Telehealth in Reproductive Health Care: A New Frontier in the Fight for Abortion Access

Posted on September 15, 2024 by CUNY Law Review

Katie Corwin

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic played a crucial role in establishing the use of telehealth in all aspects of health care with one huge exception: abortion. Conservative politicians often do not categorize abortion as health care, leading to a stark contrast in the treatment of reproductive health care, particularly in terms of telehealth availability. This Comment examines state laws relating to telehealth abortion, how lawmakers restrict access to abortion by attacking telehealth abortion, and the resulting legal uncertainty for patients and practitioners. The central argument of this Comment is that legally protecting and expanding telehealth is imperative for increasing access to reproductive health care and abortion as well as improving public health.

Continue reading →

The Professionalized Violence of Prosecutorial Power and Misconduct

Posted on September 15, 2024 by CUNY Law Review

Bina Ahmad

Volume 27.2 (download PDF)

Abstract

The U.S. legal system is a colonizer’s system constructed to uphold power and protect the powerful. For radical lawyers, it is the language of power we need to speak and understand to protect ourselves and our communities from this violence. As law enforcement actors, prosecutors are arguably the most powerful actors in our criminal legal system, able to ruin people’s lives at will and with absolute immunity to protect them from any accountability for any misconduct. Even with professional attorney ethics rules and state bar grievance committees tasked with holding attorneys to these ethics rules, prosecutors are still rarely disciplined. This note argues that in addition to small-scale abolitionist reforms such as abolishing absolute immunity, we must go beyond this and shrink prosecutorial power, and make not only prosecutorial misconduct but the entire legal system accessible, transparent and open to the public.

Continue reading →

Freedom of the Press in Hungary & the United States: A Comparative Review

Posted on September 15, 2024 by CUNY Law Review

Zane McNeill & Riley Clare Valentine

Volume 27.2 (download PDF)

Abstract

This paper compares both Hungary’s and the United States’ treatment of journalists’ freedom of expression and freedom of speech. Journalists in both Hungary and the United States face specific threats to these freedoms. Journalists face political pressure in Hungary and animosity and scrutiny in the United States under private consolidation. Additionally, coverage that is critical of the state and supports marginalized communities faces heightened scrutiny. Nonetheless, we contend that journalists within the United States have potential options in protecting their freedom of expression such as those indicated in Rodriguez-Cotto v. Pierluisi-Urrutia.

Continue reading →

Combatting the Sexual Abuse to Prison Pipeline: Eliminating the Sex Offender Registration Requirement for Children who Have Been Victims of Sexual Abuse

Posted on September 15, 2024 by CUNY Law Review

Katherine I. Puzone

Volume 27.2 (download PDF)

Abstract

A recent study entitled The Sexual Abuse to Prison Pipeline: The Girls’ Story published by The Human Rights Center for Girls, the Georgetown Law Center on Poverty and Inequality and the Ms. Foundation for Women highlighted the correlation between high rates of sexual abuse of girls and girls’ involvement in the juvenile justice system. Sexual abuse is one of the most accurate predictors of girls’ entry into the juvenile justice system. Girls under eighteen are at very high risk of becoming victims of sexual violence. One in four American girls will experience some sort of sexual violence before the age of eighteen. Fifteen percent of victims of sexual assault are under the age of twelve. Girls between the ages of sixteen and nineteen are four times more likely to be victims of sexual assault. Tragically, many of these victims end up as defendants in the juvenile justice system for behavior that is a direct result of the trauma they suffered. Victims of sexual abuse sometimes go on to commit sex offenses. This often requires registration as a sex offender which mandates registration for children as young as fourteen. This article proposes an exemption to registration for children who have been victims of sexual abuse. Recidivism rates for juvenile sex offenders are significantly lower than those for adult sex offenders. This is largely because children’s brains are still developing. Exempting victims of sexual abuse from registration as a sex offender is consistent with goals of therapeutic jurisprudence and would give young victims a chance to start their adult life without being labeled as a sex offender.

Continue reading →

Statement in Solidarity with Columbia Law Review and Rabea Eghbariah

Posted on June 14, 2024 by CUNY Law Review

We, the 2024-2025 CUNY Law Review Editorial Board, stand in solidarity with the Editorial Board of the Columbia Law Review, in their publication of novel legal scholarship by Palestinian lawyer, Rabea Eghbariah. Eghbariah’s article, Toward Nakba as a Legal Concept, offers a legal analysis of “Nakba” and directly addresses the horrific history of the Nakba and the plight of the Palestinian people. We commend the student editors at Columbia for their editing and publication of a work that centers the Palestinian experience and the violence Palestinians have suffered under Zionist colonization.The article importantly speaks to the genocide that has been unfolding before our very eyes.

Given CUNY Law Review’s explicit social justice mission, it is our moral obligation to stand in solidarity with oppressed people and speak up when efforts to bring visibility to that oppression are met with censorship. Legal scholarship has historically silenced the most vulnerable and marginalized people. Censoring writers like Eghbariah is reflective of that system of oppression. We condemn the actions of Columbia Law Review’s Board of Directors in censoring and silencing the Editorial Board and Eghbariah.We also condemn the Board of Directors’ disclaimer statement and support the strike of their student editors. Shutting down the website in response to the publication of Eghbariah’s article was not only contrary to principles of academic freedom and free speech, but also contributes to the erasure of Palestinian voices amidst the genocide of their people and destruction of their land.

Censorship is a hallmark of oppression and cowardice, and it will not stifle the movement for Palestinian liberation. We acknowledge the courage of Columbia Law Review as we move forward and continue our mission of centering voices which propel social justice. Palestinian voices matter and have the right to be published.
Please read the article here.