Articles, notes, and symposia pieces published in CLR’s print volumes.
Print Edition
Resolving Conflicts Between Tribal and State Regulatory Authority Over Water
Courts should recognize a presumption of exclusive Tribal regulatory authority over all on-reservation water resources. This approach safeguards Tribal health and welfare while providing sorely needed predictability to Tribal-state regulatory disputes over water. States can be confident that their interests will be adequately accounted for because Tribes have a proven track record of equitably regulating water resources, and there are plentiful opportunities for state-Tribal cooperation.
The Pandora’s Box of “Voter Fraud”
This Note proposes a novel way of applying the Anderson-Burdick balancing test, using the court response to tort claims based on phobia of and misinformation surrounding HIV/AIDS in the 1980s and ‘90s. When considering state regulatory interests, courts should not ask if the state interest is reasonable, but if the state interest should be reasonable.
Can California Pleas Resurrect Its Unconstitutional Conditions Doctrine?
Like all U.S. jurisdictions, California’s criminal legal system is largely administered via plea bargains. Although courts characterize plea bargains as fair and necessary, these characterizations do not enjoy strong empirical support. This Note concludes that plea bargaining practices likely violate California’s unconstitutional conditions doctrine and urges state actors to implement reforms.
A Rule Change Is, After All, a Rule Change: Rule 23 Settlement Approval and the Problems of Consensus Rulemaking
Past efforts by the Advisory Committee on Civil Rules to substantially reform Rule 23 have been met with such controversy that more recently, the Advisory Committee has elected to pursue more modest reforms. The new criteria have been widely understood as introducing modest changes and have even been argued by some to have done nothing more than codify existing circuit practice. However, two circuits have sharply diverged in their interpretation of what the new Rule 23(e)(2) requires, calling into question whether the changes are so self-evidently modest and dashing the goal of unifying circuit practice.
LEAK! The Legal Consequences of Data Misuse in Menstruation-Tracking Apps
As patients become more sophisticated in managing their own health, they often turn to tracking apps to record and manage their health. Menstruation apps often track menstrual cycles, sexual activity, mood changes, and more.
Preventing the Next Global Crisis: Addressing the Urgent Need for Space Debris Removal
Space debris is an undeniable threat to the future use of orbital space around Earth. Most experts agree that we are reaching the point of maximum capacity in many parts of space and the threat of future collisions is growing more severe. However, little is being done to address the issue
Coercive Control Legislation: Using the Tort System to Empower Survivors of Domestic Violence
This Note analyzes the various approaches to legislating against coercive control and ultimately recommends against criminalizing the behavior, as such efforts could cause backlash against survivors and are likely to disproportionately affect marginalized communities.
Reclaiming LA’s “Mulholland Moment”: Wastewater Recycling, the Public Trust Doctrine, and Saving the LA River
Los Angeles is experiencing an unprecedented “Mulholland Moment”: a period of bustling enterprise, skyrocketing socioeconomic inequality, and dwindling water resources. After years of yellow lawns and increasing water use restrictions, Angelenos are thirsty for local, reliable, and affordable water supplies even as climate change and prolonged periods of drought become the norm.
Jet-Setting to Napa Vineyards and Las Vegas Casinos on the Company’s Dime: How the SEC’s Recent Enforcement Actions Expose the Need for Executive Perquisite Reform
Despite the increased attention on executive compensation generally, little scholarship has focused on executive perquisites: benefits granted only to executives above and beyond their salary and untied to their job performance. Since 2006, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has refused to update its disclosure requirements…
Invisible Hands: Forced Labor in the United States and the H-2 Temporary Worker Visa Program
Each year, hundreds of thousands of workers enter the United States on H-2 temporary worker visas for low-wage, seasonal employment. These workers are each legally tied to their U.S. employer in industries largely outside of public view, such as agriculture, food processing, construction, landscaping, amusement, and forestry. Although H-2 visa workers are integral to the U.S. economy, exploitation against them and systemic violations of their legal rights are rampant.
Fearless Dining: Mandating Universal Allergen Disclosures on Restaurant Menus
Nearly twenty percent of consumers self-identify as suffering from a food allergy or sensitivity, and over 30 million people in the United States have medically proven food allergies. Food allergies cause over 200,000 emergency room visits annually in the United States alone. Among these severe allergen-related food incidents, nearly three-quarters arise at restaurants.
Protecting the Right to a Meaningful Defense: Criminal Trial Storytelling
The widely accepted “Story Model” of jury decision-making acknowledges that juries, in large part, base their decisions not on logical or probabilistic reasoning but on the stories they construct at trial. Storytelling thus plays an important role in guaranteeing a criminal defendant a fair trial, especially where a defendant’s race triggers stereotypes that risk the presumption of innocence.
Data Unions: The Need for Informational Democracy
The data that everyday consumers produce is becoming more and more important to the economy. Yet, as this data imbues tech corporations with tremendous wealth and power, we, the data producers, have no say as to how our data is collected or how it is used. The reign of data analytics to pursue profit above all else has led to a conflagration of data harms perpetuated…
Pathways to Financial Security: A New Legal Avenue for Survivors of Coerced Debt in California
A new form of domestic violence has emerged out of the modern proliferation of consumer lending: coerced debt. Although abusers use a wide range of tactics to coerce debt—from…
Looking a Certain Way: How Defunct Subjective Standards of Media Regulation Continue to Affect Black Women
Regulatory enforcement is only as good as the standards to be enforced. I argue here that subjective standards formerly in place at the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America (MPPDA) and the United States Patent & Trademark Office (PTO) were imbued with the White-centric beliefs of its designers and enforcers. Drawing on critical race…
Blood Quantum and the Ever-Tightening Chokehold on Tribal Citizenship: The Reproductive Justice Implications of Blood Quantum Requirements
Blood often serves as the basis for identity for many groups in the United States. Native Americans, however, are the only population in which blood is a requirement for collective belonging and can be the determining factor for whether one receives tribal benefits and services. Many Tribal Nations use blood quantum, the percentage of Indian…
Data Privacy, Human Rights, and Algorithmic Opacity
Decades ago, it was difficult to imagine a reality in which artificial intelligence (AI) could penetrate every corner of our lives to monitor our innermost selves for commercial interests. Within just a few decades, the private sector has seen a wild proliferation of AI systems, many of which are more powerful and penetrating than anticipated…
Litigating Catastrophe
Does litigation addressing catastrophes caused by climate change make society more or less fragile? As sea-level rise and wildfires threaten to cause enormous financial and social costs, related litigation presents unmatched concerns of over- and under-deterrence. In this Note, I examine litigation addressing two of climate change’s greatest impacts: sea-level rise and wildfires…
The Unstoppable App Campaign: The Dangers of First Amendment Protection for In-App Political Campaigning
Technology platforms give Silicon Valley an unprecedented ability to shape the political reality of consumers. In the 2020 California election, gig corporations like Uber, Lyft, DoorDash, and Instacart won a major political battle ensuring that their workers remained independent contractors…
Confrontation After COVID
The opportunity to face one’s accuser is a fundamental right guaranteed by the Sixth Amendment’s Confrontation Clause. It is a historical right that the Romans afforded to Jesus’s disciples. And it is a right that may soon fall by the wayside in our new socially distant reality and beyond…