Articles, Essays, & Tributes
Racial Disparities in Crime-Based Removal Proceedings
By EMILY RYO, IAN PEACOCK, WESTON LEY, and CHRISTOPHER LEVESQUE. Full Text. Whether and to what extent racial minorities experience harsher treatment or face worse outcomes in court are questions of fundamental importance for any justice system. Questions of racial inequality are especially salient in the context of removal proceedings that are triggered by immigrants’…
Toward a Dynamic View of Corporate Purpose
By DOROTHY LUND. Full Text. Scholars debating the corporation’s role in society generally advance the view that there is only one desirable orientation for corporations and their management. Specifically, proponents of a stakeholder governance model contend that focusing management on a broad set of corporate constituents maximizes overall welfare, while advocates of a shareholder-centric directive…
Forced Arbitration in the Fortune 500
By DAVID HORTON. Full Text. As the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) nears its centennial, its most controversial byproduct—forced arbitration—has entered uncharted territory. For years, companies exploited their power over fine print to produce ambitious dispute resolution regimes. This trend reached its apex in the 2010s, when the Supreme Court held that arbitration is incompatible with…
Suspecting with Data
By MARY D. FAN. Full Text. Our pooled consumer big data, such as the pictures we post or the location history and keyword search trails we leave, are generating new ways to solve crimes. Much of the commentary on big data search strategies such as keyword, geofence, and facial recognition searches fixate on Fourth Amendment…
Against Attorney General Self-Referral in Immigration Law
By STELLA BURCH ELIAS and PAUL GOWDER. Full Text. This Article advances a rule-of-law-based critique of the Attorney General’s immigration self-referral power. We argue that the Attorney General’s self-referral and review power over pending immigration proceedings allows an appointed Executive Branch official to engage in unchecked and unilateral lawmaking and, therefore, should be abolished. Scholars…
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
The H-4 Dreamers
THE H-4 DREAMERS: PROVIDING A FUTURE FOR THE CHILDREN OF H-1B VISA HOLDERS By: Frances Fink, Volume 102 Staff Member In September 2017, President Donald Trump ordered an end to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program (“DACA”).[1] The program provided protection from deportation for…
From Bulbs to Bitcoins
FROM BULBS TO BITCOINS: THE LEGALITY OF CORPORATE BANKING RESTRICTIONS ON CREDIT CARD CRYPTO-CURRENCY PURCHASES By: Peter G. Economou, Vol. 102 Staff Member The modern world is one of exponential technological innovation and growth. From drone delivery services and autonomous vehicles, to artificially intelligent personal…
Waiting on You, SEC
WAITING ON YOU, SEC: ARE CRYPTOCURRENCIES SECURITIES OR NOT? By: William Paterson, Volume 102 Staff Member Love it or hate it, cryptocurrency[1] is likely here to stay. Although confusing to many, entirely unknown to some, or disdained by others, cryptocurrencies have found a niche.[2] This…
Net Neutrality
NET NEUTRALITY: A SOLUTION TO A PROBLEM OR A SOLUTION IN SEARCH OF A PROBLEM? By: Tash Bottum, Volume 102 Staff Member The internet is everywhere. The last two decades have seen extraordinary growth in internet use, investment and innovation.[1] In order to ensure continual…
Clearinghouses
CLEARING HOUSES: THE ROAD MORE TRAVELLED[1] By: James Patterson, Volume 102 Staff Member Imagine two roads running through a rural county. One is ungraded, dark, and winding. The other is straight, well lit, and nicely paved. Imagine also that the county’s roads have tolls that…
Of T-Shirts and Tea Parties
OF T-SHIRTS AND TEA PARTIES: MINNESOTA VOTERS ALLIANCE V. MANSKY AND THE MEANING OF “POLITICAL” By: David A. LaBerge, Volume 102 Staff Member In Minnesota, wearing political clothing to a polling place can land you a petty misdemeanor and keep you from casting your vote.[1]…
Unlocking Fifth Amendment Considerations in State v. Diamond
UNLOCKING FIFTH AMENDMENT CONSIDERATIONS IN STATE V. DIAMOND: WHY REMOVING THE FINGERPRINT PASSWORD CAPABILITY ON YOUR CELL PHONE IS IN YOUR BEST INTEREST By: Jordan Dritz, Volume 102 Staff Member In the age of smart phones, people regularly protect content on their devices through passcodes.…
What Trump Can Learn from Tricky Dick
WHAT TRUMP CAN LEARN FROM TRICKY DICK: AN OVERVIEW OF WHETHER THE PRESIDENT CAN FIRE SPECIAL COUNSEL ROBERT MUELLER By: Robert Wild, Volume 102 Staff Member It has been rumored over the past few months that President Donald Trump has considered firing Special Counsel Robert…
“O Vengeance!—Why What an Ass Am I?”
“O VENGEANCE!—WHY WHAT AN ASS AM I?”[1]: LOOKING PAST THE REVENGE PLOT OF THE AT&T-TIME WARNER MERGER By: Derek Waller, Volume 102 Staff Member Even before the Department of Justice (DOJ) sued to block the AT&T’s merger with Time Warner (CNN’s parent company), reporters and…
Too Much Information?
TOO MUCH INFORMATION? BALANCING DISCLOSURE AND PRIVACY INTERESTS IN MAKING DOMESTIC ABUSE A MATTER OF PUBLIC RECORD By: April Will, Volume 102 Staff Member In the modern age of internet and “app” dating, anyone can fire up a Google search and evaluate a potential partner.…
