After President Trump withdrew the United States from the Paris Climate Accord, California announced its continued commitment to the cause by entering into agreements to control global temperature increases with other subnational governments from around the world. This comment analyzes possible dormant foreign affairs preemption challenges posed by such agreements.
(Re)Constructing Democracy in Crisis
This article complements academic discourse about democratic backsliding by focusing on two questions: In what ways has democracy been chronically or systemically weakened and prevented, and what kinds of new institutional and organizational forms do we need to realize democratic aspirations in the twenty-first century.
A Hiatus in Soft-Power Administrative Law: The Case of Medicaid Eligibility Waivers
The article explores the approach to administrative law in a period when the executive systematically disregards the expectation of rational, good-faith decision-making and seeks single-mindedly to maximize achievement of its policy objectives.
“Where There Is a Right (Against Excessive Force), There Is Also a Remedy”: Redress for Police Violence Under the Equal Protection Clause
This comment considers the ways in which modern qualified immunity implicates or undermines the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause. It argues that qualified immunity often deprives victims of police brutality of their only viable remedy. As such, in the context of excessive force claims, qualified immunity violates the Equal Protection Clause and should be overruled.
How Constitutional Norms Break Down
The article calls attention to the latent instability of constitutional norms and theorizes the structure of constitutional norm change. It argues that, under certain conditions, it will be more worrisome when norms are subtly revised than when they are openly flouted. Thus, President Trump’s flagrant defiance of norms may not be as big a threat to our constitutional democracy as the more complex...
The Limits of Land Reform: A Comment on Community Land Trusts
This piece reviews the key features of community land trust (CLT) model of land tenure and then take up a short case study of a Los Angeles CLT.
Protecting Mobile Homes as Affordable Housing
The article argues that rent control, despite its shortcomings, may be an essential tool to protect mobile homes market against the effects of real estate interest.
From Chavez Ravine to Inglewood: How Stadiums Facilitate Displacement in Los Angeles
An examination of the impact of two stadium projects in Los Angeles: the building of Dodger Stadium in the former neighborhood of Chavez Ravine, and the building of the Rams Stadium currently underway in Inglewood.