Digital Commons Network^™

States’ Evolving Role In The Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program, David A. Super

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

States have always been crucial to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly food stamps). Even though the federal government has paid virtually all the program’s benefit costs, state administration has always been indispensable for several reasons. State and local governments pay their staff considerably less than the federal government, making state administration less expensive. States already administer other important antipoverty programs, notably family cash assistance and Medicaid, allowing them to coordinate the programs and minimize repetitive activities. And states have somewhat lower, and less polarizing, political footprints than does the federal government, moderating criticism of the program. In addition, …

(Trade)Mark America Great Again: Should Political Slogans Be Able To Receive Trademark Protection?, Katherine Kerrick

The University of New Hampshire Law Review

In late 2016, Donald Trump was granted trademark protection for his presidential campaign slogan, “Make America Great Again.” This registration is one of few—if not the only—political slogans registered as a trademark with the USPTO. Four years later, and four years after the completion of the presidential campaign which effectuated the slogan, the MAGA registration is still live and President Trump and his campaign committee continue to sell merchandise featuring the slogan prominently. However, looking at the applications and the evidence presented therein, it is not clear that the MAGA slogan constitutes a phrase worthy of trademark protection. This Note …

Terms Of Service: The Use And Protection Of Genomic Information By Companies, Databases, And Law Enforcement, Sophia Kallas

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

Private genomic companies have become a popular trend in the last two decades by providing customers with information regarding their ancestry and health risks. However, the profiles received from these companies can also be uploaded to public databases for various purposes, including locating other family members. Both testing companies and public databases have private interests, and both are at risk of law enforcement intervention for the purpose of forensic familial searching. There is little federal legislation protecting the privacy of an individual’s genetic profile. Consequently, it has been up to federal agencies, state laws, and judicial precedents to prevent the …

In Eu-Africa Trade Relations: Africa Is Not Europe’S “Twin Continent”, Olabisi D. Akinkugbe

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

There is a new struggle for Africa’s market. The contestants include the European Union (EU), United States (US), Russia, India and China. In this blog, I reflect on the new European Union -Africa Comprehensive Strategy proposals. The blog pushes against the Strategy’s revision of the historical relationship between the two regions which is built on embedded inequality. This is because, to be a true partnership, the unequal nature of the relationship between the EU and Africa must be centered. In the contest for its market, Africa has a unique opportunity to harness the competition tactically.

The Need For Federal Disclosure And Fraud Protection In The Workplace, Carlos Garcia

Legislation and Policy Brief

No abstract provided.

Reducing The Prevalence Of Childhood Obesity In Households Receiving Supplement Nutrition Assistance Program Benefits In Baltimore City, Maryland Through Interactive Nutrition Education, Raenetta L. Ellison

Health Law and Policy Brief

No abstract provided.

Letter From The Editors, Justine Deitz, Sandep Purewal

Health Law and Policy Brief

No abstract provided.

The Right To Legally Sourced Lumber? How The Effective Enforcement Of The Lacey Act Is A U.S. Human Rights Obligation And Critical To Preventing Abuse In The Illegal Logging Industry, Melanie Hess

Sustainable Development Law & Policy

No abstract provided.

Notas A Pie De Página, Sustainable Development Law & Policy

Sustainable Development Law & Policy

No abstract provided.

Aquaponia Cubierta En Edificios Abandonados: Una Posible Solución A Los Desiertos De Alimentos, Lisa Tomlinson

Sustainable Development Law & Policy

No abstract provided.

Notes De Fin, Sustainable Development Law & Policy

Sustainable Development Law & Policy

No abstract provided.

Réglementations Approuvées San Discussion: Un Contrôle Inapproprié Des Plantes Et Animaux Génétiquement Modifiés Aux Ètats-Unis, Genna Reed

Sustainable Development Law & Policy

No abstract provided.

Next Verse, Same As The First: Inadequacies In The Government's Legal Approach Toward Biotechnology, Kimberly Righter

Sustainable Development Law & Policy

No abstract provided.

Conclusion: A Way Forward, Peter B. Edelman

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Where do we go next? I have three suggestions. One is to enlarge the frame of our work on poverty and race, including a focus on the ever-widening chasm of inequality, and all of it pressing toward the center stage of national attention. A second is to consolidate our work about income, jobs, and cash assistance into a unified frame, which I call a three-legged stool. And the third is to think from a perspective of place, and what that tells us about our antipoverty work.

We need a banner, a message, a theme, a politics for ending poverty. The …

Working To Fail, Sara Sternberg Greene

Duke Journal of Gender Law & Policy

No abstract provided.

Chaos, Accomplishment, And Work, Or, What I Learned On Paternity Leave, Ernest A. Young

Duke Journal of Gender Law & Policy

No abstract provided.

The Missing Link: Jail And Prison Conditions In Criminal Justicereform, Andrea Craig Armstrong

Louisiana Law Review

The article examines the link between conditions in jails and prisons and broader criminal justice reform efforts.

The Compelled Commercial Speech Cases: Why Not Just Flip A Coin?, R. George Wright

Mercer Law Review

Government regulation of commercial enterprises takes many forms. Among the most familiar forms are requirements that commercial speakers convey particular government-approved commercial messages, presumably for the sake of some sufficient benefit to the persons thereby informed. This Article discusses the difficult problems generated by the case law of compelled commercial speech. Controversies and important paradoxes are examined herein, on the way to the surprising conclusion that in light of the ordinarily limited interests on both sides of the case, typical compelled commercial speech cases can be responsibly resolved, all else equal, by merely flipping a coin.

First, the Article briefly …

The Ground On Which We All Stand: A Conversation About Menstrual Equity Law And Activism, Bridget J. Crawford, Margaret E. Johnson, Marcy L. Karin, Laura Strausfeld, Emily Gold Waldman

Michigan Journal of Gender & Law

This essay grows out of a panel discussion among five lawyers on the subject of menstrual equity activism. Each of the authors is a scholar, activist, or organizer involved in some form of menstrual equity work. The overall project is both enriched and complicated by an intersectional analysis.

This essay increases awareness of existing menstrual equity and menstrual justice work; it also identifies avenues for further inquiry, next steps for legal action, and opportunities that lie ahead. After describing prior and current work at the junction of law and menstruation, the contributors evaluate the successes and limitations of recent legal …

The Substantial Impact Approach: Reviewing Policy Statements In Light Of Apa Finality, Emily Parsons

Washington Law Review

Federal agencies engage in a wide range of non-binding action, issuing guidance documents such as policy statements and interpretive rules. Although these guidance documents may have a substantial impact on industries or members of the public, courts often refuse to review their substance. The Administrative Procedure Act requires agency action to be “final” before courts can review it. The D.C. Circuit and the Ninth Circuit have taken conflicting and often messy approaches in determining whether interpretive rules and policy statements are final and thus reviewable. This Comment proposes a new approach: the substantial impact approach. Under this approach—repurposed from a …

Chain Restaurant Calorie Posting Laws, Obesity, And Consumer Welfare, Charles J. Courtemanche, David Frisvold, David Jimenez-Gomez, Mariétou H. Ouayogodé, Michael Price

Institute for the Study of Free Enterprise Working Papers

The 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) introduced a mandate requiring chain restaurants to post calorie counts on menus and menu boards. This paper investigates whether and why calorie posting laws work. To do so, we develop a model of calories consumed that highlights two potential channels through which mandates influence choice and outlines an empirical strategy to disentangle these alternatives. We test the predictions of our model using data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System to compare changes in body mass index (BMI), obesity, and consumer well-being in locations that implemented calorie-posting laws between 2008 and …

The Case For Leadership Coaching In Law Schools: A New Way To Support Professional Identity Formation, Susan R. Jones

Hofstra Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Architecture Of A Basic Income, Miranda Perry Fleischer, Daniel Hemel

University of Chicago Law Review

The notion of a universal basic income (UBI) has captivated academics, entrepreneurs, policymakers, and ordinary citizens in recent months. Pilot studies of a UBI are underway or in the works on three continents. And prominent voices from across the ideological spectrum have expressed support for a UBI or one of its variants, including libertarian Charles Murray, Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes, labor leader Andy Stern,and—most recently—former President Barack Obama.Although even the most optimistic advocates for a UBI will acknowledge that nationwide implementation lies years away, the design of a basic income will require sustained scholarly attention. This Article seeks to advance …

The Algorithmic Divide And Equality In The Age Of Artificial Intelligence, Peter K. Yu

Faculty Scholarship

In the age of artificial intelligence, highly sophisticated algorithms have been deployed to provide analysis, detect patterns, optimize solutions, accelerate operations, facilitate self-learning, minimize human errors and biases and foster improvements in technological products and services. Notwithstanding these tremendous benefits, algorithms and intelligent machines do not provide equal benefits to all. Just as the digital divide has separated those with access to the Internet, information technology and digital content from those without, an emerging and ever-widening algorithmic divide now threatens to take away the many political, social, economic, cultural, educational and career opportunities provided by machine learning and artificial intelligence. …

When Agencies Make Criminal Law, Brenner M. Fissell

Faculty Publications

The nondelegation doctrine prohibits a legislature from delegating its power to an administrative agency, yet it is famously underenforced—even when the delegation results in the creation of criminal offenses (so-called “administrative crimes”). While this practice appears to scandalize the hornbook presumption that legislatures alone define criminal offenses, it has long been ratified by the Supreme Court and has received little scholarly attention. The few commentators who have addressed administrative crimes highlight the intuition that criminal sanctions are uniquely severe and thus deserving of a more rigorous nondelegation analysis, but they stop there. They do not precisely link the severe aspects …

Ecologists And Economists Unite, David Suzuki

The International Journal of Ethical Leadership

No abstract provided.

The Clash Of Empires: Regulating Technological Threats To Civil Society, Tracey Leigh Dowdeswell, Nachshon Goltz

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

This paper examines the regulation of technology platform companies providing a platform for user-generated media content while playing an increasingly dominant role in the global flow of news and information. In doing so, platform companies play a crucial role in modern civic life, by deciding which content will reach users, engage the public's attention, and be deemed credible. It is therefore crucial that we choose means of regulation that foster democratic values and robust civic engagement. In this paper we focus on the regulation of ‘computational propaganda', including misinformation and ‘fake news', the rise of synthetic media and so-called ‘deep …

U.S. Regulation Of Blockchain Currencies: A Policy Overview, Averie Brookes

Intellectual Property Brief

No abstract provided.

Voluntary Licensing Of Pharmaceuticals: The Strategy Against Compulsory Licensing, Daniel D. Kim

Intellectual Property Brief

No abstract provided.

Hearing Before The United States Senate Committee On The Judiciary “Rule By District Judge: The Challenges Of Universal Injunctions”, Samuel L. Bray

Congressional Testimony

From the introductory text of the Statement of Professor Samuel L. Bray

"There’s a script we’ve all become familiar with. A president issues an order, or an agency promulgates a rule. And then what happens? Those who oppose the order or rule will pick a friendly district court and bring a challenge. From that friendly district court, the challengers will seek an injunction that shuts down the order or rule—not just with respect to the parties, but shuts it down for everyone in the country. That kind of injunction is popularly called a “nationwide injunction,” or a “national injunction” or …