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The Old Hand Problem

By Xiao Wang | January 31, 2023

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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Article

Deals in the Heartland: Renewable Energy Projects, Local Resistance, and How Law Can Help

By Christiana Ochoa, Kacey Cook, and Hanna Weil | January 31, 2023

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…

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Article

“Can You Hear Me Now?”: The Right to Counsel Prior to Execution of a Cell Phone Search Warrant

By Nathaniel Mensah | January 31, 2023

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…

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Article

Americans, Beyond States and Territories

By Tom C.W. Lin | January 31, 2023

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…

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Article

Public Law, Private Platforms

By Andrew Keane Woods | January 31, 2023

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…

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Note

School Curricula and Silenced Speech: A Constitutional Challenge to Critical Race Theory Bans

By Dylan Saul | January 31, 2023

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…

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Note

An (Un)reasonable Expectation of Privacy? Analysis of the Fourth Amendment When Applied to Keyword Search Warrants

By Helen Winters | January 31, 2023

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…

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Articles, Essays, & Tributes

“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

Americans, 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

Public 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

The 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.

Deals 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

Notes

An (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

School 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

Headnotes

Term Limits and Embracing a Political Supreme Court

By Guha Krishnamurthi. Full Text. In the run up to the 2020 Presidential election, then-candidate Joseph R. Biden, Jr. lamented the increasing dysfunction of the United States Supreme Court and campaigned on rectifying the august institution. This was indeed part of Biden’s general message: a return to norms, normalcy, and mutual respect. The problems with

A Century of Business in the Supreme Court, 1920–2020

By Lee Epstein and Mitu Gulati. Full Text.  A decade and a half into its life, we ask: how pro-business is the Roberts Court? Using a simple objective measure—how often does business win in the Court when it is fighting a non-business—we find that the Roberts Court may be the most pro-business Court in a

Handling the Mayo Powder Keg: Emphasizing Preemption in § 101 Biotechnology Inquiries

By Zachary M. Robole. Full Text.  To incite a jury’s emotions, attorneys have stated that the “clear and convincing” evidentiary standard required to invalidate a patent is the same standard of proof required to justify taking a child away from a parent. Although such statements are likely an evidentiary rule violation, the point is illustrative

“What Has Always Been True”: The Washington Supreme Court Decides That Seizure Law Must Account for Racial Disparity in Policing

By Aliza Hochman Bloom. Full Text. In June, the Washington Supreme Court held that courts must consider an individual’s race as part of the totality of circumstances when determining whether that individual has been seized by a police officer. Like the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, Washington’s parallel constitutional provision requires that the determination

Antitrust Reformers Should Consider the Consequences of Mandatory Treble Damages: What the Admonition Against Putting New Wine in Old Wineskins Can Teach Us About Antitrust Reform

By Henry J. Hauser, Tiffany L. Lee, and Thomas G. Krattenmaker. Full Text. The debate over antitrust reform is reaching a crescendo. Several proposals have been introduced in Congress and state legislatures to expand the scope of substantive antitrust rules governing marketplace behavior. Missing from the current discussion, however, is careful consideration of whether these

De Novo Blog

LEGAL LIMBO: THE STATE OF ABORTION CARE FOR MINORS IN MINNESOTA AFTER DOE v. STATE OF MINNESOTA

November 15, 2022

By: Mary Fleming, Volume 107 Staff Member Even before Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization brought abortion to center stage at the U.S. Supreme Court, Minnesota abortion law was being litigated in state court.[1] In May of 2019, two advocacy organizations, the Lawyering Project and Gender Justice, filed a complaint in the Second Judicial District…

HOW COMPELLING DOES COMPELLING HAVE TO BE?: A MISSED OPPORTUNITY TO REFRAME A COMPELLING GOVERNMENTAL INTEREST IN AFFIRMATIVE ACTION IN THE STUDENTS FOR FAIR ADMISSIONS CASES

November 3, 2022

By: Chad Nowlan, Volume 107 Staff Member This fall the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in two cases brought by Students for Fair Admissions (SFFA), a self-described “nonprofit membership group of . . . students, parents, and others who believe that racial classifications and preferences in college admissions are unfair, unnecessary, and unconstitutional.”[1] The two…

THE ONUS OF TRANSPARENCY: STATE OF WASHINGTON v. META PLATFORMS, INC. ILLUSTRATES THE FIGHT OVER REASONABLE CAMPAIGN FINANCE DISCLOSURE LAW AND FIRST AMENDMENT PROTECTED SPEECH VIOLATIONS

November 2, 2022

By: Lindsay Maher, Volume 107 Staff Member Campaign finance disclosure laws are being questioned and limited in states across the country. In many states, legislatures have passed laws to prevent future requests for disclosure to non-profit organizations that donate to political candidates or parties.[1] In others, disclosure laws already in place are being challenged.[2] The…

MIXED MESSAGING: PREVIEWING 303 CREATIVE AND ITS PLACE IN CURRENT FREE SPEECH JURISPRUDENCE

November 1, 2022

By: Samuel E. Ferguson, Volume 107 Staff Member This term, the Supreme Court of the United States will decide 303 Creative LLC v. Elenis.[1] The Court will decide whether a Colorado public accommodation law violates the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment by compelling a website designer to speak or stay silent about her…

UN(PrEP)ARED: HOW BRAIDWOOD v. BECERRA COULD LEAVE PUBLIC HEALTH OFFICIALS SCRAMBLING

October 31, 2022

By: Tyler Blackmon, Volume 107 Staff Member On September 7, 2022, a federal district court granted summary judgment to an employer who refused to cover an anti-HIV, pre-exposure prophylaxis drug (PrEP) because doing so would make that employer “complicit in facilitating homosexual behavior.”[1] The judge, Reed O’Connor (N.D. Tex.), previously tried to overturn the entire…