Cornell Law Review

Note

Are There Rights in Guantánamo Bay: The Great Writ Rings Hollow

Kayla Anderson, J.D. Candidate, Cornell Law School, 2021; Notes Editor, Cornell Law Review, Volume 106; B.A. Arizona State University, 2017

This Note argues that the district court should decide that the entirety of the Fifth Amendment applies to Guantánamo Bay detainees given previous jurisprudence, the nature of the War on Terror, and the protection of detainee rights. However, this Note also details that the possible ramifications of such a broad decision render it unlikely that…

Aug 2021

Article

Women on the Frontlines

Michele Goodwin, Chancellor’s Professor of Law & Founding Director, Center for Biotechnology & Global Health Policy at the University of California, Irvine

This Article takes aim at the troubling and persistent dis-empowerment and invisibility of women generally, and particularly marginalized women of color even one hundred years after the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment. It observes how the persistence of sexism, toxically combined with racism, impedes full political, economic, and social personhood of women and girls in…

Aug 2021

Article

Civil Liberties in a Pandemic: The Lessons of History

Erwin Chemerinsky, Dean and Jesse H. Choper Distinguished Professor of Law, University of California, Berkeley School of Law

Michele Goodwin, Chancellor’s Professor at the University of California, Irvine; founding director of the Center for Biotechnology and Global Health Policy

Throughout American history, whenever there has been a crisis the response has been a deprivation of rights. Today, the United States is in the midst of the worst health crisis in over a century. As of this writing, over 500,000 people have died.11. Johns Hopkins U. & Med. Coronavirus Resource Ctr., https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/ [https://perma.cc/XK5J-Y6KS] (last visited…

Aug 2021

COVID, Sex Discrimination, and Medical Research

Lori Andrews, J.D., is the Director of the Institute for Science, Law and Technology and Distinguished Professor of Law at IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law.

Bora Ndregjoni, third-year law student at IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law.

This Article analyzes the burgeoning medical research literature about COVID-19 and finds that the historical failure to take women’s symptoms and needs into account continues to this day.

Apr 2021

Unequal Representation: Women in Clinical Research

Allison M. Whelan

Associate, Covington & Burling LLP, Washington D.C.; J.D., University of Minnesota Law School; M.A. Bioethics, University of Minnesota.  Special thanks to Professor Michele Goodwin and the editors of the Cornell Law Review.  The views expressed in this article are the author’s and do not represent those of any past, current, or future employer.

Much progress has been made to increase women’s overall representation in clinical trials, but there is far more work to be done with respect to the representation of women of color, and people of color in general. The primary focus of this Article is the inadequate representation of women of color, and people of color more generally, in clinical trials.

Apr 2021

The Electors Clause and the Governor’s Veto

Nathaniel F. Rubin. J.D., Stanford Law School, 2018. My thanks go to Lisa Larrimore Ouellette, Allison Douglis, Fares Akremi, and Adam Hersh—without whose feedback and guidance this Essay would not have been possible.  My thanks too to the editors of the Cornell Law Review for their excellent work under trying conditions—including Victor Flores, Nicholas Pulakos, Lachanda Reid, Gabriela Markolovic, and Jared Quigley. All errors are my own.

This Essay examines whether the United States Constitution allows a governor to veto a state legislature’s bill governing presidential elections. The Constitution does not support this seemingly intuitive proposition directly, and on its face appears to vest control over presidential elections solely in the hands of state legislatures: while Article II of the Constitution explicitly provides for the “Legislature” of each state to control the “manner” in which electors are chosen, it makes no mention of state governors. This vagary in the Constitution’s text takes on particular import in light of political polarization over election administration in recent years. Moreover, the COVID-19 pandemic has prompted numerous states to make emergency modifications to their election systems, including delaying elections or attempting to cancel marginally competitive presidential primaries. Commentators have even expressed fear that a state legislature may eventually attempt to exercise its plenary authority to determine how presidential electors are appointed under Article II, Section 1 of the Constitution to choose electors without holding a popular vote. This Essay answers these concerns by arguing that a state governor can veto state legislatures’ bills governing presidential elections on the same terms as any other legislation.

Jan 2021

When Does The Bell Toll For Women’s Equality?

This year, the Cornell Law Review will host, When Does The Bell Toll For Women’s Equality?,  an online symposium that examines the political, economic, social, and legal status of women. The symposium makes interventions along the lines of sex, race, and class to understand the persistence of women’s inequality and invisibility at a critical juncture…

Sep 2020