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Full-Text Articles in Law
Election Law Localism And Democracy, Richard Briffault
Election Law Localism And Democracy, Richard Briffault
Faculty Scholarship
American federal and state elections are largely run by local officials. Although election law is almost entirely determined by the federal government and the states, elections are actually conducted by thousands of different county and city elections offices. This decentralization of election administration has often, and fairly, been criticized as resulting in undesirable interlocal variation in the application of election rules, inefficiency, and racial discrimination. Yet, in 2020, local election administration, particularly in large urban areas, was a source of strength. Local officials proved to be resilient, innovative, and attentive to local conditions. The record-high turnout in the face of …
Nowhere To Run To, Nowhere To Hide, Praveen Kosuri, Lynnise E. Pantin
Nowhere To Run To, Nowhere To Hide, Praveen Kosuri, Lynnise E. Pantin
Faculty Scholarship
As the COVID-19 global pandemic ravaged the United States, exacerbating the country’s existing racial disparities, Black and brown small business owners navigated unprecedented obstacles to stay afloat. Adding even more hardship and challenges, the United States also engaged in a nationwide racial reckoning in the wake of the murder of George Floyd resulting in wide-scale protests in the same neighborhoods that initially saw a disproportionate impact of COVID-19 and harming many of the same Black and brown business owners. These business owners had to operate in an environment in which they experienced recurring trauma, mental anguish and uncertainty, along with …
Extending Postpartum Medicaid: State And Federal Policy Options During And After Covid-19, Jamie R. Daw, Emily Eckert, Heidi Allen, Kristen Underhill
Extending Postpartum Medicaid: State And Federal Policy Options During And After Covid-19, Jamie R. Daw, Emily Eckert, Heidi Allen, Kristen Underhill
Faculty Scholarship
The United States is facing a maternal health crisis with rising rates of maternal mortality and morbidity and stark disparities in maternal outcomes by race and socioeconomic status. Among the efforts to address this issue, one policy proposal is gaining particular traction: extending the period of Medicaid eligibility for pregnant women beyond 60 days after childbirth. The authors examine the legislative and regulatory pathways most readily available for extending postpartum Medicaid, including their relative political, economic, and public health trade-offs. They also review the state and federal policy activity to date and discuss the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on …
Vaccination Equity By Design, Olatunde C.A. Johnson, Kristen Underhill
Vaccination Equity By Design, Olatunde C.A. Johnson, Kristen Underhill
Faculty Scholarship
This Essay examines how states’ initial COVID-19 vaccine-distribution strategies tended to disadvantage populations of color, including Black, Latinx, and Native American communities. These dynamics resonate with “inverse equity” effects of other public-health innovations. We argue for a federal regulatory framework to reduce inequity-forcing effects during initial vaccine rollout.
Covid, Crisis And Courts, Colleen F. Shanahan, Alyx Mark, Jessica K. Steinberg, Anna E. Carpenter
Covid, Crisis And Courts, Colleen F. Shanahan, Alyx Mark, Jessica K. Steinberg, Anna E. Carpenter
Faculty Scholarship
Our country is in crisis. The inequality and oppression that lies deep in the roots and is woven in the branches of our lives has been laid bare by a virus. Relentless state violence against black people has pushed protestors to the streets. We hope that the legislative and executive branches will respond with policy change for those who struggle the most among us: rental assistance, affordable housing, quality public education, comprehensive health and mental health care. We fear that the crisis will fade and we will return to more of the same. Whatever lies on the other side of …
Who’S Afraid Of Section 1498? A Case For Government Patent Use In Pandemics And Other National Crises, Christopher J. Morten, Charles Duan
Who’S Afraid Of Section 1498? A Case For Government Patent Use In Pandemics And Other National Crises, Christopher J. Morten, Charles Duan
Faculty Scholarship
COVID-19 has created pressing and widespread needs for vaccines, medical treatments, PPE, and other medical technologies, needs that may conflict – indeed, have already begun to conflict – with the exclusive rights conferred by United States patents. The U.S. government has a legal mechanism to overcome this conflict: government use of patented technologies at the cost of government-paid compensation under 28 U.S.C. § 1498. But while many have recognized the theoretical possibility of government patent use under that statute, there is today a conventional wisdom that § 1498 is too exceptional, unpredictable, and dramatic for practical use, to the point …