Tribute – Washington University Law Review

Race as Evidence: The Historical Racial Nexus and Equal Protection
by Lisa Owens
This Essay accepts strict scrutiny as the constitutional terrain within which race-conscious policy must operate and builds a refined framework for equal protection analysis: the Historical Racial Nexus (“HRN”). HRN offers a narrow tailoring theory designed to survive contemporary judicial scrutiny by charting a third path between colorblind formalism and categorical race-based remedialism. Rather than treating race as a present-day
Property Rights v. Taxpayer Rights: The Battle Over Tax Foreclosures
by Stewart E. Sterk
Local governments rely on property taxes to fund many essential public services. Owners who do not pay the taxes impose an increased burden on their taxpaying neighbors. To what extent can local governments interfere with the property rights of delinquent owners in order to safeguard the interests of ordinary taxpayers? In particular, can the government use the foreclosure process in
An Overlooked Footnote in Trump v. CASA Ensures That the Debate Over Universal Injunctions Isn’t Over
by Harvey Reiter
Several months ago, I wrote in Law360 that, given the tenor of the questioning in Trump v. CASA—the birthright citizenship case—I did not expect the court to address the issue of universal injunctions.[1] That prediction plainly turned out to be wrong. But I was not wrong that Republican and Democratic administrations alike would continue to be troubled by
Land-Grant Universities
by Michael Banerjee
In their groundbreaking High Country News article on “land-grab universities,” Robert Lee and Tristian Ahtone argue that Congress’s 1862 Morrill Act,[3] which famously granted lands held by the United States to states for the purpose of endowing fifty-two universities, “worked by turning land expropriated from tribal nations into seed money for higher education.[4] “In all,” they write, “the act redistributed
A Stage with Three Kings: EdTech, Sovereignty, and the Future of Transatlantic Data Law
by Qifan Zhang
The landmark Microsoft Ireland case highlights the limits of U.S. law enforcement authority to compel access to data stored abroad during criminal investigations. In 2013, a magistrate judge in the Southern District of New York ordered Microsoft to produce emails held on a server in Dublin, Ireland under the Stored Communications Act of 1986. Microsoft released domestic data but withheld