Category: Uncategorized
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From EIC to EIC, an Interview with Ryan Palmer, the First Editor-in-Chief of the St. Thomas Law Journal, About the Creation of the Law Journal
Julia Abreu Siufi* “Any structure must be built on a solid foundation and the cornerstones of the foundation are the most significant part of it.” The University of St. Thomas School of Law was founded in 1999. Since its founding, it has thrived, and it is now ranked as number 98 in the country. A…
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Famous Female Characters Who Shaped Legal History and Pop Culture
By Lily Fredericks* With March being Women’s History Month, there is no better time to remind ourselves of the female legal characters in television and movies that we all know and love. From Elle Woods’ pink-powered brilliance to Annalise Keating’s fierce courtroom strategies, female legal characters in pop culture have played a major role in…
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What’s the Tea?
Matthew Siegler* In 1662, King Charles II married Princess Catherine of Braganza. Within Princess Catherine’s dowry was the Portuguese territory of ‘Bom Bahia’ (today’s Bombay), but the most proliferating item may have been mere tea. Tea had been within the United Kingdom’s border prior to 1662, but Princess Catherine’s is charged within popularizing tea among…
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The Devastating Consequences of Confusing Poverty with Neglect in Child Welfare Cases
Kimberly Blaney* The child welfare system—tasked with ensuring the safety and well-being of children—frequently faces complex cases that require discerning judgment. However, one persistent and devastating issue within this system is the conflation of poverty with neglect. Mistaking economic hardship for parental failure can lead to unnecessary family separations, long-term trauma for children, and systemic…
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Legal Challenges Surrounding the Summit Carbon Solutions Pipeline
Kate Sargent* Summit Carbon Solutions has proposed an $8.9 billion, 2,500-mile carbon pipeline transporting carbon dioxide emissions from ethanol plants across five states. Ethanol plants are responsible for turning corn into fuel; this fermentation process emits carbon dioxide. The company is partnering with fifty-seven ethanol plants across Iowa, Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Nebraska…
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Words Aside: How the Supreme Court Elevated Common Law Above Constitutional Text in Hans v. Louisiana
Jennifer Stegeman* Be honest, did you know that sovereign immunity is not an enumerated constitutional protection for states? Rather, the sovereign immunity doctrine as we know it today comes from Hans v. Louisiana, and the Court pointing out an inherent illogic in allowing citizens to sue states. In Hans, the Court looked to the Eleventh…
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Women in Law and the Rise of Househusbands
Paige Dobberstein* In my senior year of college, I had a conversation with a former female attorney to discuss pursuing law school, and ultimately, a career in law. While the conversation was very informative, there was one aspect that struck me as rather unsettling—the transparency regarding the challenge women face balancing a family with a…
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Decisions, Decisions: How Mindfulness and Slow Lawyering Can Begin to Solve Our Most Exhausting Problems
Alena Stankaitis* We are all familiar with the brain fog that sets in after lunch, sometimes earlier. This mental exhaustion seems unavoidable. What is it? How can we make it go away? The effects of “decision fatigue” on medical professionals, such as surgeons and nurses, are especially well-studied. There is also a growing body of…
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Born Here and No Longer a Citizen: Is This the President’s Call to Make?
By Camryn Davis* The short answer is no. Birthright citizenship, which is the right of someone born in the United States to automatically become an American citizen, is a constitutional right that requires formal amendment to change, not simply an executive order. Formal amendment would require a two-thirds congressional vote and ratification by three-fourths of…
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Are Law Degrees Just for Decoration?: A Holistic Approach to the Value of a Juris Doctorate
Rebecca Schmit* Introduction When people think of “lawyers,” there are plenty of opinions that might come to mind: “lawyers make a lot of money,” “lawyers are hardworking and dedicated,” and “lawyers have to go to school forever.” However, the difference between these one-off opinions and the experiences of lawyers themselves is that they have lived…
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