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Category: 1L Blog Contest

Hively v. Ivy Tech

Hively v. Ivy Tech

In the summer of 2015, same-sex couples celebrated a civil rights victory following the Supreme Court’s monumental decision in Obergefell v. Hodges. The Court recognized same-sex couples have the constitutional right to marriage, protected by the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses. While the right to marriage was immediate, this decision did not mark the end of discrimination based on sexual orientation. Rather, the holding created a “legal landscape in which a person can be married on Saturday and then…

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Who Among Us Is the Reasonable Person?

Who Among Us Is the Reasonable Person?

Our cultural understanding of “criminal” heavily influences how the elements of a criminal defense are defined and applied. Kansas Supreme Court case State v. Stewart was no exception to this rule. The defendant in this case, a victim of a long-term domestic abuse by her husband, Mike, was charged with first-degree murder of her husband. After suffering years of emotional and physical abuse toward herself and her two daughters, on the morning of the murder, Stewart found her only escape…

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Korematsu, COVID-19, and The Question of Executive Deference

Korematsu, COVID-19, and The Question of Executive Deference

“Wrong the day it was decided” is a judgment that the Supreme Court reserves for overturning its most egregious prior decisions. One of the cases that most recently received that declaration is Korematsu v. United States, a decision that infamously sanctioned the World War II internment of individuals of Japanese ancestry. The Court’s repudiation of that decision, equal parts laudable and belated, offers hope that the logic of this decision is a relic of the past, but such hope may…

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NULR 1L Writing Competition: Dred Scott v. Sandford (Dissent)

NULR 1L Writing Competition: Dred Scott v. Sandford (Dissent)

Photo by Álvaro Serrano on Unsplash The idea of diversity has influenced some of our country’s most important judicial decisions. We asked Northwestern 1Ls to write about a case they studied in their first year of law school that has affected their opinion about diversity in the legal system. Walter was one of the winners. History will not look kindly upon this Court’s ruling. Nor should it. The short of the matter is that Mr. Dred Scott has been denied his basic sense of humanity,…

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NULR 1L Writing Competition: Fong Yue Ting v. United States (Critique)

NULR 1L Writing Competition: Fong Yue Ting v. United States (Critique)

Photo by Miko Guziuk on Unsplash The idea of diversity has influenced some of our country’s most important judicial decisions. We asked Northwestern 1Ls to write about a case they studied in their first year of law school that has affected their opinion about diversity in the legal system. Meher was one of the winners. Of the cases covered in Constitutional Law tracing the expansion of federal power, none is more germane to the current national discussion on immigration and race…

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