Supreme Court

Protection for Play: Student-Athletes and the Renewed Fight for Workers’ Compensation Benefits

June 23, 2022

The National Collegiate Athlete Association (“NCAA”) has a longstanding history of denying employment-related benefits to student-athletes. Student-athletes have never been able to claim employment status at the university they attend. Accordingly, injured student-athletes have traditionally been unable to make a claim for workers’ compensation benefits. The theory and rationale behind denying student-athletes employment status at the university they attended is based on the idea of [...]

Supreme Court Gets Supremely Partisan

April 20, 2022

Ketanji Brown Jackson is the latest nominee to be confirmed to the Supreme Court of the United States. When President Joe Biden nominated now-Justice Jackson on February 25, 2022, he was fulfilling a promise, made on the 2020 Presidential Campaign trail, to nominate the first Black woman to the Supreme Court. Jackson’s nomination comes after Justice Stephen Breyer announced he would be retiring from the Court when its summer recess commences. Judge Jackson’s confirmation would replace [...]

Cancel Culture: Exploring the Legal Justifications for President Biden’s Authority to Cancel Student Through Executive Order

January 27, 2022

Issue Background In recent years the question as to what should be done about the ever-increasing amount of student loan debt, both federally and privately held, has become a hotly debated political issue. Regardless of political affiliation, it is generally agreed that student debtors are particularly burdened by their obligation to repay their loans and that this adversely affects their ability to participate in the national economy. Various plans aimed at lessening this burden have [...]

To Ban or Not To Ban: The Death Penalty in Limbo

September 14, 2021

The idea of capital punishment and its legality have enveloped the news and media for centuries. But where did the death penalty come from, how has it developed over time, and how much longer will it be around? [...]

Supreme Inaction: Words from the Bench and Implications of Texas’s S.B. 8

September 2, 2021

In the late hours on Wednesday, September 1, the Supreme Court of the United States denied an emergency request by abortion and women’s health providers for an injunction barring enforcement of Texas’s Senate Bill 8. S.B. 8 is a restrictive law that bans most abortions after as early as six weeks of pregnancy and allows private citizens to file civil lawsuits against abortion providers. The late-night decision arrived by way of the Supreme Court’s shadow docket (a topic that has been [...]

Shedding Light on the Supreme Court’s Shadow Docket

April 2, 2021

The Supreme Court of the United States as an institution is often praised for its transparency and articulate reasoning that serves as a lodestar for judges, scholars, and law students. When opinions are handed down, they are closely studied for legal arguments that eventually make their way back to court in other cases. The standard operating procedure to have a case heard before the Court is a long and often slow process that prioritizes careful decision-making over speed. A lawyer will [...]

2020 – The Perfect Storm for a Constitutional Crisis, Trump v. Biden, 592 U.S. __ (2020), What will the Supreme Court Decide?

October 28, 2020

Mix a pandemic with the magnitude of this election and you just might just get a Bush v. Gore Part II. Only this time, with the abject degree of political polarization, if the Supreme Court is called upon to decide the winner, would the legitimacy of the election be accepted? [...]

The Insanity Defense: From Fundamental Legal Principle to Legal Fiction

October 7, 2020

In Kahler, the Court did not merely uphold Kansas' interpretation of a vital protection; it allowed Kansas to, in effect, eviscerate the protection entirely. [...]

Supreme Court Ruling in Espinoza Has the Potential to Change School Choices for Students in Many States

October 3, 2020

The Supreme Court has had another opportunity to address the tension between the religion clauses: the Establishment Clause, which prohibits the government from establishing a religion, and the Free Exercise Clause, which requires the government to accommodate individuals to freely follow their religious beliefs or practices. Recently, the tension has surfaced most often concerning education funding and school choice programs. In January, the United States Supreme Court heard oral arguments [...]

I Dissent: R.I.P. to the Notorious R.B.G. – A Tribute to RBG & Her Legacy

September 25, 2020

“Our Nation has lost a jurist of historic stature. We at the Supreme Court have lost a cherished colleague. Today we mourn, but with confidence, that future generations will remember Ruth Bader Ginsburg as we knew her -- a tireless and resolute champion of justice.” - Chief Justice John Roberts [...]