Texas Undergraduate Law Review
One of Texas Undergraduate Law Review’s main purposes is to provide our members an opportunity to research and advocate against the injustices they see in their lives. Every member contributes in their own way to discussions involving racial, LGBTQ+, environmental, disabled, and socioeconomic injustices, and more. The Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution guarantees equal protections of the laws, and as some of America’s future lawyers, members of the Texas Undergraduate Law Review continuously strive to help fulfill this promise by bringing violations to light.
Failures to uphold this equal protection are sometimes so egregious that they incite outrage across the nation. Today, we and people from all across America are outraged by the death of George Floyd this past Monday, May 25, when a Minneapolis Police Department officer murdered Floyd, an unarmed Black man, while he was in the officer’s “custody.” By custody, we mean a chokehold that the MPD does not train or advise its officers to use under any circumstance. If Floyd was not Black, the officers involved would have handled the situation much more appropriately, and a father, son, and friend would still be alive today.
The Fourteenth Amendment also ensures that the state can not deprive any person of life without due process of law. George Floyd was deprived of his life without any due process, dignity, nor acknowledgement of his human existence from the persons who were supposed to treat him in adherence to the rule of law and basic human rights.
Floyd’s death, outrageously, is another example of a life lost due to a broken criminal justice system — a system that lacks the utmost competence, accountability, and transparency Americans deserve, especially when discrimination continues to permeate all aspects of American life. Every day, marginalized Americans, specifically Black Americans, face prejudice from police forces that too often contribute to needless death, suffering, and imprisonment.
The Texas Undergraduate Law Review tries to remain impartial in its functions to most strongly uphold its commitment to unbiased legal scholarship, but condemnation of police brutality transcends any divide. We hope this tragedy, in addition to the others we consistently witness, continues to embolden a wide variety of people’s passions for justice. We hope they also join us in committing our lives to creating a more just America.
In the meantime, we demand justice for Floyd.
In solidarity,
William Kosinski, Editor in Chief
Jessica Zhang, Managing Editor
Isaac James, Chief Online Content Editor
Brendan Meece, Head Editor
Jason Onyediri, Head Editor
Megh Pandhi, Head Editor
Emily Pierce, Head Editor
Kirk von Kreisler, Head Editor
Ameyali Sanchez, Online Content Editor & Writer
Alden Kelly, Social Media Editor & Writer
Jennifer Dong, Editor
Bianca Rose Hernandez, Editor
Ryan Jaffe, Editor
Daisy Kielty, Editor
Marianna Lopez, Editor
Alexandra Martinez, Editor
Noam Benavi, Writer
Juliette Draper, Writer
Aidan Farmayan, Writer
Brady Miller, Writer
Hubert Ning, Writer
Matina Smith, Writer
Pranav Vijayan, Writer
Maria Villegas Bravo, Writer