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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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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How Coronavirus Created and Exposed Issues with Supplemental Security Insurance and the Social Security Administration

By Emma Mendelson1

The pandemic left many poor and working-class people in precarious financial positions. The federal government attempted to alleviate some of these financial burdens through Economic Impact Payments (“EIP”) providing people with three stimulus checks in 2020 and 2021. As paltry and unrealistic as these payments were (a maximum of $1,200, $600, and $1,400 for households of one, $2,400 for a married couple, and up to $500 additional for each qualifying child) in supporting the financial loss felt by many, it was at least an act meant to mitigate some of that burden. However, this caused some unforeseen damage to recipients of Supplemental Security Insurance (“SSI”).

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Unmasking and Refocusing the Hidden Curriculum by Teaching with a CROWN Act Simulation

By Elizabeth Stillman,1 Associate Professor of Academic Support, Suffolk University Law School

Success in law school, like in any form of higher education, requires that students feel a sense of belonging. Belonging “refers to students’ perceived social support on campus, a feeling or sensation of connectedness, and the experience of mattering or feeling cared about, accepted, respected, valued by, and important to the campus community or others on campus such as faculty, staff, and peers.” 

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Stop Line 3: A Call to Clear Danger to Our Water, Climate, and Land in Minnesota

By Summer Blaze Aubrey, Esq. LL.M.1 (Cherokee/Blackfeet) & Patricia Handlin, Esq.2

Enbridge, Inc. is a Canadian company that moves oil from the Western Canadian oil tar sands through a pipeline from Alberta, Canada across Minnesota to Superior, Wisconsin on the shores of Lake Superior. Line 3 is new construction that will connect Alberta to Lake Superior along a different route. The pipeline’s route snakes through the wild rice fields of Minnesota, called manoomin or psίᶇ, a sacred food of the Anishinaabe, the Ojibwe and Minnesota Chippewa Tribes, and Dakota Tribes, respectively, and is at the center of their cultural identity, spiritual traditions, and physical and economic well-being. The route crosses the headwaters of the Mississippi River as well as hundreds of other rivers, bodies of water, and wetlands in Minnesota and ends on the shores of Lake Superior just across the Minnesota-Wisconsin border. 

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In the Shadow of Guantánamo: 20 Years of the War on Terror

By Frank Deale, Associate Professor of Law at CUNY School of Law

Any assessment of the legacy of Guantanamo must start with the tragic events of 9/11. On that day, thousands of Americans were killed in a tragic assault on their everyday lives. Many of us lost loved ones on that day or know people who did. The week before 9/11, I was in the World Trade Center (WTC) with my seven-year-old daughter, bringing her home from one of her early days at child care. Three days before, we were looking at an apartment on John Street, right in the vicinity of the WTC. As we left that building, I thought of how privileged those folks were to be settled in such a nice area of New York. Even today I wonder where those folks are, who wished to sell us an apartment that evening.

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CUNY Law Review Blog

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