By: Lucas Ealy The Policy Problem The National School Lunch Program was implemented to address two specific issues: malnutrition among American youth in families and the need for supporting farmers across the nation. Despite having two points of issue, the primary focus will be on the former issue as it has the primary impact on children in American schools. Like this issue and all others that exist in a country, there is a solution for it that can be dealt […]
Department of State v. Munoz: A Study on How the Court Interprets Immigration Cases Involving the Executive Branch
By: Nick Paris Immigration has been one of the hottest issues in politics over the last couple years, proving to be one of the biggest downfalls of the Biden administration and a key factor in Donald Trump’s election.[1] One of the issues that reached the docket this summer was the case Department of State v. Muñoz, which decided on whether a man deserved American citizenship on grounds of being married to a citizen. Luis Asencio-Cordero, an El Salvadorian citizen with […]
Third-Party Opacity: How you Forfeited your Privacy Without Knowing
By: Addie Grace Pyron Executive Summary Though they garner some social taboo, “off-gridders” are onto something. The extent to which our personal information is readily available to law enforcement agencies is most likely much more than the average citizen in our technological world would expect, and it stems back to the courts’ continued use of the (now arguably antiquated) third-party doctrine. This paper will explore the development and application of the third-party doctrine, arguing that it is no longer suitable […]
Revisiting the Clean Elections Program: Does it lead to polarization?
By: Michael Regnier Introduction This past April, the American Enterprise Institute Club at The University of Alabama hosted Chris Stirewalt, a preeminent scholar and political commentator from AEI and NewsNation. While the focus of Stirewalt’s talk was his three proposals to “fix” American politics (increase the size of the House of Representatives, end gerrymandering, end party primaries), he, almost as an aside, criticized the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 (also called the McCain-Feingold Act) calling it one of Congress’ […]
Coverture and Economic Gender Inequality in Early America
By: Thomas Walsh From the founding of British colonies in North America to the United States of the mid-20th century, women were denied property rights equal to those which men enjoyed. Though women still are often placed at a disadvantage in modern society compared to their male counterparts, these situations are often due to social norms and gender bias rather than inequality codified in law.[1] While it may be such that women are not given just control over property due […]
Mexico’s Efforts to Curb Violence Against Journalists
By: Angelina Ramirez, University of Texas at Austin 2022 marked the tenth anniversary since the Mexican government implemented the 2012 Protection Mechanism for Human Rights Defenders and Journalists to end the significant violence against these vulnerable groups. Journalist protection mechanisms are coordinated inter-agency systems designed to ensure the safety of journalists by focusing on the prevention and prosecution of violence against journalists.[1] These mechanisms facilitate the dispatch of first responder teams and emergency protection measures for threatened reporters. Each mechanism […]
Vega v. Tekoh: The Undermining of Miranda
By: Kate Killean The holding in Miranda v. Arizona is one of the backbones of law enforcement in the United States, not to mention its appearance in television shows and movies. It established the well-known standard that for a statement to be admissible in court, a law enforcement officer must read certain rights, including that against self-incrimination, to detainees before questioning.[1] This rule is prophylactic, meaning it is not directly stated in the Constitution but is used to overprotect constitutional […]
The Connection Between Nat’l Pork Producers Council v. Ross and Abortion
By: Delaney Epley Nat’l Pork Producers Council v. Ross is a pending case argued in front of the Supreme Court in 2022. The case revolves around Proposition 12, passed by California in 2018, which prohibits the sale of pork from animals confined in a manner inconsistent with California’s standards. The case’s central question is whether this law is inconsistent with the U.S. Constitution’s dormant commerce clause. Here, the argument is that the law violates the dormant clause because it essentially […]
Fitisemanu, the Insular Cases, and Territorial Autonomy
By: Emily Evans The Insular Cases are a longstanding series of cases from the early 20th century concerning the status of U.S. territories and their inhabitants. These cases introduced the doctrine of territorial non-incorporation, which justified the ownership of the United States over acquired foreign territories without incorporating these territories and denying inhabitants their rights and equal protection under the law as U.S. citizens.[1] Objectively, these cases were based on social Darwinist ideologies about the people indigenous to these territories, […]
The Least Litigated Amendment
By: Thomas Walsh The Third Amendment to the Constitution has never been the basis of a Supreme Court decision, and it has only been cited a few times throughout U.S. legal history. It states that “no Soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the Owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner prescribed by law.”[1] The American founders wrote this amendment while they tried to create a nation that improved […]