By Allie Carter (CMC ’19) On June 28, 2018, the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) filed charges against over 600 defendants across 58 federal districts for their alleged involvement in health care fraud schemes encompassing over $2 billion in false billings. This is the largest health care fraud takedown to date. The indictments announced by DOJ and...
By Allie Carter (CMC ’19) On May 4, 2018, the state of Iowa took a major leap towards enacting the nation’s strictest regulations on abortion. Colloquially referred to as the “heartbeat legislation,” abortions in Iowa are now prohibited once a fetal heartbeat is detected, which is typically six weeks into a pregnancy. Whether the legislation is constitutional is largely ambiguous, as most...
By Allie Carter (CMC ’19) Echoes of World War II politics are still largely present in Europe today- most recently manifested in the Polish president’s decision to sign a bill that would punish anyone that publicly insinuates collaboration by the Polish state in the Nazi atrocities of the Holocaust. What’s more is that the bill was publicly introduced on Holocaust Remembrance Day, which...
Allie Carter (CMC ’19) Birchfield v. North Dakota (2016) raised the question of the constitutionality of police testing of the blood alcohol concentration of drivers. The Court focused on whether states can criminalize an individual’s refusal to submit to a blood alcohol or breathalyzer test. Ultimately, the Supreme Court came to the conclusion that, under the protection of the Fourth...
Allie Carter (CMC ’19) Gun control in the United States has been a topic of discussion for years, inspired by waves of mass killings of civilians by gunmen. In the span of a month, there were two major rampages by gunmen–one at a Las Vegas music festival and the other at a Texan church service. The Las Vegas shooting is now the most deadly shooting in modern U.S. history, as 59...
Allie Carter (CMC ’19) On October 25th, 2017, an undocumented pregnant minor being held under federal custody finally received the controversial abortion she had been approved for a month prior, thanks to a federal appeals court decision. Lawyers and advocates for the undocumented minor have argued that federal officials took extreme measures to hinder her and other undocumented pregnant...
Allie Carter (CMC ’19) India’s Supreme Court asserted privacy as a basic right in August of 2017, formally joining the United States, Canada, South Africa, the European Union, and the United Kingdom in doing so. While privacy as a right does not have an explicit definition, it has generally initially applied to data protection and eventually incorporated the disclosure personal information...
Allie Carter (CMC ’19) The 1990’s in Portugal and the United States were similarly characterized by rapid rates of illicit drug use. Both countries took major action, but in starkly opposing directions. While the United States launched a second wave of the War on Drugs and devoted billions of dollars to the effort, Portugal decriminalized the use of all drugs. Further, Portugal...
Allie Carter (CMC ’19) Saudi Arabia, characterized by its conservative religious and national values, has made the monumental decision to grant women the right to drive. This deep-rooted policy has been representative of the systemic repression of women in Saudi Arabia. The decision to permit women to drive not only has major social implications but will also transform the country’s...
Allie Carter (CMC ’19) In July 2017, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) made the landmark decision to permit gene therapy in the United States when they approved the leukemia treatment, Kymriah. The FDA’s decision to approve Kymriah both increases treatment options for many leukemia patients, and may lead to increased options for many others for whom innovations in gene therapy will...
