Our Online Journal features original pieces written and edited by our Online staff at Columbia. They are not representative of any views held by the Columbia Undergraduate Law Review Editorial Board.
It may seem like a sensible choice to mandate that all signage in America be in English. After all, English is the most spoken language in the country, and all signage should be accessible to the majority. Upon further examination, however, it is clear that forcing minority-owned businesses to offer English signage blurs the boundary between helping the majority and unconstitutionally sanctioning forced assimilation.
Read MoreThe COVID-19 pandemic is a global challenge that requires multilateralism, cooperation among states, for the health of people of all nations. The United States' escalation of a near total economic blockade on Iran is incompatible with the goals of multilateralism. As the sanctions impede Iran's ability to fight COVID-19, the United States is breaching international law under the banner of national security.
Read MoreAccording to an early projection by Richard Hasen, an election law expert at the University of California, Irvine, “2020 [was set to] see a record level of election-related litigation.” That prediction was made long before the COVID-19 crisis left the nation scrambling to adapt to the realities of election season in the midst of a pandemic. In the recent weeks, a flurry of legal battles have erupted across the nation—in Nevada, Oklahoma, Arizona, Virginia, Florida, and various other states—over voting rights, absentee ballot requirements, and vote-by-mail protocol.
Read MoreMrs. Torres filed a civil rights claim in federal court, claiming that the police officers had used excessive force and had violated her Fourth Amendment protection against unlawful seizures. The district court ruled—and the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed—that the Fourth Amendment’s protection against unlawful seizure was not applicable because, as Torres was ultimately able to escape and wasn’t apprehended by law enforcement until later, she wasn’t technically “seized.” This ruling might seem sound at first glance, but it contradicts existing Supreme Court jurisprudence on the matter.
Read MoreWhat happens when a global emergency confronts intellectual property law? Medical companies obtain patents for innovative technology, which gives these companies legal ground for a lawsuit should another company produce the same good. But in a time of crisis, as we see now with the coronavirus pandemic, there is a need to produce essential equipment on a scale so massive and immediate that it necessitates removing a patent’s protections.
Read MoreGiven their potential to exacerbate already environmentally-deteriorated conditions, peaker plants have faced substantial criticism from the communities they occupy, with some of these contentions reaching courts. A pair of cases from the early 2000s revolved around the construction of peaker plants in Queens and an area of South Bronx dubbed “Asthma Alley” for its high asthma rates which are eight times higher the national average. However since these cases in 2001, New York State has passed a Green New Deal, and energy storage technologies have become more viable substitutes compared to peakers.
Read MoreIf a person is forced to sell a family heirloom in order to save their life during times of war, is that transaction legitimate? This is the central question that the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit had to tackle in the case Zuckerman v. The Metropolitan Museum of Art (2019). This case followed a lawsuit initiated by plaintiff Laurel Zuckerman in an attempt to recover The Actor, an original painting by Pablo Picasso that is currently held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.
Read MoreIn May, the Supreme Court heard two cases on whether presidential electors can be legally required to follow their state’s popular vote. Colorado Department of State v. Baca and Chiafalo v. Washington concern electors in Colorado and Washington State, respectively, who broke state law by casting their ballots for someone other than 2016 Democratic Presidential Nominee Hillary Clinton, who won the popular vote in both states in the 2016 election. Such electors who are pledged to vote for a certain candidate by state law but vote otherwise are known as “faithless electors.”
Read MoreNestled between India and Pakistan, Kashmir has been involved in a tug of war between the two countries since its formation on October 26, 1947. As a Muslim majority state which acceded to India, a Hindu majority nation, Kashmir was given special status and considerable autonomy as conditions to this accession. For years, this arrangement allowed Kashmir to preserve its cultural autonomy. However, on August 5, 2019, the Indian government revoked this special status, rendering Kashmir’s constitution invalid and demoting it from the status as a state to that of a union territory.
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