Erin Ryan, Public Trust Principles and Environmental Rights: The Hidden Duality of Climate Advocacy and the Atmospheric Trust, 49 Harv. Envtl. L. Rev. 225 (2025), Ryan examines two distinct legal bases for climate advocacy: a governmental public trust duty to protect the environment and environmental rights held directly by the people. Ryan notes that the Pennsylvania Constitution provides for both avenues of climate activism – and while activists in various states may emphasize one over the other, each implies the other as a legal duty of the state or a corresponding right of the people.
Thane Zeeh, From Trash to Cash: A Proposal to Compel Recylcing in Pennsylvania Under the Solid Waste Management Act, 13 Joule: Duq. Energy & Envtl. L.J. 109 (2025), Zeeh proposes an amendment to the Solid Waste Management Act (SWMA) that seeks to change the SWMA amendment process to align with Article I, Section 27, broaden the statutory definition of recyclable residual waste material, and clarify recycling procedures while incentivizing compliance with the law. Zeeh articulates the history of the SWMA, judicial decisions surrounding it, and the need for establishing economic incentives to promote compliance and advance environmental sustainability for future generations.
Louis S. Rulli, Duress, Coercion, and Intimidation on the Highway: A Call to Ban Roadside Waivers in Civil Forfeiture, 43 Yale L. & Pol’y Rev. 699, Rulli advocates the cessation of “roadside waivers,” or documents that police present to motorists found in possession of cash or valuable property, which, when signed, forfeit the property to law enforcement. He highlights the Pennsylvania case of Zhi Xiong Xu to illustrate that many states currently treat these waivers as contractually valid. Rulli calls for sweeping legislative reform or the adoption of a judicially imposed bright-line rule prohibiting the use of roadside waivers.
Henry Alsobrook, Planting Trees Whose Shade We Shall Never Sit in: Comparing Future Generations’ Right to a Healthy Environment in Pennsylvania and the Inter-American System, 38 Tul. Envtl. L.J. 65, Alsobrook examines the unique environmental protections for “generations yet to come” enshrined in Article I, Section 27 of the Pennsylvania Constitution. He details the history of the Environmental Rights Amendment, its slow degradation by the courts, and compares the Pennsylvania environmental framework to that of the Inter-American System. Alsobrook argues that sustained, long-term policy implementation is essential to ensure that future generations will enjoy the right to a healthy environment.
Erika Bachiochi & Rachael N. Morrison, Dobbs, Equality, and the Contested Meaning of Women’s Rights, 29 Tex. Rev. L. & Pol. 11 (2025), Bachiochi and Morrison explore various abortion arguments before and after the Supreme Court’s landmark decision in Dobbs. The authors discuss the constitutional justification of abortion in Pennsylvania before and after Dobbs, with specific analysis given to the equal protection, nondiscrimination, and ERA arguments.
Rebecca Uwakwe, et al. Categorical Clemency: A Necessary Response to a Carceral State, 77 Rutgers U. L. Rev. 75 (2025), Uwakwe et al., explain the process through which the governor exercises the pardon power. Specifically, the article mentions former Governor Wolf’s pardoning statistics and quotes then Lieutenant Governor, now Senator, John Fetterman on the necessity of clemency for those convicted of murder who did not take a life.
Emeline L.K. Diener, Sanctuary! Laws and Lore, 47-AUG Pa. Law. 30 (2025), Diener argues that although not formally recognized, the concept of “sanctuary” is rooted in the “folk-jurisprudence” of the Commonwealth and nation. Citing numerous historical and religious examples, Diener claims that “sanctuary,” as existing in the church, on universities, and in the American psyche, should be recognized by the government even if not explicitly recognized by modern law.
Dan Fisher, The Right to Climate Action, 27 N.Y.U. J. Legis. & Pub. Pol’y 823 (2025), Fisher develops a theory of a right to “climate action” which he describes as “the freedom to bring about the world that Green Amendments prescribe.” Fisher analyzes Robinson Township v. Commonwealth as the first instance of a state’s highest court striking down a state law because it violated environmental rights. The decision’s impact proved short-lived as the Court later upheld a local ordinance controlling oil and gas, rendering the Robinson Township decision disappointing in the eyes of environmentalists.
Gilbert Ambler & Oliver Krawczyk, Pennsylvania Firearm Preemption and the Necessity for Uniform Regulation, 96 Pa. B.A. Q. 161 (2025), Ambler and Krawczyk trace the impact of, and contemporary challenges to, Pennsylvania’s firearm preemption statutes. Through an analysis of Crawford v. Commonwealth (2023), Pennsylvania courts have solidified the notion that firearm regulation is a matter of statewide concern, and municipal policy disagreements with preemption cannot override the Legislature’s exclusive authority.
Patrick A. Casey, Immunity Issues in Federal and Pennsylvania Criminal Law and Practice, 96 Pa. B.A. Q. 189 (2025), Casey provides an overview of immunity deals in criminal matters and how they interact with all three stages of prosecution—pretrial, trial, and post-trial. He argues that this framework underscores that defense counsel must integrate constitutional protections, evidentiary rules, immunity doctrines and sentencing consequences across all three stages to develop a strategy that balances trial risks, leverage, and post-conviction exposure.
David McCullough, Tilling the Soil, Preserving the Bay: Addressing Nonpoint Source Pollution in Pennsylvania While Respecting Amish Religious Beliefs, 15 Geo. Wash. J. Energy & Envtl. L. 60 (2025), the author introduces a solution to Pennsylvania’s runoff pollution problem while balancing the religious freedom of the Amish: forested buffer zones between farmland and rivers and streams. This mandate would not violate the Amish’s beliefs because they could be made without using advanced technology; nor could it be classified as a taking. McCullough argues that this approach could help combat the pollution of the Chesapeake Bay watershed while not violating anyone’s constitutional rights.
Gerald S. Dickinson, Judicial Laboratories, 27 U. Pa. J. Const. L. 75 (2025), Dickinson reexamines the role of state courts, illustrating their impact and importance as Brandeisian “laboratories of democracy.” These courts act not only as interpreters of law, but also as agents of democratic evolution. Dickinson argues that state courts are more responsive to the people and less rigid than their federal counterparts. This enables state courts to enforce the will of the people and proactively protect their citizens’ rights, effectively “experimenting” with democracy at the state level.
Quinn Yeargain, Decarbonizing Constitutions, 41 Yale L. & Pol’y Rev. 1 (2025), Yeargain argues that state constitutions could serve a vital role in decarbonizing the American economy. She analyzes the “largely ineffective” nature of environmental protections in state constitutions and proposes what effective amendments may look like. Yeargain uses the Pennsylvania Environmental Rights Amendment as an example of judicial restrictions on the self-execution of state environmental amendments.