section stated “peanut allergy is having…