Volume 26.1, Footnote Forum

NYSRPA V. BRUEN AND NEW YORK: A LOST OPPORTUNITY FOR RACIAL EQUITY IN THE POLARIZING GUN CONVERSATION by Zamir Ben-Dan

NYSRPA-V.-BRUEN-AND-NEW-YORK_-A-LOST-OPPORTUNITY-FOR-RACIAL-EQUIT

Enough With the Insular Cases! The Tragedy of Vaello Madero

Lía Fiol-Matta

Earlier this year, the Supreme Court delivered a strong blow to Puerto Rico by ruling that its neediest residents are not eligible for Supplemental Security Insurance (SSI). U.S. v. Vaello Madero challenged the exclusion of otherwise eligible residents of Puerto Rico from receiving SSI, a national benefit for needy aged, blind, and disabled individuals. Jose Luis Vaello Madero, a disabled U.S. citizen, received SSI while living in New York and continued getting payments after relocating to Puerto Rico in 2013. 

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Black Migrants Need Us, Too

Florence Otaigbe

As an immigration attorney, I have worked with people from many different backgrounds. Anyone can be an immigrant. However, whenever I see mainstream advocacy and media regarding immigration, I rarely see Black migrants. According to the International Organization for Migration, migrant is defined in part as the following:

“An umbrella term, not defined under international law, reflecting the common lay understanding of a person who moves away from his or her place of usual residence, whether within a country or across an international border, temporarily or permanently, and for a variety of reasons.” 

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The Chaos and Uncertainty after Dobbs Is a Feature, Not a Bug

Amanda Allen

On June 24, 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court overruled a half century of precedent with its decision in Jackson Women’s Health Organization v. Dobbs. The Dobbs ruling eliminated the constitutional right to abortion and has had immediate, devastating impacts on the ground. One of the focuses of The Lawyering Project since Dobbs has been to advise abortion providers, abortion funds, and practical support organizations on the risks involved in continuing to provide care—and support patients accessing care—in this increasingly hostile environment. Our perspective on the catastrophic impacts of this ruling on the ground is based on our partnership with these groups.

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Volume 25.2

We are excited to publish Volume 25.2. The full journal is available at CUNY Academic Works. Please see below for individual articles:

Front Matter

Articles

Racist Animal Agriculture

Courtney G. Lee

Notes

Comments

Public Interest Practitioner Section

Regulatory Theater: How Investor-Owned Utilities and Captured Oversight Agencies Perpetuate Environmental Racism

Ruhan Nagra, Jeanne Bergman, & Jasmine Graham

Footnote Forum

Cruel and Usual: Contaminated Water in New York State Prisons

Shannon Haupt & Phil Miller

Footnote Forum Podcast

Cruel and Usual

Michael Maskin, Shannon Haupt, Jennifer Grossman, Panagioti Tsolkas, Phil Miller, & Ramon Henriquez

Whistling Dixie

Peggy Cooper Davis, Aderson Francois, and Colin Starger

Content warning: this article quotes a decision that includes the n-word1.

Dixie is a song with a complicated history. Versions of it were sung by both Confederate and Union troops during the Civil War. Historian Karen Cox carefully documented the song’s lingering popularity and its mixed social and racial signaling in Dreaming of Dixie. Over the years – and for reasons that are not entirely clear – “just whistling Dixie,” a slang expression based on the song, came to stand for bravado without follow-through. A seemingly overblown statement might cause listeners to wonder whether the speaker was speaking truth or “just whistling Dixie.” A threat might cause listeners to wonder whether the speaker was actually dangerous or “just whistling Dixie.”

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After Dobbs, Are Rights for Zygotes, Embryos, and Fetuses Next?

By Cynthia Soohoo

Justice Alito’s decision overturning Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey marks a watershed shift in the way that the country treats people who are pregnant versus an “unborn life.” By stripping constitutional protection from the decision to have an abortion, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization equates pregnant people’s right to control their bodies and the state’s interest in protecting prenatal life.

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CUNY Law Review Statement on Dobbs

Yesterday, the Supreme Court of the United States’ ruling on Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization dismantled the constitutional foundation giving pregnant people the right to choose whether or not to give birth. The decision allows states to ban abortion and criminalize anyone who assists a pregnant person in getting an abortion. 26 states have laws and amendments in place that ban or have a near-total ban on abortion following this decision. 

The City University of New York Law Review is committed to addressing the consequences of structural oppression, and to challenging these structures themselves. As such, we denounce the Supreme Court’s holding undoing 50 years of legal precedent that millions have relied on to plan their futures and families. The decision will have far-reaching and devastating legal and practical ramifications on those who can give birth, particularly the poor, people of color, and trans people. Justice Thomas’ concurrence called for the Supreme Court to “reconsider” its past rulings on contraception access, same-sex marriage, and consensual sex in same-sex relations, which implicates consequential constitutional privacy rights.  This decision’s reasoning was not grounded in notions of liberty or equality but in a white supremacist, sexist historical period where women, Black people and other people of color, the poor, and queer people had inferior, or no rights at all.

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Call for Student Submissions – Volume 26.1

Interested in getting published in CUNY Law Review? We are currently accepting submissions for student-written articles to be published in our Winter 2023 issue (26.1). CUNY Law Review seeks to uplift student authors and welcomes submissions from all law students for the Notes and Comments section. Students are encouraged to see Notes and Comments as a platform to publish their work, along with the Footnote Forum and the CUNY Law Review Blog

Submissions should be emailed to salimah.khoja@live.law.cuny.edu and sulafa.grijalva@live.law.cuny.edu no later than June 1st. For general questions, please email cunylr@mail.law.cuny.edu.

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CUNY Law Review’s 25th Anniversary Celebration and Our Current Issue Spotlight on Restorative Justice in Cases of Sexual Harm

On March 4, 2022, CUNY Law Review hosted our 25th Anniversary Celebration with an event spotlighting our article, Restorative Justice in Cases of Sexual Harm, by Dr. Alexa Sardina and Dr. Alissa Ackerman. The events as co-moderated by Rev. Dr. Yvette Wilson-Barnes, Associate Dean of Student Affairs and former CUNY Law Review Editorial Board member, and Brittney Frey, CUNY Law Review Executive Articles Editor. Below are the Opening Remarks given by Dean Wilson-Barnes and a video of the event.

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