Volume 4, Issue 1, Spring 2025
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Food or Friends? A Critical Look at the Rights of Farm Animals in American Law
By Mikhail Perminov — As the agricultural industry expands, 62 percent of the world’s mammal biomass is made up of animals used for farming, while humans make up 34 percent and wild mammals make up only four.[1] According to the US Department of Agriculture, 9.76 billion land animals in the United States including chickens, turkeys,…
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The (Im)permanent Fund Dividend: Understanding the Law of Alaska’s Universal Basic Income
By Dane Lester — In 1976, voters in Alaska ratified Proposition Two in the state’s general election by over a thirty percent margin, redefining the state’s resource allocation to accommodate the then-lucrative oil development proceeds rapidly flowing into its economy. Through the adoption of this referendum, residents of the State agreed to “establish a constitutional…
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FTO Fallout: The Corporate Risks of Labeling Mexican Cartels as Terrorists
By Daniel Zayas — In February 2025, the war on drugs that the United States has prosecuted since the Nixon administration reached a new degree of fervor with the designation of several Mexican drug cartels as Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs). President Trump first floated the idea of designating the cartels as such during his previous…
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Are We All Americans?: Elk v. Wilkins and Native American Citizenship Before, During, and After Reconstruction
By Carolina Pardo — When Robert E. Lee went to negotiate his terms of surrender at the Appomattox Courthouse on April 9, 1865, he stopped at the sight of a brown man amongst the Union generals. Everyone held their breath waiting for Lee’s response. The Confederate general extended a hand and said, “I am glad…
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Starlink Spectrum Wars: Examining the FCC’s Role in Regulating the New Space Age
By Hriday Unadkat – January 27, 1967, was a momentous day in Washington, London, and Moscow. Just ten years after the first-ever satellite, the Sputnik spacecraft, was launched into orbit, delegates from the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union met together and signed the first-ever treaty establishing norms in space—the Outer Space…
RECENT FORUM ARTICLES
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Sex Discrimination: Comparable Worth Theory in Bohm v. L. B. Hartz Wholesale Corp
By Jeannie Kim — Sex discrimination in the workplace is a highly controversial issue that has remained relevant for decades, as people hold different definitions of equality and what it should look like. Because sex discrimination cases tend to be…
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Indefinite Inaction: Clarifying Article 17 and the ICC’s Principle of Complementarity After the 2009 Guinea Massacre Trial
By Erin William — The right to publicly assemble and protest is a key element of democracies worldwide. For civilians living under democratic governments, losing these rights is inconceivable. The erasure of freedom of speech creates fertile ground for human…
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The Reverse of What Was Intended: How the Law Treats Reverse Discrimination
By Vivek Kirpalani — Roughly five years ago, Marlean Ames sued her employer for discrimination. According to her performance evaluations, she was a competent employee working to promote the Prison Rape Enforcement Act at the Ohio Department of Youth Services.…
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You’re Fired! The Rise of Unconstitutional Layoffs in the Trump Administration
Vinayak Menon — In President Donald Trump’s first 100 days in office, roughly 25,000 federal workers have been terminated across 18 departments or agencies. While most of these cuts have targeted lower-level probationary employees, the Trump administration has also targeted…
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Charters, Churches, and the Court: Gauging the Future of Religion in Public Education
Tarun Iyengar — Religious public education is an uncommon phrase in the United States given current jurisprudence relating to the 1st Amendment Establishment and Free Exercise Clauses. However, this phrase has recently garnered serious attention after the Archdioceses of Oklahoma…
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The Flight Back to the Sherman Act: How Antitrust’s Shift Towards Consumer Welfare Has Overly Consolidated the U.S. Airline Industry
Tanner McNamara — The United States has long grappled with corporate concentration, from the Gilded Age monopolies of Rockefeller and Vanderbilt to today’s airline industry. However, not all monopolies surface into a market in the same manner, with law and…
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Trading Away the Constitution? Presidential Overreach and the Misuse of Emergency Powers in Economic Policy
By Sidney Singer – Since 1976, the National Emergencies Act (NEA) and the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) have provided U.S. presidents with expansive authority to respond to national crises. Intended as legislative guardrails to contain executive power, these…
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Antitrust Challenges in the CAR-T Patent Landscape: Are Patent Thickets a Barrier to Innovation and Access?
By Liam Boyle – In 2012, six-year-old Emily Whitehead failed chemotherapy treatments after relapsing in her battle against acute lymphoblastic leukemia. While doctors told her family that there was nothing left that could be done, they refused to accept this…
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Moore v United States: the Tax Debate That Missed the Mark
By Rida Mian — The famous words “no taxation without representation” echo in the minds of every student of American history; the phrase encapsulates the core American values of democratic governance and individual liberty. These values remain vital to our…
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The Right to Death: How an Examination of Washington v. Glucksberg Reveals the Future of Fundamental Rights
By Jillian Ascher — As of 2024, 8,700 terminally ill Americans since 1997 have chosen death. In January 2024, terminally
About the Princeton Legal Journal
Founded in 2021, the Princeton Legal Journal is Princeton University’s premier student-run law review. The PLJ strives to provide both Princeton University and the wider academic community with impactful and thoughtful contributions to legal discourse. The Journal recruits new students for its Review and Forum ever semester by application. Although the majority of the Journal‘s articles are written by Princeton students, outside submissions are occasionally considered.