Inequality Inquiry
Shorter Form Content from the Minnesota Journal of Law & Inequality
Why a Tuesday in November? An Original Intent Argument for Increased Voter Accessibility
November 25, 2020
What is so important about a singular “Election Day” and why is it some Tuesday in November? To reinforce the original intent of legislators in 1845, we should make adjustments to election day to make it more convenient for voters, just as they did for farmers in the 1800’s.
Continue ReadingDoes the Minneapolis Police Department Traffic Stop Data Reveal Racial Bias?
November 24, 2020
This study analyzed Minneapolis Police Department traffic stop data from 2016 to 2020 to determine if racial bias influences MPD behavior. Results of the analysis showed that Black drivers are 10.8% percent more likely to be stopped during the day, when officers can observe the driver’s race for profiling, than when Black drivers’ race is not observable during darkness. The effect was highly statistically significant and demonstrated that Minneapolis Police Department traffic stops are racially biased.
Continue Reading2020 Summit for Civil Rights – Is America Ready for a 2nd Reconstruction? A 3rd “Founding”?
November 23, 2020
What would a Civil Rights Restoration Act look like in 2020?
Continue Reading2020 Summit for Civil Rights – Who’s Profiting?
Racial segregation as a lucrative business model
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 ReadingElder Evictions: Relief Coming 2021
November 19, 2020
Consumer protections and regulations of ALFs are long overdue in Minnesota, and the changes effective 2021 will be a welcome relief to older adults across the state.
Continue ReadingAvoiding Atkins: How Tennessee is on the Verge of Unconstitutionally Executing an Individual with Intellectual Disabilities
November 18, 2020
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.
Continue Reading2020 Summit for Civil Rights – The State of Multi-Racial America and Black Power
November 16, 2020
In “The State Of Multi-Racial America And Black Power” panel, AG Ellison began his keynote speech by acknowledging the efforts of the common people protesting in the streets every day “bringing forth justice, freedom, [and] accountability in [the criminal justice] system.” Ellison remarked that in order to ensure that Black lives matter Black Power…
Continue Reading2020 Summit for Civil Rights – Opening Statements
The Minnesota Journal of Law & Inequality (JLI) co-hosted the virtual 2020 Summit for Civil Rights with the Institute on Metropolitan Opportunity and Georgetown Law’s Workers’ Rights Institute on July 30 and 31, 2020. The Dean of the University of Minnesota Law School, Garry Jenkins, provided the welcome remarks to kickstart the 2020 Summit…
Continue ReadingThe Movement Lawyer of 2020
August 11, 2020
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).
Continue ReadingFormulating a Fix: Past, Present, and Future State and Federal Efforts to Rectify the Abuses of Form Contracts
June 13, 2020
by Chad K. Hermes† View/Download PDF Version Table of Contents Part I: The Standard Form Contract Part II: Legislative Action to Limit Oppressive Terms in Form Contracts A. Federal Action to Limit Oppressive Terms B. State Action to Limit Oppressive Terms Part III: Further Efforts Legislatures Should Make to Limit Oppressive Terms A. Principles-Based Enforcement…
Continue ReadingJLI’s Statement of Solidarity
June 2, 2020
Black Lives Matter. The Journal of Law & Inequality extends its deepest sympathies to Mr. George Floyd’s loved ones and condemns the unequal legal system that continues to destroy Black American lives like Mr. Floyd’s. The Journal is deeply concerned that police brutality is disproportionately affecting Black Americans in our city and demands an independent and unbiased investigation into Mr. Floyd’s killing.
Continue ReadingResponse to MPD’s Killing of George Floyd
by Jen Davison and the JLI Editorial Team On May 25, 2020, a White Minneapolis Police Department officer killed George Floyd, a Black man in our Twin Cities community. The White police officer killed Mr. Floyd while Mr. Floyd was in police custody, and bystanders captured the scene of Mr. Floyd’s final…
Continue ReadingImmigration Rights During COVID-19—Interview with The Advocates For Human Rights’ John Bruning
May 15, 2020
JLI staff members Annali Cler, Kevin Thomson, and Marisa Tillman recently interviewed John Bruning, who serves as a staff attorney for The Advocates For Human Rights. The Advocates for Human Rights, a 501(c)(3) organization based in Minnesota, works to change systems and conditions that cause human rights abuses.
Continue ReadingInmate Rights and the Prison/Jail System During COVID-19—Interview with Prof. Susanna Blumenthal
May 9, 2020
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.
Continue ReadingAttacks on Reproductive Rights During COVID-19—Interview with Gender Justice’s Megan Peterson
May 7, 2020
JLI staff members Kristin Trapp, Anna Berglund, and Anwen Parrott recently interviewed Megan Peterson, who serves as the Executive Director of Gender Justice. Gender Justice is a nonprofit legal and policy advocacy organization devoted to addressing the causes and consequences of gender inequality, both locally and nationally. In this conversation, the group discussed how some states are trying to use COVID-19 to restrict access to abortion and reproductive services, the effects of not being able to access essential health care, and how advocates can strive to safeguard reproductive rights during a pandemic.
Continue ReadingEviction/Housing Issues During COVID-19—Interview with Mid-Minnesota Legal Aid’s Joey Dobson
April 30, 2020
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.
Continue ReadingDomestic violence and other gender-related issues during COVID-19 – Interview with Prof. June Carbone
April 24, 2020
JLI’s Editor-in-Chief, Navin Ramalingam, and Executive Editor, Abby Rauls, sit down with Prof. June Carbone, family law professor and faculty advisor for the journal, for the first in a series of video interviews for Inequality Inquiry with the faculty, practitioners and other legal experts about a variety of issues affecting law and inequality during COVID-19. They discuss the gendered dynamics surrounding the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Topics include the effect of quarantine on families and couples who are having to stay at home together, gender discrepancies in the “essential” workforce, funding of the healthcare system, and possible recourse for those who may be facing higher levels of domestic abuse and violence during these turbulent times.
Continue ReadingThe Privileged Working Conditions of Public Employees Sanctioned by Public Law: Adding One Dimension to Inequality
January 21, 2020
This Paper joins the debate about inequality and public management reform. Authors have been thinking about equality—and inequality—mostly in terms of income and wealth and less in terms of living and working conditions, e.g. the digital divide. Adding to the literature about inequality in working conditions, this Paper shows that a significant amount of value, or ‘shadow’ income, can be perceived from a person’s working conditions, and this is the case of public employees globally.
Continue ReadingStretched Thin: Parents Lacking Resources Who Are Accused of Negligent Child Abuse Need Solutions, Not Prisons
The purpose of punishment is not served when the criminal justice system prosecutes poor, and often undereducated, parents for the unintended deaths of their children. Punishment as retribution is excessive for an already grieving parent, and an act cannot be deterred, either specifically to the offender or generally to society, if it was unintended in the first place. Finally, incapacitating parents by way of imprisonment does not ultimately serve the social good because their imprisonment sets up their surviving children for increased risk factors. Punishing a parent who has already received the worst punishment of all—loss of a child—cannot be justified.
Continue ReadingPutting Olmstead to Work: Toward a Less Segregated Workplace
May 2, 2019
by Alexander Lane
At the Harold V. Birch Vocational Academy, “a Providence high school where students with intellectual disabilities participated in an in-school sheltered workshop, separated from their non-disabled peers,” Jerry D’Agostino worked to sort, assemble, and package jewelry and buttons. At the Academy, Jerry earned well below minimum wage until graduating in 2010. Thereafter, Jerry continued to perform this “benchwork” at another sheltered workshop—Goodwill Industries. Jerry felt this work was boring and lamented the amount of downtime involved. Prior to the June 2013 Interim Settlement Agreement between the Department of Justice and the State of Rhode Island and City of Providence, Jerry believed spending his days in a sheltered workshop performing rote benchwork for less than minimum wage would be a life sentence.
Is My Family Constitution Unconstitutional?
by Allison Anna Tait
Every high-wealth family should write a constitution, at least that’s what wealth managers say. Because, “[w]ithout careful planning and stewardship, a hard earned fortune can easily be dissipated within a generation or two.” The aphorism “shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves in three generations” vividly captures this phenomenon and its universalism demonstrates how widespread and entrenched the problem is.
The Newclear Family: The Broadening Recognition of Non-Traditional Families and Where to Draw the Line
April 11, 2018
by Ally Nicol
In the past fifty years, American politics and public opinion have shifted regarding parentage and what constitutes a family. In the wake of cases such as Holtzman v. Knott, Johnson v. Calvert, K.M. v. E.G., Obergefell v. Hodges, and In re M.C., the rights of same-sex and other “non-traditional” parents have been clarified and expanded. Biology and marriage have long been the most commonly used means of establishing parental rights, and now those recognitions, particularly in the wake of Obergefell, are widely available to most couples. While this recognition has been long-awaited in the LGBT community, issues remain regarding legal parent status based solely on biology and the legal status of non-traditional families. As the law expands to recognize a more diverse spectrum of parents, new issues will arise regarding when parental status should not be granted, as opposed to how parental rights should be expanded.
The Case for Preserving Transgender and Gender Nonconforming Health Care Protections
December 5, 2017
by Bailey Metzger
On May 18, 2016, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights (OCR) published the final rule implementing § 1557 of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) in the Federal Register. The final rule addressed a wide variety of discrimination in the health care context, including discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, age, and disability. Perhaps the most notable part of the rule finds that discrimination on the basis of gender identity constitutes discrimination on the basis of sex.
Proscribing Prescriptions: A Legal Analysis of State Off-Label Restrictions on Medication Abortion
November 21, 2016
by Kaiya A. Lyons
Since its decision in Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court has consistently upheld the right of a woman to choose to terminate a pregnancy before viability and without undue burden. However, the ability of a woman to exercise that right today is as intimately connected to her economic privilege and geographic location as it was in the days preceding that landmark ruling. Under the guise of protecting women from the “harms inherent in abortion,” major conservative gains in the 2010 midterm elections resulted in hundreds of anti-abortion measures flooding a majority of state legislatures. In the aftermath of that year’s midterm elections, the bulk of state legislatures passed an unprecedented number of harsh new restrictions on when, how, and even whether women may access abortion services. Because these laws are also substantially more obstructive than their predecessors, for low-income women, the economic impact of these restrictive regulations is extremely harmful.