Digital Commons Network^™

A Telehealth Explosion: Using Lessons From The Pandemic To Shape The Future Of Telehealth Regulation, Deborah Farringer

Texas A&M Law Review

From board rooms, to classrooms, to Saturday Night Live skits, the video conferencing app Zoom became a seemingly overnight sensation as a way to connect while businesses were shuttered and individuals were forced to stay at home when the coronavirus pandemic erupted in the United States in March 2020. From 10 million daily users in December 2019 to over 200 million daily users by March 2020, the company founded in 2011 became a market leader as the country tried to figure out how to continue business as usual—to the extent possible—during the global pandemic. While hospitals prepared for the onslaught …

Toward A More Strategic National Stockpile, Troy Rule

Texas A&M Law Review

The COVID–19 pandemic exposed major deficiencies in the United States’ approach to stockpiling for emergencies. States, cities, and hospitals across the country had meager inventories of critical medical items on hand when the pandemic first reached U.S. soil, and the federal government’s Strategic National Stockpile proved far too small to serve the country’s needs in the first several months of the crisis. As nationwide shortages spread, many state governments were compelled to bid against each other to procure scarce medical supplies—a distribution approach that disadvantaged low-income and minority communities and left countless healthcare professionals and staff ill-equipped to protect themselves …

Confrontation’S Multi-Analyst Problem, Paul F. Rothstein, Ronald J. Coleman

Texas A&M Law Review

The Confrontation Clause in the Sixth Amendment affords the “accused” in “criminal prosecutions” the right “to be confronted with the witnesses against” them. A particular challenge for courts over at least the last decade-plus has been the degree to which the Confrontation Clause applies to forensic reports, such as those presenting the results of a DNA, toxicology, or other CSI-type analysis. Should use of forensic reports entitle criminal defendants to confront purportedly “objective” analysts from the lab producing the report? If so, which analyst or analysts? For forensic processes that require multiple analysts, should the prosecution be required to produce …

The Jury Trial Reinvented, Christopher Robertson, Michael Elias Shammas

Texas A&M Law Review

The Framers of the Sixth and Seventh Amendments to the United States Constitution recognized that jury trials were essential for maintaining democratic legitimacy and avoiding epistemic crises. As an institution, the jury trial is purpose-built to engage citizens in the process of deliberative, participatory democracy with ground rules. The jury trial provides a carefully constructed setting aimed at sorting truth from falsehood.

Despite its value, the jury trial has been under assault for decades. Concededly, jury trials can sometimes be inefficient, unreliable, unpredictable, and impractical. The COVID–19 pandemic rendered most physical jury trials unworkable but spurred some courts to begin …

Agriculture & Data Privacy: I Want A Hipaa(Potamus) For Christmas . . . Maybe, Jennifer Zwagerman

Texas A&M Law Review

Technology advancements make life, work, and play easier and more enjoyable in many ways. Technology issues are also the cause of many headaches and dreams of living out the copier destruction scene from the movie “Office Space.” Whether it be user error or technological error, one key technology issue on many minds right now is how all the data produced every second of every day, in hundreds of different ways, is used by those that collect it.

How much data are we talking about here? In 2018, the tech company Domo estimated that by 2020 “1.7 MB of data will …

The Growing Monopoly In The Corn Seed Industry: Is It Time For The Government To Interfere?, Bethany K Sumpter

Texas A&M Law Review

How a company conducts business is often a consumer concern. Individuals have accused company after company of monopolistic behavior. These individuals have also criticized the Department of Justice for not stopping a monopoly from forming in a specific industry. An example is the corn seed industry, where stakeholders have accused companies of monopolistic behavior. Recent mergers and acquisitions in the corn seed industry have left fewer companies in control, and because of this consolidation, individuals are urging the government to act. This Comment argues that, while the corn seed industry is on the road to containing a monopoly, the industry …

Attempting—And Failing—To Balance Fairness And Efficiency In The Arbitral System: How Arbitration Institutions Are Defeating The Purpose Of Arbitration, Hannah N Myslik

Texas A&M Law Review

The Supreme Court has actively expanded the Federal Arbitration Act into realms not originally contemplated by Congress. This harms consumers who are parties to pre-dispute, binding arbitration agreements. If consumers sign a contract containing an arbitration agreement, they may be required to arbitrate everything within the agreement’s scope, including their statutory rights. Simultaneously, the Court has restricted class action arbitration—a device on which consumers have relied when they are forced to arbitrate.

The Court’s expansion of arbitration and restriction of class action arbitration has led many to distrust and advocate for changing the arbitral system. Arbitration institutions have directly reacted …

Bioremediation: Breaking Down The Regulations Of Genetically Modified Microorganisms, Lora Katharine Naismith

Texas A&M Law Review

Environmental bioremediation is the use of biological activity to reduce the concentration or toxicity of a pollutant. A rapidly increasing population leads to a consequential increase in industrial waste and pollution, and innovators are researching numerous techniques to degrade these pollutants and prevent their spread into the environment. These techniques are expensive and often result in secondary pollutants, which limits their widespread application. Bioremediation, however, presents a cost-friendly and more efficient way to degrade pollutants with little or no secondary pollutants. This Article explores how scientists can use genetically modified microorganisms (“GMMs”) to target specific hazardous wastes that are otherwise …

Children Are Human, Kim Pearson

Texas A&M Law Review

There are great benefits to be had should the United States, one of the global leaders in economic strength and political power, ratify the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (“CRC”). The mystery of the United States’s ultimate reluctance to ratify the CRC, despite the nation’s central role in the drafting process, has been interrogated for years. Scholars and policy- makers have developed compelling narratives regarding obstacles to the United States’s ratification and implementation of the CRC. However well- reasoned the arguments for ratification are, there has been little progress in persuading the United States to ratify …

The Opioid Crisis Or Climate Change: Which Is More Likely To Succeed Under The Tobacco Litigation Model?, Elizabeth W. De Leon

Texas A&M Law Review

Societal problems can occasionally have legal solutions, and several tools exist to implement change, including litigation and regulation. However, what elements make a societal problem more suitable for litigation or regulation? This Article examines four different societal issues (tobacco use, obesity, opioid addiction, and climate change) to determine whether litigation or regulation is the more appropriate route for success. The tobacco litigation serves as a successful example, while the fast food litigation serves as an unsuccessful example. Six signs of success are derived from the tobacco litigation: a large settlement agreement, evidence of corporate wrongdoing, change in public opinion, the …

Giving Pharmacists Provider Rights, Tanya E. Karwaki

Texas A&M Law Review

Changes to our health care system, robotics and health care mergers among them, are forcing pharmacists into expanded provider roles, yet federal policymakers are failing to act on these changes. State lawmakers are acting but not swiftly enough. A federal response, including recognizing pharmacists as health care providers and making them eligible for independent Medicare reimbursement, will be necessary to enable pharmacists to fill their role in our health care system. Policymakers have an opportunity now to respond proactively to a changing climate in health care by clarifying the boundaries on pharmacists’ services, particularly those boundaries regarding direct patient care …

Is The Word "Consumer" Biasing Trademark Law?, Dustin Marlan

Texas A&M Law Review

Our trademark law uses the term “consumer” constantly, reflexively, and unconsciously to label the subject of its purpose—the purchasing public. According to the U.S. Supreme Court, trademark law has “a specialized mission: to help consumers identify goods and services they wish to purchase, as well as those they want to avoid.” As one leading commentator puts it, “trademarks are a property of consumers’ minds,” and “the consumer, we are led to believe, is the measure of all things in trademark law.”

Much criticism has been rightly levied against trademark law’s treatment of the consumer as passive, ignorant, and gullible. For …

Sales, Acquisitions, And Mergers Of Direct-To-Consumer Genetic Testing Companies: The Risks And A Solution, Alyssa K Mcleod

Texas A&M Law Review

Direct-to-consumer genetic tests have become increasingly popular in the United States within the last few years. However, these tests pose many risks to the consumer, most notably privacy risks. A subset of these privacy risks involves the issue of company mergers, acquisitions, and sales. Many companies in the direct-to-consumer genetic testing market have privacy policies that contain a variation of a “business transfer” clause. These clauses specify that in the event the company goes through a business transition such as a sale, merger, or acquisition, the consumer’s personal information—including the consumer’s DNA—will be among the assets transferred. This Article explores …

Brewing Green Beer: Building A Regulatory Scheme Robust To Changes In Brewing Technologies, Daniel Pashang Withers

Texas A&M Law Review

New beer brewing technologies provide brewers with options to produce beer in more eco-friendly, less resource-intensive ways; however, as brewers adopt these technologies, they may find themselves straddling between the regulatory schemes of the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (“TTB”) and the Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”). The two agencies have divided control over beers based on their ingredients, which places some beers under the TTB’s purview as “malted beverages” and others under the FDA’s purview. These distinctions have implications for the regulatory hurdles that brewers must overcome to market their products. Additional regulations that eco-friendly, green beers …