Inequality Inquiry
Shorter Form Content from the Minnesota Journal of Law & Inequality
ICE Must Use Front Plates, Cannot Use Out-of-State Plates in Minnesota
February 26, 2026
By: Patrick Kissel View/Download PDF Version: ICE Must Use Front Plates, Cannot Use Out-of-State Plates in Minnesota (Kissel) Minnesota has experienced something few predicted an American state would ever experience: a federal occupation. Masked agents of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and other agencies of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) have roamed the streets…
Continue ReadingMinnesota’s New Paid Family and Medical Leave Act: Benefits for All
February 24, 2026
By: Amy Wegner View/Download PDF Version: Minnesota’s New Paid Family and Medical Leave Act- Benefits for All (Wegner) Minnesota passed the Minnesota Paid Family Medical Leave Act in 2023, which provides paid leave for workers who take anywhere between 12 and 20 weeks of leave for “medical leave, bonding, or caring for a family member.”[1]…
Continue ReadingIn re Benson, A Year Later
February 23, 2026
By: Claire Girod View/Download PDF Version: In re Benson, A Year Later (Girod) In October 2024, the Minnesota Supreme Court ruled on Matter of Commitment of Benson, holding that those subject to civil commitment have a right to waive counsel. The Minnesota Commitment and Treatment Act (MCTA) provides a statutory right to counsel for those…
Continue ReadingIn Defense of Anger: Reason, Morality, and the Law
February 19, 2026
By: Lubasha Heredia View/Download PDF Version: In Defense of Anger: Reason, Morality, and the Law (Heredia) Anger occupies an uneasy place in legal discourse. Courts, commentators, and officials routinely valorize calm, neutrality, and restraint, while framing anger as irrational, destabilizing, or corrosive to reasoned judgment. Our legal culture emphasizes objectivity, neutrality, and formal legal…
Continue ReadingThe Surge of Pro Se Plaintiffs
February 5, 2026
By: Krista Colbert View/Download PDF Version: The Surge of Pro Se Plaintiffs (Colbert) For millions of Americans, the decision to proceed pro se (self-representation) is not ideological or strategic—it is economic. The justice gap reflects a systemic failure of the United States legal system to provide equal justice under the law. Nowhere is this failure…
Continue Reading“Defending the Homeland”: Where Does it End? History’s Demonstration of How Far ICE Can Go
February 4, 2026
By: Sophia Artley View/Download PDF Version: “Defending the Homeland” Where Does it End? History’s Demonstration of How Far ICE Can Go (Artley) In the land of the cold and snow, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has become a key point of contention. The Trump administration has ramped up ICE presence and raids on the Minnesota…
Continue ReadingA Flashlight in the Black Box of Tax: How the New Math Error Act Matters for Taxpayer Rights and Inequality and What Still Remains in the Dark
February 3, 2026
By: Cecelia Peters View/Download PDF Version: A Flashlight in the Black Box of Tax How the New Math Error Act Matters for Taxpayer Rights and Inequality and What Still Remains in the Dark (Peters) A New Law Shines Light on IRS Math Error Notices The Internal Revenue Service Math and Taxpayer Help Act (IRS Math Act)…
Continue ReadingRedrawing Democracy: The Supreme Court’s Texas Map Ruling and the Future of Racial Equality in Voting
January 29, 2026
By: Maya Frazier View/Download PDF Version: Redrawing Democracy The Supreme Court’s Texas Map Ruling and the Future of Racial Equality in Voting (Frazier) When the Supreme Court of the United States allowed Texas to implement a newly drawn congressional map that a lower court found diluted the voting power of Black and Latino communities[1], it did…
Continue Reading“One Big Beautiful Bill” Education Caps: Lowering Student Debt or Limiting Access to Education?
January 28, 2026
By: Emma Kizer View/Download PDF Version: “One Big Beautiful Bill” Education Caps Lowering Student Debt or Limiting Access to Education? (Kizer) As the United States approached its 249th birthday, the country’s eyes were turned towards Congress’s heated debates surrounding the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) that was filled with cuts to social safety net…
Continue ReadingFighting Pre-Crime?: Law Enforcement, Artificial Intelligence, and Predictive Policing Technology
January 27, 2026
By: Aaron Spitler* View/Download PDF Version: Fighting Pre-Crime? Law Enforcement, AI, and Predictive Policing Technology (Spitler) For law enforcement agencies (LFAs), the allure of artificial intelligence (AI) is hard to resist. Vendors of AI-powered products have pitched them to police departments by emphasizing how this software can help stop crime in its tracks. The most…
Continue Reading“Words Written on Water”—Targeted Immigration Enforcement Under the Trump Administration
January 22, 2026
By: Kaylie Vasquez, Volume 44 Lead Articles Editor View/Download PDF Version: “Words Written on Water”—Targeted Immigration Enforcement Under the Trump Administration (Vasquez) “America has been a democracy of convenience. Rights are granted to those who align with power. For the poor, for the people of color, for those who resist injustice, rights are but…
Continue ReadingThe Cost of Fairness: Why LIHTC’s Expense Can Be a Progressive Strength
January 21, 2026
By: Sumati Srivastava View/Download PDF Version: The Cost of Fairness Why LIHTC’s Expense Can Be a Progressive Strength (Srivastava) The Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) is the United States’ largest federal program for incentivizing the development and preservation of affordable rental housing. LIHTC builds are often criticized for being more expensive than market-rate construction,…
Continue ReadingPunishing Public Service: How the New PSLF Rule Endangers Legal Aid and Other Safety-Net Services
January 20, 2026
By: William Olson View/Download PDF Version: Punishing Public Service How the New PSLF Rule Endangers Legal Aid and Other Safety-Net Services (Olson) On October 31, 2025, the United States Department of Education (ED) passed a new rule altering the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program that allows the Secretary of the Department to find…
Continue ReadingAssessing the Role of State and Local Government Subsidization of Private Redevelopment Initiatives in Michigan
December 31, 2025
By: Ronald Smith View/Download PDF Version: Assessing the Role of State and Local Government Subsidization of Private Redevelopment Initiatives in Michigan (Smith) The influence of private wealth on democratic processes has long been an issue of both public and legal scrutiny in the United States. Recently, much publicity was—rightfully—generated over incredible sums donated by the…
Continue ReadingMinnesota’s Cumulative Impact Law: What it is & Where it’s at
December 1, 2025
By: Emiliana Almanza Lopez, Volume 44 Managing & Research Editor View/Download PDF Version: Minnesota’s Cumulative Impact Law What it is & Where it’s at (Almanza) Introduction In 2023, the Minnesota legislature passed a Cumulative Impacts Bill aimed to increase community participation and consideration in the permitting process for air-polluting facilities within a sub-section of areas…
Continue ReadingThe Justice Gap: The Case for Expanded Legal Aid Services
November 10, 2025
By: Dallas Hayden View/Download PDF Version: The Justice Gap: The Case for Expanded Legal Aid Services (Hayden) A few weeks after I moved out of my Washington Avenue apartment, I received a cryptic email demand from my landlord, “bath trash out: $50.” I could not understand what the message meant or why I had received…
Continue ReadingAdministrative Censorship: The Pentagon’s Press Rules as an Abridgment of Press Freedoms
November 7, 2025
By: Jessica Payne, Volume 44 Executive Editor View/Download PDF Version: Administrative Censorship and the Pentagon Press Policy (Payne) Media organizations with Pentagon press access have faced a significant decision over the past several weeks: sign a newly adopted Pentagon press policy or lose access to the Pentagon.[1] In an unprecedented affront to well-established press First…
Continue ReadingThe Myth of the Firm Exception: Why Trial Lawyers Continues to Harm Contract Workers
April 30, 2025
By: Zinaida Carroll, Volume 43 Executive Editor View/Download PDF Version: The Myth of the Firm Exception – Why Trial Lawyers Continues to Harm Contract Workers (Carroll) Introduction In FTC v. Superior Court Trial Lawyers Association, the Supreme Court decided that a coordinated strike and demand for better wages was per se illegal price-fixing under the Sherman…
Continue ReadingDeveloping a Remedy: Indian Courts Should Remedy the “Slow Violence” of the Bhopal Industrial Disaster Consistent with International Law
By: Alexander Lindenfelser, Volume 43 Lead Symposium Editor View/Download PDF Version: Developing a Remedy – Indian Courts Should Remedy the “Slow Violence” of the Bhopal Industrial Disaster Consistent with International Law (Lindenfelser) The Bhopal industrial disaster is more than the “world’s worst industrial disaster.”[1] It is a forty-year legacy of environmental racism,[2] structural inequalities…
Continue ReadingUnder Siege: The Legal Profession at a Crossroads
April 24, 2025
Incoming Volume 44 Editor-in-Chief Jaxon Alston and Professor June Carbone, Robina Chair for Law, Science, and Technology trace how the current attacks on lawyers, law firms, and the justice system began, examine why major law firms are capitulating to external pressures, and explore the ripple effects on pro bono representation and education. The very foundations…
Continue ReadingThe Surprising Cause of Increasingly Horrific Executions: Death Penalty Abolitionists
April 23, 2025
By: Kristin M. Boynton, Volume 43 Senior Managing Editor View/Download PDF Version: The Surprising Cause of Increasingly Horrific Executions – Death Penalty Abolitionists (Boynton) The January 2024 execution of Kenneth Smith garnered worldwide attention,[1] including an official statement by the United Nations High Commissioner that criticized the new method used by the State.[2] The UN…
Continue ReadingThat Pays How Much? A Brief Look at Minnesota’s New Wage Transparency Law
April 11, 2025
By: Reeves Singleton, Volume 43 Staff Member View/Download PDF Version: That Pays How Much? A Brief Look at Minnesota’s New Wage Transparency Law (Singleton) Almost anyone who has applied to a job in the last ten years can regale you with stories of frustration, exhaustion, and an ever-deepening distaste for the very concept of job…
Continue ReadingMinneapolis Organization Spotlight: New Justice Project MN
By: Fariza Hassan, Volume 43 Editor-in-Chief View/Download PDF Version: Minneapolis Organization Spotlight – New Justice Project MN (Hassan) During a long-time friend’s going away picnic at Boom Island Park earlier this summer, we noticed that under the nearby chateau was a lively group hosting some sort of celebratory, yet informative, event. While we reminisced our stories…
Continue ReadingFragmenting Justice: How a Circuit Split is Breaking FLSA Collectives and Undermining Employee Protections Post-Bristol-Myers Squibb
April 7, 2025
By: Anthony Alas, Volume 43 Managing & Research Editor View/Download PDF Version: Fragmenting Justice – How a Circuit Split is Breaking FLSA Collectives and Undermining Employee Protections Post-Bristol-Myers Squibb (Alas) I. INTRODUCTION Decision after decision, federal circuits are eroding employees’ right to unite against their employer in the courtroom. For decades, courts interpreted the Fair…
Continue ReadingHow Recent Executive Actions Deliver Reproductive Healthcare Discrimination
By: Kavya Mahesh, Volume 43 Staff Member View/Download PDF Version: How Recent Executive Actions Deliver Reproductive Healthcare Discrimination (Mahesh) Systemic healthcare discrimination targeting vulnerable populations has been a persistent obstacle in ensuring quality medical services can be enjoyed equally by everyone. The impacts of the current healthcare inequities on maternal and reproductive care result in…
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