Dear Reader,
Welcome to the fifteenth edition — Volume 7, Number 1 — of the Claremont Journal of Law and Public Policy! Volume 7, Number 1 includes analyses of forced institutionalization, China’s Belt and Road Initiative, facial recognition technology, and more. We are also excited to bring you an interview with Shadi Hamid, a Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution, who discussed topics ranging from labeling the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organization to the 2020 Democratic Presidential Primary. In addition, the CJLPP will continue its active online presence; be sure to visit us at www.5clpp.com.
This print edition benefited from a completely new editorial team that worked with our dedicated contributors throughout the summer to bring you rigorous and incisive commentary. I am grateful to our new Print Edition Editors: Talia Bromberg, Scott Shepetin, Sean Volke, Katya Pollock, Ciara Chow, and Calla Li. The print edition’s design is the result of the hard work of Sofia Muñoz, our new Design Editor. I am also excited to welcome Lauren Rodriguez (who conducted our interview with Shadi Hamid) as our incoming Interview Editor; Alison Jue as our next Campus Policy Editor; Aden Siebel as our new Webmaster (his work is also featured in this edition!); and Ali Kapadia as our next Business Director. I also want to introduce Daisy Ni and Bryce Wachtell as our new Chief Operating Officers. The two together led our digital content team last year and their advice over the summer was invaluable in preparing this print edition. And of course, I thank our writers — both digital content and staff writers — who form the backbone of our organization. The CJLPP could not exist without them.
As I begin my tenure as the Editor-in-Chief, I want to recognize the previous Editors-in-Chief who created this organization and its heritage of excellence: Byron Cohen (CMC ’16), Martin Sicilian (PO ’17), April Xiaoyi Xu (PO ’18), and Greer Levin (SCR ’19). I am humbled by the CJLPP members’ choice to elect me to build on the work of our previous Editors-in-Chief.
Going forward, I intend to emphasize our organization’s original mission: to educate students and the general public about pressing political and legal issues. For me, all of our work — writing, editing, events — should contribute to our shared project of becoming better citizens of this world. Members of the CJLPP, I hope, are united by a belief in the virtues of academic rigor, civic engagement, and open discussion about difficult political issues. In a democratic government, Justice Louis Brandeis once wrote, “the deliberative forces should prevail over the arbitrary.”¹ He recognized the dangers of hatred and oppression, and he believed that “the path of safety lies in the opportunity to discuss freely supposed grievances and proposed remedies” and that “the fitting remedy for evil counsels is good ones.”² I hope the CJLPP continues to provide good counsel, in the form of rigorously-researched and -reasoned writing, to all who wish to understand and change law and policy for the better.
Finally, I want to thank our faculty advisors, Professors Ken Miller and Amanda Hollis-Brusky, for their kind sponsorship. The CJLPP is also indebted to the 5C student governments, the Salvatori Center, the Athenaeum, and the 5C politics, legal studies, government, and public policy departments. For those who are interested in joining us, please see the “Hiring” section of our website or email us at info.5clpp@gmail.com. We also always welcome submissions to our blog and future print editions; for more information, see the “Submissions” section of our website.
I hope you enjoy Volume 7, Number 1. Happy reading!
Best,
Isaac Cui
Editor-in-Chief
