All content categorized with: Current Events
Filter
Post List
A Modest Memo
A Modest Memo is a satire in the form of a legal memo written for President-Elect Donald Trump circa November 2016. It counsels Mr. Trump to obtain Mexican funding for a United States-Mexico “Wall” via United Nations Security Council sanctions. These sanctions would freeze remittances (that is, “hold them hostage”) until Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto wired the United States sufficient monies for construction. The memo, which is entirely the product of my imagination and legal study, contemplates one of the many possible worst case scenarios threatened by the Trump presidency. Through the arts of law and literature, I aim to show how the rule of law may so easily buckle and splinter beneath the increasing tide of United States, as well as global, nationalism and racism. I take inspiration, of course, from Jonathan Swift’s A Modest Proposal (1729), as well as the legal-literary experiments found in Derrick Bell’s Faces at the Bottom of the Well: The Permanence of Racism (1993) and Richard Delgado’s Storytelling for Oppositionists and Others: A Plea for Narrative, 87 Mich. L. Rev. 2411 (1989).Civil Rights Enforcement in the Trump Era
By Ali Boyd Associate Editor, Vol. 22 Online Publications Editor, Vol. 23 In the wake of President Trump’s recent inauguration, millions of people across the world came out in protest of his rhetoric and policy agenda.[1] The day after the inauguration, the Women’s March on Washington and sister-marches around the world demonstrated a widespread fear shared by millions that the rights of vulnerable Americans will be violated under President Trump’s administration.[2] Civil rights could, of course, be curtailed through the legislative process, but often this takes time. What is perhaps even more terrifying is the reality that the Trump administration could simply stop enforcing rights that are currently in place, a decision which could have immediate effect. One of the key institutions for the federal government’s enforcement of civil rights is the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice, which was created after the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1957.[3] Since that time, the Division has been responsible for enforcing federal statutes designed to protect some of the most vulnerable members of our society, [4] including the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the Equal Educational Opportunities Act of 1974, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the Voting Rights Act.[5] The Civil Rights Division has been responsible for some remarkable legal work since its installation. The DOJ website boasts of the prosecution of the eighteen individuals for civil rights violations surrounding the murder of three civil rights workers in Mississippi in 1964 as well as the Civil Rights Division’s involvement in the investigations of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.[6]Reflecting on Race Relations: Thanks Obama
By Marcus Baldori Associate Editor, Vol. 22 In 2008, it was an open question of how race relations would unfold under America’s first Black president. Eight years later, polling shows that 54% of Americans think race relations between Whites and Blacks have gotten worse; it is hard to recall the sense…Presidential Election 2016: Why Democrats’ Frustration with Shelby County May Be Misdirected
By Ali Boyd Associate Editor, Vol. 22 In the midst of a nationwide battle for civil rights, President Lyndon B. Johnson called on Congress to create one of the most expansive protections of voting rights ever seen. The result, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (VRA), sought to protect…Flint Residents Still Searching for Justice
By Rita Samaan Associate Editor, Vol. 22 To this day, Flint residents cannot trust the water flowing from their taps. Why is it taking so long to get clean water for Flint’s residents? Does it inform our answer if we consider that the city’s majority population is African American…The 2016 Presidential Election: Quiet on Education Policy, Near Silent on K-12 Education Reform
By Madeleine McKay Jennings Associate Editor, Vol. 22 I wrote this post in the week preceding the United States presidential election. On November 8, by about 10 p.m., the subject of this writing seemed immediately irrelevant. In my personal and academic lives, I’ve placed much importance around this issue but,…To Sue or Not to Sue, That is the Question: How the JASTA Will Affect US-Arab Relations
By Anonymous Associate Editor, Vol. 22 President Obama recently vetoed Congress’s bill, Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act (JASTA), which amends the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act. JASTA allows United States (U.S.) citizens to sue foreign governments for compensatory damages as a result of terrorist acts against the U.S.Michigan Emergency Manager Law Upheld by Sixth Circuit
By Marcus Baldori Associate Editor, Vol. 22 On September 12, 2016, the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the Michigan’s controversial emergency manager law in a 3-0 decision. In general, the law provides that, when certain financial triggers are met, a state-appointed emergency manager will temporarily replace…The Standing Rock Sioux and Dakota Access Pipeline: Just the Beginning
By Laura Page Associate Editor, Vol. 22 After months of protests, the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe recently celebrated a minor victory, with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit granting a temporary injunction of the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL). In its decision, the…UW’s Unequal Treatment of Student-to-Student Violence: The Case of Jarred Ha
By Jennifer Chun Associate Editor, Vol. 21 Contributing Editor, Vol. 22 NOTE: Revised January 31, 2017. On January 25, 2015, a University of Washington (UW) junior named Jarred Ha[1] was involved in a violent incident with Maddison Story, a female UW student (and a rugby player) and Graham…
