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
Inaction of Mercy
INACTION OF MERCY: MINNESOTA’S PARDON PROBLEM By: Devin Driscoll, Volume 101 Staff Member The pardon power of the President[1]—called the “benign prerogative” by Hamilton[2]—has long attracted scholarly attention.[3] The granting of executive commutations and pardons at the federal level had been in steep decline: President…
Looking Back at the FCC’s Privacy Rules
LOOKING BACK AT THE FCC’S PRIVACY RULES By: Ronald Waclawski, Volume 101 Staff Member On October 27, 2016, the Federal Communication Commission (FCC) adopted a rule designed to protect consumer information by requiring telecommunication carriers to protect the confidentiality of customer information.[1] On March 23,…
Placing Religion Above All Else
PLACING RELIGION ABOVE ALL ELSE: RFRA AND THE LEAKED DRAFT OF PRESIDENT TRUMP’S PROPOSED EXECUTIVE ORDER ON RELIGIOUS FREEDOM By: Kristen Mishler, Volume 101 Staff Member In January of this year, The Nation and Reveal obtained copies of a draft proposed executive order under consideration…
Obama Cared
OBAMA CARED: THE IMPORTANCE OF ESSENTIAL HEALTH BENEFITS IN THE AFFORDABLE CARE ACT By: Jesse Goldfarb, Volume 101 Staff Member A key provision in the Affordable Care Act (ACA) mandates that certain types of benefits be included in any healthcare insurance plan on the state…
Cats and Dogs and the Takings Clause
CATS AND DOGS AND THE TAKINGS CLAUSE: BALANCING THE REGULATORY TAKINGS DOCTRINE AND INNOVATION IN THE SEVENTH CIRCUIT By: Austin J. Spillane, Volume 101 Staff Member We are currently living through an intriguing period of time that is marked by the digitization of many facets of the…
The Future of Class Actions
THE FUTURE OF CLASS ACTIONS By: Caroline Bressman, Volume 101 Staff Member Far from being the exception to individual adversarial suits in modern U.S. litigation,[1] an early prototype of class action litigation was common in medieval England.[2] During a period shaped by strong group cultures,…
Running from the Law Doesn’t Mean You Broke It
RUNNING FROM THE LAW DOESN’T MEAN YOU BROKE IT: COMMONWEALTH V. WARREN CONSIDERS RACE WHEN DETERMINING REASONABLE SUSPICION By: Vanessa R. Colletti, Volume 101 Staff Member Jimmy Warren is probably just grateful to be free; however, his case presents a greater opportunity for freedom for…
Do Two Wrongs Make a Right?
DO TWO WRONGS MAKE A RIGHT? By: Mitchell Ness, Volume 101 Staff Member On April 19th, the Supreme Court will hear arguments in Weaver v. Massachusetts.[1] The case concerns an intersection of two constitutional guarantees, the guarantee to the effective assistance of counsel and the…
The (Mad) Fight to Legalize Sports Betting in New Jersey
THE (MAD) FIGHT TO LEGALIZE SPORTS BETTING IN NEW JERSEY By: Bradley Machov, Volume 101 Staff Member New Jersey wants to legalize sports betting within its borders.[1] In 1992, Congress, with the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992 (“PASPA”), made it clear that…
Recent State Legislation Seeks to Limit Disruptive Protests
RECENT STATE LEGISLATION SEEKS TO LIMIT DISRUPTIVE PROTESTS By: Jorgen Lervick, Volume 101 Staff Member On January 21, 2017, just one day after President Donald Trump was sworn in as the forty-fifth President of the United States of America, more than two million people in…
