Duke’s Undergraduate Law Magazine
Last month, two jets chartered by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ administration landed in Martha’s Vineyard from San Antonio carrying 48 Venezuelan asylum seekers. The New York Times reports that the “political maneuver” was funded by a $12 million appropriation in Florida's recent budget for a prog ...
Introduction Aug. 24, 2022, following years of debate within the Democrat Party, the Biden Administration announced a one-time plan for federal student debt relief. First-time borrowers, under this new plan, will be eligible for up to $20,000 in relief, although this number may vary depending on ...
As the 2022 midterm primary season wraps up, and campaigns across the country gear up for the general election, one thing has become very clear: Alaska - a state that Donald Trump carried by 10% in the 2020 - just got competitive. In the special election (to fill the remaining term of late Rep. D ...
Following months of contention between Senate Democrats and Joe Manchin, the Inflation Reduction Act was finally signed into law on August 16, 2022. The act is set to raise over $700 billion – mostly through tax reform – to reduce costs of prescription drugs and healthcare, authorize $300 billion ...
In January 2021, the Democratic Party assumed power in both houses of Congress and the White House with plans to pass landmark legislation on voting rights, climate change, and infrastructure. Just a year later, with the Build Back Better plan stalled and no viable path to passing voting r ...
In Van Buren v. United States, the Supreme Court ruled six to three in favor of Nathan Van Buren, a Georgia Police Sergeant, establishing the reach of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) in convicting individuals for improper use of “authorized information.” By clarifying the previously vague ...
In a pair of emergency docket decisions, the Supreme Court rejected two appeals challenging coronavirus vaccine mandates in educational settings. In the first, decided by Justice Amy Coney Barrett, a group of Indiana University students contested the constitutionality of a vaccine mandate for stude ...
On March 8, 2021, the Supreme Court issued a ruling in favor of a college student contending that his First Amendment rights were violated by the school’s policies. By an 8-1 decision in Uzuegbunam v. Preczewski, both liberal and conservative justices of the Supreme Court defended a pillar of both ...
The state of North Carolina violates its constitution daily. The governing document of the state declares that it must provide a “sound, basic education for all.” And yet, multiple courts have found that the state of North Carolina does not meet this standard. This standard and the state’s meager r ...
In a pair of decisions late on Feb. 5, 2021, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that California’s limitations on indoor church gatherings were unconstitutional on the basis that the constraints unfairly curbed First Amendment rights. With this ruling, California churches may resume religious activities ...