Aidan McNeese Edited by Jordan Perlman, Anikieth Datla, Mac Kang, and Sahith Mocharla Picture this: you are relaxing on a bench, making friendly conversation with a passerby, when a police officer asks to speak with you. They ask what you are doing, and when you answer, “I’m just relaxing,” the officer raises an eyebrow and asks to search you. Knowing you have nothing illegal on your person, you comply. As expected, the officer finds nothing. Yet just as you think you are fr

Darcy Yin Edited by Jordan Perlman, Emily Mandel, Mac Kang, and Sahith Mocharla In 2015, a Kentucky man shot a drone out of the sky some twenty feet above his property. He was arrested and charged with criminal mischief, but the charges were dropped after a state court concluded the drone had indeed been invading his privacy [1]. When the drone's owner brought the matter to federal court seeking a ruling on whether low-altitude drone flight constitutes public airspace or pri

Paola García Edited by Keerthi Chalamalasetty, Samuel Huron, Mac Kang, and Sahith Mocharla In 1926, the Supreme Court ruled in the landmark case Village of Euclid v. Ambler Realty Co. that the police power to maintain “public health, safety, morals, [and] general welfare” grants municipalities the constitutional right to regulate local land use through zoning laws [1]. Zoning laws designate property into residential, commercial, industrial, and agricultural zones, ensuring t

Katherine Manz Edited by Keerthi Chalamalasetty, Harper Whittemore, Judge Baskin, and Sahith Mocharla Every spring day, thousands of people crowd to Austin’s green spaces. They people-watch in Pease Park or take a stroll to Lady Bird Lake, or maybe they grab an expensive coffee and sit outside enjoying the fresh air. This is the “city in a garden,” as Dr. Andrew Busch calls it, and it is the brainchild of the Austin City Plan of 1928, which beautified public spaces, encourag

Michael Hren Edited by Keerthi Chalamalasetty, Eshal Charolia, Mac Kang, and Sahith Mocharla Ever since OpenAI released its first LLM in 2022, the world has been swept up in an AI frenzy. In six years, the New York Stock Exchange’s market capitalization doubled from 22 to 44 trillion, largely driven by the AI boom [1]. Yet, AI-fueled economic growth depends on the construction of data centers across the United States and around the world; however, this growth comes at the ex

Sam Johnson Edited by Keerthi Chalamalasetty, Maya Perez, Judge Baskin, and Sahith Mocharla A new frontier of labor disputes recently touched down in the offices of SpaceX. The tech giant––known for its rapid advances in private space flight as well as its controversial CEO, Elon Musk––is engaged in a contentious battle with regulators and its former employees. Upset with what they describe as an unhealthy workplace culture, disgruntled workers sent a memo to a company-wide

Calista Kayatta Edited by Samantha Tonini, Braxton Bullock ,  Judge Baskin, and Sahith Mocharla In 1973, Mary Alice and Minnie Lee Relf, at ages twelve and thirteen, fell victim to the rampant practice of forced sterilization of poor Southern Black women. When their mother signed a document believing she was giving authorization for the children to receive birth control shots, the girls were instead surgically sterilized without their consent. Such a horrific abuse sparked t

Amelia Lee Edited by Samantha Tonini, Mihir Gokhale , Judge Baskin, and Sahith Mocharla In 2022, approximately 92% of low-income Americans lacked legal representation in lawsuits that affected their jobs, their homes, their children, or their safety [1]. The greatest barrier? The cost of legal assistance. The “justice gap” refers to the significant disparity between the civil legal needs of low-income Americans and the resources available to meet those needs. Around half of