Introduction In 2022, the Standing Rock Sioux Tribal Council unanimously voted to banish the Lakota Language Consortium (LLC) and its two European founders from the reservation. The LLC began working with the Tribe in the early 2000s to document the Lakota language and created numerous recordings of Lakota elders, a Lakota dictionary, and many other educational materials. However, the LLC registered those works’ copyrights solely under its own name, so Tribe members must now seek the LLC’s permission to use… Read More

Introduction On July 1, 2022, the Indianapolis Star reported that a ten-year-old Ohio girl, who had been raped and was six weeks pregnant, had sought an abortion in Indiana. Abortion had been outlawed in Ohio mere hours after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, but it remained legal ˙in neighboring Indiana. The Ohio girl was able to cross the state border, get the abortion, and—presumably—return home safely. But if lawmakers like those in Missouri, South Carolina, Texas, and a… Read More

Introduction Since the release of Rawls’s A Theory of Justice in 1971, discussions on the role of groups, redistribution, and symbolic recognition have gained unprecedented attention in North America and Europe. How can we ensure equal recognition among groups and foster equitable access to goods in a way that provides fair distribution not only among groups (plurality) but also within groups (the singular) so that all are politically and socially included on a common shared basis (the universal)? While the… Read More

Introduction In this essay I shall comment on A Pluralist Theory of Constitutional Justice by Professor Michel Rosenfeld, by developing three points that have to do with the legacy of Carl Schmitt’s constitutional theory. The first is about the progressive weaponization of constitutional law that characterizes what I call the populist constitutional counternarrative. In particular, I will explore how populists in power use constitutional law. The second point has to do with the notion of constituent power in a context… Read More

Introduction A Pluralist Theory of Constitutional Justice offers a powerful normative theory of liberal constitutionalism: comprehensive pluralism. This theory links liberal constitutionalism with distributive justice. Comprehensive pluralism requires that the three dimensions that compose this concept of justice—redistribution, recognition, and representation—drive the attempts to balance ethos and demos in liberal constitutional democracies, as well as the attempts to balance the singular, plural, and universal dimensions that constitute such political communities. The normative proposal offered by Michel Rosenfeld in his book… Read More

Introduction Protecting consumer privacy rights presents a particular challenge given the prevalence of data breaches. This Article notes that current law is woefully inadequate in protecting the privacy rights of consumers. Notably, the law fails in the following four areas: (1) classification of consumer data, (2) lack of a comprehensive approach, (3) after-the-fact focus, and (4) limited accountability for third parties. Although it may be impossible to eliminate all data breaches, more regulations can bolster protection without restricting technological advancements. This Article proposes a… Read More

Introduction The legal construct of termination of parental rights—the act of permanently severing the legal relationship between parent and child—is deeply embedded in contemporary American child welfare law. Indeed, since the passage of the Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997 (ASFA), it can fairly be said that our entire foster care system is structured around the threat of terminating parental rights. From the day a child is taken into state-supervised care, the clock begins ticking toward the possible permanent… Read More