Law Commons^™

The Prosecution Of Climate Change Dissent

Marquette Benefits and Social Welfare Law Review

A May 2015 op-ed in the Washington Post by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D. RI) accused the fossil fuel industry of funding a campaign to mislead Americans about the environmental harm caused by carbon pollution. The Attorney Generals of New York and Massachusetts began investigating Exxon Mobil. We look at these two investigations through the lenses of the federal mail and wire fraud statutes (at issue in the racketeering case against big tobacco), and the First Amendment.

We analyze the difficulty of prosecuting someone under the federal mail and wire fraud statutes for expressing an opinion, and discuss why scientific statements …

E-Commerce And The Americans With Disabilities Act: Failing To Extend The Ada To The Internet In Access Now V. Southwest Airlines, Emily Short

Oklahoma Journal of Law and Technology

No abstract provided.

Uncomfortably Numb: The Third Circuit Checks State's Forced Medication Policy In Disability Rights New Jersey V. Commissioner, New Jersey Department Of Human Services, Michael Walker

Villanova Law Review

No abstract provided.

2016-2017 Georgia State University Law Review Symposium: Exploring The Right To Die In The U.S., Margaret Pabst Battin

Georgia State University Law Review

This transcript is a reproduction of the Keynote Presentation at the 2016–2017 Georgia State University Law Review Symposium on November 11, 2016. Margaret Battin, is a Distinguished Professor of Philosophy and Adjunct Professor of Internal Medicine at the University of Utah.

Unbefriended And Unrepresented: Better Medical Decision Making For Incapacitated Patients Without Healthcare Surrogates, Thaddeus Mason Pope

Georgia State University Law Review

The purpose of this Article is to help improve the quality of healthcare decision making for the unbefriended. I hope that this comprehensive and systematic explanation of both the problem and the available solutions will empower both public and clinical policymakers to develop more informed and more circumspect policies and procedures

Uber’S Dilemma: How The Ada May End The On-Demand Economy, Bryan Casey

University of Massachusetts Law Review

This article is the first to point out that a few relatively low-profile lawsuits involving Uber’s liability under the ADA could have an outcome-determinative effect on O’Connor v. Uber Technologies, Inc., the blockbuster employment misclassification case brought against the startup by its own drivers. Because both types of lawsuits hinge on the role that drivers play within Uber’s business model, a ruling in favor of ADA liability which compelled Uber to exert additional control over its drivers would also, in turn, jeopardize the drivers’ legal status as independent contractors. Such an outcome would be catastrophic to Uber’s core business model, …

The Disability Politics Of Abortion, Mary Ziegler

Utah Law Review

With Ohio considering passing the nation’s second ban on abortions motivated by Down Syndrome, the relationship between abortion and disability law has taken on new importance. Disability based bans raise unique legal, moral, and political difficulties for those supporting legal abortion. The core commitments supporting legal abortion—including sex equality—stand in some tension with justifying abortion in the case of a fetal defect or disability.

Given the problems with disability-based bans, it may seem that there is no urgent need to resolve these tensions. Disability-based statutes likely create an impermissible undue burden under Planned Parenthood of Southeastern v. Casey and seem …

An Empirical Assessment Of Georgia’S Beyond A Reasonable Doubt Standard To Determine Intellectual Disability In Capital Cases, Lauren Sudeall Lucas

Georgia State University Law Review

In Atkins v. Virginia, the Supreme Court held that execution of people with intellectual disabilities violates the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment. In doing so, the Court explicitly left to the states the question of which procedures would be used to identify such defendants as exempt from the death penalty. More than a decade before Atkins, Georgia was the first state to bar execution of people with intellectual disability. Yet, of the states that continue to impose the death penalty as a punishment for capital murder, Georgia is the only state that requires capital defendants …

Higher Education Institutions' Treatment Of Students Deemed A "Direct Threat" To Themselves And The Ada, Dana Martin

Northwestern Journal of Law & Social Policy

As the rates of mental illness among college students continues to rise, colleges and universities are faced with new challenges in appropriately accommodating their students who struggle with these conditions. Unfortunately, misunderstanding and stigmatization of mental illness coupled with the fear of being the site of the next on-campus violent tragedy often leads schools to act adversely to the best interest of the student exhibiting at-risk behavior. This Note examines recent actions taken by schools against students demonstrating suicidal behavior in the context of Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of …

The Rowley Enigma: How Much Weight Is Due To Idea State Administrative Proceedings In Federal Court?, Daniel W. Morton-Bentley

Journal of the National Association of Administrative Law Judiciary

In this article, I argue that the phrase "due weight" incorporates a deferential review standard equivalent to the clear error or substantial evidence standard, a conclusion reached by a minority of the circuit courts of appeal. I further argue that, consistent with Rowley, federal courts must afford due weight to administrative officers' substantive or educational conclusions, but no weight to their procedural or non-educational conclusions. Part II offers a general outline of the IDEA, giving special attention to its judicial review provisions. In Part III, I provide a general discussion of judicial review of administrative adjudication. Part IV is devoted …

The Third Dimension Of Fape Under The Idea: Iep Implementation, Perry A. Zirkel, Edward T. Bauer

Journal of the National Association of Administrative Law Judiciary

This article provides a synthesis of the three approaches to IEP implementation cases. More specifically, Part I summarizes the materiality/benefit approach, which-like the two-step approach for procedural violations but on a more intertwined basis-requires both a substantial non-implementation and an insufficient benefit. Part II summarizes the materiality-alone approach, which requires only a substantial failure. Part III summarizes the per se approach, which results in a denial of FAPE for any failure to implement beyond one that is clearly de minimis. Finally, Part IV provides conclusions and recommendations for IHOs in light of the incomplete precedential pattern to date. The overall …

Websites As Facilities Under Ada Title Iii, Ryan C. Brunner

Duke Law & Technology Review

Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act requires public accommodations—private entities that offer goods or services to the public—to be accessible to individuals with disabilities. There is an ongoing debate about whether Title III applies to websites that offer services to the public, but this debate may be resolved in the coming years by litigation or Department of Justice regulations. Assuming for the sake of argument that Title III will eventually be applied to websites, the next inquiry is what that application should look like. The regulatory definition of “facilities” should be amended to include nonphysical places of public …

Disability Rights In The Age Of Uber: Applying The Americans With Disabilities Act Of 1990 To Transportation Network Companies, Rachel Reed

Georgia State University Law Review

Within the past year, individual plaintiffs and disability rights organizations have initiated a number of lawsuits against Uber, and similar companies like Lyft, alleging violations of Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (Title III). In each of these cases, the plaintiffs’ success turns on affirmatively answering one significant threshold question: Whether Uber, or a similar entity, falls within the scope of Title III. Traditional taxi companies fall squarely within the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990’s (ADA) coverage under 42 U.S.C. § 12184 (§ 12184), which governs private companies that provide transportation services. Given the similarities …

Some Thoughts On "Healthism" And Employee Benefits In The Age Of Trump

Marquette Benefits and Social Welfare Law Review

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Tobacco Denormalization, Anti-Healthism, And Health Justice

Marquette Benefits and Social Welfare Law Review

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Healthism, Intersectionality, And Health Insurance: The Compounded Problems Of Healthist Discrimination

Marquette Benefits and Social Welfare Law Review

Healthism can identify situations where a person is subject to a particular form of bigotry based on their individual health status. In health insurance, some forms of healthism are unavoidable due to the very nature of health insurance structures. However, when analyzing health insurance programs, particularly those that are funded through government, it is possible to utilize a healthism framework to, first, recognize and minimize and potentially ameliorate the worst effects of healthism combined with intersectionality. This Essay analyzes these issues as they relate to health insurance, Medicare, and the potential role of the Independent Payment Advisory Board.

Essay: Setting The Bases Of A Policy Framework To Cover Old-Age Risk

Marquette Benefits and Social Welfare Law Review

This Essay proposes a coherent vision about the protection of old-age pensions and establishes a public policy strategy that allows the protection of a country's entire population. If attempts to connect the action of the State, through the notion of the welfare state, with the protection of pension systems. It proposes three levels of protection: (1) the welfare state, (2) state regulation, and (3) pension scheme regulation. The first Section of this Essay reviews welfare states, explains their categories, and discusses their protective effects. The second Section examines how to structure the various pension schemes into a coherent pension system …

Intersectional Complications Of Healthism

Marquette Benefits and Social Welfare Law Review

None

Let Them Frye: Frye Hearings For Determination Of "Mental Disorders" In The Sexually Violent Persons Act, Hannah Henkel

Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology

Specific laws aimed at the confinement of mentally disabled sexually violent persons have existed for years. Originally, these laws aimed to rehabilitate a person within a mental hospital and help him with his disorders, aiming to help him enter back into society. However, throughout the years, the laws morphed into ways to keep convicted criminals from society after their prison sentence ended for fear of potential future crimes. In Illinois, the courts find a man falls within the sexually violent persons law when he remains too dangerous to be released after his criminal confinement. A person must have a “mental …