By Pamela Duran Uncertainty and fear are two feelings that are prevalent in the immigrant community.[1]  President Donald J. Trump’s administration has emphasized that one of its primary objectives is to reduce illegal immigration, which has consequently brought increasing changes (1) to policy and more notably (2) in how agencies enforce said policies.[2]  These polices have a…

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  By Darianne De Leon The topic of immigration and the development of our country’s immigration policy has generally been a back-burner agenda item for the President of the United States.[1] This tendency, however, was drastically different for President Donald Trump.[2] During the election and thereafter, through his use of social media and otherwise, Donald Trump…

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By Patrick Lichtenstein Gregory Ploetz had everything a collegiate student-athlete could hope for: he played Division I college football at the University of Texas, won a national championship, and was even named the Southwest Conference Defensive Player of the Year.[1] However, starting in the early 2000s, Ploetz started displaying signs of memory loss, confusion, erratic…

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By Kiara Ortiz In 2018, TikTok, which was formally known as Musical.ly, was one of the most downloaded mobile applications (app(s)) in the world.[1] This exciting app gave social media users a creative platform to publicly share short lip-syncing videos on their profiles. However, this fun and creative space quickly turned into a platform that…

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By Erik Bartley On December 5, 2019, rapper Terrence Ferguson, better known as 2 Milly, filed a complaint to the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California claiming that Epic Games had illegally used his dance known as the “Milly Rock” for the massively popular game “Fortnite.”[1]  Fortnite is a free-to-play battle royale video…

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The following articles were published in the symposium edition of The American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law. For subscription information, please check out our Subscription page. ARTICLES Letter from the EditorDavid McGee ForwardJamie Raskin IntroductionStephen Wermiel There Isn’t Any DumpsterJill Imgrund Engle Mitigating the “LGBT Disconnect”: Title IX’s Protections of Transgender…

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By Andrew Johnson The violations of international humanitarian law and gross human rights abuses that have occurred in Syria since 2011 have been well-documented.[1]  The Assad Regime has perpetrated attacks against civilians, tortured and executed political prisoners, starved the Syrian people through siege warfare, and used chemical weapons indiscriminately.[2]  There is no question that these acts constitute…

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By Marissa Ditkowsky On February 28, 2019, the Supreme Court decided Madison v. Alabama.[1]  The Court expanded the previously established tests under Panetti and Ford, holding that executing an individual experiencing dementia who does not comprehend why he is facing execution may violate the Eighth Amendment.[2]  On its face, this decision appears to be a…

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By Gabriella Marki After dedicating her life to reporting the truth on the front lines of wars and battlefields, war correspondent Marie Colvin was brutally killed in the Baba Amr neighborhood within the city of Homs, Syria in February 2012.[1] Four years after her death, Cathleen Colvin, the sister of Marie Colvin, along with Scott…

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By Katherine Wahl “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”[1] Free Speech is a constitutional right.[2]  The…

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