Category: Past Issues

Benjamin J. McMichael & W. Kip Viscusi  Punitive damages remain unique in the American legal system. Awarded in the civil context with none of the protections offered in criminal law, courts levy punitive damages to punish and deter. The Supreme…

Danika Marzillier From white sandy beaches and jagged, snow-capped mountains, national monuments and even some parks in urban neighborhoods, America’s federally managed public lands cover over a quarter of the country. From citizens looking to increase their daily step goals to all-out…

Elissa Philip Gentry The inherent mismatch between the questions law asks and the answers statistics provides has led courts to create arbitrary rules for statistical evidence. Adherence to these rules undermines deterrence goals and runs the risk of depriving recovery for…

Alexandra Eagle Near the village of Las Capucas, in the Copán region of Honduras, Omar Rodríguez Romero manages a coffee farm and a coffee farmer cooperative called Cooperativa Cafetalera Capucas Limitada (COCAFCAL). COCAFCAL assists hundreds of small coffee farmers in the…

Elysa M. Dishman State attorneys general (AGs) have become leaders of the political resistance against recent presidential administrations. They are suing the federal government with increasing frequency, seeking nationwide injunctions that thwart presidential priorities and shape national policies.Nationwide injunctions have sparked…

Catherine Swett The residents of Arlington and Tonopah, Arizona have some very smelly neighbors—the millions of chickens at Hickman’s Egg Ranch (“Hickman’s”). But an unpleasant odor is just one of the many environmental issues created by the concentrated animal feeding operation…

Tessa R. Patterson Humans do many small things every day that add up to grand numbers. For example, the average human spends about twenty-six years of her life asleep; around thirteen years at work; and four years and six months eating. There…

Sarah Brunswick “Good God, Joe . . . What the hell is that stuff doing in your water?”–Regional Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ScientistJoe Kiger’s water bill reported that his drinking water contained low levels of perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), but said not…

Adam B. Thimmesch The U.S. federal structure tasks the states with providing many of the critical services on which individuals rely for their basic needs. State fiscal stability is therefore critical to state residents’ health, economic security, and physical safety, especially…

Ric Simmons For over a hundred years, the Supreme Court has employed rhetoric in its Fourth Amendment cases that supports the concept of “home exceptionalism”—that is, the idea that protecting the home is the “very core” of the Fourth Amendment. Two…