Feature Channels: Government/Law

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Corporations’ religious freedom claims against the Affordable Care Act’s contraception coverage mandate miss a “basic fact of health economics: health insurance, like wages, is compensation that belongs to the employee,” says Elizabeth Sepper, JD, health law expert and associate professor of law at Washington University in St. Louis. Sepper is featured in the current Harvard Law Bill of Health blog.

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Under the law, whistle-blowers are supposed to be protected from direct reprisals on the job, including discrimination. But what if they and their actions becomes the subject of a widely distributed email? Is that a form of retaliation? Two professors at Indiana University's Kelley School of Business set out to answer that question and determine when public disclosure of the whistle-blower's identity -- like in an email -- is sufficient to support such a claim, in a paper that has been accepted for publication in North Carolina Law Review.

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IISD's reaction to the revived tax incentive for biodiesel production as part of the U.S. year-end fiscal package.

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A University of Iowa law professor is proposing the International Monetary Fund as a model for a global structure to govern geoengineering efforts to reduce the harm caused by climate change.

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Raising the minimum wage to a living wage begins the cycle of lifting single mothers out of poverty, according to a policy report released by the Institute for Urban Policy Research & Analysis (IUPRA) at The University of Texas at Austin.

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Law requiring Internet posting of feds’ finances will not prevent Congressional insider trading, Kathleen Clark says.

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Research by Indiana University Kelley School of Business Professor Tim Lemper was published in two legal journals and became the basis for legislation by Congress to correct a serious problem in an existing federal trademark law.

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A new national survey finds that a very large majority of Americans support a Do Not Mail initiative, similar to the popular Do Not Call registry.

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The upcoming holiday season brings with it the annual gaze upon religious displays – and the legal issues that come with them. “The Supreme Court’s approach to public religious displays under the Establishment Clause has been less than clear,” says John Inazu, JD, expert on religion and the constitution and professor of law at Washington University in St. Louis.“Some commentators have described it as the ‘three plastic animals rule’ –a Christian nativity scene on public property passes muster if it is accompanied by a sufficient combination of Rudolph, Frosty, and their friends.” Inazu says that future litigation will likely press against this line-drawing, but even apparent victories for religious liberty may come at a significant cost.

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The American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics (ACMG) released a new official Position Statement on the Public Disclosure of Clinically Relevant Genome Variants. This important new statement addresses the problems resulting from gene patent monopolies that have allowed some to develop proprietary databases of the clinical meaning of the variants in particular genes.

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Critical data for more than 2,300 federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) cases are now available online (http://eeoclitigation.wustl.edu) thanks to a multi-year effort of researchers at Washington University School of Law’s Center for Empirical Research in the Law (CERL). The EEOC Litigation Project, which spans the period between 1997 and 2006, makes readily available detailed information about the EEOC’s enforcement litigation to legal scholars, social scientists, and policy-makers.

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Advances in medicine allow doctors to keep patients alive longer, tackle fertility problems and extend the viability of premature babies. They also lead to a growing number of moral questions for both the medical provider and patient. “Across the country, so-called conscience legislation allows doctors and nurses to refuse to provide abortions, contraception, sterilizations, and end-of-life care,” says Elizabeth Sepper, JD, health law expert and professor of law at Washington University in St. Louis. “But legislators have totally overlooked the consciences of providers who have made the conscientious judgment to deliver care and of the patients who seek these treatments.” She says that laws should negotiate conflict between individual and institutional belief without losing sight of the patient. Sepper will discuss this issue during a 10/26 webcast.

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A new criminal justice initiative today released a study showing that 200 or more wrongful convictions have been thrown out since 1989 in California, costing those convicted more than 1,300 years of freedom and taxpayers $129 million.

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The last few months leading up to an election can be a critical, political game changer. One right or one wrong move can quickly change a candidate’s standing at the polls. New UC Berkeley research suggests that judges who are elected, rather than appointed, respond to this political pressure by handing down more severe criminal sentences – as much as 10 percent longer –in the last three months before an election compared with the beginning of their terms.

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In a recently completed study, the authors of several widely-recognized articles on politics and security returns challenge conventional wisdom regarding the association between security returns and political election results.

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Contrary to what police, politicians and the public believe, research by a University of California, Riverside criminologist has found that the state's three-strikes law has done nothing to reduce the crime rate.

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Judith’s Reading Room partners with Lafayette College, Villanova University and USC to observe 30th anniversary of Banned Book Week--and students, faculty & staff to launch flash mobs and public readouts of top banned books.

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Scientists examined voter data from a dozen recent elections around the world and found statistical evidence for election fraud in two of them.

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Workers pour sweat, blood and even dollars into the firms that employ them, especially in a labor market characterized by employment and retirement insecurity, says Marion Crain, JD, expert on labor and employment law and professor of law at Washington University in St. Louis. “Work can shape one’s life in ways that run to the core of identity,” she says.

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Britain’s royal family has obtained an injunction against the French magazine Closer to prevent it from publishing topless photographs of the Duchess of Cambridge Kate Middleton. “The case would likely come out differently if it were brought in the United States,” says Neil Richards, JD, professor of law at Washington University in St. Louis. Richards, an internationally recognized expert in privacy and free speech law who hails from England, explains that English and European courts have been very aggressive in stopping media from publishing pictures delving into the sex lives of celebrities.

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In 2009, U.S. Army sergeant John Russell killed five fellow soldiers at a clinic in Iraq. His defense team has been telling his story ever since. Now, an exclusive interview presents the other side.

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American University Criminologist Ed Maguire’s first phase of research examines how Occupiers view police and legal authorities.

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Concerned bioethicists and medical professionals, including faculty members from the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics, have sent a letter to New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg supporting the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene's proposed amendment to the city health code regarding ritual circumcision.

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Michael Wilkerson is available to discuss the labor and financial difficulties arts organizations, such as orchestras, are currently facing.

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In recent decades, the federal government has relied more and more on contractors, private businesses, to perform public services. The federal government issues more than $260 billion in government contracts each year, with few restrictions on the employees of those contractors. Government ethics expert Kathleen Clark, JD, professor of law at Washington University in St. Louis, has written extensively about this issue, provides some suggestions in an Q&A.

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Married couples who undergo long-term separations generally appear to be those who can’t afford to divorce, a new nationwide study suggests.

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New research out of the University of Cincinnati is believed to be the first to examine the relative impact of militarization and corruption on civilian populations. The findings reveal that a specific form of military organization—praetorian militarization—as well as national-level corruption—both adversely affect the well-being of citizens.

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Homeland Security's Science and Technology Directorate's pipe bomb dismantling mechanism is sophisticated enough to preserve forensic evidence for tracking down the perpetrator.

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AERA filed an amicus curiae brief in the U.S. Supreme Court case of Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin. The association is joined by seven other scientific societies in urging the Court to consider an overwhelming body of scientific evidence relevant to the case.

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Ronald Levin, JD, the William R. Orthwein Distinguished Professor of Law at Washington University in St. Louis, testified before the House of Representatives’ Subcommittee on Courts, Commercial and Administrative Law regarding the “retrospective review” process for federal agency rules.

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Act consolidates existing eligibility categories, eliminates asset tests, and provides more federal funding for new categories, enabling more people to obtain Medicaid coverage.

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Research that used mitochondrial DNA-based testing to compare the extent of fraudulent labeling of black caviar purchased before and after international protection shows conservation benefits.

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The researchers argue that while hunger and obesity are caused by a perfect storm of multiple factors acting in concert, the efforts to counter them have been narrowly focused and isolated. Overcoming the many barriers to achieving healthy nutrition worldwide, the researchers argue, will instead require an unprecedented level of joint planning and action between academia, government, civil society and industry.

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A new poll by the University of Delaware’s Center for Political Communication reveals support for voter identification laws is strongest among Americans who harbor negative sentiments toward African Americans.