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Constitutional Law—Penalizing The “Unsightly”: An Argument For The Abolishment Of Laws Criminalizing Life-Sustaining Behaviors Among The Homeless, Carli Ross

Western New England Law Review

Thousands of people across the country suffer from homelessness. Instead of funding more shelters or dealing with the lack of subsidized housing, cities have chosen to rely on the criminal justice system to regulate homeless behavior. Homeless individuals are being punished with fines and potential jail time for sleeping, sitting, gathering, and camping in public. Not only does this practice contribute to the homelessness crisis in the United States, but it also creates an additional obstacle for homeless individuals. Additionally, relying on the criminal justice system is more costly than helping homeless individuals find a permanent shelter. The Ninth Circuit …

Constitutional Law—Answering Justice Barrett’S Fulton Prompt: The Case For A Narrow Reconsideration Of Free Exercise, Andrew Lavender

Western New England Law Review

In Fulton v. City of Philadelphia, the Supreme Court, for the second time in three years, considered a case involving the conflict between First Amendment religious, speech, and associational freedoms and the civil rights of the LGBTQ community. And, for the second time, the Court arrived at an apparent compromise, issuing a narrow, factual ruling in favor of the party seeking an exception from antidiscrimination law while avoiding any firm precedent that might create a broader exception.

In addition to this substantive dodge, the Court also “sidestep[ped] the question on which certiorari had been granted: whether to overrule Employment …

Civil Rights/Constitutional Law—Indebted To The State: How The Thirteenth Amendment’S Promise Of Abolition Holds Protections Against The Modern Debtors’ Prisons, Sarah Morgan

Western New England Law Review

Cash-starved municipalities regularly impose criminal justice debt on individuals too poor to pay. Local courts deny criminal debtors’ a meaningful inquiry into their ability to pay prior to being assessed sky-high fees, often predictably resulting in default on their payments. Nonpayment under these municipal schemes is enforced through imprisonment solely for the purpose of compelling repayment. Under these circumstances, criminal debtors find themselves in modern debtors’ prisons, a conceptual cycle of debt and imprisonment nearly impossible to escape. This Note will argue the modern debtors’ prison is peonage, coerced labor for the repayment of debt, which is prohibited under the …

Right To Counsel/Criminal Law--Wishing For Rights: Interpreting The Article 12 Right To Counsel In Massachusetts In The Aftermath Of Montejo V. Louisiana, Raquel E. Babeu

Western New England Law Review

This Note reviews Montejo v. Louisiana (2009) and discusses its implications on Article 12 of the Massachusetts Declaration of Rights, particularly related to post-arraignment waivers of a defendant’s right to counsel at a police-initiated interrogation. Montejo’s appeal relied upon a bright-line rule (Jackson rule) established 26 years before, which makes post-arraignment waivers of a defendant’s right to counsel at a police-initiated interrogation presumptively invalid. In Montejo, the Supreme Court did away with the Jackson rule, while allowing that a state may continue to adhere to the Jackson rule under its state constitution.

The Author finds that historically the right to …