Articles, Essays, & Tributes
States as Shields
By LINDSAY F. WILEY. Full Text. State laws that aim to shield providers of reproductive health and gender-affirming care from the punitive actions of out-of-state officials raise thorny questions. Can the federal courts, Congress, or the Trump Administration require New York officials to enforce a Texas ban on abortion or gender-affirming care against a New…
AI Companions and the Lessons of Family Law
By CLARE HUNTINGTON. Full Text. Virtual friends and lovers powered by artificial intelligence are rapidly moving to the center of our emotional and social lives. Millions of people turn to AI companions every day for conversation, romance, sexual intimacy, therapy, and education. AI companionship holds promise, potentially reducing loneliness, supporting people without access to mental…
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: A Comparative Constitutional Analysis of Whistleblowing Speech, the Government’s Managerial Domain, and the Imperatives of Democratic Self-Government
By RONALD J. KROTOSZYNSKI, JR. Full Text. Since issuing its 1968 landmark decision in Pickering, which first recognized that the First Amendment protects government employees’ speech about matters of public concern, the U.S. Supreme Court has proceeded to whittle away First Amendment protections for government employees. The Justices have done so by adopting a series…
Securitizing the University
By MARYAM JAMSHIDI. Full Text. Since October 7, 2023, public and private actors have doubled down on efforts to securitize the American university. In large part, these initiatives aim to quash a vocal pro-Palestine movement that has become highly visible across U.S. campuses since October 7th. In targeting this group, these efforts have variously treated…
Notes
Bare Analysis: Prison Visitor Strip and Body-Cavity Searches and Federal Courts’ Insufficient Fourth Amendment Analysis
By TRISTEN LINDELL. Full Text. Strip and body-cavity searches are among the most egregious invasions of personal privacy that the government can impose. The Fourth Amendment, as interpreted by the Supreme Court, demands that courts thoroughly analyze these searches. Courts must consider not only the suspicion that warranted the search, but the way the search…
“Pollution Does Not [sic] Discriminate”: Louisiana v. EPA, Disparate Impact, and the Fight for Environmental Justice in a Hostile Climate
By NAOMI BRIM. Full Text. Human-induced climate change hurts people. Environmental burdens impact a person’s ability to live freely, in good health, and with loved ones. And in the United States, people in positions of political authority and decision-making—who are predominantly white and high-income—use the legal system to push environmental harms disproportionately onto low-income, Black,…
The Penalty Is Declined: The NFL’s Exclusive Streaming Agreements and the Limits of Antitrust Law
By WILLIAM HOLT. Full Text. The National Football League’s (NFL) decision to grant NBCUniversal’s Peacock streaming service exclusive rights to carry the 2023–24 wild-card matchup between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Miami Dolphins signaled a major shift in the league’s media distribution strategy. Football fans that had long depended on free, over-the-air broadcasts for…
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
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…
