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
Creating the Final Frontier
CREATING THE FINAL FRONTIER: NAVIGATING PROPERTY RIGHTS AMONG THE STARS By: Karthik Raman, Volume 103 Staff Member Introduction It has been more than fifty years since the beginning of the Space Race. The Soviet Union was fresh from victoriously launching the first person into space,…
Cy Pres-ing for Funding
Cy Pres-ing for Funding: How Frank v. Gaos May Affect the Funding of Minnesota’s Legal Services By: Lucas Curtis, Volume 103 Staff Member Legal Aid organizations provide free, essential legal services to low-income clients;[1] however, free services come at a price. Due to diminished resources and a high…
Scoot Back
SCOOT BACK: ADDRESSING THE CHALLENGES POSED BY THE SUDDEN EMERGENCE OF THE E-SCOOTER INDUSTRY By: Alec Minea, Volume 103 Staff Member The scooter, the trendiest[1] and least efficient[2] transportation method of the early 2000s, experienced a glorious, evolutionary resurgence in 2018. Seemingly overnight, cities across the United…
Another ACA Lawsuit
ANOTHER ACA LAWSUIT: PRE-EXISTING CONDITIONS, THE DOJ, AND SEVERABILITY IN TEXAS V. U.S. By: Noah Steimel, Volume 103 Staff Member I. INTRODUCTION On June 7, 2018, the Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a brief arguing that the courts should strike down the Affordable Care Act (ACA)’s…
Sticks And Stones And Permanent Muzzles
STICKS AND STONES AND PERMANENT MUZZLES: THE FIRST AMENDMENT AND THE CONSTITUTIONALITY OF PERMANENT INJUNCTIONS ON FUTURE SPEECH AFTER DEFAMATION TRIALS By: Connor Shaull, Volume 103 Staff Member A second chance is vital, especially regarding what we say. Indeed, an apology has followed some of…
Matchmaking Mishaps
MATCHMAKING MISHAPS: NCAA AMATEURISM AND COLLEGIATE ESPORTS By: Michael Arin,† Volume 103 Staff Member On August 15, 2017, ESPN announced that the National Collegiate Athletic Association (“NCAA”) is formally investigating its role in the collegiate esports[1] domain.[2] By late November 2017, the NCAA contracted with…
To Have and To Hold Regardless of Consent?
TO HAVE AND TO HOLD REGARDLESS OF CONSENT?: WHY THE MODEL PENAL CODE’S SEXUAL ASSAULT PROVISIONS SHOULD NOT INCLUDE AN AFFIRMATIVE DEFENSE FOR SPOUSES AND INTIMATE PARTNERS By: Grace Quintana, Volume 102 Staff Member The fight for the right to control the terms of marital…
Bush v. Gore
BUSH V. GORE: CAN THE SUPREME COURT’S MOST POLITICAL CASE PREVENT RUSSIAN HACKING OF VOTING MACHINES? By: Jakob Brecheisen, Volume 102 Staff Member Bush v. Gore[1] is nothing short of notorious.[2] Despite Justice Antonin Scalia admonishing Americans to “get over it,”[3] many continue to believe…
The Gymnasts’ Army in the Age of Viral Media
THE GYMNASTS’ ARMY IN THE AGE OF VIRAL MEDIA: VICTIM IMPACT STATEMENTS’ CULTURE-SHIFTING POTENTIAL By: Julia Wolfe, Volume 102 Staff Member “I thought that training for the Olympics would be the hardest thing that I would ever have to do. But, in fact, the hardest…
CFPB’s Independent Director
THE CFPB’S INDEPENDENT DIRECTOR STRUCTURE SURVIVES—FOR NOW By: Nick Kaylor, Volume 102 Staff Member The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB”) received a small victory on January 31, 2018, when an en banc panel of the D.C. Court of Appeals upheld 7-3 the agency’s single director…
