The Quadriga
Law Journal of Public Policy and Practice

Katy Rollins is a 3L at Mitchell Hamline, interested in exploring harm reduction policies on the path to abolition of the prison industrial complex.  Almost forty years since the move towards deinstitutionalization, the debate regarding how to best serve those with mental illness continues. After the campaign for deinstitutionalization began in the 1980s, a number …

The Need for Early and Continuing Mental Health Treatment as shown by the COVID-19 Pandemic

Second-year Mitchell Hamline student Jacob Skurka discusses the recent suit against Google.  For those of us with Android smartphones, Google is a pervasive part of the experience of using our device. Apps made by Google come preinstalled with nearly every phone sold, and even the way that we usually get new apps, the Play Store, …

Committee Floor or Open Court? Where will Big Tech’s Next Regulation Come From?

In the wake of Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death earlier this fall, it is important to reflect back on her legal journey towards equality, which led to her being named the second woman on the Supreme Court. Aside from being a legal giant, the “Notorious R.B.G.” was a cultural and feminist icon who lived an extraordinary …

Remembering the Life of Ruth Bader Ginsburg by Amanda Teske

This article by Adela Carrasco and Todd Howland outlines the current international human rights obligations related to the right to vote found in human rights treaties the U.S. has signed and ratified. The authors demonstrate that there are five ways the U.S. fails to meet these human rights laws and how each failing has a …

Minnesota Should Lead The U.S.’s Unfinished Journey From Slavery To Granting All U.S. Citizens The Right To Vote

Mindy Greiling, former Minnesota State Representative - The hardest I ever worked to get a law passed during my twenty years in the Minnesota Legislature was a mental health policy bill reforming the civil commitment statutes. The new law made it a bit easier to get care—through civil courts—for people with serious mental illness whose brains didn’t allow them to realize they were ill. To my disappointment, it wasn’t always implemented consistently.

Does a Law No One Knows About Have Any Effect?

State Representative Kelly Moller ’98 - All Minnesotans deserve to feel safe in their communities. Students and teachers deserve to feel safe in schools, employees deserve to feel safe at work, and families deserve to feel safe while seeing a movie, worshipping, or enjoying an afternoon at the mall. Unfortunately, attacks on innocent people carried out by someone with a firearm have led to tragic deaths and a loss of security for many. Our gun violence epidemic is real, and as a prosecutor, is something I see repeatedly. As a state legislator, the need to take action is an issue I constantly hear about from constituents.

Do Red Flag Laws Strike a Balance Between Second Amendment Rights and Countering Domestic Terrorism?

State Senator Scott J. Newman ’73 - Red flag laws can be described as the attempt to prohibit the possession of, and remove access to, firearms owned by individuals who may have a propensity to harm themselves or others. These laws are motivated by a desire to proactively protect the public from gun violence.  Proponents generally argue that red flag laws will prevent homicides, suicides, and mass shootings, particularly when resulting from mental illness.

Are Red Flag Laws Right for Minnesota?

By State Senator Jason Rarick. The future of mining on the Iron Range has taken a couple of hits in the last month. At the end of December, at the behest of Ramsey County Congresswoman Betty McCollum and environmental activists, a federal spending bill gave the State Department 60 days for another review of the potential effects of Twin Metals’ proposed copper-nickel mine in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.

Mining the Iron Range: What If Economic Growth and Environmental Responsibility Could Co-Exist?

By David Schultz, Professor, Departments of Political Science and Legal Studies, Hamline University and Visiting Professor of Law, University of Minnesota. Who Really Counts? The Role of the 2010 Census in the 2020 Elections.

The Role of the Census in the 2020 Elections

By Shane Zahrt ’16. Attorney & Senior Lobbyist, Flaherty & Hood. Minnesota’s Clean Energy future arrives, state and local policy makers grapple with how to support those it leaves behind.

Life After Smokestacks: Power Plant Host Communities Brace for the Clean Energy Future