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Welcome to the Kentucky Law Journal webpage. KLJ is the tenth oldest continually-published law review in the nation.
Kentucky Law Journal Volume 113
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Student-Written Blog Posts
Lawyers in criminal courts are necessities, not luxuries. Yet public defenders are largely overworked and underpaid due to a lack of funding and other resources. These issues lead to overcrowded jails, large courtroom dockets, exacerbation of existing racial disparities, and a negative perception of public defenders who are simply doing what they can with the resources they have. Vol. 113 Staff Editor Tori Harris explores how artificial intelligence is a creative solution to increase efficiency and access to justice by streamlining the process of reviewing and organizing cases for public defenders. A solution that could support both public defenders and indigent defendants and stop a constitutional crisis.
In 1989, the Supreme Court of Kentucky issued the groundbreaking decision of Rose v. Council for Better Education where they declared Kentucky’s public school system unconstitutional and set the nationwide precedent for ensuring adequate and equitable education. Now, thirty years later, a group of student activists have sued the Commonwealth of Kentucky, asking the court to decide whether the state is meeting its constitutional mandate under Rose. KLJ Vol. 113 Staff Editor Katie Nipper explains why Kentucky courts should once again intervene to fix systemic educational deficiencies and reaffirm the Commonwealth’s obligation to provide an adequate and equitable education for all students.
In 2024, following an act of Congress, TikTok’s parent company was forced to divest or face a total ban from the U.S. market in early 2025. On January 18th, many Americans were shocked to see that their access to the popular social media app TikTok had been restricted. With the apps future still uncertain, Vol. 113 Staff Editor Grace Denton discusses the impact of such a ban by showing how its consequences on various sectors including individuals’ daily lives and society are far beyond what anyone imagined.
Employers should keep a watchful eye on how the Supreme Court decides, to see how their diversity, equity, and inclusion practices could be affected. In Ames v. Ohio Department of Youth Services, the Sixth Circuit applied a "background circumstances" test in a reverse discrimination claim, requiring plaintiffs like Ames to demonstrate evidence of atypical discrimination. The Court’s upcoming decision could have significant implications for the application of Title VII protections, particularly relating to diversity, equity, and inclusion policies.
Imagine a drone powered by artificial intelligence that can take off, land, and fly completely on its own. Now, imagine this drone is packed with explosives and can acquire and engage targets autonomously without human input. In 2021, a United Nations report suggested that an autonomous weaponized drone in Libya attacked a human target completely on its own, without any human input. The increasing use of AWS brings to light several concerns under the Law of Armed Conflict (“LOAC”), namely concerns related to distinction, proportionality, and accountability.
In the early days of college football, Harvard University paid a non-student to play for them in hopes of beating Yale University. Around the same time, college football was becoming more dangerous, with “over eighteen deaths and one hundred major injuries” in 1905 alone. With the increase of commercialization in college sports, the two main drivers for a regulating body were to prevent non-students from competing and enhance player safety. To accomplish these goals, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) was formally established in 1906.