Articles, Essays, & Tributes
Bankruptcy as a National Security Risk
By JASON JIA-XI WU. Full Text. Defense contractors lie at the heart of the U.S. national security regime. Each year, over half of the federal defense budget is allocated to contracts outsourcing military operations, projects, and services to private companies. However, defense outsourcing carries a ticking time bomb: mounting private debt. Today, the defense industry…
The Innocence Trap
By CAITLIN GLASS & JULIAN GREEN. Full Text. What makes a conviction wrongful? Developments in DNA science have led to a wave of exonerations over the past thirty years, revealing sources of error in the criminal legal process. Innocence organizations proliferated to represent people whose convictions could be overturned by newly discovered evidence. This is…
Regulatory History and Judicial Review
By TODD PHILLIPS & ANTHONY MOFFA. Full Text. The Administrative Procedure Act (APA) requires federal agencies to simply “incorporate in the rules adopted a concise general statement of their basis and purpose” after they receive comments from the public, and the Supreme Court ruled in Overton Park that courts are to adjudicate whether rules are…
The Crisis in U.S. Cancer Care: Law, Markets, and Privatization
By DANIEL G. AARON. Full Text. Cancer is surging among youth and young adults in the United States, yet, instead of public regulation addressing its root causes, we have outsourced the management of cancer to the private sector. A suite of laws, embodying faith that corporations will cure cancer, has subsidized the cancer biomedical enterprise…
The Poly Problem in Zoning: Redefining “Family” for a Changing Society
By ARIC SHORT & TANYA PIERCE. Full Text. Single-family zoning has long dictated not only where people may live but also with whom. Although extensively critiqued for perpetuating racial and economic exclusion, these laws also privilege relationships defined by blood, marriage, or adoption and marginalize nontraditional families. This Article focuses on a particularly overlooked group:…
Notes
Waging the Battle for Society’s Soul: The Constitutionality of Juvenile Transfer Legislation in the Wake of Jones v. Mississippi
By LOGAN KNUTSON. Full Text. Trying juvenile defendants as adults is a cruel, yet enduring practice in U.S. criminal law. If convicted, these youthful offenders face brutal conditions in adult prison and a lifelong stigma. Although these devastating consequences of conviction are readily apparent, juvenile transfer is insidious even absent a prison sentence or criminal…
The Skidmore Compromise: Interpreting Skidmore as a Tiebreaker to Preserve Judicial Wisdom in the Era of Loper Bright
By MITCHELL ZAIC. Full Text. ‘Law must be stable, and yet it cannot stand still.’ Here is the great antinomy confronting us at every turn. Rest and motion, unrelieved and unchecked, are equally destructive. The law, like human kind, if life is to continue, must find some path of compromise. – Judge Cardozo In the…
Headnotes
Volume 110: Fall Issue
Exceptional Cases
By EMILY CAUBLE. Full Text.
Machine Gun Funk: The Unusual Analysis of “Dangerous and Unusual”
By GREGORY S. PARKS & VIVIAN BOLEN. Full Text.
Nipping it in the Bud: The Promise and Perils of Tort Litigation in Addressing the Health Harms of High-THC Products
By REBEKAH NINAN. Full Text.
Volume 108: Symposium Supplement
A Great American Gun Myth: Race and the Naming of the “Saturday Night Special”
By Jennifer L. Behrens and Joseph Blocher. Full Text. At a time when Second Amendment doctrine has taken a strongly historical turn and gun rights advocates have increasingly argued that gun regulation itself is historically racist, it is especially important that historical claims about race…
Refining the Dangerousness Standard in Felon Disarmament
By Jamie G. McWilliam. Full Text. To some, 18 U.S.C. 922(g) is a necessary safeguard that keeps guns out of the hands of dangerous persons. To others, it strips classes of non-violent people of their natural and constitutional rights. This statute makes it a crime…
“Proven” Safety Regulations: Massachusetts 1805 Proving Law As Historical Analogue for Modern Gun Safety Laws
By Billy Clark. Full Text. Concerned by the public health threats posed by certain firearms, the Massachusetts legislature enacts a law to set safety standards for firearms in the Commonwealth. Firearm dealers across the State, including some of the leading manufacturers of the day, not…
Curbing Gun Violence Under PLCAA and Bruen: State Attorney General–Driven Solutions to the Surging Epidemic
By David Lamb. Full Text. At the same time that the deadly toll of gun violence continues to grow in the U.S., now taking nearly 50,000 lives per year, federal lawmakers and courts have increasingly constrained government authorities’ tools for fighting the epidemic. Pursuant to…
De Novo Blog
INOCULATION INJUSTICE: A FEDERAL RESPONSE TO VACCINE LINE JUMPING
By: Annika Beck, Volume 105 Staff Member The COVID-19 pandemic has generated a variety of antisocial behaviors, from profiteers filling warehouses with disinfectants[1] to tenants demanding sexual favors from clients who are behind on rent.[2] Now that COVID-19 vaccines are available for those at highest…
HAS THAT NATION SIGNED?: HOW THE TENTH CIRCUIT’S DECISION IN MOBLEY CAN RESULT IN SERIOUS IMPLICATIONS FOR INTERNATIONAL PARENTAL KIDNAPPING
By: Cole Benson, Volume 105 staff member The case of United States v. Mobley was decided by the Tenth Circuit on August 21, 2020.[1] Mobley held that defendant parents who are found guilty for international kidnapping are not liable for restitution under 18 U.S.C. §…
STOPPING GAMESTOP’S “GAMESTONK”: WHY COURTS MUST CONFRONT GAMESTOP COLLUDERS AND PROHIBIT OPEN-MARKET MANIPULATION
By: Casey Epstein, Vol. 105 Note & Comment Editor INTRODUCTION Throughout January and into February, online traders frantically purchased GameStop stock, driving the down-on-its-luck company’s stocks into the stratosphere.[1] The GameStop investors—primarily small-scale Reddit users—have openly colluded against large hedge funds with short positions…
TWIST IT, PULL IT, BOT IT: DEVUMI, BOTS, AND THE END OF THE FTC’S POLITICAL NEUTRALITY
By: Lee Silberberg, Vol. 105 Staffer The FTC has broad authority under § 5(a) of the Federal Trade Commission Act to protect consumers from, “unfair or deceptive acts or practices in or affecting commerce[.]”[1] Under this grant of power, the FTC has the broad power…
NOBODY WINS WITH SILENCE: WHY STATE GOVERNMENTS SHOULD LEVERAGE COVID-19 RELIEF TO DETER WORKPLACE GAG ORDERS
By: Frances Daniels, Volume 105 Staff Member INTRODUCTION The year 2020 has brought an unprecedented level of stress into the life of the average U.S. citizen;[1] a global pandemic, a highly polarized political election, civil unrest in the wake of the killing of George Floyd,…
DEFAMATION IN 280 CHARACTERS OR LESS: HOW DEFAMATION CASE LAW SHOULD EVOLVE TO HOLD POLICE ACCOUNTABLE FOR HARMFUL TWEETS
By: Eura Chang, Volume 105 Staff Member On June 1, 2020, people across the nation took to the streets to protest the murder of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police and police brutality.[1] That same day, the Columbus Police Department (CPD), located in…
ACCESS DENIED: @REALDONALDTRUMP AND THE FIRST AMENDMENT
By: Emilie Erickson, Volume 105 Staff Member Although former-President Obama revolutionized using social media for political mobilization,[1] President Trump’s use evolved Twitter into a real political tool “fully integrated . . . into the very fabric of his administration.”[2] From claiming voter fraud[3] to announcing…
WHEN VIRAL VIDEOS BECOME A NATIONAL SECURITY THREAT: TIKTOK INC. V. TRUMP
By: Haille Laws, Volume 105 Staff Member On August 23, 2019, President Donald Trump tweeted that “American companies are hereby ordered to immediately start looking for an alternative to China, including bringing . . . your companies [home] and making products in the USA.”[1] In…
BUT I WANT TO BE FIRST: A COURT’S CURIOUS CHOICE OF REMEDY TO MINNESOTA’S CHALLENGED BALLOT ORDER STATUTE
By: Billy Price, Volume 105 Staffer Before a single general election ballot was cast, commentators were already referring to the 2020 election as “on track to the be the most litigated ever,”[1] thanks in large part to lawsuits concerning the complexities of voting during the…
AN UNEQUAL RIGHT TO VOTE: WHY COURTS SHOULD HOLD THAT DISPROPORTIONATE ALLOCATIONS OF BALLOT DROP BOXES AND POLLING PLACES VIOLATE THE EQUAL PROTECTION CLAUSE
By: Elliot Ergeson, Volume 105 Staff Member Voter suppression is a prominent issue in American elections.[1] One mechanism by which States engage in voter suppression is by closing or limiting the number of polling places in certain areas.[2] During the COVID-19 pandemic, however, many voters…
