Articles, Essays, & Tributes
The Bogeyman of Environmental Regulation: Federalism, Agency Preemption, and the Roberts Court
By KAMAILE A.N. TURČAN. Full Text. In a trio of environmental cases—West Virginia v. EPA, Sackett v. EPA, and Loper Bright v. Raimondo—the Roberts Court curtailed the federal regulatory power and produced corresponding deregulatory outcomes under seemingly neutral legal principles. This Article interrogates the doctrinal coherency of the Roberts Court’s jurisprudence by applying the rationales…
Filling the Sackett Gap: The Private Governance Option
By MICHAEL P. VANDENBERGH, ELODIE O. CURRIER STOFFEL, and STEPH TAI. Full Text. The Supreme Court’s decision in Sackett v. EPA reversed fifty years of federal Clean Water Act wetlands protections and removed federal oversight from roughly half of the wetlands in the United States. This Article proposes a viable new conceptual model and tools…
The Impact of Loper Bright v. Raimondo: An Empirical Review of the First Six Months
By ROBIN KUNDIS CRAIG. Full Text. One of the most impactful decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2023–2024 term was Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, which overruled the forty-year-old administrative law doctrine of Chevron deference. This doctrine allowed federal agencies to interpret ambiguities in the statutes that they administer. Courts cited Chevron over 18,000 times…
Water Flowing Down Wall Street
By VANESSA CASADO PÉREZ. Full Text. Water scarcity is a perennial problem with dire consequences for the United States and governments around the world. A lack of adequate water resources is a systematic cause of environmental harm, economic damage, and societal division. Climate change has exacerbated these problems making water even more valuable and essential.…
The Four Horsemen of the New Separation of Powers: The Environmental Law Implications of West Virginia, Sackett, Loper Bright, and Corner Post
By ERIN RYAN. Full Text. This Article explores how several of the Supreme Court’s most recent environmental decisions—West Virginia v. EPA, Sackett v. EPA, and Loper Bright v. Raimondo—will shift the constitutional balance of power, and how the polity might respond. Under the pretense of safeguarding legislative power, they consolidate judicial power to decide regulatory…
Catching Nutrients in a Net: Collective Action, Institutional Impediments, and the Mississippi River Watershed
By JONATHAN ROSENBLOOM. Full Text. Thousands of local governments in the Mississippi River watershed possess regulatory land use authority. From a narrow law and economics standpoint, when these entities extract from, add to, or pollute the watershed, it may appear as a classic tragedy of the commons problem. The tragedy sounds something like this: local…
Renewable Energy Federalism 2.0
By DANIELLE STOKES. Full Text. Much like climate change, the clean energy transition presents a “super wicked” problem that is further complicated by prioritizing justice. History has taught us that government regulation, industry innovation, and community engagement are the catalysts of effective transitions. Similarly, the just energy transition requires the support of these interconnected networks.…
The Clean Water Act and Avoidance Creep
By JACK H.L. WHITELEY. Full Text. In Sackett v. EPA, the Supreme Court set out a test for the Clean Water Act’s jurisdiction over wetlands. The Act, the Court held, protects only those wetlands that have a continuous surface connection to relatively permanent bodies of water like streams, rivers, and lakes. If the connection lies…
Environmental and Energy Regulation Reformation: Challenges and Solutions After West Virginia v. EPA, Sackett v. EPA, and Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo
By SHANNON SCHOOLEY. Full Text. A foreword to the symposium issue of Minnesota Law Review volume 109.
Notes
Definite Convictions: United States v. Alt and the Seventh Circuit’s Prohibition on Defining “Beyond a Reasonable Doubt”
By SAMUEL BUISMAN. Full Text. The Seventh Circuit prohibits judges and attorneys from defining “beyond a reasonable doubt” to jurors. While United States v. Alt crystalized this prohibition in early 2023, the circuit has effectively banned definition of the phrase for much longer. Yet, a growing consensus of psychological research into the standard reveals that…
As Punishment for Arrests: Involuntary Servitude Under the Housekeeping Exception to the Thirteenth Amendment
By ELISSA BOWLING. Full Text. The Thirteenth Amendment reads: “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.” Yet, in contemporary American jails and prisons, pretrial detainees have been forced to perform…
May Contain Peanuts, Eggs, and a “Natural” Solution: How to Challenge Food Manufacturers’ Harmful Use of Precautionary Allergen Labels
By JJ MARK. Full Text. Food allergies are one of the most pressing health issues of our time. Around thirty-three million Americans currently have food allergies, thirteen million of which are severe or life-threatening. These numbers continue to increase at alarming rates, with an estimated one in thirteen children being diagnosed with food allergies every…
Protecting Minnesota’s Whistleblowers: Ending the Application of McDonnell Douglas to the Minnesota Whistleblower Act
By EDDIE C. BRODY. Full Text. Whistleblowers are critical to society, speaking out to protect the public from corporate and government wrongdoing. Employers often retaliate against employees who speak out, attempting to deter employees from blowing the whistle. Whistleblower protection statutes seek to protect those who suffer from retaliation, providing a judicial remedy for whistleblowers.…
Forgotten Victims: Exploring the Right to Family Integrity as a Form of Redress for Children of Wrongfully Convicted Parents
By EMILY BYERS OLSON. Full Text. Almost five million children in the United States have had a parent incarcerated at some point in their lives. Children who grow up with an incarcerated parent face immense challenges, including mental health issues, problems at school, economic hardship, and the propensity to participate in criminal activity themselves. When…
“Key” Tam: Giving Teeth to Federal Data Security Enforcement
By BRANDON STOTTLER. Full Text. Data breaches wreak havoc on data-handling entities, weigh heavily on the minds and hearts of breach victims, and elude the efforts of regulators and scholars alike. Since 2005, declared the “Year of the Data Breach,” every year has seen an increase in the number and impact of breaches. Data breaches…
150 Years of Detox: How Inadequate Dietary Supplement Regulation Undermines Consumer Safety in the Weight Loss Industry
By CHLOE CHAMBERS. Full Text. Prior to the passage of the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906, the American food and drug market was a proverbial “wild west,” fraught with charlatans, snake oil salesmen, and manufacturers cutting costs at the expense of consumers. The Pure Food and Drug Act, along with the Food, Drug,…
Asking the Right Questions: An Emergency Action Exception to the Major Questions Doctrine
By MARK HAGER. Full Text. Congress delegates broad discretionary power to administrative agencies to respond to emergency situations, taking advantage of their extraordinary expertise and response speed. Yet these delegations are defined by a judicial rule known as the “Major Questions Doctrine.” The Major Questions Doctrine seeks to protect the separation of powers by preventing…
Who Watches the Watchers?: FINRA, Self-Regulatory Organizations, and the Next Evolution of Appointment and Removal Jurisprudence
By HANS M. FRANK-HOLZNER. Full Text. There are private, non-profit corporations exercising significant executive power. Known as self-regulatory organizations (SROs) these non-governmental organizations make binding rules and sometimes enforce statutory law governing massive industries. One such SRO is the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA). In 2022 alone, FINRA permanently barred 227 individuals and suspended 328…
Building Bridges: Queer Rights in and out of the Courts
By KAZ LANE. Full Text. It is unclear whether the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment prohibits states from differentiating between people based solely on their sexual orientation and/or gender identity. This Note analyzes the Supreme Court’s tiers of scrutiny—rational basis review, intermediate scrutiny, and strict scrutiny—to argue that a new suspect class is…
Headnotes
Commodification, Precarity, and Identity: A Review of Professor Bridget Crawford’s Taxing Sugar Babies
By TESSA DAVIS. Full text.
The Liminality of Transactional Relationships
By VICTORIA J. HANEMAN. Full Text.
Tax Talk and Taxing Sugar Babies
By BLAINE G. SAITO. Full Text.
John Roberts’ Supreme Court: The Triumph of Partisanship and Ideology Over Precedent
By DAVID SCHULTZ & JACOB BOURGAULT. Full Text.
Critical Curriculum Design: Teaching Law in an Age of Rising Authoritarianism
By RACHEL LÓPEZ. Full Text.
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
PICKING UP THE FLAG ON ILLEGAL PROCEDURE: WHY RULE 41 OF THE FEDERAL RULES OF CRIMINAL PROCEDURE NEEDS TO BE UPDATED WITH THE TIMES
By: Geoff Koslig, Volume 104 Staff Member The Fourth Amendment’s drafters could have scarcely imagined social media and the internet.[1] For decades, courts have struggled to apply the Amendment to searches of or utilizing new technologies.[2] Recently, courts have struggled with how the Fourth Amendment…
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,…
