Inequality Inquiry
Shorter Form Content from the Minnesota Journal of Law & Inequality
The Criminalization of Pregnancy: Etowah County, Alabama Should Raise Alarms for Women
January 12, 2024
By: Diana Kawka* In Etowah County, Alabama, being pregnant places women at risk of severe punishment for what would otherwise be minor offenses, receiving wildly disparate treatment than their male counterparts.[2] Alabama leads the nation in pregnancy criminalization, with Etowah County disproportionately seeking to imprison and prosecute mothers and pregnant women.[3] Pregnancy criminalization is defined…
Continue ReadingTaking Out the Trash: Is Biden’s Plan for Eliminating Junk Fees an Effective One?
January 2, 2024
From Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour tickets to ATM fees, consumers increasingly encounter junk fees. Lead Managing Editor Evelyn Doran explains and evaluates a recently proposed DOL rule requiring junk fee disclosures by financial advisors.
Continue ReadingOregon’s Yamhill County v. Real Property Commonly Known as 11475 NW Pike Road and The Cracks Forming in the Legal Foundation of Civil Forfeiture Laws
December 27, 2023
By: Christian Purnell* In March of 2018, authorities in Yamhill County, Oregon arrested Cheryl Sublet, a 61-year-old grandmother and military veteran, on charges of possession and delivery of narcotics.[1] Her relapse and arrest represented a tragic turn of events for Sublet who had long battled chemical dependency and PTSD but who had had maintained…
Continue ReadingLevel Setting Web Accessibility Expectations
December 13, 2023
The question of whether a business must make its website accessible or not can be answered, like most legal questions, with “it depends.” Nonetheless, businesses who fail to make their website accessible are at risk for suit alleging an ADA Title III violation.
Continue ReadingPunished Twice: Opioid Users Increasingly Handed Harsh Sentences for Friends’ Deaths
December 1, 2023
By: Bethany Jewison* A new phase of the opioid crisis. Jarret MacCasland and his fiancé Flavia Cardenas shared heroin on her 19th birthday.[1] Flavia tragically passed away and Jarret, who was only a few years older, was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for the “murder” of Flavia.[2] Similarly, a 17-year-old…
Continue ReadingBirthright Citizenship: An Unqualified Right?
October 31, 2023
By: Elise Skarda* The concept of birthright citizenship has been mentioned in the news frequently recently. Many conservative presidential candidates are calling for an end to birthright citizenship,[1] though it is an unqualified constitutional right. So what is birthright citizenship, where does it come from, and why is it unconstitutional to qualify it? Birthright citizenship…
Continue ReadingAre Infant Safe Haven Laws Fulfilling their Intended Purpose?
October 26, 2023
By: Alexandra Schrader-Dobris* In the wake of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, infant safe haven laws are put to the test as more women give birth because of decreased abortion access.[1] During the Dobbs oral argument Justice Barrett asked whether safe haven laws were sufficient alternatives to abortion.[2] The laws allow parents to…
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 ReadingLong-Term Discrimination: Addressing the Disparate Treatment of Claimants with Mental Disabilities in Long-Term Disability Insurance
July 11, 2023
By: Joseph Scanlon View/Download PDF Version
Continue ReadingRight to Spiritual Advisors During Executions: Missouri’s Latest Refusal and the Supreme Court’s Evolving Jurisprudence
June 12, 2023
In Inequality Inquiry’s latest blog post, Britane Hubbard discusses how the Missouri Department of Corrections denied Leonard “Raheem” Taylor’s request for a spiritual advisor leading up to his execution.
Continue ReadingInequality as the Vertical partiality of Public Administration: Empirical Evidence from the Judiciary
June 1, 2023
By Paolo D’Anselmi† 1. Introduction One of the tenets of democratic – and perhaps totalitarian – governance is the impartiality of public administration. Public managers in fact are supposed to take decisions without discriminating between one citizen and the next citizen nor between one politician and the next politician. This is the quality of public…
Continue ReadingPrescribing “Justice”? How the Court’s Stay in Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine Demonstrates the Dangerous Growth of Policy-Driven Adjudication in Federal Courts
May 16, 2023
By Evelyn Doran* In August 2022, the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine (AHM) filed its articles of incorporation in Amarillo, Texas.[1] Three months later, it filed a complaint in the District Court for the Northern District of Texas, the federal district court that serves Amarillo and the surrounding region.[2] In this complaint, it alleged that the…
Continue ReadingCALLING ALL ASYLUM SEEKERS: PLEASE, TELL US YOUR TRAUMA, OVER AND OVER AGAIN
May 15, 2023
A Look into the United States Asylum Process for Recent Afghan Evacuees By Coryn Johnson* I met the girl with the quiet not-quite-smile in a small building on a military base.[1] Laminate tiles in a dirty-off white made the flooring, coupled by white-paned windows framing cheap glass. The place resembled a one-room schoolhouse built in…
Continue ReadingA New Future for Social Media Platforms, Courtesy of State Legislators.
May 13, 2023
By: Anitra Varhadkar
In March 2023, the Utah Governor signed into law a bill that greatly restricts social media use for minors, citing mental health. This blog post discusses whether or not mental health is the real reason for the legislation.
Examining the Constitutionality of Targeted Residential Protest Bans
May 12, 2023
By Alexandra Schrader-Dobris Introduction: Minnesota cities are steadily banning targeted residential protests in response to several Black Lives Matter demonstrations following George Floyd’s death in 2020.[1] That summer, over one hundred Black Lives Matter (BLM) protesters picketed outside Minneapolis Police Union President Bob Kroll’s house, calling for his resignation as a result of his failure…
Continue Reading“Reasonable Efforts” Inequities in Minnesota Child Welfare Removals
By Luke Srodulski When Minnesota Governor Tim Walz signed House File 4065 into law on June 2, 2022, much of the media coverage surrounded provisions legalizing THC-infused edibles and beverages, and whether Republican state lawmakers had actually intended to pass them.[1] Far less notable to most observers were reforms to child welfare law.[2] These amendments…
Continue ReadingExpungement: The Missing Federal Piece
May 10, 2023
While states have created their own expungement laws, nothing similar exists under federal law. In this blog post, staff member Diana Kawka explores federal expungement law and offers solutions to solve this gap.
Continue ReadingBreonna Taylor is Not Forgotten: Department of Justice Finds Civil Rights Violations by the Louisville Metro Police Department and the Louisville/Jefferson County Metro Government
May 9, 2023
By Alejandrea Brown* Police violence and misconduct against Black people in America is not a new phenomenon. Studies have shown that Black people are 3.23 times more likely than White people to be killed by the police.[1] The lack of accountability concerning police misconduct and violence against the Black community is also not new trend.[2] …
Continue ReadingMinnesota Crisis Pregnancy Centers and The Positive Pregnancies Bill
By Lizzy Miller* Introduction In 2022, the federal constitutional right to abortion previously found in Roe v. Wade was overturned by Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.[1] Crucially, Dobbs found that “the state has an ‘important and legitimate interest’ in protecting fetuses that it does not have in preventing contraception.”[2] While abortion remains constitutionally protected…
Continue ReadingThe Clash Between LGBTQ Anti-Discrimination Law and Freedom of Speech in 303 Creative v. Elenis: Which Will Take the Cake?
April 2, 2023
By Elizabeth Wellhausen* In December 2022, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments for 303 Creative v. Elenis, a case that is basically a “redo” of Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission.[1] In Masterpiece, a baker refused to make a wedding cake for a same-sex couple because same-sex marriage conflicted with his religious views.[2] The…
Continue ReadingWill the Indian Child Welfare Act Survive? The Supreme Court Will Decide in Haaland v. Brackeen
March 30, 2023
By Layni Miramontes* The Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) is a federally enacted statute that became law in 1978 as a response to the disproportionate number of Native children that were being systemically removed from their homes with little to no evidence justifying their removal. ICWA was the legislative response to the U.S. government’s brutal…
Continue ReadingFundamental, Not Absolute: Implications of the Minnesota Supreme Court’s Ruling in Schroeder v. Simon
March 29, 2023
In this blog, Staff Member John Leiner examines the Minnesota Supreme Court’s ruling in Schroeder v. Simon and how legislation could restore voting rights to Minnesotans with past felony convictions.
Continue ReadingThe Right to Choose From An Empty Shelf: Anti-Abortionists Sue to Remove FDA Approval of Crucial Medication
March 28, 2023
Staff Member Bethany Jewison analyzes a recent lawsuit where multiple anti-abortion organizations seek to repeal the FDA’s approval of an important abortion drug, mifepristone.
Continue ReadingHow Current Law Fails to Protect Defendants with Mental Illnesses from the Death Penalty
March 27, 2023
By Bailey Martin Eighteen men were executed in the United States in 2022[1], and so far, seven more men and women have been executed in 2023.[2] Despite numerous arguments that these individuals suffered from severe mental illnesses, last-minute appeals and clemency requests were unsuccessful.[3] Furthermore, upcoming scheduled executions continue this pattern of executing individuals…
Continue ReadingReason-Specific Abortion Bans Under Current Abortion Jurisprudence
March 13, 2023
View/Download PDF Version By Jocelyn Rimes† Introduction In 2021 alone, 108 restrictions on abortion were enacted in just nineteen states.[1] With the recent Supreme Court decision, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, that eliminated the federal constitutional right to obtain an abortion, abortion access is in a perilous position for millions of individuals.[2] Currently, ten…
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