Category Archives: Uncategorized

This post is authored by Professor Kari Hong. Kari Hong has been a scholar, law professor, and practicing attorney for the past twenty years.  Her expertise is in equality and due process for immigrants, those convicted of crimes, and marginalized groups, including the LGBTQ+ community.  Her scholarship has been cited hundreds of times.  Her legalContinue reading “The Supreme Court’s Draft Abortion Decision: It’s Even Worse Than You Think, But Voting is Our Check and Balance”

According to his brother, Terrance LaFromboise, Brendon Galbreath “was always smiling.” A member of the Blackfeet Nation, Brendon grew up in Browning, Montana. He left Browning to attend UCLA, where he studied pre-med, and returned to Montana at the start of the pandemic after the death of his grandmother. He lived in Missoula with theContinue reading “12.5%: The Reality of Police Encounters with Native Americans in Montana”

*Throughout this post the author uses the terms “Indian” and “Indian country” as legal terms of art to refer to Native Americans, Indigenous peoples, and other tribal members that have lived on the North American continent since time immemorial. The author uses the term Indian when referencing legal concepts to keep consistent with the fieldContinue reading “L.B. v. United States: Highlighting the Pervasiveness of Sexual Assault by Law Enforcement Officers and Crimes Against Women in Indian Country”

This week, President Biden extended student loan forbearance until August 31, 2022. This marked the sixth extension on student loan repayments since the Trump Administration imposed a moratorium due to COVID-19 two years ago. President Biden noted that millions of student loan borrowers would face economic hardship if repayments resumed in May as planned. ThisContinue reading “Prolonging the Inevitable: Student Loans as a Social Justice Issue”

After over a century of failed attempts to pass similar legislation, this week President Biden signed into law the Emmett Till Antilynching Act. The bill was introduced by Senators Cory Booker and Tim Scott and Representative Bobby Rush. At 75, Representative Rush is only five years younger than Emmett Till, the namesake of the Act,Continue reading “The Emmett Till Antilynching Act Compared to Racially Motivated Police Violence”

The World Health Organization declared Covid-19 a global pandemic on March 11, 2020. In the wake of this declaration, many schools shifted to “distance learning” with hopes to curb the spread of the disease. Two years later, most states have relaxed Covid precautions, and most schools have returned to in-person learning. Since the return toContinue reading “A Return to In-person and a Return to the School-to-Prison Pipeline”

***Update on the Texas Anti-Trans Directive*** Texas Governor Abbott has filed an accelerated interlocutory appeal in response to the Travis County District Court’s temporary restraining order in the case of Doe v. Abbott, which we discussed in last week’s blog post. Governor Abbott filed the appeal pursuant to Texas Civil and Practice Remedies Code 51.014(8),Continue reading “Idaho HB675”

On Wednesday, Mar. 2, 2022, District Judge Amy Clark Meachum issued a temporary order to stop an investigation of child abuse under Texas’s newest anti-trans directive. Judge Meachum’s order halted the investigation by the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS) into the parents of a transgender teen for providing their child with gender-affirmingContinue reading “Doe v. Abbott: Texas’s Latest Affront to Constitutional Rights”

***This blog post discusses a sexual relationship between an 18-year-old employee of a youth foster program and two 16-year-old residents of the program. The power imbalance inherent in such a setting makes that relationship concerning for reasons not addressed in this blog post. The intent of this blog post is not to minimize those concerns;Continue reading “Randall Menges v. Austin Knudson: Keeping Montana Out of the Pre-Lawrence Era”

The U.S. Bureau of Justice estimates 64% of people incarcerated in state and federal prisons suffer from mental illness either at the time of their initial incarceration or in the 12 months leading up to imprisonment. That means that at least 64% of people who enter prison implicate the scrutiny of their confinement conditions underContinue reading “Non-compliant: Enforcing the ADA in Prisons for Persons with Mental Illness”