Cornell Law School Logo - white on transparent background

Category: Notes

Note

Unequal Protection: Challenges to Serious Mental Illness Exemptions from the Death Penalty

Claire M. Piorkowski

J.D. Candidate, Cornell Law School, 2023; B.A. in Political Science, University of Cincinnati, 2020.

This Note explores the contention that Ohio House Bill 136 and similar proposed bills with a diagnosis-based categorical approach to death penalty exemptions violate seriously mentally ill individuals’ rights under the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment by limiting the scope of eligible mental illnesses to a narrow subset of specified disorders. This Note…

Apr 2023

Note

Politicization of State Attorneys General: How Partisanship is Changing the Role for the Worse

Marissa A. Smith

J.D. Cornell Law School; B.S. University of Texas at Austin.

The position of State AG has long been said to stand for ‘Aspiring Governor’ rather than Attorney General. It is remarkable how the significance of that joke has changed as the role has become one of the most influential in the country.2 What began as insolent mockery is now a fearsome truth. State attorneys general…

Apr 2023

Note

The Borderline of Crime: The Case for Reevaluating United States v. Bowman & Vigorously Applying the Presumption Against Extraterritoriality to Federal Criminal Statutes

Danielle T. Dominguez

J.D., Cornell Law School, 2023; B.A., Claremont McKenna College, 2019

In Part I, this Note will provide background information on extraterritoriality. This Note will define extraterritoriality and expand upon the crucial role of the presumption against extraterritoriality in determining the jurisdictional reach of federal statutes. This Note will also expand on the unique history of extraterritoriality in federal statutory jurisprudence. Furthermore, this Note will identify…

Mar 2023

Note

Standing Up to TransUnion: How FDCPA Plaintiffs Can Satisfy TransUnion’s Heightened Concrete Injury Standard

Joseph P. Teknus

J.D., Cornell Law School, 2023; B.A. in Economics and History, William & Mary, 2020.

After noticing a pervasive, nationwide problem, Congress enacts legislation. The legislation creates new, individual rights and gives private citizens the ability to vindicate those rights in federal court. The idea is simple: to attack the problem, Congress empowers private citizens to hold violators accountable. But if a plaintiff sues a violator, are there any federal…

Mar 2023

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

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––