NULR of Note

The 2017 Charlottesville protests against the University of Virginia hosting Unite the Right leader Richard Spencer marked a turning point in how universities deal with hosting controversial speakers. Universities must balance their own institutional goals—asking hard questions and probing the darkness in pursuit of knowledge—with concerns for physical safety. When a divisive figure wants to […]

On January 24, 2018, former USA Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar was sentenced to up to 175 years in prison for sexually abusing scores of athletes he treated over the course of several years. Nassar’s sentencing hearing has drawn nationwide attention to the role of victim impact statements in our judicial system. Generally, victim impact statements […]

In the first year of the Trump Administration, the President doubled down on many of his immigration-related campaign promises. 2017 brought Executive Orders and agency guidance designed to streamline enforcement of the existing statutory scheme (DACA recission) and to invigorate infrastructure (securing ports of entry under the travel ban and building the southern border wall). […]

When the chief judge of U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit initiated a judicial review of the sexual harassment allegations against Judge Alex Kozinski, it presented a rare opportunity for the public to witness how the federal judiciary handles allegations of sexual misconduct against its members. That opportunity was seemingly lost when Kozinski […]

On Monday, January 29, 2018, Equip for Equality filed a federal civil rights class action lawsuit against Chicago Public Schools (CPS) and the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE), alleging their failure to adequately support limited English proficiency (LEP) parents of CPS students with disabilities as required by law. According to the complaint, 52,903 CPS students […]

New Year, New Plan Three-hundred women from the film industry—including some of the most powerful women in Hollywood—began 2018 by announcing Time’s Up, a new plan to fight sexual assault, sexual harassment, and gender inequality. This came in the midst of a national conversation about sexual misconduct in the workplace following the numerous allegations against […]

“It would be a dangerous undertaking for persons trained only to the law to constitute themselves final judges of the worth of pictorial illustrations, outside of the narrowest and most obvious limits.” —Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Bleistein v. Donaldson Lithographic Co. (1903) The fashion industry represents a multi-trillion dollar global business—casting a wide net and covering […]

In the last months of his presidency, former President Barack Obama focused on pushing forward criminal justice reform. Throughout his eight years in the Oval Office, he also prioritized  “banning the box” on federal job applications and reforming conditions in federal prisons. Given his dedication to criminal justice reform, some have been perplexed by his […]

Gerrymandering, the practice of drawing electoral districts to advantage a particular political party, is under attack in courts across the country. The Supreme Court recently heard arguments in one case challenging the constitutionality of partisan gerrymandering and is scheduled to hear a second this Spring. Former Attorney General Eric Holder, with support from President Barack Obama, […]

Earlier this month, the Supreme Court agreed to hear South Dakota v. Wayfair, Inc. (S.D. 2017), a case that has the possibility to fundamentally change the circumstances in which online sales taxes must be collected, not only in South Dakota but nationwide. In Wayfair, South Dakota seeks to overturn Quill v. North Dakota, a 1992 Supreme Court […]