Civil Rights Law
Affording The Franchise: Amendment 4 & The Senate Bill 7066 Litigation
Dalia Figueredo
Abstract Felon re-enfranchisement statutes that condition the restoration ofvoting rights on the payment of legal financial obligations have beenchallenged under the Fourteenth and Twenty-Fourth Amendments to theU.S. Constitution. To date, these challenges have been unsuccessfulbecause felons are not a protected class, disenfranchised felons do nothave a fundamental right to vote under existing case law, and […]
Oh What a Truism the Tenth Amendment Is: State Sovereignty, Sovereign Immunity, and Individual Liberties
Sharon E. Rush
Abstract The United States Supreme Court takes the Tenth Amendment and state sovereignty seriously. It also takes the Eleventh Amendment and state sovereign immunity seriously. Moreover, the contemporary Court’s interpretations of Congress’s Article I powers are based on its concomitant interpretations of the Tenth and Eleventh Amendments. The Court has infused these interpretations with the […]
Sweet Child O’ Mine: Adult Adoption & Same-Sex Marriage in the Post-Obergefell Era
Written by: Robert Keefe
Abstract Gay and lesbian partners used adult adoption to create family relationships and to ensure inheritance and property rights in the decades before the Supreme Court’s decision in Obergefell v. Hodges legalized same-sex marriage nationwide. Same-sex partners who chose adult adoption as an alternative to marriage before the Obergefell decision must now dissolve the adoption […]
Assessing the Viability of Implicit Bias Evidence in Discrimination Cases: An Analysis of the Most Significant Federal Cases
Written by: Anthony Kakoyannis
Abstract The theory of implicit bias occupies a rapidly growing field of scientific research and legal scholarship. With the advent of tools measuring individuals’ subconscious biases toward people of other races, genders, ages, national origins, religions, and sexual orientations, scholars have rushed to explore the ways in which these biases might affect decision-making and produce […]
“I Am Cait,” But It’s None of Your Business: The Problem of Invasive Transgender Policies and a Fourth Amendment Solution
Written by: Elise Holtzman
Abstract Transgender people constitute a distinct minority with unique legal battles. There is a widespread societal misunderstanding of what it means to be transgender that results in treating the transgender community the same as their lesbian, gay, and members of bisexual counterparts. This misunderstanding is even more prevalent in the legal context, resulting in a […]
When Girls Play With G.I. Joes and Boys Play With Barbies: The Path to Gender Reassignment in Minors
Written by: Nicole Burt
Abstract Currently, the process of gender reassignment in minors requires parental consent and the approval of a mental-health counselor. The actual treatment can begin with puberty blockers—which stall the beginnings of puberty—followed by hormone injections to transform the minor into the requested gender. The hormone injections are thought to have irreversible features, but the effects […]