Inequality Inquiry
Shorter Form Content from the Minnesota Journal of Law & Inequality
Choice or Coercion? How the Push to Avoid Formal Foster Care Has Contributed to the Creation of a Dangerous Hidden Foster Care System
February 2, 2022
By Sydnie Peterson* Family units will often come into contact with child protective agencies when they are at their most vulnerable and in crisis. This was the case for Brian Hogan, whose first experience with local child protective agencies occurred after his wife experienced a heart attack and was sent to a hospital approximately two…
Continue ReadingWe Finally (Kind of) Understand COVID – What Does That Mean at the Voting Booth?
February 1, 2022
By Rob Grimsley* When the Coronavirus first went viral, most Americans agreed that public spaces needed to be shut down in order to slow the spread and begin to understand what we were dealing with. However, as 2020 was an election year, there was soon speculation as to how to handle voting. Traditionally, voting had…
Continue ReadingStatement on COVID-19: Addressing Inequity Within Our Law School
January 31, 2022
JLI Editorial Board Over the past year and a half, the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted deeply-rooted inequities within our law school community. Coupled with the normal pressures of law school, the pandemic has strained (and continues to strain) students’ mental, physical, and financial wellbeing. And the challenges brought by the pandemic are exponentially increased for…
Continue ReadingIt’s Time to End the Use of Race & Gender Statistics in Damage Award Calculations
January 27, 2022
By Joe Scanlon* At first glance, the use of race and gender-based statistics may appear to be a neutral, data-driven approach, and defenders of the tactic say it is the most accurate way to calculate the losses incurred after an injury. In reality, however, the practice unjustly devalues the lives of racial minorities and women.
Continue ReadingHow a New Ohio Law and Other State Reforms Are Changing the Landscape of Mental Health and Criminal Justice
January 24, 2022
By Bailey Martin* In 2021, Ohio became the only active death penalty state with a law that allows for resentencing of people on death row who have serious mental health conditions. While this kind of law provides an important starting point for thinking about mental health and criminal justice, courts have much further to go to protect all persons with mental health conditions from disparate impacts in the justice system.
Continue ReadingA New Minneapolis: Opportunities in the Redistricting of Minneapolis Wards
January 19, 2022
By Hannah Stephan* Since the completion of the 2020 U.S. Census, states and cities around the country have begun the process of redistricting. On the tail of a heated municipal election season, redistricting in Minneapolis is especially noteworthy as residents are preparing for a re-do of the City Council election two years from now.…
Continue ReadingThe Rise and Fall of Legalized Recreational Marijuana in South Dakota
January 12, 2022
by Lottie James* By the late evening of November 3, 2020, it had become abundantly clear that a majority of South Dakotans support the legalization of both medical and recreational marijuana use. Two separate initiatives related to the legalization of marijuana usage were on the same ballot, and both initiatives passed with a majority affirmative…
Continue ReadingWho Is the Foreseeable User?: Manufacturers’ Duty to Warn Multilingual Users
January 11, 2022
by Abbie Maier* More than 350 languages are spoken in United States homes. In certain U.S. cities, Spanish speakers represent the majority of the population. In New York City and Houston, almost half of the people speak a language other than English at home, and in Los Angeles, the majority of the population speak languages…
Continue ReadingPreventing Bias with the Model Rules of Professional Conduct: An Interview with Professor Jon J. Lee
December 6, 2021
Interview conducted by JLI Vol. 40 Lead Online Editor Hannah Stephan Model Rule 8.4(g) of the ABA Model Rules of Professional Responsibility attempts to curb harmful bias and discrimination in the legal profession, but states ultimately decide which regulations govern members the local bar. In this interview, University of Minnesota Law School Professor Jon J. Lee…
Continue ReadingThe Sex Offender Registry is a Life Sentence for Juveniles
December 2, 2021
by Layni Sprouse* In 1990, in the wake of her 11-year-old son Jacob’s kidnapping, which grabbed the attention of the entire county, Minnesota native Patty Wetterling believed it crucial to take action to protect children against sexually violent offenders. Due to her efforts and the tragic story of her son, the first sex offender registry…
Continue ReadingNo Humans Involved: The Dehumanization of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls
November 29, 2021
by Alida Weidensee* No Humans Involved. This was the unofficial term used by members of the Los Angeles Police Department and other public officials to describe the murders of people of color and those in other communities deemed nonhuman.[1] The use of this term came to light in 1992, following the acquittal of LAPD officers…
Continue ReadingThomas Jefferson: Derailing the Native American Future
November 23, 2021
Jefferson sought to play both sides of the conflict. On the one hand, he had to appease the zealous settlers who were eager to take Native American land. On the other, he wanted to “cultivate the love” of Native Americans even as he sought to rob them of their property.
Continue ReadingWhere is the U.S. Military?: An Update on the Department of Defense’s Efforts to Prevent Sexual Assault and to Protect Victims
November 17, 2021
by Thor Hawrey* Currently, a female military member is more likely to get post-traumatic stress disorder from being sexually assaulted or harassed than from actual combat. Due to this trauma, as well as the many other complex reasons associated with sexual assault, many victims feel trapped, have suicidal thoughts, and opt to leave the military. Those who desire to serve and protect us must forfeit their careers due to an inability for us to protect them.
Continue ReadingImmigration Under the Biden Administration: An Interview with Attorney Erin Schutte Wadzinski
November 15, 2021
Interview by Grace Anderson* After four years of anti-immigrant, “Build the Wall” rhetoric from the previous presidential administration, President Biden came into office with promises to revitalize our nation’s immigration system. Almost a year into the Biden administration, JLI Staff Member Grace Anderson checks in with immigration attorney Erin Schutte Wadzinski, owner of Kivu Immigration…
Continue ReadingThe Shadow of Buck v. Bell: How Ignoring the United States’ History of Forced Sterilization Has Fostered an Environment Ambivalent to Widespread Abuse
November 11, 2021
by Mercedes Molina* Since Buck v. Bell was decided in 1927, approximately 70,000 people have been legally forcibly sterilized. The legal framework put in place by that infamous 1927 case still exists, despite the repeal of most state’s compulsory sterilization laws.
Continue ReadingThe Supreme Court Vacated the CDC Eviction Moratorium – Now What?
November 2, 2021
Since the pandemic, some households have migrated away from large cities to smaller cities and suburbs. As the median rents rise in these areas, landlords are more eager to evict low-income renters and increase the rent.
Continue ReadingGeneral Counsel Abruzzo’s Memoranda Indicate a Bold, Pro-Worker Agenda at Biden’s NLRB
October 26, 2021
by Jon Erik Haines* National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo came into her role in somewhat unceremonious fashion, following the sudden sacking of Trump administration General Counsel Peter Robb. Her tenure also began under the auspices of then-candidate Biden promising that he would be the “most pro-union president” we have ever…
Continue ReadingMental Health & Criminal Justice: An Interview with Kelly Mitchell and Professor JaneAnne Murray
October 11, 2021
Interview by Sarah Coleman* October 3-9, 2021 was Mental Health Awareness Week. The United States’ prison and criminal justice systems are deeply interconnected with mental healthcare and mental illness. For many individuals, a mental illness diagnosis and subsequent treatment aren’t made available to them until after they come in contact with the criminal justice system.…
Continue ReadingConstitutional Arguments for the Legal Recognition of Bigamous Marriages
October 7, 2021
by Esther Raty* Introduction Bigamy, “the act of entering into a marriage with one person while still legally married to another,”[1] is illegal in the United States.[2] If a person’s first marriage remains intact, their second marriage is not legally binding and can even lead to criminal charges.[3] Bigamy laws prohibit individuals in polygamous and…
Continue ReadingChildren’s Online Privacy in the Age of Influencers
September 24, 2021
The children of family vloggers are often on-screen from the moment they are born—“birth vlogs” are a popular subgenre. Pregnancy is chronicled in excruciating detail, often with a focus on “gender reveals” and a highly anticipated buildup to the reveal of the child’s name.
Continue ReadingA Discriminatory Definition of “Mother:” The Injustice of the British Birth Registry System
September 21, 2021
Sharon Beck* Freddy McConnell, a single father in the United Kingdom, is expecting his second child in early 2022. When they are born, they will join Freddy’s family, which also includes his first child, SJ. Since giving birth to SJ in 2018, Freddy has raised him as a single father, happily and by choice. But both of his children’s birth certificates will list Freddy as their mother, not father, which Freddy has been fighting since he gave birth to SJ.
Continue ReadingThe Prison Phone Industry Exemplifies How Eliminating Private Prisons is Insufficient to Protect Inmates from Being Exploited for Profit
September 15, 2021
Anne Bolgert* Awareness of the exploitation of the private prison industry has been growing in both popular culture and political discussions. However, focus on only eliminating private prisons ignores the impact of private industry in public prisons and jails, as exemplified by the prison phone industry.
Continue ReadingThe TRACED Act: Encouraging Developments in the Fight Against Robocalls
September 13, 2021
by Caroline Headrick*[1] In the modern age, no individual with a cell phone, indeed even a landline, is immune from the threat of scam callers. If you have paid attention to your cell phone in the past year, you have likely noticed the “Scam Likely” call identification that accompanies calls from some unknown numbers. This…
Continue ReadingPower and Pay in the C-Suite
September 8, 2021
View/Download PDF Version Afra Afsharipour† and Darren Rosenblum†† Introduction The debate over executive pay has gripped corporate law scholars, regulators, and the national public for decades.[1] A C-Suite position provides uniquely lucrative financial benefits to executives, especially to Chief Executive Officers (CEOs). Over the past few decades, CEO pay has risen spectacularly,[2] as has debate…
Continue ReadingJoint Publication: Racial Inequality in the Legal System Locally and Nationally
August 5, 2021
View/Download Issue PDF A note from JLI Vol. 39 Editor-in-Chief Navin Ramalingam: This special joint online issue, Racial Inequality in the Legal System Locally and Nationally, is a collaborative work among the six student-run legal academic journals across the three law schools in the state of Minnesota. The objective of the collaboration is to use our…
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