The Quadriga

When I began writing this paper, I wanted to answer a straightforward question: Can courts constitutionally restrict a criminal defendant from making public statements attacking the legitimacy of the presiding judge? The question seemed simple enough. I would determine the appropriate level of scrutiny, identify the government’s interest, and assess whether the restriction was narrowly…

This article makes an argument that the current judicial landscape related to the Free Exercise Clause, Establishment Clause, and Free Speech Clause has begun to shift and how the U.S. Supreme Court balances the inherent and competing tensions of these three clauses (a trinity of rights), especially in public education. As we will explore, the…

In the heart of Saint Paul, within the Minnesota State capitol district, you’ll find a small corner of the Department of Revenue building, headquartered in one of the most powerful judicial bodies in the state., the Office of Administrative Hearings Administrative Law Judges (ALJs).  Some would say calling them a judicial body is misleading, as…

On April 4, 2022, the Minnesota Court of Appeals issued Quinn v. LMC NE Minneapolis Holdings, LLC, 972 N.W.2d 881 (Minn. Ct. App. 2022), rev. granted (June 29, 2022), rev. dismissed (Feb. 17, 2023). This precedential opinion construed the phrase “other regular occupants” in Minn. Stat. § 504B.001 as it applies to a lockout petition…

Recent reporting raised concerns about the United States Supreme Court and its ethics. The Code of Conduct for United States Judges applies to all federal judges with the exception of Supreme Court justices. Many have demanded that the Supreme Court police themselves or for Congress to establish a code of conduct applicable to the Supreme…

Most of us probably would not think of being asked to work through lunch as comparable to having our pocket picked, but that is, in fact, how American jurisprudence defines it. Wage theft is the term the law uses whenever an employee is deprived of lawfully earned wages, whether an employer does so intentionally or…

The right to … vote and to stand for election, is at the core of democratic governments based on the will of the people.  This right is enshrined in Article 21 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, in Article 25 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and is cited as the…

From Standing Rock to Line 3, water-protectors, climate activists, and local communities are resisting pipeline projects that threaten their wellbeing. A worrying trend suggests that extractive companies may be taking a page out of their own international playbook and coordinating with local police forces and private security firms to try to break resistance movements.

Law firms, in their efforts to bring in and retain clients and referral sources operate under the maxim, “you only have one chance to make a good first impression.” As a result, law firms tend toward restrictive dress-codes and grooming policies. Often requiring male employees to wear dress pants, white or blue dress shirts, and…

Almost forty years since the move towards deinstitutionalization, the debate regarding how to best serve those with mental illness continues. After the campaign for deinstitutionalization began in the 1980s, a number of individuals with mental illness lived on the street after their release from state psychiatric hospitals with nowhere else to go. To this day, unhoused,…