Fall 2020
Castle Rock v. Gonzales and the Legal Obligations of Police
In 2005, the United States Supreme Court ruled that police departments have no affirmative obligation to enforce restraining orders granted by the state. The case in question, Town of Castle Rock, Colorado v. Jessica Gonzales (2005), hinged on granular, semantic analysis of the word “shall” and the definition of “entitlement” for the purposes of the 14th Amendment, but the ultimate decision had far-reaching implications for citizens seeking protection from their government by creating the precedent that police departments have no affirmative obligation to protect citizens. In light of the ongoing national reckoning about the role of police in American society, it is necessary to analyze the legal obligations on police behavior and how legal systems can be improved to make governments more accountable to the people they purport to serve.
The Omittance of Political Parties from the Constitution
My article analyzes the relationship between the Constitution and political parties. Specifically, I discuss how the omission of political parties has damaged the federal government and its inner workings. Drawing on evidence from statements made by the Founding Fathers and using modern examples and statistics, I show that the intentional protections against partisanship in the Constitutions are very weak in practice because they allow for too much partisan control. I end with the conclusion that partisanship has disrupted the government despite attempts to stop it.