Introduction: Innovation is happening at lightning speed, and technology is arguably the most crucial driver of today’s society. Copyright laws were established for the purpose of preventing intellectual property from being copied as well as encouraging more innovative ideas to come to fruition. ...
Fair Admissions to U.S Colleges and Universities: The Supreme Court’s holding on Affirmative Action
Facts: Affirmative action has long been associated with the civil rights movement and has been an established part of the American system for decades. Yet the merits of affirmative action are fiercely debated both within and across political lines, and the very Civil Rights Act that was instrumen ...
New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen
Facts: Brandon Koch and Robert Nash, who were both residents of New York that had a general interest in self-defense, applied for unrestricted gun licenses. This license would allow them to carry a handgun on public premises where it is legal, unless posted otherwise. Although Koch and Nash were ...
Edwards v. Vannoy
Facts: In 2007, Thedrick Edwards, a black man, was found guilty of armed robbery, kidnapping, and rape by a Louisiana jury. At the time, in Louisiana, a non-unanimous jury was able to convict a defendant if at least ten of twelve jurors concurred that the defendant was guilty. During jury selecti ...
Meriwether v. Hartop
According to the Pew Research Center, only about half of Americans feel comfortable referring to someone with gender-neutral pronouns. Younger generations were found to be more likely to use such they/them designations to refer to others and express acceptance of different gender identities. Though ...
Torres v. Madrid
Introduction: The Fourth Amendment of the Constitution protects people from unreasonable searches and seizures by the government. What constitutes an “unreasonable” search or seizure under the law, however, is not clearly outlined and can morph depending on the location of the search or seizure. ...
What’s a Wetland? The Messy and Bureaucratic Definition of the U.S’s Water
Facts: The Clean Water Act (CWA) is widely recognized as a landmark piece of environmental law. One of the two main ways this legislation is used is to control pollution discharged into bodies of water. However, this comes with a set of problems regarding definitions; while it is illegal to dischar ...
Legal Challenge to the Recovery of Nazi-Stolen Art: The Failed Return of the Welfenschatz
Introduction The Nazi Era was marked by genocide and the ravaging of the Jewish identity. Jews were robbed of most, if not all, of their belongings before being deported to their death in concentration camps. Any property left behind after deportation was inevitably collected by the Nazis, who ran ...
North Carolina League of Conservation Voters v. Hall (Harper v. Hall)
Facts: Gerrymandering was a tool used heavily during the late 90s and early 2000s, in cases such as Shaw v. Reno and Vieth v. Jubelirer. It is an intentional attempt to increase the power of one political party in approaching elections through the manipulation of district mapping. Harper v. Hal ...
United States v. Zubaydah
Despite the Biden administration’s approval of eighteen transfers, thirty-nine detainees remained at the military prison in the U.S. Naval Station in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba as of January, 2021. Zayn al-Abidin Muhammad Husayn is one of those thirty-nine. Held without charge by the United States for ...