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
READY FOR LANDING: AFTER CONCLUDING “PILOT PROGRAM,” MINNESOTA’S ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY BOARD DELIBERATES LONG AWAITED ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW CLIMATE CONSIDERATION REQUIREMENTS
By: Giuseppe Tumminello, Volume 107 Staff Member On October 19, 2022, the Minnesota Environmental Quality Board (EQB) hosted a public Environmental Review Implementation Subcommittee (ERIS) meeting. The ERIS reviewed the results from a Pilot Program it organized in order to incorporate climate change considerations on…
LEGAL LIMBO: THE STATE OF ABORTION CARE FOR MINORS IN MINNESOTA AFTER DOE v. STATE OF MINNESOTA
By: Mary Fleming, Volume 107 Staff Member Even before Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization brought abortion to center stage at the U.S. Supreme Court, Minnesota abortion law was being litigated in state court.[1] In May of 2019, two advocacy organizations, the Lawyering Project and…
HOW COMPELLING DOES COMPELLING HAVE TO BE?: A MISSED OPPORTUNITY TO REFRAME A COMPELLING GOVERNMENTAL INTEREST IN AFFIRMATIVE ACTION IN THE STUDENTS FOR FAIR ADMISSIONS CASES
By: Chad Nowlan, Volume 107 Staff Member This fall the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in two cases brought by Students for Fair Admissions (SFFA), a self-described “nonprofit membership group of . . . students, parents, and others who believe that racial classifications and preferences…
THE ONUS OF TRANSPARENCY: STATE OF WASHINGTON v. META PLATFORMS, INC. ILLUSTRATES THE FIGHT OVER REASONABLE CAMPAIGN FINANCE DISCLOSURE LAW AND FIRST AMENDMENT PROTECTED SPEECH VIOLATIONS
By: Lindsay Maher, Volume 107 Staff Member Campaign finance disclosure laws are being questioned and limited in states across the country. In many states, legislatures have passed laws to prevent future requests for disclosure to non-profit organizations that donate to political candidates or parties.[1] In…
MIXED MESSAGING: PREVIEWING 303 CREATIVE AND ITS PLACE IN CURRENT FREE SPEECH JURISPRUDENCE
By: Samuel E. Ferguson, Volume 107 Staff Member This term, the Supreme Court of the United States will decide 303 Creative LLC v. Elenis.[1] The Court will decide whether a Colorado public accommodation law violates the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment by compelling…
UN(PrEP)ARED: HOW BRAIDWOOD v. BECERRA COULD LEAVE PUBLIC HEALTH OFFICIALS SCRAMBLING
By: Tyler Blackmon, Volume 107 Staff Member On September 7, 2022, a federal district court granted summary judgment to an employer who refused to cover an anti-HIV, pre-exposure prophylaxis drug (PrEP) because doing so would make that employer “complicit in facilitating homosexual behavior.”[1] The judge,…
NO REASSURANCE FROM INSURANCE: INSURANCE COMPANIES ARE TRYING TO AVOID BIPA LITIGATION BY USING ROBUST EXCLUSION CLAUSES AND COURTS ARE UNIMPRESSED
By: Katherine Vu, Volume 107 Staff Member Insurance companies are the new plaintiffs taking center stage in recent litigation under the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA).[1] Enacted in 2008, BIPA aims to protect individuals by regulating the collection and dissemination of their biometric data…
HARD LUXURY: MATERIAL ADVERSE EFFECT IN THE LVMH AND TIFFANY MERGER
By: Rachel Wynn, Business Law Clinic Student Director & Emily Buchholz, Executive Director of the Corporate Institute Since the COVID-19 pandemic, material adverse effect claims have increased in Delaware courts. A material adverse effect (“MAE”) is a change in circumstances that is reasonably expected to…
STEALING FROM YOUR STUDENTS: THE HIDDEN KEY IN THE HIGHER EDUCATION ACT TO HOLD LEADERS OF FOR-PROFIT COLLEGES PERSONALLY LIABLE FOR FRAUD
By: Kylee Evans, Volume 106 Staff Member Student debt in the United States has hit a historic high.[1] The estimated total student loan debt as of March 2022 is $1.749 trillion.[2] Of that, the federal government owns about $1.61 trillion.[3] Legal scholars have long compared…
MEANINGFUL BUT NOT PERFECT REVIEW: IMPLIED PRECLUSION OF FEDERAL JURISDICTION AND AXON ENTERPRISE, INC. V. FTC
By: Jason Gutierrez, Vol. 106 Staff Member I. BACKGROUND, DOCTRINE, AND AXON’S ARGUMENT May a party arguing that the structure of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) violates the constitution bypass the FTC’s administrative review process and bring suit in federal court? Last summer, Axon Enterprise,…
