Articles, Essays, & Tributes
Aiming for Answers: Balancing Rights, Safety, and Justice in a Post-Bruen America
By CHAD NOWLAN. Full Text. A foreword to the symposium issue of Minnesota Law Review volume 108.
Firearms Carceralism
By JACOB D. CHARLES. Full Text. Gun violence is a pressing national concern. And it has been for decades. Throughout nearly all that time, the primary tool lawmakers have deployed to stanch the violence has been the machinery of the criminal law. Increased policing, intrusive surveillance, vigorous prosecution, and punitive penalties are showered on gun…
Firearms and the Homeowner: Defending the Castle, the Curtilage, and Beyond
By CYNTHIA LEE. Full Text. In the spring of 2023, a series of back-to-back shootings shook the nation. A Black teenager in Missouri trying to pick up his two younger siblings went to the wrong door and rang the doorbell. The homeowner came to the door with a gun and, without saying a word, fired…
Age Restrictions and the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, 1791–1868
By MEGAN WALSH AND SAUL CORNELL. Full Text. The disproportional misuse of firearms by eighteen-to-twenty-year-olds has long been a problem in America. The concerns are not novel. Nor are legislative responses to this problem a recent development in American law. These limitations are deeply rooted in American legal history. While minimum age gun laws routinely…
Scientific Context, Suicide Prevention, and the Second Amendment After Bruen
By ERIC RUBEN. Full Text. The Supreme Court declared in New York State Rifle & Pistol Ass’n v. Bruen that modern gun laws must be “consistent with this Nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation” to survive Second Amendment challenges. Scholarship has shown how this test of historical analogy presents difficulties because of how technological, legal,…
Trouble’s Bruen: The Lower Courts Respond
By BRANNON P. DENNING AND GLENN H. REYNOLDS. Full Text. New York State Rifle & Pistol Ass’n v. Bruen revolutionized the understanding of how Second Amendment cases are to be adjudicated. Rejecting the tiered-scrutiny analysis around which the lower courts had coalesced since the 2008 Heller decision, the Court instructed courts to look to history…
The Second Amendment’s Racial Justice Complexities
By DANIEL S. HARAWA. Full Text. The relationship between the Second Amendment and racial justice is complicated. That’s because the relationship between pe- nal administration and racial justice is complicated. The briefing in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen perfectly proves this point. A group of public defenders favored striking down New…
Notes
Answering the Call: How Reconfiguration of the Nation’s Mental Health Crisis Call Line Can Facilitate Reimagination of Community Well-Being and Public Safety
By LUCY CHIN. Full Text. When the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline went live in Summer 2022, communities across the country began to confront the question of how this new, expanded behavioral health resource would integrate into the country’s preexisting, emergency response systems. The program seemed to promise the solution to an increasingly visible problem—as…
The Mississippi River Basin Compact: A New Governance Structure to Save the Mississippi River
By JOHN STACK. Full Text. The Mississippi River is one of the most significant and yet one of the most imperiled water bodies in the United States. It faces a myriad of problems, from rampant pollution, widespread flooding, wildlife habitat loss, and considerable droughts. Indeed, this is a critical time for the Mississippi River. Fall…
States’ Obligation to Provide for Trans Youth: How Medicaid Requires (Most) States to Provide Access to Puberty Blockers
By GRACE WORCESTER. Full Text. Over the last few years, many states have endeavored to strip minor access to gender-affirming healthcare, and these efforts have seen considerable success. By the end of 2023, twenty-two states had enacted legislation that limits youth access to gender- affirming healthcare. In line with these efforts, many states have created…
Headnotes
Teaching “Is This Case Rightly Decided?”
By Steven Arrigg Koh. Full Text. “Is this case rightly decided?” From the first week of law school, every law student must grapple with this classroom question. This Essay argues that this vital question is problematically under-specified, creating imprecision in thinking about law. This Essay…
Erasing Racial Harms in CFPB v. Community Financial Services Association
By Callan Showers. Full Text. Professor Allan Freeman’s “perpetrator perspective” explains the normative American legal framework that casts racism as an intentional deviation from an otherwise neutral system. Freeman describes the perpetrator perspective as a negative, remedial dimension casting discrimination as an isolated action by…
Should Courts Make It Personal? Virtue-Dependent Doctrine and the Law of Executive Power
By Michael Coenen. Full Text. With The Virtuous Executive, Professor Alan Rozenshtein has given us an impressive and wide-ranging analysis of the relevance of Presidential character to the law of executive power. The article’s central claim is straightforward: The Constitution reflects a “commitment to proper…
Private-Law Attorneys General
By Molly Shaffer Van Houweling. Full Text. The Constitution empowers Congress to “promote the progress of science and useful arts by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries.” The founding-era Congress quickly exercised this power…
Twins at Bat(son), Strikes Are Out: Minnesota’s Opportunity to Restore Batson v. Kentucky by Eliminating Peremptory Strikes
By Samuel Buisman. Full Text. While the Supreme Court’s decision in Batson v. Kentucky is widely hailed by scholars and jurists alike as a triumph of American egalitarianism, time and trial have unmasked its protections as a paper tiger. Despite its purported protections against racially…
American Fiction: Overturning the Doctrine of Immigration Entry Fiction as Established in Shaughnessy v. Mezei
By Dahlia Wilson. Full Text. In 1886, the Supreme Court decided a case called Yick Wo v. Hopkins, which held that any person physically within the United States’ territory would enjoy the protections of the Fourteenth Amendment, regardless of their immigration or citizenship status. In…
Bounded Entities and (Some of) Their Discontents
By Saurabh Vishnubhakat. Full Text. In his new article An Organizational Theory of International Technology Transfer, Professor Peter Lee offers two richly detailed accounts at once. One is a novel theoretical framework of “bounded entities” that generalizes both from the classic theory of the firm…
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
THE BUILDING BLOCKS OF LIFE: CYBER-TRESPASS, THE FOURTH AMENDMENT, AND PUBLIC ANCESTRY DATABASES
By: William C. G. Wright, Volume 104 Staff Member With the advent of affordable commercial DNA testing services such as 23andMe, Ancestry, and MyHeritage, people are flocking to discover the secrets of their genetic code in unprecedented numbers.[1] Researchers expect more than 74 million people…
TITS UP: WHY IT’S TIME FOR THE SUPREME COURT TO RULE ON TOPLESS ORDINANCES
By: Kathryn Campbell, Volume 104 Staff Member The United States loves to exercise control over cis-women’s bodies.[1] Notably, both federal and state governments seemingly fear the exposure of a cis-woman’s exposed “erogenous” areola—although men have them as well.[2] Perhaps the most archaic way in which…
CAKING ON THE MAKEUP: INCREASED REGULATIONS OF SPECIAL EVENTS HAIR AND MAKEUP ARTISTS IN MINNESOTA
By Michaela Liesenberg, Volume 104 Staff Member Nationwide, the wedding industry generates annual revenue of over $78 billion.[1] As weddings are highly photographed events, spouses-to-be spend an average of $225 on hair and makeup services for their special day.[2] In 2019, Minnesota hosted 31,712 weddings…
LET THEM MAKE WINE: DOES THE MINNESOTA FARM WINERY ACT VIOLATE THE DORMANT COMMERCE CLAUSE?
By: Jenni Oprosko, Volume 104 Staff Member Minnesota has a long and complex history with liquor laws. In the 1800’s, Minneapolis created a quasi-zoning scheme to create areas where existing anti-salon laws would not apply.[1] In 1919 a Minnesotan, Andrew Volstead, introduced the act in…
CHAMBER OF COMMERCE FOR GREATER PHILADELPHIA v. CITY OF PHILADELPHIA: UNSUPPORTED AS A MATTER OF FACT, UNJUSTIFIED AS A MATTER OF LAW
By: Nathan Webster, Volume 104 Staff Member The pay-gap between men and women in the United States is well-established. Hispanic women make 58 cents for every dollar a white man makes.[1] Black women make 67 cents for every dollar earned by a white man.[2] White…
DIRECTIONLESS DIRECTIVES: WHY MINNESOTA SHOULD ESTABLISH AN ADVANCE DIRECTIVE REGISTRY
By: Kaitie Eke, Volume 104 Staff Member In recent decades, advance care planning[1] (“ACP”) has gained momentum in the United States.[2] Through advance directives, a person can communicate their preferences and designate agents to make healthcare decisions on their behalf should the individual become incapacitated.[3]…
WHAT’S THE BEEF? CONTROVERSY SURROUNDING THE LABELING OF PLANT-BASED AND CELL-BASED MEAT
By Lexi Pitz, Volume 104 Staff Member Meat consumption is a long-engrained tradition in the American diet. Recently, many American meat consumers are motivated to consume plant-based meat for reasons such as health, animal welfare,[1] and environmental impact.[2] The booming meat alternative industry lacks federal…
STAR WARS?: THE RISE OF THE SPACE FORCE
By: Sarah Nelson, Volume 104 Staff Member George Lucas’s “Episode IV – A New Hope” served as the impetus for what would become the second-highest grossing movie franchise of all time: Star Wars.[1] The 1977 would-be saga that enthralled audiences worldwide featured Jedi Knights and…
STATES CRYING WOLF: MANUFACTURED CRISIS AND EMERGENCY POWER MANIPULATION
By: Abby Oakland, Volume 104 Staff Member Hong Kong was under siege. Mass protests had been ongoing for months, and the government’s attempts to resolve the dispute had fallen short.[1] Tensions between police and protesters continued to escalate, and in a move sparking global criticism,…
MARRIAGE MIGHT GET MORE EXPENSIVE: CAN BANKS REQUIRE SPOUSES TO GUARANTEE LOANS?
By: Alec Mitchell, Volume 104 Staff Member I. INTRODUCTION The basic concept of a loan is simple: an individual walks into a bank and the bank gives them money on their promise to pay it back, with interest. But what if the bank is worried…
Thirty-Five Years of Inaction: The Unfulfilled Promise of the Medicaid Equal Access Provision
By Delaram Takyar. Full Text. In 1989, Congress amended the Social Security Act to ensure that Medicaid recipients would have the same access to medical providers as people covered by private insurance and Medicare. This was meant to remedy the wide disparities in access to…