Articles, Essays, & Tributes
Diversity Messaging After Affirmative Action
By NANCY LEONG. Full Text. Appendix here. Many colleges and universities communicate publicly that they value racial diversity—a practice this Article will call diversity messaging. Yet growing hostility to race-consciousness by courts, legislators, and other public figures has made diversity messaging increasingly fraught. This Article examines empirically whether law schools changed their diversity messaging following…
Investor Justice
By NICOLE IANNARONE. Full Text. There is a systemic flaw in the investor protection landscape. Unrepresented investors face off against well-resourced repeat- player firms that almost always have lawyers. While consumers face similar challenges in civil courts, in forced securities arbitration, the decisionmaker may not have a law degree, is prohibited from conducting any outside…
Unpunishment Purposes
By MEREDITH ESSER. Full Text. Sentencing scholarship often begins by exploring the traditional purposes of punishment: deterrence, retribution, incapacitation, and rehabilitation. However, little scholarship exists addressing how these four punishment purposes apply in the post- sentencing or second-look contexts. Further, abstract theories of sentencing can often seem sterile and disconnected from the realities of how…
Debt, Work, and the State
By KATE ELENGOLD. Full Text. In every state and the District of Columbia, an individual who owes a debt to the state can lose their license to work. Without the ability to make a living, it is much harder to pay off debt. Although using occupational license restrictions as a debt collection tool appears nonsensical,…
Law for the Rich
By ALEX RASKOLNIKOV. Full Text. With top incomes and wealth reaching historic highs, scholars and politicians have proposed new taxes and novel legal rules aimed at reversing the emergence of the new Gilded Age. Yet while new taxes target the rich directly by imposing greater burdens only on those with incomes or wealth above multi-million-dollar…
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…
Headnotes
Defining Common and Individual Issues in Class Actions: What a Reasonable Jury Could Do
Defining Common and Individual Issues in Class Actions: What a Reasonable Jury Could Do By Aaron D. Van Oort and John L. Rockenbach Full essay here. The distinction between common and individual issues is the single most important concept in the modern class action, and…
The Supreme Court’s Opinion in SEC v. Jarkesy Has the Potential To Be Extremely Destructive
The Supreme Court’s Opinion in SEC v. Jarkesy Has the Potential To Be Extremely Destructive By Richard J. Pierce, Jr. Full essay here. In this essay, Professor Pierce describes the legal framework within which the Supreme Court decided whether an agency could adjudicate a class…
Substance over Symbolism: Do We Need Benefit Corporation Laws?
BY CHENG-CHI (KIRIN) CHANG. Full essay here. Benefit corporation laws have gained traction as mechanisms to integrate societal and environmental objectives into business operations, yet they are arguably superfluous within the existing legal framework. The prevailing belief that corporations must prioritize shareholder wealth above all…
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
SEVENTH CIRCUIT’S LEGAL PRUDISHNESS: INCORRECT DECISION IN TRAN CREATES A SPLIT
By: Zach Wright, Volume 104 Staff Member The Seventh Circuit decided Tran v. Minnesota Life Ins. Co. (“Tran”) in April of 2019.[I] Tran stemmed from a beneficiary’s claim for benefits under an ERISA-governed life insurance policy after their spouse died engaging in autoerotic asphyxiation.[ii] The court held…
CITIES ARE TURNING ON CONVERSION THERAPY BANS
By: Melanie Griffith, Volume 104 Staff Member INTRODUCTION The tides are turning on the trend of conversion therapy bans. Conversion therapy is a controversial practice that purports to “cure” homosexual or transgender individuals by attempting to change their sexual orientation or gender identity.[1] Therapists use…
BLOCKING THE SUNSHINE: SUPREME COURT LIMITS ACCESS TO GOVERNMENT RECORDS IN FOOD MARKETING INSTITUTE V. ARGUS LEADER MEDIA
By: Chuqiao Yu, Volume 104 Staff Member Imagine you, as a taxpayer, wanted to know how your hard-earned money had been used and filed a request to a federal agency asking for some information about a commercial program it was administering. The agency declined your…
NO TOLL FOR THE TAXPAYER: FINANCIAL DISABILITY, STATUTE OF LIMITATIONS REFUND TOLLING, AND COURTS’ STRICT APPLICATION OF “AUTHORITY”
By: Casey Epstein, Volume 104 Staff Member INTRODUCTION Imagine you are poor, mentally-ill, and struggle to manage your finances. You granted your adult son durable power of attorney (“DPA”),[1] but are no longer on speaking terms with him. You work a low-wage, menial job and…
The Law Review Appears on NPR’s Planet Money
Law Review Editor Thomas Hansfield appeared on NPR‘s Planet Money podcast to discuss his Minnesota Law Review article about in-game video game purchases and whether or not they fit the legal definition of gambling. Listen to the podcast episode here.
Judicial Attire: An Alteration to “Under the Robes”
By: Erik M. Jensen* In 2009, the GreenBag, which (with justification) bills itself as An Entertaining Journal of Law, published my revealing essay on judicial attire—or, more precisely, on what is hidden by judicial attire[i]—Under the Robes: A Judicial Right to Bare Arms and Legs and . .…
Another NCAA Upset: Rethinking the Playbook for Compensating Student-Athletes
March introduced a new kind of madness into collegiate athletics this year. Just as the regular basketball season came to a close and players geared up for the annual all-around tournaments, a ruling issued from the Northern District of California that further blurred the line between amateur and professional sports.
Superbowl Dreams Crushed: But a Lawsuit Is Not the Answer
During the Saints-Rams NFC championship game in early 2019 the referees missed a pass interference call that many experts agree cost the Saints the game. Even the National Football League (NFL) acknowledges that its referees missed the penalty call. With that call, the Saints very likely would have won the game and earned a spot in Superbowl LIII because the penalty would have given the team a first down, which would have allowed them to run out the clock before attempting their game winning field goal.
Loot Box Lottery: How the Backlash Against Video Game Loot Boxes Is Affecting Game Developers, Retailers, and Consumers in the Legal Sphere
Confetti! Bright colors! Candy! Little Billy’s eyes are fixed on the screen. He just broke open a Llama Piñata in his favorite video game, Fortnite, with hopes of receiving a rare in-game item he has long desired. Alas, he sees the results and sighs in disappointment. Nothing. Just some useless items he won the day before.
Nielsen v. Preap and How the Way That We Interpret Language Can Change Lives and What Else We Should Consider During Statutory Interpretation
In 1893, Edward Bulwer-Lytton wrote that “[t]he pen is mightier than the sword.” That may be so, but more power lies with he who interprets the words than he who writes them. By using ordinary tools of statutory construction, the Supreme Court interpreted the Apprehension and Detention of Aliens Act and sealed the fate of countless aliens in the United States.
