NULR Of Note

This piece explores a conflict between the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (FRCP) and the Local Rules of Civil Procedure (LRCP) that occurs in many federal district courts. Specifically, FRCP 15(a)(1)(B) (Rule 15) grants the plaintiff an express right to “amend [her complaint] once as a matter of course within . . . 21 days after service of a motion under Rule 12(b)” (a motion to dismiss). However, many federal district courts’ LRCP give the plaintiff only fourteen days to respond to…

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For decades, qualified immunity has been an evolving controversial legal doctrine. In light of renewed calls to extinguish the defense in state legislatures and Congress, this post adds to the chorus of voices questioning the legal premises of qualified immunity. This post first analyzes the doctrine against the backdrop of racist policing, and second in the context of police mishandling gender-based violence claims. In both examples of police misconduct, qualified immunity prevents officer accountability for civil rights violations of constitutionally…

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The popularity of women’s soccer in the United States has skyrocketed over the past few decades, particularly since the United States Women’s National Team (WNT) won the 2019 FIFA World Cup. The WNT’s success vastly overshadows the performance of the United States Men’s National Team (MNT), which has not won a single major world tournament. For example, . The MNT has not won any Olympic gold medals nor a World Cup, whereas the WNT has won four Olympic gold medals…

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In the wake of the 2020 election, a wave of restrictive voting laws were enacted across the nation. And as the January 6th attack showcased the fragility of our democracy, voting rights are top of mind for many. This is why all eyes were on the Supreme Court as it took on Brnovich v. DNC: not only the most consequential election law dispute in nearly a decade (since the 2010 Citizens United decision) but the Court’s first “vote denial” case…

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“The East is waiting to be understood by the Western races, in order not only to be able to give what is true in her but also to be confident in her own mission.”  – Rabindranath Tagore, “Creative Unity” (1922). * * * I came to law school because I seek nirvana. Because in my meditations three and four summers ago, I felt my country’s law, and indeed, its language itself, blocking my way to myself. This conflict of mine…

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Qualified immunity is getting a lot of well-deserved attention these days. The doctrine protects individual state actors—and by extension, their government employers—from liability when they have violated a constitutional right if that right was not “clearly established in law.” Protests over police brutality and demands for accountability have brought qualified immunity into the public spotlight. These conversations about individual accountability are important. But as necessary as they are, we cannot ignore the legal mechanisms for and barriers to institutional accountability…

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Many will remember 2020 for the various panics it revived: America’s second greatest toilet paper shortage since the 1970s, its first great pandemic since 1918, and another financial crisis. The year also brought back another moral hysteria commonly visited in America’s past: child porn panic. Tech companies caught flack for announcing a surge in child pornography being traded on their platforms, while simultaneously planning to encrypt messages that would prevent detection of those very same materials in the name of…

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