Inequality Inquiry >> Category

Artificial Intelligence and Facial Recognition: Biases & Privacy Concerns

November 25, 2024

Volume 43 Staff Member Jems Guirguis interviews Omer Tene, a Partner at Goodwin Procter in a wide-ranging discussion of the challenges posed by AI and facial recognition. Recommended Readings: Thaddeus L. Johnson & Natasha N. Johnson, Police Facial Recognition Technology Can’t Tell Black People Apart: AI-powered facial recognition will lead to increased racial profiling, Scientific American…

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Please Don’t Read: How Book Bans Suppress Voices of Color

November 14, 2024

By: Safiyyah Khan, Volume 43 Staff Member View/Download PDF Version: Please Don’t Read – How Book Bans Suppress Voices of Color (Khan)   Book bans are not a novel concept—however, in recent years, calls for book bans have surged to unprecedented levels. Within the last four years, an increasing number of states have introduced and…

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Immigration 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…

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Tick-Tock TikTok: Time’s Up on Online Free Speech?

April 16, 2024

By: Anonymous In this day and age where the internet is in wide proliferation, most Americans receive their news from their smartphones, with a large percentage of people receiving their news from social media.[1] The days of opening a newspaper for the daily news are gone, in favor of swipes, reposts, and shares. One of…

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Will Minnesota’s New Automatic Expungement Laws Have an Effect on Federal Sentences?

February 14, 2024

By Britane Hubbard* On January 1, 2025, Minnesota’s new automatic expungement statutes will go into effect.[1] Under this new law, the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension will identify eligible people and grant them expungement relief if they qualify.[2] Offenses eligible for expungement range from petty misdemeanors to felonies.[3] The possibility of a new wave of expungements…

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Avoiding Atkins: How Tennessee is on the Verge of Unconstitutionally Executing an Individual with Intellectual Disabilities

November 18, 2020

Image Courtesy of Attorneys for Pervis Payne

If the state executes an intellectually disabled individual, but no one knows of the intellectual disability, has the state violated the constitution? It is our sincerest hope that Pervis Payne and others in a similar procedural labyrinth that could lead to what everyone agrees would be an unconstitutional execution are provided an opportunity to present the merits of their claims of intellectual disability. Justice, decency, and the Constitution demand it.

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The Movement Lawyer of 2020

August 11, 2020

Image of a wall with spray painted text reading "I Can't Breathe"

Want to hear how two recent University of Minnesota Law grads chose to respond to the tragic killing of George Floyd? Click the link to learn more about the inspiration behind the “Breathless” podcast, created by Ian Taylor, Jr. (’19) and Haaris Pasha (’19).

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The Law in Politics: A Conversation with Rep. Ryan Winkler

January 12, 2021

    In this interview, staff member Jon Erik Haines met with Minnesota House Majority Leader Rep. Ryan Winkler. Mr. Winkler is the Democratic Majority Leader in the Minnesota House of Representatives and represents suburban district 46A, which contains Golden Valley, St. Louis Park and Plymouth. As a graduate of the University of Minnesota Law…

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Inmate Rights and the Prison/Jail System During COVID-19—Interview with Prof. Susanna Blumenthal

May 9, 2020

Picture of Susanna Blumenthal

JLI staff members Abbie Hanson and Jen Davison recently interviewed Professor Susanna Blumenthal in a conversation about COVID-19’s effects on inmate rights and the prison/jail system. Professor Blumenthal co-directs the Program in Law and History at the University of Minnesota and she is an expert in criminal law. Professor Blumenthal’s research and writing focuses on the historical relationship between law and the human sciences. In this discussion, the group highlights the challenges of containing a virus in inherently constrained spaces, the damaging results on inmate rights, and how groups are working to ensure that incarcerated individuals receive adequate protection during a pandemic.

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Eviction/Housing Issues During COVID-19—Interview with Mid-Minnesota Legal Aid’s Joey Dobson

April 30, 2020

Picture of Joey Dobson

JLI staff members Maddie Sheehy, Adam Johnson, and Peter Schuetz recently interviewed Joey Dobson (Housing Policy Attorney at Mid-Minnesota Legal Aid). The group discussed how the pandemic can exacerbate health and safety issues in housing (mold, infestations, heat, etc.), the eviction moratorium, and how housing attorneys are advocating for their clients now and will be moving forward.

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