Summary: In 2017, the Acting Secretary of Homeland Security, Elaine Duke, issued a memorandum rescinding the memo that established DACA and setting forth a plan to phase it out. Recent rulings, however, have upheld the DACA program, creating legal barriers to the Trump Administration’s attempt to en ...
The Complex Nature of US Evacuation Laws
Summary: While every state has laws regarding mandatory evacuation policy, it is usually up to the citizen whether or not to follow an order. Introduction Every year, natural disasters force millions of people across the United States to flee dangerous conditions. So far in 2018, many evacuati ...
Plyler v. Doe: Undocumented Students and Post-Secondary Education
Summary: Plyler v. Doe lay the groundwork for states to recognize the value of awarding education to every group, regardless of citizenship status. Yet the evolution of education means that over thirty years later, its shortcomings are impossible to ignore. Perhaps even from its conception, Amer ...
Change and Controversy: A Review of Hate Crime Laws in America
Pittsburgh. Kroger. Package bombs. Over the past two weeks, the United States has been recovering from three different attacks. As the perpetrators of each face charges, the question of motivation for these hate-fueled attacks is being brought up across the nation. For the courts, the question of ...
Social Media Privacy in Employment
Summary: As more employers use social media to evaluate a job candidate, it is raising questions of privacy rights of employees across various states. Background For years, job applications have been comprehensive, with employers requiring a plethora of information from the candidate. In the d ...
Keeping Our Participants Alive: Drug Court Successes, Failures, and the Opioid Epidemic
Summary: Despite their successes, traditional drug courts fail to help opioid addicts. The creation of an opioid-specific intervention court attempts to change this. Fewer things have swept the nation as quickly or as violently as the opioid crisis. Claiming the lives of some 64,000 Americans in ...
The Supreme Court’s Ability to Enforce Rulings
Summary: The Supreme Court's move to the right has raised questions of the Court's ability to enforce its rulings. To many Americans, the confirmation of Justice Brett Kavanaugh marked the Supreme Court’s move to the ideological right. The country is wondering how this will affect rulings on lan ...
The Right to Refuse Service and Its Implications on Society
Summary: A business owner has the right to refuse service as long as he or she does not infringe upon federal or state discrimination laws. Background Across the nation, businesses display and enforce their right to refuse service. Whether a customer is causing a nuisance or is dressed inappr ...
California Bail Reform Leaves Both Sides Unhappy
Summary: California’s new bail reform bill, Senate Bill 10, goes into effect October 2019, but activist groups pull support for SB10. It is a little-known fact that the American constitution fails to guarantee its citizens the right to bail; however, the Eighth Amendment prohibits excessive bail ...
Who is Actually Served and Protected? An Overview of Nuisance Property Ordinances
Summary: Despite being designed to limit public harm that occurs on properties, nuisance property ordinances perpetuate systemic housing barriers faced by domestic violence victims. Today more than ever, the duty of police to “serve and protect” has come under public scrutiny. The law, however, s ...