Posts by Digital Editor

By: Adriana E. Morquecho On March 9, 2021, Representative Hakeem Jeffries introduced the Eliminating a Quantifiably Unjust Application of the Law Act of 2021 (“EQUAL Act”).[1] The EQUAL Act would eliminate the sentence disparities between cocaine offenses by repealing the amount of cocaine that triggers mandatory minimum sentencing.[2] While the House of Representatives passed the EQUAL…

By: John Olorin As colleges and universities achieve a near-equal gender split in their student bodies, athletic departments across the country are cutting the men’s teams for smaller sports to maintain compliance with Title IX. In 2020, Brown University announced changes to the structure of its athletic department as part of University President Christina Paxson’s…

By: Margaret Arabpour The late 2000’s saw the introduction of the ‘mommy blogger,’ the first iteration of a parent using their experience as a parent and sharing the stories of their children’s lives to generate an income online.[1] As the internet shifted towards YouTube, and eventually Instagram, family vloggers emerged, creating a new industry worth…

By: Kaitlyn Calogero “The only thing I’m guilty of is being Shah-mazing!”[1] For fans of any Real Housewives franchise, there comes a certain excitement when the taglines are introduced for a new season. With Season Two of The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City (hereinafter RHOSLC), however, there was a different kind of anticipation. On…

By: Kaylette Clark As of December 2021, there are over 1.5 million cases pending in immigration court; meaning noncitizens’ will be waiting several months, if not years before having a bond hearing.[1] The Supreme Court is revisiting noncitizens’ rights to bond hearings for immigration cases in the pending case Garland v. Gonzalez.[2] In Gonzalez, Esteban…

By: Maya Martin Tsukazaki The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear the case Brackeen v. Haaland[1] this term.[2] This case challenges the legality of the Indian Child Welfare Act (“ICWA”).[3] Congress passed ICWA in 1978, which was drafted to respond to  the United States government’s historical practice of separating Native[4] children from their tribes and families,…

By: Megan Yang On November 5, 2021, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (“OSHA”) issued an emergency temporary standard that requires businesses with more than 100 employees to implement a mandatory Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)[1] vaccination policy requiring “employees to either get vaccinated or elect to undergo regular COVID-19 testing and wear a face covering…

By: Sean Boyle On February 22, 2022, Texas Governor Greg Abbott endorsed a legal opinion by Texas Attorney General (“A.G.”) Ken Paxton  (hereinafter “the Opinion”) declaring that obtaining gender-affirming procedures for a minor child can be considered child abuse under chapter 261 of the Texas Family Code.[1]  Governor Abbott, in turn, directed the Texas Department…

By: Kathryn Kelly The National Labor Relations Act (“NLRA”) ensures private-sector employees have the right to collectively bargain.[1] To that end, it established the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB”), an independent agency meant to protect employees’ right to form a union and investigate violations of the NLRA.[2] Workers at various Starbucks locations across the country…

By: Andrew Chmielarski The Lanham Act states that functionality is an absolute bar to trademark protection.[1] Historically, functionality jurisprudence only addressed issues concerning “utilitarian functionality.”[2] Many federal circuits, however, now recognize a second type of functionality, termed “aesthetic functionality.”[3] The classic example used by legal scholars to illustrate the concept of aesthetic functionality is the…