Volume 49 (2017) Issue 1 (Spring)

Sherod Thaxton. Justice Stephen Breyer recently made international headlines when he emphasized that reforms to the capital punishment process have apparently failed to ameliorate the rampant arbitrariness, capriciousness, and bias that led the U.S. Supreme Court to temporarily invalidate the…

Harlan Grant Cohen. The modern political question doctrine has long been criticized for shielding the political branches from proper judicial scrutiny and allowing the courts to abdicate their responsibilities. Critics of the doctrine thus cheered when the Supreme Court, in…

Michael T. Maerowitz. Beginning in 1878 with Wilkerson v. Utah, the Supreme Court has heard over forty cases where plaintiffs alleged that a method of execution violated the Eighth Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment. Though methods of execution…

Justin Caresia. This Comment argues that administrative agencies and courts that have extended the statutory language of ERISA’s church plan exemption to religiously affiliated hospitals have violated the unambiguous intent of Congress. It calls for special attention to be given…

John F. Coyle & Jason W. Yackee. In an earlier era, treaties of Friendship, Commerce, and Navigation (FCNs) were the primary international law mechanism through which the U.S. government sought to promote and protect foreign investment. Conventional wisdom holds that…

Lance Morgan. This Article will question some of the fundamental principles of federal Indian law—because it is still grounded in the biases of the past—and explain how the growing economic power of tribes is empowering the rapid growth of tribal…

Tracy Alice Olson. Specifically, this Comment considers reconciling the level of scrutiny and deference due to campaign contributions and disclosure requirements with campaign expenditures. Part I traces the historical legal basis of campaign finance. Beginning with the Constitution, the background…

Laurence Winer & Nina J. Crimm. How should we balance claims of religious liberty against demands for maintaining separation of church and state? Are privately held secular corporations, whose owners have sincere religious beliefs regarding contraception, entitled to disregard legal…