By Mackenzie Walz Associate Editor, Vol. 24 Within days of regaining control of the House of Representatives after an invigorating midterm election, several Democrats vowed to focus their legislative efforts on restoring ethics and transparency in our democratic institutions.[1] As promised, the first bill introduced in the 116th Congress was an ethics reform package […]
From Our Editors
New Report on the School Funding Gap Highlights The Continuing Dangers of School Segregation
By Rose Lapp Associate Editor, Vol. 24 “Good schools can’t solve structural inequality on their own, but neither can it be solved without them. Without an effective education, our children’s futures are all but guaranteed to succumb to the imposed conditions of their lineage and location.”[1] So warns a new report by the nonprofit group […]
We Have the Technology: Reducing Deaths by Cops and Crashes
By Chris Hemry Executive Editor, Vol. 24. The police have a lot of power over civilians. This is especially palpable on the roads.[1] The police can pull you over for a “broken taillight,” order everyone out of the car, frisk everyone, arrest the driver for the broken taillight, impound the car, and then search every […]
Chilling Effect: Brooklyn Detainees Bang on Prison Walls as Temperatures Drop
By Elizabeth Morales Associate Editor, Vol, 24 On the first day of February, as temperatures in East Coast dropped below-freezing, a video showing inmates banging on the walls and windows of their cells at a Brooklyn jail went viral. The inmates were trying to alert people on the outside that their building had been with […]
The Role of Transactional Law Clinics in Promoting Social Justice
By Leah Duncan Associate Editor, Vol. 24 Access to justice is arguably one of the biggest problems facing the legal profession.[1] As Brian Price, director of Harvard Law School’s Transactional Law Clinics, puts it, “[w]hen people try to navigate the legal world without representation, deterred by the cost, they are at a structural disadvantage compared […]
The Indian Child Welfare Act on Appeal: Is It a Racial or Political Preference?
By Taylor Jones Associate Editor, Vol. 24 On October 4, 2018, the Northern Federal District Court of Texas held the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) to be unconstitutional. Since that decision, Cherokee Nation, Navajo Nation, and other tribes are seeking to have the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals overturn the decision. Enacted as a response […]
Improving Michigan’s School Expulsion Policy Would Help Cut School to Prison Pipeline
By Kara Crutcher Associate Editor, Vol. 24 There is a strong correlation between the amount of time that K-12 students spend out of school for disciplinary reasons, and the likelihood of them ending up in the correctional system. This concept, known as the school to prison pipeline, is heavily present in the lives of black […]
Juries So White: Why the All-White Jury is Still so Prevalent in Michigan
By Christopher Hemry Executive Editor, Vol. 24 Michigan courts are insidiously tedious in the way they secure all-white juries.[1]For serious cases, more than 60 potential jurors are brought to the court, and then 14 are randomly selected to sit in the jury box.[2] From there, they are subjected, one by one, to a litany of […]
What the 2018-19 Teacher Walkouts Mean for Labor in a Post-Janus World
By Donna Cao Associate Editor, Vol. 24 The 2018 teacher movement, monikered “Red for Ed,” is the first post-Janus demonstration of the future of the U.S. education labor movement. Educators wear the color red to represent their advocacy for increased funding for public schools, many of which operate in the red, and to describe the […]
The First Step Act: It Needs to be the First Step
By Jules Hayer Associate Editor, Vol. 24 On December 21, 2018 the President signed into law the First Step Act. The First Step Act is a criminal justice reform bill that decreases mandatory minimum sentences for nonviolent drug offenses, modifies the three strikes rule from requiring a life sentence to mandating a 25-year sentence, and […]
