Articles, Essays, & Tributes
Bankruptcy as a National Security Risk
By JASON JIA-XI WU. Full Text. Defense contractors lie at the heart of the U.S. national security regime. Each year, over half of the federal defense budget is allocated to contracts outsourcing military operations, projects, and services to private companies. However, defense outsourcing carries a ticking time bomb: mounting private debt. Today, the defense industry…
The Innocence Trap
By CAITLIN GLASS & JULIAN GREEN. Full Text. What makes a conviction wrongful? Developments in DNA science have led to a wave of exonerations over the past thirty years, revealing sources of error in the criminal legal process. Innocence organizations proliferated to represent people whose convictions could be overturned by newly discovered evidence. This is…
Regulatory History and Judicial Review
By TODD PHILLIPS & ANTHONY MOFFA. Full Text. The Administrative Procedure Act (APA) requires federal agencies to simply “incorporate in the rules adopted a concise general statement of their basis and purpose” after they receive comments from the public, and the Supreme Court ruled in Overton Park that courts are to adjudicate whether rules are…
The Crisis in U.S. Cancer Care: Law, Markets, and Privatization
By DANIEL G. AARON. Full Text. Cancer is surging among youth and young adults in the United States, yet, instead of public regulation addressing its root causes, we have outsourced the management of cancer to the private sector. A suite of laws, embodying faith that corporations will cure cancer, has subsidized the cancer biomedical enterprise…
The Poly Problem in Zoning: Redefining “Family” for a Changing Society
By ARIC SHORT & TANYA PIERCE. Full Text. Single-family zoning has long dictated not only where people may live but also with whom. Although extensively critiqued for perpetuating racial and economic exclusion, these laws also privilege relationships defined by blood, marriage, or adoption and marginalize nontraditional families. This Article focuses on a particularly overlooked group:…
Notes
Waging the Battle for Society’s Soul: The Constitutionality of Juvenile Transfer Legislation in the Wake of Jones v. Mississippi
By LOGAN KNUTSON. Full Text. Trying juvenile defendants as adults is a cruel, yet enduring practice in U.S. criminal law. If convicted, these youthful offenders face brutal conditions in adult prison and a lifelong stigma. Although these devastating consequences of conviction are readily apparent, juvenile transfer is insidious even absent a prison sentence or criminal…
The Skidmore Compromise: Interpreting Skidmore as a Tiebreaker to Preserve Judicial Wisdom in the Era of Loper Bright
By MITCHELL ZAIC. Full Text. ‘Law must be stable, and yet it cannot stand still.’ Here is the great antinomy confronting us at every turn. Rest and motion, unrelieved and unchecked, are equally destructive. The law, like human kind, if life is to continue, must find some path of compromise. – Judge Cardozo In the…
Headnotes
Volume 110: Fall Issue
Exceptional Cases
By EMILY CAUBLE. Full Text.
Machine Gun Funk: The Unusual Analysis of “Dangerous and Unusual”
By GREGORY S. PARKS & VIVIAN BOLEN. Full Text.
Nipping it in the Bud: The Promise and Perils of Tort Litigation in Addressing the Health Harms of High-THC Products
By REBEKAH NINAN. Full Text.
Volume 108: Symposium Supplement
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
When Food Turns Deadly
WHEN FOOD TURNS DEADLY: CRIMINAL LIABILITY FOR RESTAURATEURS THAT DISREGARD PATRONS FOOD ALLERGIES By: Taylor Gess, Volume 101 Staff Member On January 28, 2016, the mother of a five-year-old girl used Panera’s online ordering system to purchase a grilled cheese sandwich for her peanut-allergic daughter.[1]…
Elon Take the Wheel
ELON TAKE THE WHEEL: MAJOR CHALLENGES THAT AUTONOMOUS CARS WILL PRESENT TO THE LEGAL SYSTEM By: Stephen Maier, Volume 101 Staff Member In May 2016, 40-year-old Joshua Brown was driving a Tesla Model S in “Autopilot mode” when a semi turned in front of him.[1]…
Re-Introducing “Stop and Frisk” or Revisiting It?
RE-INTRODUCING “STOP AND FRISK” OR REVISITING IT? By: Anabel Cassady, Volume 101 Staff Member On the evening of August 20, 2008, Leroy Downs was stopped by two plainclothes officers outside his home while making a phone call to a friend.[1] Downs was a black male…
DACA on the Docket
DACA ON THE DOCKET By: Nicholas R. Bednar, Volume 100 Lead Articles Editor [1] On December 9, 2016, Senators Lindsey Graham and Dick Durbin introduced the Bridge Act, which would provide temporary protection for undocumented children and young adults who have received immigration benefits under President…
Frozen Embryo Forum Shopping
FROZEN EMBRYO FORUM SHOPPING: HOW CONFLICTS OF LAW INHIBIT THE LAWSUIT AGAINST SOFIA VERGARA By: Joseph T. Janochoski, Volume 101 Staff Member In December 2016, actress Sofía Vergara[1] was named as the sole defendant in a Louisiana lawsuit filed by her own frozen embryos.[2] The…
Inclusive Communities and the Question of Impact
INCLUSIVE COMMUNITIES AND THE QUESTION OF IMPACT: PRO-PLAINTIFF? By: Lauren Clatch, Volume 101 Staff Member In the summer of 2015, the Supreme Court ruled in Texas Dep’t of Housing & Community Affairs v. Inclusive Communities Project, Inc. regarding the viability of disparate impact claims under…
Phasing Out Private Prisons Is an Important Symbolic Gesture
PHASING OUT PRIVATE PRISONS IS AN IMPORTANT SYMBOLIC GESTURE By: Claire Williams, Volume 101 Staff Member On August 18th, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that it would begin to phase out its use of private prisons, “either declin[ing] to renew that contract or substantially…
Creeping on the Constitution
CREEPING ON THE CONSTITUTION: FIRST AMENDMENT IMPLICATIONS OF THE 2016 CLOWN CRAZE By: Bethany Davidson, Volume 101 Staff Member On August 24, 2016, the property manager of an apartment complex in Greenville, South Carolina posted a concerning letter on residents’ doors.[1] The letter addressed multiple…
Is Auer Deference on the Way Out?
IS AUER DEFERENCE ON THE WAY OUT? By: Trevor Matthews, Volume 101 Staff Member In Bowles v. Seminole Rock & Sand, later reaffirmed in Auer v. Robbins, the Supreme Court announced a deferential standard of review for agency rules which interpret binding notice and comment…
Helping Others Die
HELPING OTHERS DIE: COMPARING POLICIES IN BELGIUM TO THOSE IN THE U.S. By: Ellie Bastian, Volume 101 Staff Member In the opening scenes of the Italian film Miele a woman makes her monthly journey from Europe to a Mexican pharmacy to buy Lamputin, a drug…
