By Bryce Watchell (PO ’21) Last week’s post outlined the origin of corporate personhood, dating all the way back to the early 19th century, when Dartmouth College sought Constitutional protections afforded to individuals up until that point. Then, following Society for Propagation of Gospel v. Town of Pawlet and Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad Company, the grounds for corporate...
By Cameron Miller (Stanford University ’16) Guest Contributor The dangers of football and other contact sports associated with head injuries are not only well known, but are starting to be addressed more directly than ever before. A wide swathe of research has documented the connection between concussions and numerous neurocognitive issues, including the early onset of dementia and the...
By Daisy Ni (PO ’21) In the fight to bridge the gender pay gap, pay transparency has long been a tool suggested by civil rights groups. Theoretically, pay transparency—referring to a company’s public release of the salary information of all their employees—would reveal gender discrepancies where they exist. Such disclosure could force businesses to think about the gender pay gap in ways...
By Jenna Lewinstein (SC ’19) On March 23, 2018, President Trump signed a 2018 $1.3 trillion spending bill, avoiding a government shutdown. This enormous 2,232-page bill covers the budgets for a vast amount of policy issues, ranging from defense to border security to opioids. Though President Trump threatened to use his veto power, he ended up signing the bill into law. It turns out, Trump...
Conducted by April Xiaoyi Xu (PO ’18) Editor-in-Chief Transcribed by Jenna Lewinstein (SCR ’19) Digital Content Writer Thomas Miller is a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) studying health care policy, litigation, and reform. He researches regulatory barriers to choice and competition, and investigates market-based alternatives to the Affordable Care Act. Previously, he worked as a...
By Daisy Ni (PO ’21) President Trump’s first ban on transgender service members in our military, released in a firestorm of Tweets late last year, took the nation by surprise by its suddenness. Although his ban has since been blocked by four separate federal courts—a happy victory for transgender troops and civil right advocates—he has now proceeded with a second attempt at restricting...
By Arthur Chang (PO ’20), Senior Editor 1. Introduction The U.S. government introduced the concept of copyright with the intention to promote the progress of “useful arts.” Copyright legislation did this by granting creators a limited monopoly over their works.[1] Though regulations are typically effective during the short period following their inception, the ephemeral nature of...
By Elinor Aspegren (PZ ’20) A product of frustrations with state disinterest in public education over the past decade, teachers’ strikes began in March 2018 in West Virginia, and in April 2018 in Kentucky and Oklahoma These protests and walkouts, while presumably about state budgets, may also be in response to the teachers’ frustrations regarding state courts neglect to enforce the...
By James Dail (CMC ’20) One of the most consequential macroeconomic phenomenon of the past half-century has been widespread wage stagnation. From 1979 to 2016, wages have barely grown at all (and in some cases have declined) for the lowest sixty percent of workers by income distribution. The average yearly rate of inflation from 1979 to 2016 was 3.52% above the average rate of wage growth...
By Bryce Watchell (PO ’21) “Corporate personhood” sounds like an oxymoron, and yet it is a fundamental component of the American judicial system. The Supreme Court time and time again has affirmed that corporations have rights in many capacities: they can own property, sue and be sued, enter into binding contracts, and be held liable in a court of law. However, these abilities are not unlimited:...
