Allies (Fall 2019) | Boston Review

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Class & Inequality, Law & Justice

How Not to Argue for Tax Justice

Economists are taking aim at the unfairness of the U.S. tax system. But a just society won’t be won by arguing about taxes alone.

Liam Murphy

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Law & Justice

Law & Justice

Halloween and Stranger Danger

Bizarre restrictions are levied against people on the sex offense registry on Halloween. But do they actually make children safer or simply reveal what we fear?

Christine Hume

Gender & Sexuality, Law & Justice

‘Flexible’ Family Leave Is Lousy Feminism

Balancing work-life pressures is often considered the holy grail, but men can still opt out of these policies. To move the needle on gender inequality, the state needs to take more coercive action. 

Gina Schouten

Class & Inequality, Law & Justice

The Harvard Ruling Misses the Point

A judge has ruled in favor of Harvard in a high-profile case about affirmative action. But recent admissions scandals all point to a deeper problem—the presumption that elitism could ever be democratized.

Richard Ford

Law & Justice, Reading Lists

The Legality and Reality of Torture

Our best writing from our archives on why torture is not the same thing as interrogation.

Rosie Gillies, Boston Review

Law & Justice

U.S. Judges Admit Enhanced Interrogation Is Torture

They also acknowledged, for the first time, that the grounds for torturing Abu Zubaydah—who was detained in the wake of September 11 and is still languishing in Guantánamo—were mistaken.

Joseph Margulies

Law & Justice

The Metastasis of the Misdemeanor System

The misdemeanor system is four times the size of the felony system. With so many gradations of minor crimes—many involving fines in a very informal process—prejudice and inequality shapes prosecution.

Brandon L. Garrett

Law & Justice

Rethinking Birthright

Amidst chants of “send her back,” it’s clear that we need a more just conception of citizenship—one that abolishes the distinction between “natural” and naturalized citizens.

Stephanie DeGooyer

Law & Justice

How Cars Transformed Policing

Before the mass adoption of the car, most communities barely had a police force and citizens shared responsibility for enforcing laws. Then the car changed everything.

Sarah A. Seo

Class & Inequality, Law & Justice

Solidarity in Silicon Valley

Tech companies have seen waves of worker protest, but they are still far from democratic. The remedy is to build and exert real forms of worker power inside the workplace.

Brishen Rogers

Law & Justice

The Right to Boycott

Since 2014 twenty-seven states have adopted laws that aim to discourage boycotts of Israel. At stake is our First Amendment right to protest state policies.

Radhika Sainath

Law & Justice

What Statistics Can't Tell Us in the Fight over Affirmative Action at Harvard

A group seeking to ban affirmative action has sued Harvard for discriminating against Asian Americans. The core issues won't be resolved by statistics alone.

Andrew Gelman, Sharad Goel, Daniel E. Ho

Law & Justice

Citizenship v. The Surveillance State

We have surrendered the cherished value of “innocent until proven guilty” for the security logic that we are all “risky until proven safe.”

Matthew Longo

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