May 6, 2024
by Leah Cubanski
Access to Justice
Banking and Finance
The U.S. has one of the greatest wealth gaps of any developed country in the world.[1] As the nation with the most billionaires[2] and the highest GDP,[3] the U.S. has a shamefully high poverty rate, with 11.5% of the population (37.9 million people)…
April 22, 2024
by Charlie Kip
Access to Justice
Housing and Homelessness
Freedom and personal agency are some of the most lauded virtues and policy goals in the American culture. This post is neither going to address the broader philosophical/theological debate about free will nor if choice is an ontologically sound concept…
March 18, 2024
by Rachel Danner
Access to Justice
Criminal Justice
Shannon Daves was arrested for a misdemeanor offense in Dallas County, Texas on January 17, 2018.[1] She was taken to the county jail and brought before a magistrate for a “hearing” to determine the amount of money bail she would be required to come…
February 19, 2024
by Julia Baumel
Access to Justice
Criminal Justice
The other day, a man stopped me on the sidewalk outside the Georgetown Law campus. “Excuse me,” he said, “which way should I walk to get to Germantown, Maryland?” It took me a moment to process his question—I was not sure where Germantown was…
February 5, 2024
by Kim Herbert
Access to Justice
Criminal Justice
Health
People experiencing incarceration are the only population for whom the Constitution explicitly recognizes the right to healthcare.[1] Still, healthcare in carceral institutions remains abysmal, operating as both a tool and result of mass incarceration…
January 31, 2024
by Kevin Mussman
Access to Justice
Banking and Finance
Last September, the United Auto Workers (UAW), the union representing nearly 150,000 employees at factories run by GM, Ford, and Stellantis (the “Big Three” automakers), initiated a historic strike.[1] Chief among the unions’ demands were calls…
December 19, 2023
by Nicholas Mayer
Access to Justice
Climate Change
In considering the role of law and policy, comparative perspectives are often useful, particularly when they relate to poverty. Every historical and present state has had to deal with parts of their populations that are either unable to meet subsistence…
December 18, 2023
by Rachel Danner
Access to Justice
Education
Family
Food Security
Health
Senate Democrats have recently introduced a new bill directing the Secretary of Agriculture to “cancel and eliminate all debts” associated with school breakfast and lunch programs.[1] The Act, titled the “School Lunch Debt Cancellation Act of 2023…
November 21, 2023
by Thomas Stanley-Becker
Access to Justice
Housing and Homelessness
About a quarter of Black babies and toddlers in rental housing face eviction every year, according to a new study, and children generally are disproportionately at risk.[1] The study’s finding that the Americans most at risk of eviction are babies and…
November 14, 2023
by Ellie DeGarmo
Access to Justice
Family
Health
In the wake of the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health to overturn the constitutional right to abortion,[1] advocates began concentrating their efforts on ensuring the availability of contraception.[2] However, little…