Category: Notes
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
Note
Independence in the Interregnum: Delayed Presidential Transitions and the GSA Administrator’s Ascertainment Under the Presidential Transition Act of 1963
Christopher D. Johnson, Cornell Law Class of 2021; Articles Editor, Cornell Law Review, Volume 106
If presidential transitions are so important, should a political appointee whose performance is subject to the control and direction of the outgoing President have virtually unfettered discretion to determine whether they have the resources they need to succeed? This Note answers that question in thenegative. It argues that the ascertainment the PTA assigns to the…
Apr 2022
Note
Stealing From the Poor: Regulating Robinhood’s Exchange-Traded Options for Retails Investors
Chris Mao, J.D. Candidate, Cornell Law School Class of 2022
During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Robinhood, a brokerage-free stock trading app, saw a meteoric rise in account holders, with Americans seeking new income streams during times of economic hardship, unemployment, and, at times, sheer boredom. The ensuing trading activity significantly impacted the country’s stock market—a result of not only Robinhood’s three million new…
Apr 2022
Note
The Missing Civility in Civil Damages: A Proposed Guidelines Structure for Calculating Punitive Damages
Ashley Stamegna, J.D. Candidate, Cornell Law School, 2022; B.S., University of Connecticut, Health Care Management, 2019
“[P]unitive damages are out of control”11. W. Kip Viscusi, The Social Costs of Punitive Damages Against Corporations in Environmental and Safety Torts, 87 GEO. L.J. 285, 333 (1998).—or so tort reformers say. The past two decades have witnessed heated debates over a range of tort reform proposals, from punitive damages caps to complete punitive damages…
Feb 2022
Note
Cookies and Wires: Can Facebook Lure Users Into Divulging Information Under the Wiretap Act’s Party Exception?
Richard T. Wang, B.A., Washington University in St. Louis, 2017; J.D. Candidate, Cornell Law School, 2022
The advent of the Internet brought immeasurable benefits11. See Lisa Eadicicco, Obama Wants to Reclassify the Internet by Turning It Into a Utility, BUSINESS INSIDER (Nov. 10, 2014, 9:36 AM), https:// www.businessinsider.com/president-obama-thinks-the-internet-should-be-autility-2014-11 [https://perma.cc/FZD2-C9TS] (noting that former-President Barack Obama argued that the FCC should recognize the Internet as a vital service); Internet Access Is ‘a Fundamental…
Feb 2022
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