ABSTRACT Expansive trade secrecy claims (such as those regarding voting machine software and government contractor pricing) can negatively impact government transparency and democratic accountability. In one important context—Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) cases—courts have addressed these concerns by imposing constraints on the definition of “trade secrets” and “confidential” commercial...
Alaska Native Hunting and Fishing Rights in a Changing Climate: Katie John, Sturgeon, and a Path Forward
Abstract Climate change creates a worldwide threat that is distributed unequally across the globe. Alaska Natives are uniquely vulnerable to climate change, both because it is impacting the Arctic more than other regions and because of the importance of traditional hunting and fishing practices to Alaska Native culture. The fact that climate change is impacting them so severely, however, is not...
Season 6: Introduction
Dialectic UCLA Law Review · Season 6: Introduction Welcome to Dialectic Season 6, Law, Media, and Social Advocacy.
When Does Questioning Related to Immigration Status Constitute a Miranda Interrogation?
Abstract This Essay puts forward a two-element argument that noncitizen defendants can use to establish that they have been interrogated for Miranda purposes when they have been questioned about their immigration status by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers. I examine the briefing and decision in one defendant’s case to illustrate why this two-element argument matters, and why it...
Pandemic Possibilities: Rethinking Measures of Merit
Abstract The impact of the spread of the novel coronavirus in the United States beginning in winter 2020 has simultaneously laid bare vast chasms of inequality in education and created a crisis in which radical reforms have become possible almost overnight. Schools, colleges and universities have dramatically changed how they admit, assess, and support their students; for example, the University...
Killing Due Process: Double Jeopardy, White Supremacy and Gang Prosecutions
Abstract The Fifth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution holds that no person shall be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb for the same offense. Read plainly, a person cannot be tried or punished more than once for a single crime. Yet in recent decades, as legislatures have expanded the prosecutorial state with weapons designed to punish more criminal defendants more harshly, the U.S. Supreme...
Introduction: Jailhouse Lawyering
Jailhouse lawyering has a long and radical tradition in the American prison system, and for decades, it has been recognized and protected by the U.S. Supreme Court. In Johnson v. Avery,[1] the Court struck down Tennessee’s restrictions on jailhouse lawyering because “it is fundamental that access of prisoners to the courts for the purpose of presenting their complaints may not be denied or...
Barriers to Jailhouse Lawyering
Abstract Jailhouse lawyers face unreasonable barriers to have their constitutional claims heard post-conviction. Courts, without adequate regard for the physical limitations inherent behind bars, place procedures over justice. *** They say that a lawyer who represents himself has a fool for a client. When you are poor and incarcerated, you often have no choice. Your right to appointment of...