IN MEMORIAM: JUSTICE RUTH BADER GINSBURG

A series of tributes honoring the life and legacy of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Vol. 124 No. 8

DisCrit
CLR Forum

RACE, DISABILITY, AND POLICE MISCONDUCT: A DISCRIT APPROACH TO PRIVACY LAW AND THE KILLINGS OF RYAN GAINER AND SONYA MASSEY

Melda Gurakar*

In March 2024, police killed Ryan Gainer, a Black teenager with autism, in his California home after his family sought help during a behavioral crisis. Several months later, police killed Sonya Massey, a Black woman experiencing a mental health crisis, in her Illinois home. This Comment examines the failure of U.S. privacy law to protect disabled people of color in their homes, using the deaths of Ryan Gainer and Sonya Massey as case studies. Through[...]

U.S. Territories
Article

COLONIZING BY CONTRACT

Emmanuel Hiram Arnaud*

Since 1898, Puerto Rico has been a territory of the United States, meaning that Congress wields plenary power over the Island. Although scholars have highlighted the history and some modern manifestations of this power, conversations about how plenary power affects the territories have largely ignored constitutional criminal procedure.

This Article is the first to center the territory’s criminal legal system within the broader debate over[...]

Cultural Property
CLR Forum

LOOTED CULTURAL OBJECTS

Elena Baylis*

In the United States, Europe, and elsewhere, museums are in possession of cultural objects that were unethically taken from their countries and communities of origin under the auspices of colonialism. For many years, the art world considered such holdings unexceptional. Now, a longstanding movement to decolonize museums is gaining momentum, and some museums are reconsidering their collections. Presently, whether to return such looted cultural heritage[...]

Expungement
Essay

PARTICIPATORY EXPUNGEMENT

Brian M. Murray*

Most jurisdictions that permit expungement draw the line at certain crimes—usually those implicating one or more victims, serious risks to public safety, corruption, or breach of the public trust. This is unsurprising given how these crimes relate to the moral underpinnings of the criminal law in a democratic society. This Essay explores, given the overall direction of expungement reform, whether expungement should reach more offenses and by[...]

Civil Procedure
Article

LAW AND EQUITY ON APPEAL

Aaron-Andrew P. Bruhl*

Most lawyers know that the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure merged the divergent trial procedures of the common law and of equity, but fewer are familiar with the development of federal appellate procedure. Here too there is a story of the merger of two distinct systems. At common law, a reviewing court examined the record for errors of law after the final trial judgment. In the equity tradition, an appeal was a rehearing of the law and the facts[...]

Immigration
Note

CONSULAR NONREVIEWABILITY AFTER DEPARTMENT OF STATE V. MUÑOZ: REQUIRING FACTUAL AND TIMELY EXPLANATIONS FOR VISA DENIALS

Jake Stuebner*

The visa application process is laden with discretion and reinforced by consular nonreviewability—an extensive form of judicial deference. Until recently, courts recognized a small exception to consular nonreviewability. Under this exception, courts engaged in limited review of a consular officer’s decision when visa denials implicated the fundamental rights of U.S. citizens.

The Court curtailed this exception in United States Department[...]

Gender
Note

COUNTERING A PHOBIC FRAME: UNDERSTANDING AND ADDRESSING GENDER-AFFIRMING CARE BANS

Sohum Pal*

Legislatures, courts, and media outlets have manufactured legal and scientific uncertainty around gender-affirming care. This is the result of a phobic frame that vanishes the perspectives of minors and reduces decisionmakers’ confidence. This Note identifies that gender-affirming care bans should not be understood primarily as forms of sex discrimination, but instead as a form of unjustified impairment of minors’ self-determination. The solution,[...]