Inequality Inquiry
Shorter Form Content from the Minnesota Journal of Law & Inequality
That 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…
Continue ReadingPunishment or “Protection”? The Case Challenging Racialized Homelessness Nationwide
By: Noelle Sperrazza, Volume 43 Note & Comment Editor View/Download PDF Version: Punishment or “Protection”? The Case Challenging Racialized Homelessness Nationwide (Sperrazza) Homelessness is one of the most prominent, urgent, and ever-growing crises in America today. As of 2023, roughly 653,100 people in the United States were experiencing homelessness on any given night.[1] Rising housing costs,…
Continue ReadingThe Deportation Marketplace: The Unethical and Potentially Illegal Deal with El Salvador’s Mega-Prison
April 1, 2025
By: Jane Genske, Volume 43 Staff Member View/Download PDF Version: The Deportation Marketplace (Genske) The outsourcing of asylum responsibilities by wealthier nations through financial incentives—often termed “the commodification of refugees”—is not a new phenomenon. Countries have long paid others to accept and detain migrants, effectively shifting their obligations elsewhere. A recent agreement between the United…
Continue ReadingExpanding Compassionate Release Eligibility in a Post-COVID World
February 27, 2025
By: Sydney Koehler, Volume 43 Managing Editor View/Download PDF Version: Expanding Compassionate Release Eligibility in a Post-COVID World (Koehler) The elderly prison population in the United States is at an all-time high.[1] By 2030, experts estimate that nearly one-third of the national prison population will be 55 years old or older.[2] Despite this trend, both…
Continue ReadingFBI Breaks It, FBI Buys It: Will SCOTUS Finally Make Sure the Feds Pick Up the Tab When They Raid the Wrong House?
By: Margarit Margaritov, Volume 43 Managing Editor Should victims of erroneous Special Weapons and Tactics (“SWAT”) raids by federal law enforcement be able to obtain money damages from the federal government? Will the availability of such remedy make law enforcement more cautious about its conduct? We may soon have a chance to find out.…
Continue ReadingThe TRAIN Act and Copyright: Generative AI’s Ongoing Impact on Creators
By: Jessica Payne, Volume 43 Staff Member View/Download PDF Version: The TRAIN Act and Copyright (Payne) Since generative artificial intelligence’s (AI) soar to popular use over the past several years, a slew of legal issues has risen demanding the attention of Congress. The past two Congressional sessions have featured a significant number of AI-related legislation…
Continue ReadingAdopters’ Remorse: The Unregulated Use of Social Media to Rehome Children
January 27, 2025
By: Zena Hamilton, Volume 43 Staff Member View/Download PDF Version: Adopters’ Remorse – The Unregulated Use of Social Media to Rehome Children (Hamilton) Facebook can be used to buy a used laptop or lamp on the marketplace; surprisingly, it can also be used to rehome a child. Facebook groups dedicated to rehoming unwanted adopted children…
Continue ReadingFifth Circuit En-Banc Split Produces Dangerous Theories of Racialized Politics
By: Dawn Dudley, Volume 43 Staff Member View/Download PDF Version: Fifth Circuit En-Banc Split Produces Dangerous Theories of Racialized Politics (Dudley) In November, the Fifth Circuit issued an equally divided en-banc ruling regarding whether a white student was discriminated against because of his race in violation of Title VI.[1] Title VI prevents discrimination based on…
Continue ReadingMinnesota’s Clemency Review Commission: Reforming the Criminal Pardon Proces
December 18, 2024
By: Meg Keiser, Volume 43 Online Editor
Continue ReadingThe Cost of Bad Apples: Recovery for Sexual Assault Victims Against Public Employers Post-Sterry
November 25, 2024
By: Desmond Bassett, Volume 43 Staff Member View/Download PDF Version: The Cost of Bad Apples – Recovery for Sexual-Assault Victims against Public Employers Post-Sterry (Bassett) In tort law, the doctrine of vicarious liability provides that an employer can be held liable for the torts committed by their employees. This doctrine has not always extended…
Continue ReadingArtificial Intelligence and Facial Recognition: Biases & Privacy Concerns
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…
Continue ReadingWaupun Correctional Institution: A Case Study in the Failures of the PLRA’s Administrative Remedies Requirement
November 22, 2024
By: Claire Girod, Volume 43 Staff Member View/Download PDF Version: Waupun Correctional Institution – A Case Study in the Failures of the PLRA’s Administrative Remedies Requirement (Girod) The Eighth Amendment protects prisoners from cruel and unusual conditions of confinement. Court intervention is often credited by commentators as the driving force keeping correctional facilities from…
Continue ReadingSupporting Criminalized Survivors: The Ongoing Need for Minnesota to Pass the Survivor’s Justice Act
November 18, 2024
By: Lucy Moran, Volume 43 Online Editor View/Download PDF Version: Supporting Criminalized Survivors – The Ongoing Need for Minnesota to Pass the Survivor’s Justice Act (Moran) On December 13, 2021, Samantha Heiges was released from one of Minnesota’s prisons after serving 12 years for causing the death of her baby. In front of Minnesota’s…
Continue ReadingPlease 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…
Continue ReadingTwo Years Since Dobbs: How Access to Contraceptives and IVF Has Changed
November 9, 2024
By: Claire Albrecht, Volume 43 Staff Member View/Download PDF Version: Two Years Since Dobbs (Albrecht) I. Introduction Prior to June 24, 2022, the government “could not control a woman’s body or the course of a woman’s life: It could not determine what the woman’s future would be.”[1] On that date, the Supreme Court denied women…
Continue ReadingDelaying Justice: How Jurisdictional Gaps Fuel the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women Crisis in the United States
October 21, 2024
By: Alejandra Arboleda, Volume 43 Staff Member View/Download PDF Version: Delaying Justice – How Jurisdictional Gaps Fuel the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women Crisis in the United States (Arboleda) Hand-in-hand, thirty-eight Dakota men began to harmonize, calling out each other’s names to ensure no one was missing.[1] Four thousand spectators gathered to witness a…
Continue ReadingFrom DEI to DIY: Anti-DEI Laws Driving Student and Faculty-Led Inclusion Efforts
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 Reading“Mind Your Own Damn Business”: Why Governor Walz Is Right that The Right to Control Your Body Should Not Be Based on Geography
October 19, 2024
By: Claire Cavanagh View/Download PDF Version: _Mind Your Own Damn Business_ – Why Governor Walz Is Right that The Right to Control Your Body Should Not Be Based on Geography (Cavanagh) Minnesota Governor, Tim Walz (Walz), has been selected as Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate. Throughout the campaign, especially during the vice presidential…
Continue ReadingThe Case for a “Good Faith Bargaining” Requirement in Minnesota’s New Tenant Association Law
October 18, 2024
By: Wyatt Lutenbacher, Volume 43 Lead Symposium Editor View/Download PDF Version: The Case for a _Good Faith Bargaining_ Requirement in MN’s New Tenant Association Law (Lutenbacher) “It’s not ‘When we fight, we win,’ but ‘If we don’t fight, we lose.’”[1] Introduction In August 2020, a group of tenants gathered outside the office of Havenbrook…
Continue ReadingDirect File Is a Step in the Right Direction that Still Leaves Out Some Taxpayers
October 11, 2024
By: Spencer Culbertson, Volume 43 Staff Member View/Download PDF Version: Direct File Is a Step in the Right Direction (Culbertson) In May 2024, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced that it would make Direct File a permanent option for taxpayers to e-file their income tax returns following the success of the 2024 Direct File…
Continue ReadingThe Suncor Sets on the Fossil Fuel Empire: Why the Fight for Climate Justice Will Take Place in State Courts
October 4, 2024
By: Elizabeth Mansfield, Volume 43 Online Editor View/Download PDF Version: The Suncor Sets on the Fossil Fuel Empire (Mansfield) Introduction In recent years, numerous states have sued big oil companies over their role in causing the climate crisis and the lies they perpetuated to hide it. One of the most notable cases came out of…
Continue ReadingSleep Tight? Not on This Bench: Grants Pass and the Criminalization of Unhoused Individuals
By: Liddy Patterson, Volume 43 Staff Member View/Download PDF Version: Sleep Tight – Not on This Bench – Grants Pass and the Criminalization of Unhoused Individuals (Patterson) Houselessness is a pervasive and heartbreaking crisis across the United States. Life as an unhoused individual is scary, exhausting, and overwhelming. In the winter, many individuals are denied…
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