Category: Notes
Note
Websites, Wellness, and Winn-Dixie: Telehealth Accessibility During COVID-19 and Beyond
Peyton B. Brooks, J.D., Cornell Law School, 2023
During the COVID-19 pandemic, people with disabilities struggled to find proper access to health care. According to a report by the disability services organization Easterseals, approximately forty-six percent of those who had used Easterseals services lost access to health care between the beginning of the public health emergency in March 2020 and April 2021. Furthermore,…
Nov 2022
Note
Judicial Discretion Across Jurisdictions: McGirt’s Effects on Indian Offenders in Oklahoma
Emily N. Harwell, J.D., Cornell Law School, Class of 2022
Oklahoma’s exercise of criminal jurisdiction over crime committed on tribal reservations remained unchecked until 2020. In McGirt v. Oklahoma, the Supreme Court held that the Muscogee Creek Nation’s reservation had in fact never been disestablished and remains in existence today. In doing so, the Court restored criminal prosecution authority to tribal and federal courts. McGirt…
Nov 2022
Note
A Response-Dependent Perspective on the Theory of Insanity
Bruno Patrick Babij, B.A., Stanford University, 2018; M.Phil., University of Cambridge, 2019;
J.D., Cornell Law School, 2022
“This Note has three parts. The first introduces the idea of response-dependent responsibility in more detail. The second part argues that the traditional tests for insanity assume the view of responsibility the response-dependent account sought to correct and that the failure of these tests to provide satisfactory results follows from that assumption. The third part…
Oct 2022
Note
“F*ck School”? Reconceptualizing Student Speech Rights in the Digital Age
Hannah Middlebrooks, J.D., Cornell Law School, 2022; B.A. in English, French, and Women’s Studies, University of Georgia, 2017
“This Note will examine the impact that the nationwide shift to online distance learning due to the pandemic has had on K12 public school students’ First Amendment speech rights. I will begin with the four foundational Supreme Court cases about on-campus student speech. Next, I will briefly examine the federal circuit split regarding off-campus student…
Oct 2022
Note
Eating High on the Humanely Raised Hog: State Bans on Selling Food Produced Using Cruel Animal Farming Methods Do Not Violate The Dormant Commerce Clause
Emma Horne, Cornell Law School, J.D. 2021.
Most states’ laws minimally protect farmed animal welfare. However, a growing minority of states have enacted food-related sales bans that are designed to improve the lives of farmed animals nationwide. These sales bans are passed by states as a means to eliminate inhumane confinement of farmed animals. For example, California has enacted Proposition 12, which…
Aug 2022
Note
Insanity Step Zero: A Modern Application of M’Naghten’s Question Four Test
Michael G. Mills, J.D., Cornell Law School, 2021; B.A., Siena College, 2018.
Defendants suffering from delusion currently are subject to inequitable treatment in our criminal justice system. They can genuinely believe, due to a delusion, that a person right in front of them has a gun and is about to kill them. Acting in what they believe is self-defense, they can draw a gun and kill their…
Aug 2022
Note
The Death of Presumptive Unconditional Release: Evaluating the Developing Standards for Early Release in the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals
Gabriela Markolovic
Since the birth of international criminal courts and tribunals, persons convicted of international crimes have long enjoyed a presumption of early release after serving two-thirds of their sentence. This presumption, however, is dying: concerns for post-conflict regional stability and evolving notions of rehabilitation in the international context have refashioned the law of early release, resulting…
Jun 2022
Note
Challenging Guilt by Association: Rethinking Youths’ First Amendment Right to Associate and Their Protection from Gang Databases
Victor M. Flores
The purpose of this Note is to help rethink how to better protect minors and emerging adults from the long-standing threat of gang policing and databases. This Note applies the First Amendment right to associate to challenge gang policing in New York as an example of potential challenges to gang policing in other jurisdictions. However,…
Jun 2022
Note
Policing the Police Under 42 U.S.C. § 1983: Rethinking Monell to Impose Municipal Liability on the Basis of Respondeat Superior
Jordyn Manly, J.D. Candidate, Cornell Law School, 2022
The callous murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor at the hands of police in 2020 sparked nationwide protests surrounding racial injustice and ignited calls to “defund thepolice.” But while technological advances have led to a rise in highly publicized instances of such injustices, police brutality and misconduct are not novel concepts. Indeed, police misconduct…
Apr 2022
Note
America, Land of the Fee: A Constitutional Analysis of Federal Filing Fees
Marissa Smith, B.S., University of Texas at Austin, 2017; J.D., Cornell Law School, 2022
This Note will examine the Fee’s [the first hurdle for litigants taking their claims to federal court: the $402 fee charged at filing] impact on those of low-to-moderate income that are ineligible for IFP status. Further, this Note will look at the disproportionate impact the Fee has on racial minorities. This Note will then argue…
Apr 2022
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