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…
By Alex Simard (PO’22) Content Warning: This article, as it centers on the death penalty and a man condemned to it, contains depictions of gun violence, murder, and domestic and sexual violence, including rape. It also contains graphic depictions of petitioner’s medical condition and brief depictions of 17th- and 18th-century modes of punishment, including torture.…
By Rafael Santa Maria (PO ’20) Last week, the Supreme Court implemented official rule changes that reduce the word limits in court briefs and identify potential conflicts of interest. Originally proposed last November, these changes intend to reduce the Court’s caseload and make it clear when justices must recuse themselves from certain cases. These new…
By Savannah Green (CMC ’20) In June of 2018, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the defendant in Wayfair v. South Dakota regarding online sales tax. Prior to this case, the law did not allow states to collect sales tax from online stores unless said stores owned a physical property in the state. The…
By Rafael Santa Maria (PO ’20) Most petitions to the Supreme Court never receive a writ of certiorari, and thus are never adjudicated by the nation’s highest legal authority. With thousands of cases to consider, the Court must exercise extreme selectivity. However, when a petition is backed by amicus briefs from critically-acclaimed rappers and think…
By Musa Kamara (PO’22) On February 19, the Supreme Court refused to hear a defamation suit filed by Kathy McKee, an actress active in the 1970s who appeared in The Bill Cosby Show, Saturday Night Live, and Sanford and Son. The suit McKee filed was particularly notable in that it was filed against Bill Cosby,…
By Alex Simard (PO’22) Mere hours after signing a measure to avoid a second government shutdown, President Trump declared a National Emergency in order to advance his campaign promise to build a wall along the southern border. A litigious storm followed the announcement as advocacy groups amassed and began contemplating how exactly to block the…
By Isaac Cui (PO ’20), Managing Editor The Supreme Court yesterday acted on Bobby Moore’s death penalty case and ordered that Moore cannot be executed because of his intellectual disability.[1] It was a small step on an arcane issue, one that does not fundamentally change the Court’s capital punishment jurisprudence. But it was nevertheless a…
By Cameron Miller (Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at ASU ’17) Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, a noted sports fan, served on the Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia for thirteen years before being nominated to the Supreme Court. During his tenure on the D.C. Circuit, numerous sports-related disputes came before…
By Rafael Santa Maria (PO ’20) A grisly capital murder case might determine the constitutionality of the insanity defense. In 2009, James Kraig Kahler shot and killed his wife, his mother-in-law, and his own two daughters in Burlingame, Kansas. After being found guilty and facing a capital murder conviction, Kahler appealed to the Kansas Supreme…