By: Calla Li (PO ’22) May 6, 2020; marks the 138-year-anniversary of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, the only piece of immigration legislation in American history to exclude an ethnic group by name. At the time, economic anxiety ran high due to the increasingly fierce competition to find gold in Northern California, causing rising…
David Ruiz (PO ’23) I, along with three other students from the Claremont Colleges in Southern California, was scheduled to attend the University of Washington’s Model EU conference in Seattle this weekend. As headlines from Washington worsened over the course of the week, my colleagues and I became deeply concerned about the status of the…
Maggie Bynum (SC ‘20) On March 3rd, 2019 the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) submitted a final rule to the National Register that will have a detrimental effect on reproductive health services in the United States. The rule outlines several changes to Title X, also known as the Family Planning Program. Since its…
Hutchinson Fann (PO ’20) As efforts to pass a bill protecting special counsel Mueller from firing by President Trump are revived, it is important to remember Morrison v. Olson , a divisive 1988 case that politicians from both sides of the aisle often cite to support their position on the special counsel. In this piece,…
By Sophie Roe (PO ’19) On July 30, Medicare and Medicaid turned 54. Interestingly, what began as a federal-state government health care program is now being called a “welfare program.” Although Medicaid is overseen by the Federal Government, states are granted an incredible degree of discretion to structure and implement the program as they see…
By Lea Kayali (PO ’19) On June 26th, 2018, the Supreme Court of the United States handed down a decision on Trump v. Hawai’i, siding with the state on one of the most controversial actions of the Trump presidency: a progression of executive orders on immigration, known colloquially as the Muslim Ban. The decision to…
By Isaac Cui (PO ‘20) Managing Editor In March, I wrote an article for the CJLPP about a lawsuit filed by Texas and joined by nineteen other states to enjoin enforcement of the Affordable Care Act (ACA, often called Obamacare). On Thursday, June 7, 2018, the United States Department of Justice filed its brief in the…
By Isaac Cui (PO ’20) The Supreme Court yesterday released opinions in Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission,[1] a highly-anticipated case which seemed to pit the civil rights of gay people against the religious objections of others. While the holding of the case was nominally in favor of the petitioner, who sought protection for…
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…
By Christina Ge (CM ’20) There is an inherent distinction between obligations and aspirations. We ought to follow obligations but we strive to achieve aspirations. In a similar way, rights can also be interpreted as obligations or aspirations, or as negative and positive. While some rights in the First Bill of Rights and the Declaration…