Health Law and Policy Commons^™

The Public Square In A Private-Property Obsessed Country: What New York City’S Pops Regulations Get Right And Why Other Cities Should (Mostly) Copy Them, Carson Mcgregor

Seattle University Law Review

When New York City (NYC) was first becoming the metropolitan monolith it is today, it had a problem: the city streets were chock full of skyscrapers, and sunlight, air, and usable open space were at a premium. In response, the City promulgated its first Privately Owned Public Spaces (POPS) regulations, which allowed developers to build skyward in exchange for providing public space on the street level. Unfortunately, in July of 2023, the New York Times (NYT) discovered that New Yorkers received only a fraction of what they were promised. Building owners received billions of dollars’ worth of added floor space, …

Intellectual Property Or Modern Folklore? The Problem With Open Gaming Licenses In Tabletop Gaming, Rosie Midget

Seattle University Law Review

This Note addresses how courts and legislatures should address “Open Gaming Licenses” commonly attached to tabletop roleplaying games (TTRPGs), which game publishers use to promote a false image of accessibility—misleading consumers and building goodwill from the misunderstanding. Part I discusses what TTRPGs are, including the defining features of the hobby and culture surrounding it, as well as the unique interplay between publishers and players. Part II explores the question of which elements in a TTRPG system may be subject to copyright protection. Part III examines these elements in practice using Wizards of the Coast’s Dungeons and Dragons TTRPG as a …

Development And Practice Of Tribal Community Planning: Ensuring Indigeneity In The Planning Process, Jared E. Munster, Ph.D.

American Indian Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Case Law On American Indians: September 2023 - August 2024, Thomas P. Schlosser

American Indian Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Science And Politics In Public Health Regulation, Samuel R. Bagenstos

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Much of American public discourse takes for granted a distinction between science and politics. People describe and understand that distinction in contradictory ways, however. And those contradictions themselves underscore how closely entwined science and politics actually are.

Meat, The Future: The Role Of Regulators In The Lab-Grown Revolution, Joseph B. Davault, Michael S. Sinha

All Faculty Scholarship

The United States is one of the largest consumers of meat globally. The production of meat contributes substantially to climate change due to the levels of greenhouse gasses emitted and the amount of land, water, feed, and other natural resources required to raise animals used for meat. Traditional meat production is another major source for the emergence of zoonotic diseases and antimicrobial-resistant pathogens. Nevertheless, Americans consume more meat now than at any time in the nation’s history.

Advocates for policy change aimed at addressing the risks associated with meat production have typically focused on reducing meat consumption, alternatives to meat, …

Unveiling A Hidden Hazard: A Deep Dive Into Forever Chemicals And The Urgent Need For Solutions, Katie L. Uszakiewicz

Villanova Environmental Law Journal (1991 - )

No abstract provided.

Let The Sunshine In: Crafting Constitutional Transparency Regulations For Content Moderation, Caitlin Ring Carlson

Seattle University Law Review

In response to public concern about the impact of social media, legislators in some U.S. states have developed laws to regulate the process of content moderation. Many include mandatory transparency and disclosure requirements, some of which courts have already deemed an unconstitutional infringement on social media platforms’ right to free expression. This article explores the parameters for crafting constitutional social media transparency regulations using existing U.S. media policy and insights from recent legal challenges. The resulting analysis identifies content neutral transparency requirements that mandate the disclosure of purely factual, non-controversial information as those most likely to withstand judicial scrutiny. Specifically, …

This Is Not A Game: The Addictive Allure Of Digital Companions, Nizan Geslevich Packin, Karni Chagal-Feferkorn

Seattle University Law Review

Artificial Intelligence (AI) agents have become an inescapable part of modern childhood, reshaping education, leisure activities, entertainment, and social interaction. From AI-powered tutors that adapt to individual learning styles to emotionally responsive chatbots that simulate human companionship, these systems promise unprecedented personalization, cognitive stimulation, and social support. However, these benefits mask significant risks that remain unregulated and inadequately addressed.

Although adults are also susceptible to forming deep emotional bonds with AI companions—often trusting them as if they possessed genuine understanding and empathy—children are particularly vulnerable. Their misplaced trust can more severely distort social development, weaken critical thinking, and foster unhealthy …

Table Of Contents, Seattle University Law Review

Seattle University Law Review

Table of Contents

Re-Imagining Tomorrow: A Technology, Innovation Law, And Ethics Symposium On Addictive Technology And Children, Margaret Chon

Seattle University Law Review

In this Foreword, Professor Margaret Chon introduces Seattle University's Technology, Innovation Law, and Ethics (TILE) program, the 2024 TILE Symposium, and Dr. Gaia Bernstein’s Unwired: Gaining Control Over Addictive Technologies.

Keynote Address: The Movement To Protect Kids From Addictive Technologies, Gaia Bernstein

Seattle University Law Review

In this keynote address, I describe my personal journey starting with a school outreach program I created in 2017 to address technology overuse among kids. While I initially advocated for self-help methods, I grew to recognize that the tech industry bore responsibility. This realization led me to write Unwired: Gaining Control over Addictive Technologies, which focused on collective action to pressure the tech industry to redesign its addictive products.

I then describe the movement to control addictive technologies and protect kids, which has gained momentum since the end of the pandemic. This movement combines grassroots parent activism with legal-political action. …

Moral Panic Or Public Health Crisis? Lessons From Drugs And Gambling For “Addictive” Design, Matthew B. Lawrence, Haomin (Kevin) Yan

Seattle University Law Review

Alcohol, automobiles, guns, lottery, loot boxes, meat, music, opioid painkillers, processed foods, prop bets, slot machines, television, tobacco, violent video games. Over the last century each of these has been subject to concerns—some might even say “moral panics”—from parents and policymakers about avoidable harms to kids and adults. In some cases we look back with the benefit of hindsight and dismiss those concerns as naïve or moralistic. In others we look back at them as justified or as having come too late to check an expanding industry before it did unfathomable harm while growing so powerful that it became all …

Responding To Digital Addiction, Ned Snow

Seattle University Law Review

In Unwired: Gaining Control over Addictive Technologies, Professor Gaia Bernstein calls our attention to the growing problem of digital addiction. Digital addiction may sound like something out of a science-fiction novel or something that does not raise the same sort of real-life practical concerns as are present in a physical health crisis or an economic decline. But as Bernstein presents the evidence, we learn that the consequences of digital addiction can be just as harmful as a serious disease or a financial depression. Cognitive development disorders, anxiety, emotional depression, social isolation, and other mental health ills can be debilitating—as much …

The Ai Doppelgänger Dilemma: Cloned Voices In The Music Industry, Elizabeth Shields

Seattle University Law Review

With the rise of generative artificial intelligence (AI), there has been an influx of “voice clones”—deep-learning algorithms that create synthetic speech to realistically mimic human voices. Celebrities and, in particular, music artists, have been subjected to the proliferation of AI voice clones on social media platforms like TikTok and streaming platforms such as Spotify. Despite music utilizing AI voice clones having amassed much popularity, this technology can be harmful and highly invasive to musicians whose livelihoods often depend on their distinct voices. While legal scholars have attempted to articulate various rights that could protect a person’s voice, individuals are largely …

Lawyering As A Public Health Tool: Enforcing Title Ii Of The Americans With Disabilities Act With Preventative Litigation, Elena Cohen

Fordham Law Review

A recent ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit held that plaintiffs cannot bring a claim alleging a risk of unnecessary institutionalization under Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). This directly contradicts the holdings of six other circuit courts and guidance issued by the Department of Justice (DOJ)—all of which maintain that Title II of the ADA (Title II), the integration mandate, and the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Olmstead v. L.C. ex rel. Zimring permit these claims. This Note explores how the circuit courts have evaluated risk of unnecessary institutionalization claims, including …

Medicaid Unwinding: Due Process Violations And Impacts In Florida, Emma Page

University of Miami Race & Social Justice Law Review

No abstract provided.

Public Patent Powers, Laura E. Dolbow

Michigan Law Review

Congress has created multiple structures for agencies to control how patents are used, but that institutional design choice has received little academic attention. This Article provides the first comprehensive survey of existing laws that expressly authorize agencies to control patents. I locate 113 express conditions across 68 laws that expressly authorize executive actors to make some form of decision about patents. These powers, which I refer to as “public patent powers,” allow the government to use patented inventions, to obtain patents, to authorize third parties to use patented inventions, and to regulate how patents are used. Agencies have used many …

The Healing Power Of Antitrust, Theodosia Stavroulaki

Northwestern University Law Review

Millions of Americans live in hospital deserts—communities where people lack geographic access to hospitals and primary care physicians. People living in these deserts often miss doctor appointments, delay necessary care, and stop adhering to their treatment. In this way, hospital deserts exacerbate the health disparities plaguing America. This Article demonstrates that hospital deserts are not inevitable but the result of several business strategies—including noncompete agreements and merging with competitors—and antitrust enforcers’ unwillingness to recognize these harmful practices as antitrust violations. To cure the issue of hospital deserts, this Article makes three proposals. First, antitrust enforcers and the courts should expand …

Voting Matters: Materiality Considerations And The Shareholder Vote, Renee M. Jones

Seattle University Law Review

For the shareholder franchise to have meaning, shareholders must have access to relevant information to inform their voting decisions. The securities laws’ disclosure requirements play an essential role in informing the shareholder vote.

This Essay focuses on the question of the materiality of information in the context of shareholder voting. It addresses the question of whether ESG-related information is material, positioning the materiality inquiry within the context of shareholders’ voting decisions. It explores the definition of materiality with a focus on the “reasonable investor” concept embedded within the definition. The Essay argues that the implicit expectations of many commentators that …

Through A Glass Darkly: How Securities Disclosures Give A Distorted View Of The Economy, Gerald F. Davis

Seattle University Law Review

Our understanding of the American economy often relies on stylized facts derived from mandatory disclosures by listed corporations. Data vendors like Standard & Poor’s vacuum up 10Ks and proxy statements into databases, and scholars distill these into tentative maps. This may have been adequate for a postwar economy centered on asset-heavy manufacturers, but it is increasingly out of step with an information-based economy. Companies listed on the stock market are fewer in number and less representative than they were, light in tangible assets and people, and heavy on IP. Basic facts such as what industry they are in are increasingly …

Green Dividends: A Case Study In Green Dividends And The Conditions For Private Ordering Solutions, Anne M. Tucker

Seattle University Law Review

This Essay introduces a novel private ordering solution to facilitate corporate investments in pro-social and environmental initiatives: Green dividends. Green dividends are an optional increase in shareholder dividends that are returned to the company to be reinvested in environmental initiatives or kept by a shareholder.

Green dividends pose an alternative to the current gridlocked debate that corporations can’t, won’t, shouldn’t, and shouldn’t even try to act in pro-social or environmental ways. Turning the common refrains on their head converts each narrative into an element for a successful private ordering solution: authority, accountability, shareholder buy-in, and government- backed enforcement. With Green …

Does Climate Disclosure Work To Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions? Emerging Evidence Suggests Cautious Optimism, Cynthia A. Williams

Seattle University Law Review

Significant regulatory resources have been spent developing global, voluntary climate and sustainability disclosure standards, such as the TCFD, TNRD, and ISSB’s Sustainability and Climate Disclosure standards, or domestically required disclosures, such as in the EU and in the U.S. Thus, it is important to evaluate whether this disclosure, particularly voluntary, qualitative disclosure, will have the power to shift the allocation of capital, will have a significant effect on the management of climate risk within firms, and ultimately will reduce climate change risk and biodiversity loss.

In this Article, several interrelated questions will be discussed. First, what does the empirical evidence …

Volume 48 Masthead, Seattle University Law Review

Seattle University Law Review

Volume 48 Masthead

Middlemen At A Price: The Role Of State-Level Laws In Restricting Pharmacy Benefit Managers, Patrick W. Schrader

Lewis & Clark Law Review

Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs) have evolved from simple third-party payors into powerful intermediaries controlling prescription drug access for over 289 million Americans. Operating with minimal federal oversight, just six PBMs dominate 96% of the market, employing practices that systematically increase drug costs while claiming to reduce them. This Comment examines four primary mechanisms through which PBMs exploit the pharmaceutical supply chain: rebate manipulation, spread pricing, step therapy requirements, and formulary control. Federal regulatory efforts remain nascent and ineffective. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services requires only basic reporting without substantive restrictions. Proposed federal legislation has repeatedly stalled, leaving states …

A Small Price To Pay For Better Mental Health Crisis Care: Why States Should Be Funding The New 988 Hotline Through Phone Fees, Katherine Menello

Law Student Publications

Mental health care in the United States is uncoordinated, underresourced, and overall insufficient. Mental health crisis care is much the same, but with much higher stakes. The lack of a comprehensive mental health crisis care system across the country has led to law enforcement involvement becoming the default system in most communities. Yet, an overwhelming majority of Americans want a better way; in a survey conducted in summer 2023, “85% of people sa[id] they want a mental health response to someone experiencing a mental health, drug or suicide crisis, not a police response.”...

Disappearing Data At The U.S. Federal Government, Janet W. Freilich, Nicholson Price Ii, Aaron S. Kesselheim

Other Publications

Health data hosted by the U.S. federal government have been disappearing. According to our analysis, between January 21 and February 11, 2025, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) removed 203 datasets (13% of its online datasets, a reduction from 1519 to 1316). The situation is dynamic; various datasets have been removed, restored, manipulated, or not posted as planned.

Defederalizing Opioid Addiction Care, Matthew B. Lawrence

Faculty Articles

Lack of access to evidence-based care for drug addiction is an urgent problem amid a decades-long overdose crisis that kills tens of thousands of Americans a year. Opioid addiction is the primary driver of overdoses today, and medicines exist to treat such addiction that can dramatically improve quality of life while reducing the risk of deadly overdose by more than half. Yet fewer than one in four of the nine million Americans who need such evidence-based medical care for their addiction receive it. Chief among barriers to access are restrictive and burdensome federal requirements limiting the use of narcotic medications …

The Interchangeable-Part Structure Of Food And Drug Law, Adam I. Muchmore

FIU Law Review

This Article demonstrates that nested tiers of interchangeable parts serve as the foundation for the regulatory programs administered by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Core interchangeable parts used in FDA-administered programs include product categories, prohibitions on adulteration and misbranding, agency-registration requirements, current good manufacturing practices, product standards, marketing authorization requirements, postmarket requirements, and user fees. In each of these areas, Congress or the FDA has engaged in interchangeable-part lawmaking (IPL). IPL occurs when a government takes a portion of its law in one subject area and uses it as a model for its own law in another subject area. …

The Hunger Games: Food As A Right, Not A Privilege, Camesha F. Little

FIU Law Review

Despite the United Nations' explicit declaration that all humans have a right to food, food insecurity and hunger remain persistent problems in the United States and around the globe. The dystopian landscapes depicted in novels such as The Hunger Games and Parable of the Sower—societies crippled by poverty, oppression, and pervasive starvation—resonate with sobering contemporary realities. This Article examines existing food laws, food rights, and the current protections safeguarding the United States food supply from a humanitarian perspective. Ultimately, this Article argues that the human right to food must expand to encompass a right to healthy or natural food, and …