Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Legal Writing and Research Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Belmont Law Review

United States

Publication Year

Articles 1 - 5 of 5

Full-Text Articles in Legal Writing and Research

Legislating Autism Coverage: The Conservative Insurance Mandate, Lori Shealy Unumb Jan 2015

Legislating Autism Coverage: The Conservative Insurance Mandate, Lori Shealy Unumb

Belmont Law Review

Since 2007, numerous state legislatures have enacted insurance mandates relating to treatment for autism. In the absence of an autism insurance mandate, health insurers typically do not cover “one of the most commonly prescribed therapies” for autism, which is an intensive therapeutic intervention based on Applied Behavior Analysis (commonly called “ABA therapy”). The autism insurance mandates that have swept the nation during the last decade require coverage for ABA therapy and other care that is ordered by a physician and deemed medically necessary to treat autism. This article (1) examines why so many legislatures that traditionally resist insurance mandates embrace …


Restoring The Parameters Of Public Health In A Time Of Hobby Lobby And Ebola: The Case For A Wellness Account, John D. Blum Jan 2015

Restoring The Parameters Of Public Health In A Time Of Hobby Lobby And Ebola: The Case For A Wellness Account, John D. Blum

Belmont Law Review

The genesis of this piece lies in two seemingly unrelated events in law and public health, the governmental response to the Ebola crisis, and the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby, sparked by religious objections to certain employer mandates under the Affordable Care Act. While this essay focuses on the Burwell v. Hobby Lobby case and not Ebola, its core premise is that health policy is best served when government authorities focus strategies and responses within the parameters of individual and population concern. This piece will propose an alternative approach to women’s health promotion, a wellness account, …


The Great Tactician: The Chief Justice, Obamacare, And Walking The Tightrope Of Partisan Politics, Katherine H. Blankenship Jan 2015

The Great Tactician: The Chief Justice, Obamacare, And Walking The Tightrope Of Partisan Politics, Katherine H. Blankenship

Belmont Law Review

This note argues that true judicial restraint is a fictional impossibility. Any practice of judicial restraint is at the very same moment an exercise of judicial activism because a judge cannot approach the law from a truly objective, mechanical position. Every judicial opinion is influenced not only by the political and moral vantage point of the judge, but also the judge’s policy and societal concerns. This thesis is illustrated by a case study of National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius, and, specifically, Chief Justice Roberts’s opinion regarding the individual mandate and the Medicaid provision of the Affordable Care Act. …


What Might Have Been: 25 Years Of Robert Bork On The United States Supreme Court, Benjamin Pomerance Jan 2014

What Might Have Been: 25 Years Of Robert Bork On The United States Supreme Court, Benjamin Pomerance

Belmont Law Review

This Article tries to briefly attempt an answer to what would have happened if Robert Bork had sat on the Supreme Court bench. Part I examines the backgrounds of Judge Bork and Justice Kennedy, and then studies some of the major cases decided by the Court in four key areas — abortion, freedom of speech, the right to bear arms, and civil rights — during the last twenty-five years. Part II then evaluates the voting record of Justice Kennedy in these cases, as well as the views held by Judge Bork — based on Bork’s own writings, on opinions that …


An Examination Of Federal Sentencing Guidelines’ Treatment Of Mdma (“Ecstacy”), Alyssa Hennig Jan 2014

An Examination Of Federal Sentencing Guidelines’ Treatment Of Mdma (“Ecstacy”), Alyssa Hennig

Belmont Law Review

This Note analyzes the MDMA drug equivalency ratio under the current Guidelines and argues that the ratio is based on incomplete and inaccurate information. Part I of this Note provides an overview of the United States Sentencing Commission (“the Commission”) and the United States Sentencing Guidelines (“the Guidelines”). Part II discusses the rise of MDMA and the legislative response. It also summarizes the Commission’s findings regarding the social and physiological harms of MDMA that formed the basis for the Commission’s decision about the appropriate MDMA drug equivalency ratio. Part III examines the errors in the Commission’s empirical analysis of the …