Columbia Law Review -

Vol. 126 No. 2

Racial Justice
Essay

THE SPIRIT OF OLIGARCHY IN AMERICAN AGRICULTURE

Etienne C. Toussaint*

Black farm ownership has declined by more than 90% since the 1920s, making it one of the starkest yet least examined examples of racial injustice in American history. This Essay argues that these losses are not the product of isolated discriminatory acts, but the consequence of a durable agricultural oligarchy: a system of concentrated economic, political, and cultural power that has structured American agriculture since the antebellum era. By[...]

Fourth Amendment
CLR Forum

THE COST OF IGNORANCE

Zamir Ben-Dan*

Legal scholars have written about how the Supreme Court’s criminal procedure jurisprudence since the 1970s has encouraged police exploitation of citizen ignorance. A clear example of this is the Court’s consent doctrine articulated in Schneckloth v. Bustamonte. Schneckloth teaches that police officers, when asking civilians for permission to search them, are not required to inform those civilians that they have a right to[...]

Torts
Note

CHEESEBURGER KINGPINS: AMENDING COMMONSENSE CONSUMPTION ACTS AND VALIDATING FOOD ADDICTION AS A LEGAL CONCEPT

Weston Brown*

Food is a powerful drug. Big companies have pumped meals full of addictive substances that keep people hooked on unhealthy foods at the expense of their health. Modern scientific research has demonstrated that hyper-palatable foods have the same neurological effects as other addictive substances. Given that unbridled consumption of food can have serious health effects, food addiction is a dangerous illness. Despite these deleterious impacts, the[...]