Racial Justice
Above the Law: How Kim Potter’s Sentencing Serves as Another Example of Police Receiving Disproportionately Low Sentences
March 7, 2022
The recent sentencing of former Brooklyn Center Police Officer Kimberly Potter provides a reminder that police officers who kill people while on duty are granted leniency over and over again in the criminal justice system.
Continue ReadingThe Texas Crown Act Policy Woes: Facially Neutral Grooming and Appearance Policies of Texas School Districts
October 17, 2023
In our most recent Blog Post, JLI Vol. 42 Lead Online Editor Alejandrea Brown discusses challenges of the recently enacted Texas Crown Act, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of hair texture and protective hairstyling associated with race.
Continue ReadingThe $2 Billion-Plus Price of Injustice: A Methodological Map for Police Reform in the George Floyd Era
March 22, 2021
View/Download PDF Version David Schultz† Introduction The death of George Floyd on May 25, 2020 under the knee of a Minneapolis police officer forced America again to confront the connection between racism and law enforcement. It also compelled the City of Minneapolis to act. Merely a few days later on June 7, 2020 a majority…
Continue ReadingProtecting Civil Liberties: Easier Said Than Done
April 1, 2022
by Julia Decker* It is easy to say that voting is the cornerstone of our democracy, perhaps easier still to say that protecting the right to vote is paramount. There is nuance, however, in assessing those protections. In an era of what many perceive to be increasing political polarization, ostensibly neutral yet increasingly stringent…
Continue ReadingA Civil Gideon? The Case for Universal Representation in Immigration Courts
March 5, 2024
A Civil Gideon? The Case for Universal Representation in Immigration Courts By: Meg Keiser* In 1932, the Supreme Court began considering the right to counsel as a due process concern in Powell v. Alabama, holding that in capital cases where a defendant is unable to independently secure counsel, the Court must appoint counsel.[1] From Powell…
Continue Reading“How Are We Supposed to Move Forward with THIS Police Force After This?”: The Stalled Reform Movement in Minneapolis
March 26, 2021
Gabrielle Maginn* On May 25, 2020, George Floyd was killed by Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin. The horrifying incident, in which Floyd calls out for his mother and tells Chauvin and the other officers present that he can’t breathe, was caught on camera and broadcast widely. In the days and weeks that followed, residents of…
Continue Reading“The Harvest of Solidarity”: Achievements of Black Activists Following the 1921 Duluth Lynchings
April 11, 2022
By Brenna Evans[1] Minnesota’s history with lynchings is a long and bloody one. [2] Over two dozen lynching attacks stain Minnesota’s history, but none are more infamous than the 1921 lynchings of Isaac McGhie, Elmer Jackson, and Elias Clayton in Duluth.[3] But one part of this brutal history that is often overlooked is the…
Continue ReadingRedefining De Facto: Cruz-Guzman and the Future of Racial Segregation in Minnesota Public Schools
April 17, 2024
By: Fariza Hassan*
As Cruz-Guzman makes its way back into the legal sphere with this new lens, it is important for Minnesota courts to take into consideration the historical trends and impacts of state-imposed desegregation. Minnesota has a powerful opportunity to rectify a long history of racial discrimination faced by young Black and brown children within the realm of public education, but the question of who will truly reap these benefits and how exactly such benefits ought to be derived is one that requires great care and diligence by the state.
How We Got Here: Race, Police Use of Force, and the Road to George Floyd
April 1, 2021
Long before the killing of George Floyd, the United States has struggled to mitigate racially arbitrary use of force by the police. This article seeks to explain how we got to the killing of George Floyd. This article contends that that the law—especially the decisions of the Supreme Court and political choices made by politicians—has helped to enable the relatively unchecked use of force against people of color.
Continue ReadingSigning Away Your Right to Parent: How Safety Plans Evade Due Process Requirements in Child Welfare Proceedings
April 20, 2022
By Eleanor Khirallah While safety plans are supposedly voluntary and lack the court’s involvement, there have been many questions about the coercion involved in having parents sign these agreements. This is particularly true because these plans may be used to deprive parents of their right to custody of their children without due process of law.
Continue ReadingFrom DEI to DIY: Anti-DEI Laws Driving Student and Faculty-Led Inclusion Efforts
October 21, 2024
By: Nas Lawal, Volume 43 Lead Articles Editor View/Download PDF Version: From DEI to DIY – Anti-DEI Laws Driving Student and Faculty-Led Inclusion Efforts (Lawal) In a time when diversity is more important than ever, universities are stepping away from the very programs meant to promote it. In the aftermath of the Students for…
Continue ReadingThe History of Anti-Asian Discrimination, Racism, and Xenophobia – Interview with Prof. Linus Chan
April 5, 2021
In light of the recent spike in anti-Asian violence associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, Vol. 40’s Rachel Pokrzywinski (Executive Editor) and Heather Chang (Editor-in-Chief) met with University of Minnesota Law School Professor Linus Chan to discuss the origins of violence against Asian people in the United States, the role of hate crime legislation,…
Continue ReadingRacism, Social Control, and the Regulation of Bar Admissions
April 14, 2022
By Professor David Schultz* Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. famously declared: “The life of the law has not been logic: it has been experience.” When it comes to admission to practice law, one could say that “The life of admission to practice law has not been fairness but exclusion.” From its birth, America was a racist…
Continue ReadingJLI’s Statement on Brooklyn Center Police’s Killing of Daunte Wright
April 14, 2021
Gabrielle Maginn, Hannah Stephan, and the JLI Editorial Board Black Lives Matter. Daunte Wright was a father, a son, and a member of our Twin Cities community. On April 11th, 2021, a White Brooklyn Center police officer killed Daunte, a Black man. The loss of the life of our 20-year-old neighbor is a tragedy. The…
Continue ReadingWhat’s Wrong With My Hair?: Discrimination Against Black Hair in the Workplace
April 26, 2022
By Jocelyn Rimes* I spent the days leading up to my first day of my summer law clerk position agonizing over how I would do my hair. While still unsure, I eventually decided that I would do a twist-out, sectioning my hair in small twists and untwisting it the next day for defined curls. On…
Continue Reading2020 Summit for Civil Rights – The State of American Apartheid
November 20, 2020
In “The State of American Apartheid”, scholars and on-the-ground activists discuss the history of school segregation, and, even six decades after Brown v. Board of Education declared “Separate is not equal”, how segregation exists and affects people today. This panel discusses the causes, results, and on-going impact of our society’s unwillingness to challenge racial…
Continue ReadingThis Week in News: Responses to the Killing of Daunte Wright
April 15, 2021
As part of JLI’s response to Daunte Wright’s killing by a Brooklyn Center police officer on Sunday, April 11th, Inequality Inquiry has compiled relevant news and legal-adjacent updates from the Twin Cities metro area.
Continue ReadingGentrification, Displacement, and Disparate Impact Liability: How Gentrification Theory is Not Cognizable Under the Fair Housing Act
May 2, 2022
by Adam Mikell* In the United States, the topic of housing has an ugly history comprised of decades of government-sanctioned discrimination and segregation carried out through racially-motivated practices such as “neighborhood composition” rules, racial covenants, steering, and redlining. In 1968—the tail end of the Civil Rights Movement—the Fair Housing Act (FHA) was passed to…
Continue Reading2020 Summit for Civil Rights – Who’s Profiting?
November 23, 2020
JLI’s Statement Regarding Chauvin Verdict and the Ongoing Fight for Racial Justice
April 21, 2021
Gabrielle Maginn, Heather Chang, Navin Ramalingam, and the JLI Editorial Board Yesterday, twelve jurors found Derek Chauvin, a White former Minneapolis police officer, guilty on all counts—third-degree murder, second-degree unintentional murder, and second-degree manslaughter—for killing George Perry Floyd, Jr., on May 25, 2020. This was an extraordinary case, bolstered by the bravery of the witnesses…
Continue ReadingExpungement of Marijuana Convictions: Lessons Learned from Minnesota Prohibition
February 7, 2023
Articles Editor Cedar Weyker looks back on Prohibition-era Minnesota to determine the best path forward for expungement as states across the country legalize marijuana.
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