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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Volume 25.1, Footnote Forum, Part 2

We are pleased to publish Volume 25.1, Footnote Forum, Part 2!

In this installment, we present articles written by two currently incarcerated authors who speak to us from their personal experiences. In The Correctional Institute of Nothing, Frank Pruitt writes about his desire for more holistic treatment opportunities in prison, the lack of which he has witnessed for 30 years. Next, in Why Reforms Are not Enough: Justice and Accountability Reimagined, Felix Sitthivong details how abolitionist ideals are vital to many incarcerated people and how reforms fall short of those ideals.

Footnote Forum will publish Part 3 in February 2022. For Part 1, please click here. The full journal is available at CUNY Academic Works. Please see below for individual articles:

The Correctional Institute of Nothing by Frank Pruitt

Q&A with Frank Pruitt by Frank Pruitt

Why Reforms are Not Enough: Justice and Accountability Reimagined by Felix Sitthivong

Q&A with Felix Sitthivong by Felix Sitthivong

Volume 25.1, Footnote Forum, Part 1

We are excited to publish Volume 25.1, Footnote Forum, Part 1. This installment features David Campbell, a former political prisoner, who discusses what “defunding the police” and “reinvesting in communities” could mean if reinvestment took the form of paying incarcerated workers suitable wages. Professor Steve Zeidman, Director of the Defenders Clinic at CUNY School of Law, writes on the notion of whether prosecutors can actually be progressive.

Footnote Forum exists to challenge our assumptions about legal scholarship. For Volume 25.1, we invite readers to consider the value of lived experiences. What can the lives of those directly impacted by the criminal legal system teach us, especially when they have no access to databases normally used for legal research? Does this perspective provide a fuller understanding of the law, and is that valuable for scholarship?

– Natasha Bynum and Colby Williams, Footnote Forum Editors

Footnote Forum is publishing Parts 2 and 3 in December 2021 and February 2022. The full journal is available at CUNY Academic Works. Please see below for individual articles:

Footnote Forum, Part 1

Editors’ Note by Natasha Bynum and Colby Williams

Virtuous Prosecutors? by Steven Zeidman

Decarceration Means Funding the Incarcerated by David Campbell

Q&A with David Campbell by David Campbell

Student Authorship Panel

Are you interested in adding to the body of legal scholarship? Join published student authors and the CUNY Law Review to learn all about how to publish your own writing as a law student. Please bring your ideas for potential note topics. Panelists will help you workshop your ideas and offer guidance on how to develop your thesis, ways to structure the piece, research tips, and how to get the support you need to write.

Panelists include: Eliza Chung, 4L; Emma Mendelson, 4L; Prof. Andrea McArdle, CUNY Law Review, Faculty Advisor; and Uruj Sheikh, 3L and CUNY Law Review, Editor-in-Chief.
Moderated by Yulia Marshak, CUNY Law Review, Notes and Comments Editor.

When: Friday, November 5th at 5:00 PM EST
Zoom Registration Info: 
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZModu6grzIqE9WRgA7uoTy0DeM5kXThuLWV.
For more information, please email cunylr@mail.law.cuny.edu.

Supreme Court Watch: A Preview of the 2021-2022 Term

CUNY Law Review presents Supreme Court Watch: A Preview of the 2021-2022 Term.

The Supreme Court returned on Monday, October 4th, for its 2021-2022 term and the justices will hear cases on a number of important issues, including, but not limited to: abortion, due process, ineffective assistance of counsel, jury selection, venue selection, free speech, and equal protection.

Please join our panelists for a thoughtful discussion about the previous term and what is likely to unfold in the next Supreme Court term.

Panelists:
Professor Frank Deale
Professor Ramzi Kassem
Professor Stephen Loffredo
Professor Seann Riley
Professor Cynthia Soohoo
Moderated by Mitchell Mirtil, CUNY Law Review‘s Community Engagement Editor

Supreme Court Watch: A Preview of the 2021-2022 Term

The Supreme Court returns on Monday, October 4th, for its 2021-2022 term and the justices will hear cases on a number of important issues, including, but not limited to: abortion, due process, ineffective assistance of counsel, jury selection, venue selection, free speech, and equal protection. Please join our panelists for a thoughtful discussion about the previous term and what is likely to unfold in the next Supreme Court term.

Panelists
Professor Frank Deale 
Professor Ramzi Kassem 
Professor Stephen Loffredo 
Professor Seann Riley 
Professor Cynthia Soohoo
Moderated by Mitchell Mirtil, CUNY LawReview‘s Community Engagement Editor

When: Wednesday, September 29, 2021 from 5:30PM to 6:30PM 
Where: Zoom
Please register to attend this event: 
https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN__C81IngtTrek8krMvJwLzQ

Volume 24.2

We are excited to publish Volume 24.2. The full journal is available at CUNY Academic Works. Please see below for individual articles:

Articles
Voting Rights Lawyering in Crisis by Emily Rong Zhang

Notes and Comments
Trans Adults Deserve a Right to Sue for Gender-Affirming Care Denied at Youth by Eliza Chung

Public Interest Practitioners Section (PIPS)
Paradox and Possibility: Movement Lawyering During the COVID-19 Housing Crisis by Marika Dias

Footnote Forum
Reviving the Civic Body: Campaign for Suffrage Inside Prisons, Felony Enfranchisement in D.C., and Lawyering for Abolition by Uruj Sheikh

Footnote Forum Podcast
Freedom Should Be Free: An Interview with The Bail Project by Rachel Goldman, Megan Diebboll, and Asia Johnson
Listen to the audio recording here

CUNY Law Review Blog

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Call for Submissions – Volume 25.2

Environmental Justice

CUNY Law Review (CUNYLR) invites submissions on the topic of environmental justice (EJ) for publication in Volume 25, Issue 2. Priority will be given to pieces that incorporate an intersectional analysis of environmental justice with anti-Black racism, heteropatriarchy, classism, colonialism, ableism, and other systems of oppression. 

We seek articles, essays, and other submissions that address unresolved problems and emerging environmental justice issues, including, but not limited to:

  • White supremacy in property law and urban planning,
  • Climate change and its impact on marginalized communities, migration, and disaster response,
  • Limitations and consequences of neoliberal “colorblind” reforms to environmental injustice,
  • Reparations for environmental racism, 
  • EJ in the context of U.S. settler-colonialism and Indigenous sovereignty,
  • Economic justice,
  • Analysis of recent litigation, legislation, or regulation to address environmental racism, and
  • Lessons from campaigns to address environmental injustice led by frontline communities.

For consideration in Volume 25.2 of the CUNY Law Review, contributors are strongly encouraged to submit a manuscript or an abstract by October 15, 2021 to cunylr@law.cuny.edu.

Final decisions on all submissions will be made on a rolling basis. For more information, see our Eligibility and Submissions Guidelines below.

Selected authors will be invited to speak at CUNY Law Review’s annual Symposium in April 2022.  

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Volume 24.1

We are excited to publish Volume 24.1, see below for specific articles:
Introduction: Editors’ Note

Articles
Marginalizing Mothers: Child Maltreatment Registries, Statutory Schemes, And Reduced Opportunities For Employment by Colleen Henry and Vicki Lens

Public Interest Practitioners Section (PIPS)
The Court Of Appeals Should Abandon The Corroboration Rule Governing The Admissibility Of Expert-Identification Testimony by Matthew Bova
Movement Lawyering During A Crisis: How The Legal System Exploits The Labor Of Activists And Undermines Movements by Tifanei Ressl-Moyer, Pilar Gonzalez Morales, and Jaqueline Aranda Osorno

Notes and Comments
How The Fallout From Post-9/11 Surveillance Programs Can Inform Privacy Protections For Covid-19 Contact Tracing Programs by Emma Mendelson

Footnote Forum
Lawyering In The Wake: Theorizing The Practice Of Law In The Midst Of Anti-Black Catastrophe by James Stevenson Ramsey
Coronavirus Aid, Relief, And Economic Security For Whom? IRS Overreaches In Denying Cares Act Economic Impact Payments To Migrant Workers And Incarcerated Individuals by Justin Schwegel