Federal public lands are a major source for fossil fuel extraction in the United States—extraction that contributes to greenhouse gas emissions. Extraction occurs through the leasing of federal lands to private companies for development. Activists have called for ending new fossil fuel leasing as part of a “Keep It in the Ground” movement. We analyze the legal possibilities for more radical action—the termination of existing fossil fuel leases. We identify the possibility for both congressional…

This Article is about the tension between liberty and equality. It examines this tension in the context of disputes over free speech and LGBT rights. In the modern Civil Rights Era, the social and legal climate has become increasingly intolerant of bullying, embraced liberal sexual and gender norms, and sought to institute formal equality for formerly disfavored groups. The conservative movement has responded in part by seeking refuge from progressive change in constitutional jurisprudence, art…

The media has often highlighted the devastating toll COVID-19 has taken in many parts of Indian country—and that, to be sure, is part of the story. But there are other aspects of the picture as well. On the one hand, tribes have taken resourceful and creative measures to combat COVID-19. On the other, a troublesome doctrinal landscape has complicated their efforts to do so. The judicially crafted Montana framework severely restricts tribal civil-regulatory power over nonmembers—a particular pro…

This Article explores a simple argument for preserving a measure of formal agency decisional independence in the event that the Supreme Court, as Seila Law LLC v. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau seems to portend, adopts an unalloyed, strong version of the unitary executive theory. According to strong unitarians, Article II’s vesting of the executive power in the President authorizes that official to control discretionary powers that Congress has granted to agencies. The…

In 1987, the U.S. Sentencing Commission created its first federal sentencing guideline for child pornography offenses. As Congress grappled with dynamic technological advances that changed the child pornography landscape, the Commission continually revised and amended these guidelines, creating the last significant amendment in 2009. For the past 12 years, these guidelines have been considered by federal court judges tasked with sentencing child pornography offenders, yet little has been done t…

Human-induced climate change is impacting our planet in a variety of ways. One of the principal issues is occurring in the Arctic region, where glaciers are receding, and the sea level is rising. In turn, this environmental catastrophe is opening up new opportunities for the exploitation of an abundance of natural resources. This Note will describe how the fragile Arctic Ocean should be properly managed to prevent the overexploitation of resources in a tragedy-of-the-commons scenario. This will…