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Patenting Genes And Genetic Methods: What’S At Stake?, Eileen M. Kane Jan 2011

Patenting Genes And Genetic Methods: What’S At Stake?, Eileen M. Kane

Journal Articles

The emergence of genetic medicine following decades of molecular biology research has been accompanied by the procurement of patent rights to many medically significant genes and methods for their use. The intellectual force of reductionism in the life sciences – to explain biological phenomena with molecular precision – generates direct conflicts with patent law’s exclusion of basic knowledge from patenting: laws of nature, natural phenomena, and abstract ideas must remain in the public domain. This is a period of renewed attention to the issue of patentable subject matter in the life sciences, with a particular focus on genetic patenting. Patents …


Unraveling The Exclusionary Rule: From Leon To Herring To Robinson - And Back?, David H. Kaye Jan 2011

Unraveling The Exclusionary Rule: From Leon To Herring To Robinson - And Back?, David H. Kaye

Journal Articles

The Fourth Amendment exclusionary rule began to unravel in United States v. Leon. The facts were compelling. Why exclude reliable physical evidence from trial when it was not the constable who blundered, but “a detached and neutral magistrate” who misjudged whether probable cause was present and issued a search warrant? Later cases applied the exception for “good faith” mistakes to a police officer who, pursuing a grudge against a suspect, arrested and searched him and his truck on the basis of a false and negligent report from a clerk in another county of an outstand­ing arrest warrant. The California Supreme …


Dna Database Trawls And The Definition Of A Search In Boroian V. Mueller, David H. Kaye Jan 2011

Dna Database Trawls And The Definition Of A Search In Boroian V. Mueller, David H. Kaye

Journal Articles

As a general matter, once the government acquires information from a permissible search or seizure, it can use this information in later criminal investigations. Courts have applied this simple rule to uphold the indefinite reuse of DNA samples acquired from convicted offenders. This essay describes the First Circuit Court of Appeals’ reliance on the rule in rejecting a convicted offender’s claim that his DNA sample and profile had to be removed from the federal DNA databank after he completed his sentence. Acknowledging that the rule permitting reuse should not be applied mechanically, I argue that the rule's application to DNA …