Articles, Essays, & Tributes
If Lived Experience Could Speak: A Method for Repairing Epistemic Violence in Law and the Legal Academy
BY TERRELL CARTER and RACHEL LÓPEZ. Full text. Terrell Carter grew up only a stone’s throw from Drexel University, the institution of higher learning where the other coauthor of this Article, Rachel López, would find her academic home years later. Even as a child, Terrell remembers feeling like other institutions that were miles away, like…
Informed Bystanders’ Duty to Warn
By GILAT J. BACHAR. Full text. Should bystanders with credible knowledge about prospective harm owe a duty of care to future victims? This urgent question comes up in various contexts, from former employers who withhold information about a serial harasser to data brokers who are silent about stalkers that track personal information. Under established common…
Lawyering in the Age of Artificial Intelligence
By JONATHAN H. CHOI, AMY B. MONAHAN, AND DANIEL SCHWARCZ. Full text. We conducted the first randomized controlled trial to study the effect of AI assistance on human legal analysis. We randomly assigned law school students to complete realistic legal tasks either with or without the assistance of GPT-4, tracking how long the students took…
Repurposed Energy
By ALEXANDRA B. KLASS & HANNAH WISEMAN. Full Text. Wildfires, weather extremes, and other conditions induced partially by climate change add urgency to the project of accelerating the clean energy transition from fossil fuels to zero-carbon energy infrastructure. Yet the hurdles to accomplishing such a massive industrial-scale transition are daunting. Indeed, large renewable energy generation…
Reconstruction, and the Unfulfilled Promise of Antitrust
By BENNETT CAPERS and GREGORY DAY. Full Text. Wealth inequality remains as wide, and as troubling, as it was a half-century ago. While scholars have offered various explanations, there is a contributor that has escaped serious scrutiny: state monopoly power. It is not just that there is a long history of states and municipalities using…
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
An Illusory Sanctuary
AN ILLUSORY SANCTUARY: HOW IMMIGRATION LAW AND POLICY FAIL TO PROTECT IMMIGRANTS FROM DEPORTATION By: Kayla Hoel, Volume 102 Staff Member At two in the morning on October 24, 2017, an ambulance carrying a ten-year-old child to an emergency surgery in Corpus Christi, Texas, was…
The Final Court to the Split
THE FINAL COURT TO THE SPLIT: COULD IN RE ARCHDIOCESE GIVE THE EIGHTH CIRCUIT A CHANCE TO WEIGH IN ON NONCONSENSUAL THIRD-PARTY RELEASES IN CHAPTER 11 BANKRUPTCY PROCEEDINGS? By: Emily Muirhead McAdam, Volume 102 Staff Member The United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of…
(In)definite Detention
(IN)DEFINITE DETENTION: JENNINGS AND THE BACKWARDS DETENTION SYSTEM FOR NON-CITIZENS SEEKING RELIEF By: Nathaniel Gier, Volume 102 Staff Member In the current fiscal year, there are 667,839 immigration cases pending,[1] and the average wait time for cases pending in immigration court was 691 days in…
Jesner v. Arab Bank
JESNER v. ARAB BANK: CORPORATE LIABILITY AND THE “TOUCH AND CONCERN” TEST By: Anthony Ufkin, Volume 102 Staff Member In Jesner v. Arab Bank,[1] the Supreme Court will likely answer the question of whether corporations may be held liable for alleged human rights violations under…
Cruz-Guzman and the Rise of Charter Schools
Cruz-Guzman and the Rise of Charter Schools: How Will the Minnesota Supreme Court Respond to the Resegregation of Schools in the Twin Cities? By: Charles W. Niemann, Volume 102 Staff Member A recent analysis by the Associated Press showed that charter schools are playing a…
Is Simple Better?
IS SIMPLE BETTER?: THE ANSWER TO PARTISAN GERRYMANDERING MAY LIE WITH BENISEK V. LAMONE RATHER THAN GILL V. WHITFORD By: Torie Abbott Watkins, Volume 102 Staff Member In today’s political discourse it is an all but impossible challenge to get Democrats and Republicans to agree…
Let’s Talk About Sex[ual Harassment]
LET’S TALK ABOUT SEX[UAL HARASSMENT]: THE INADEQUACY OF LEGAL PROTECTIONS FOR WORKPLACE SEXUAL HARASSMENT By: Sarah DeWitt, Volume 102 Staff Member Sexual harassment is not a new phenomenon.[1] Sexual harassment affects not only young woman in subservient positions,[2] but also in professional careers.[3] Sexual harassment…
After Marriage Equality
AFTER MARRIAGE EQUALITY: LGBT NONDISCRIMINATION LAWS IN MASTERPIECE CAKESHOP By: Joshua Preston, Volume 102 Staff Member Obergefell v. Hodges (2015) was a watershed moment in extending the full benefits of society to members of the LGBT community.[1] Though the freedom to marry was won, Obergefell…
Armstrong v. Exceptional Child Center
ARMSTRONG V. EXCEPTIONAL CHILD CENTER: WHO SHOULD ENFORCE MEDICAID EQUAL ACCESS? By: Jessica Wheeler, Volume 102 Staff Member Deamonte Driver, a twelve-year-old Medicaid beneficiary, died from an untreated tooth abscess when the infection spread to his brain.[1] His death could have been prevented had his…
What the Tax Bill Means for Students
WHAT THE “TAX CUTS AND JOBS ACT” MEANS FOR STUDENTS: DO WE WANT INCENTIVES OR SIMPLIFICATION? By: Melanie Pulles Benson, Volume 102 Staff Member The new House tax reform bill, the “Tax Cuts and Jobs Act” (“Act”), significantly departs from the current tax code.[1] The…
