Law Commons^™

Smoke And Mirrors: Florida's Tobacco-Related Medicaid Costs May Turn Out To Be A Mirage, Christopher May

Vanderbilt Law Review

Since the 1950s, anti-tobacco forces and the United States government have widely publicized the harm that the consumption of cigarettes can cause to humans. Smoking causes diseases of the oral cavity, cardio-pulmonary system, larynx, and bladder. In addition, the use of tobacco may also be related to sterility, ulcers, cancers of several internal organs, and even blindness. The severity of the consequences increases with the amount of consumption.

Experts estimate that 400,000 Americans die each year from smokings almost one out of every five deaths. In addition, the Surgeon General reports that as many as 2,400 deaths occur annually because …

Current Issues In Mental Health Care, David A. Skeel, Jr.

Vanderbilt Law Review

When America was founded in the late eighteenth century, doctors treated mental illness with beatings, isolation, and physical restraint-all thought to help the patient regain inner reason., People exhibiting strange behavior were often forced onto the streets, run out of town, or thrown into jail.

Today we think we know a lot more about mental health care than our country's founders did. Yet in many ways we are in no better position than our eighteenth-century predecessors. Certainly, the decisions we as a society face about mental illness are just as difficult. The vocabulary we employ is more complex--"behavioral health organization," …

Abortion As Commerce: The Impact Of "United States V. Lopez" On The Freedom Of Access To Clinic Entrances Act Of 1994, Benjamin W. Roberson

Vanderbilt Law Review

American politics in the 1990s is preoccupied with the movement of power from a centralized federal authority to state and local governments. There is some measure of consensus that the federal government can no longer provide solutions to all of America's problems., The resulting retreat from the twentieth century federal monolith has interesting implications for constitutional law. The federal government's power expanded largely under the authority of the Commerce Clause. Although the traditional broad interpretation of Congress's commerce power bears little resemblance to the actual text of the Constitution, courts have accepted the notion that Congress may regulate any activity …