Category: Commentaries

The Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution provides, in part, that “[i]n all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial.” Like many constitutional rights, however, the right to a public trial is not absolute. Courtrooms may be closed to the public in some situations. In Waller v….

The Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978 can be interpreted in two obvious ways: one interpretation requires employers to make reasonable accommodations for pregnant employees, and the other does not require such accommodations. In Young v. United Parcel Service, Inc., the Supreme Court held that in some cases employees may be able to prove intentional pregnancy…

With immigration reform stymied in Congress, broad executive action has been President Obama’s signature contribution to American immigration policy. These measures have drawn allegations that the president is refusing to faithfully execute the law. Because backers of executive action have focused on precedents from previous administrations, their arguments imply that there is nothing substantively new…

This brief follow-up to Moral Panics and Body Cameras comments on the weeks after that essay was published and what those events show about the efficacy of body cameras and video evidence as a response to police-public conflicts.

This Commentary uses the lens of “moral panics” to evaluate public support for equipping law enforcement with body cameras as a response and solution to events in Ferguson, Missouri in August 2014. Body cameras are a generally good policy idea. But the rhetoric surrounding them erroneously treats them as the single guaranteed solution to the…

This Commentary examines when, consistent with First Amendment principles of free expression, speakers can be held tortiously responsible for the actions of others with whom they have no contractual or employer-employee relationship. It argues that recent lawsuits against Daily Stormer publisher Andrew Anglin for sparking “troll storms” provide a timely analytical springboard into the issue…

In the last three years, the Supreme Court has decreed a sea change in its juvenile Eighth Amendment jurisprudence. In particular, in Graham v. Florida and Miller v. Alabama, the Court struck down a majority of the states’ juvenile sentencing laws by outlawing life without parole (“LWOP”) for juveniles who commit non-homicide offenses and by…