Law and Society Commons^™

How To Get Away With Discrimination: The Use Of Algorithms To Discriminate In The Internet Entertainment Industry, Sumra Wahid

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

In July 2021, Ziggi Tyler posted a video on TikTok, a popular video sharing platform, where he expressed his frustration with being a Black content creator on TikTok. The video showed Ziggi typing phrases such as “Black Lives Matter” or “Black success” into his Marketplace creator bio, which the app would immediately flag as inappropriate content. However, when Ziggi replaced those words with “white supremacy” or “white success,” no inappropriateness warning appeared. Although a TikTok spokesperson responded to the video clarifying that the app had mistakenly flagged phrases without considering word order, Ziggi refused to let an algorithm absolve TikTok …

Deeply Rooted Or Deeply Flawed? A Constitutional Criticism Of Dobbs And Roe's Potential Resurrection, Julian Whitley

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

Abortion has been a divisive issue in this country for decades. Some believe that abortion should be illegal under any circumstance, others believe that abortion under certain circumstances should be legal, and still others believe that abortion should be legal in all circumstances. The issue of abortion was initially decided by the Court in 1973 under Roe v. Wade, where the Court devised a trimester approach.

Pro-Choice (Of Law): Extraterritorial Application Of State Law Using Abortion As A Case Study, Marnie Leonard

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

Madison Underwood was scheduled to receive a life-saving abortion at a clinic in Tennessee when her doctor told her the procedure had been canceled. The Supreme Court had overturned the constitutional right to abortion a few days prior. Although Underwood’s abortion was still legal in Tennessee, her doctor felt performing the procedure was too risky with the law changing so quickly.

Building A Culture Of Scholarship With New Clinical Teachers By Writing About Social Justice Lawyering, Susan Bennett, Binny Miller, Michelle Assad, Maria Dooner, Mariam Hinds, Jessica Millward, Citlalli Ochoa, Charles Ross, Anne Schaufele, Caroline Wick

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

This Article is a collection of essays about teaching social justice lawyering, as seen through the eyes of eight practitioners-in-residence in the clinical program at American University’s Washington College of Law (“WCL”). They include: Michelle Assad, Maria Dooner, Mariam Hinds, Jessica Millward, Citlalli Ochoa, Charles Ross, Anne Schaufele, and Caroline Wick. They teach in seven clinics, including the Civil Advocacy Clinic, the Criminal Justice Clinic, the Community Economic and Equity Development Clinic, the Disability Rights Law Clinic, the Immigrant Justice Clinic, the International Human Rights Law Clinic, and the Janet R. Spragens Federal Income Tax Clinic. We use the terms …

The Battle Over Bostock: Dueling Presidential Administrations & The Need For Consistent And Reliable Lgbt Rights, Regina L. Hillman

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

In the summer of 2020, the Supreme Court released its opinion in the landmark civil rights case, Bostock v. Clayton County, Georgia. In the Bostock decision, the Court held that protections from employment discrimination “because of sex” under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (“Title VII”) include discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. Prior to the Court’s decision, millions of LGBT employees had no protection from discriminatory treatment based on sexual orientation or gender identity, and discrimination was pervasive.

Exposing Sedated Legal Responses To Non-Consensual Pelvic Exams Under Anesthesia, Ashleigh Austel

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

When Ashley Weitz, a woman from Utah, underwent sedation for treatment of vomiting, the last thing she expected was to wake up in the middle of an invasive pelvic exam that she did not consent to. The doctor informed her he was collecting a sample to test for sexually transmitted diseases, but the doctor had previously determined a pelvic exam was unnecessary. Reflecting on the experience, Ashley said, “in any other setting, someone putting their fingers into my vagina without my consent is assault. I did not consent to this exam, and he did it anyway.”

The Revolution Will Not Be Moderated: Examining Florida And Texas's Attempts To Prohibit Social Media Content Moderation, Caroline Jones

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

Today, around seventy percent of American citizens actively use social media for news content, entertainment, and social engagement. Since 2005, the number of Americans using social media in some capacity has increased 13 fold from five to sixty-five percent. Despite numerous studies demonstrating a correlation between social media rhetoric and real-world violence against women, racial and ethnic minority communities, and the LGBTQIA community, both Florida and Texas passed bills limiting the ways in which social media sites can moderate the content and users on their platforms in 2021. Florida’s Senate Bill 7072 requires social media platforms to allow political candidates …

The Collateral Effects Of Reproductive Restrictions: Dispensing Methotrexate Violates Arizona, Arkansas, Louisiana, And Missouri's Public Accommondation Laws, Kanta Mendon

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

In 2022, Annie England Noblin routinely went to her local pharmacy to pick up her prescription for Methotrexate, which she used to manage her rheumatoid arthritis. When Noblin attempted to pick up her medication in July 2022, the pharmacist informed her that Walgreens changed its policy regarding Methotrexate after the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade led to thirteen states enacting abortion trigger laws.

Hanging In The Balance: An Assessment Of European Versus American Data Privacy Laws And Threats To U.S. National Security, Dara Paleski

American University National Security Law Brief

Social media has quickly become an integral part of modern-day life, keeping the world connected to friends, family and current events. Social media, and the data collected from it, also play a crucial role in intelligence gathering and the safeguarding of national security. It is estimated that about 80-95% of information that is collected for intelligence missions is found freely throughout the internet or other publicly available sources. This type of information has been dubbed SOCMINT (Social Media Intelligence) and it has become a crucial tool within the intelligence community. After the Edward Snowden leaks in 2013 revealed a global …

How The Overturning Of Roe V. Wade Disproportionately Affects The Immigrant Asian American Population In The United States, Amy P. Lyons

Human Rights Brief

On June 24, 2022, the Supreme Court overturned the historic case Roe v. Wade, ending the right to abortion across the United States. The overturning of Roe v. Wade and the responsive state statutes that criminalize abortion are yet further barriers to health access for Asian Americans, especially those who experience domestic violence, and are a violation of the universal Right to Health.

Second Chance Pell Experiment: How The United States Is Starting To Recognize Education As A Right, Brittany Walker

Human Rights Brief

For decades, education as a right has been an issue between U.S. citizens and U.S. courts. U.S. courts maintain that education is not a right, as it was not explicitly stated in the U.S. Constitution. Since the U.S. Constitution is silent about education, U.S. courts have applied the 14th Amendment to defer educational matters, such as compulsory school requirements, to each state. Currently, education in the United States is generally a right until middle school. After middle school, the American government allows parents and students to determine whether additional education is necessary in their situation. This view causes disparities for …

Principle Originalism--The Third Way: A Jurisprudential Response To Dobbs V. Jackson Women's Health Organization, Ryan Fortson

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

All judges attempt to decide cases for reasons other than politics or their own personal opinions. But finding a consistent judicial methodology is fraught with peril. Against what it sees as the hyper-textualism of strict constructionism and the unfettered discretion of living constitutionalism, originalism posits itself as the only viable way to achieve an objectively neutral interpretation of the law. This is certainly the stance taken by the majority opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which claims that the Constitution is silent on abortion and that therefore no corresponding right to abortion exists. But there can be different …

Accommodation Discrimination, Katherine Macfarlane

American University Law Review

Reasonable accommodations should be tools of equality yet can feel more like punishment than remedy. To receive accommodations, people with disabilities must disclose intimate details about their health. The accommodation process that follows disclosure is arduous, dissuading many people with disabilities who need accommodations from requesting them.

Even if accommodations are granted, institutional enforcement is not guaranteed. Instead, the labor of implementing reasonable accommodations often falls to disabled people themselves. Accommodated people with disabilities also endure remarks about receiving “special” treatment for disabilities that are allegedly exaggerated or faked. Though people with disabilities may bring failure to accommodate claims when …

Reevaluating Regional Law Reform Strategies After Dobbs, Jamie Abrams

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

This article studies the triad of 2016 social media campaigns known as “#AskDr.Kasich,” “#askbevinaboutmyvag,” and “#PeriodsforPence.” While these campaigns, each located in the regional mid-South, were motivated by restrictive state abortion bills, they uniquely positioned menstruation and women’s bodies at the center of their activism—not abortion alone. They leveraged, as a political fault line, the contradiction of these states’ governors’ perceived disgust relating to basic women’s reproductive health, relative to their patriarchal assuredness in regulating and controlling women’s bodies.

In so doing, they tapped into meaningful disruptions in the geographies, religiosities, and masculinities of abortion politics. These campaigns achieved regional …

A Critical Jeffersonian Mind For A Community Reinvestment Bind, Chaz Brooks

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

The Community Reinvestment Act of 1977 ("CRA") primarily sought to remedy decades of government sanctioned disinvestment in so-called “redlined communities.” Through the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation and later the Federal Housing Administration, the United States of America created from whole cloth a structure that encouraged and subsidized the explosion of homeownership in white American households. Following decades of racialized wealth generation, the United States had a change of heart. Congress determined that financiers needed a gentle push to invest fairly. Additionally, Congress wanted one thing clear in the drafting of this remedy—it must not allocate credit.

This essay considers how …

Navajo Statehood: From Domestic Dependent Nation To 51st State, Ezra Rosser

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

The Supreme Court’s recent holding in Oklahoma v. Castro-Huerta that “Indian country is part of the State, not separate from the State” is a reminder of tribal sovereignty’s precarious foundation under U.S. law. The Court’s holding not only broke with longstanding precedent regarding the relationship between tribes and states, but it is also incompatible with the lived experience of those living in the Navajo Nation. The Navajo Nation, not the states and not the federal government, has primary responsibility for governing an area roughly the size of West Virginia. Yet most maps of the United States demarcate only state boundaries, …

The Law Of Friends, Ezra Rosser

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

A serious law professor would not write an article about the TV show Friends, but having just written a book and an article, I’m on a “break.” Besides, I’m not that serious a law professor. And Friends is as good a topic as any. For those of us of a certain age—too young to have watched M.A.S.H. when it came out and old enough to remember watching broadcast TV and not just through a streaming service on a device—Friends was and is a big deal. It both captured a particular moment in history and helped make that moment.

Looking back …

Endnotes

Sustainable Development Law & Policy

No abstract provided.

Climate Migration Beyond The Refugee Framework: Creating Bridges Between Human Rights And International Climate Law, Mara Elisa Andrade

Sustainable Development Law & Policy

No abstract provided.

Accounting For Climate Change In United States Regional Ocean Planning: Comparing The Obama And Trump National Ocean Policies To A Climate-Forward Approach, Taylor Goelz

Sustainable Development Law & Policy

No abstract provided.

Swallowing The Rule: Why Ferc’S “Immediate Need Exemption” Frustrates Competitive And Climate-Smart Electricity Sector Transmission Planning Under Order No. 1000, Philip Killeen

Sustainable Development Law & Policy

No abstract provided.

“At What Cost?’: The Future Of Securities Enforcement In Climate Change Litigation, Angela Washington

Sustainable Development Law & Policy

No abstract provided.

About Sdlp

Sustainable Development Law & Policy

The Sustainable Development Law & Policy Brief (ISSN 1552-3721) is a student-run initiative at American University Washington College of Law that is published twice each academic year. The Brief embraces an interdisciplinary focus to provide a broad view of current legal, political, and social developments. It was founded to provide a forum for those interested in promoting sustainable economic development, conservation, environmental justice, and biodiversity throughout the world.

Because our publication focuses on reconciling the tensions found within our ecosystem, it spans a broad range of environmental issues such as sustainable development; trade; renewable energy; environmental justice; air, water, and …

Editor's Note, Keanu Bader, Alexis Bauman

Sustainable Development Law & Policy

No abstract provided.

Endnotes

Sustainable Development Law & Policy

Endnotes

Risk Regulation And Management Against Illegal Wildlife Trade: Europe And America, Olonyi Bosire

Sustainable Development Law & Policy

Introduction

The source or initial crime in the illegal wildlife trade chain is mostly committed beyond the shores of North America and Europe. However, the two regions continue to be massive destination markets and key transit hubs for illegal wildlife products. Illegal trade networks are shadowy and therefore problematic to study. This helps explain the wide valuation of illegal wildlife trade currently estimated by the Global Environment Facility (“GEF”) as ranging between 7 and 23 billion dollars per annum.

Policies and strategies to pre-empt or respond to illegal wildlife trade keep evolving as appreciation grows for the previously underestimated complexities, …

The Truth Is Always In Style: Targeting Greenwashed Advertising In The Fashion Industry, Sydney Helsel

Sustainable Development Law & Policy

H&M’s 2019 “Conscious Collection” promotional images juxtapose lush green gardens with a hazy city skyline in the background. The collection, which advertises itself as “[t]he short cut to sustainable choices,” is just one example of many fashion brands’ attempts to capitalize on the increased demand for sustainable products. Each year, the fashion industry consumes approximately ninety-three billion cubic meters of water and produces an estimated ten percent of the world’s carbon emissions. The environmental effects of the fashion industry can be seen in images of the dried up Aral Sea in Uzbekistan and in the dye and chemical filled black …

The Overfished Pacific Bluefin Tuna: The Tragedy Of A Highly Migratory Fish Species, Theresa Geib

Sustainable Development Law & Policy

Introduction

The ocean is an abundant resource; however, overutilization is becoming an increasing threat to biodiversity. Approximately 90% of the ocean’s fisheries are overexploited, fully exploited, or have collapsed entirely. The issue of overfishing arose in the mid-1900s after the industrialization of the fishing industry. Once dominated by local fishermen, the industry now features commercial fleets with the technology to locate, extract, and process large numbers of specific fish species. An early 2000s study reported that only 10% of large ocean fish remained after years of industrial fishing, including the highly migratory Pacific Bluefin Tuna (“PBT”).

In 2016, the PBT …

An Opportunity That Should Not Be Missed: Applying Chinese Policy That Promotes Efficient Air Conditioning To Countries That Need It, Xiaopu Sun, Houfu Yan, Shekun Wang, Tad Ferris

Sustainable Development Law & Policy

Introduction

As the world warms, the growing use of air conditioners (“ACs”) and other cooling equipment becomes essential for human comfort and public health. In addition, cooling-equipment energy and refrigerant consumption also presents tremendous climate mitigation opportunities. The most efficient ways to capture much of the climate benefit lie in the hands of a small number of AC manufacturing and exporting countries, including China, which manufactures over 80% of global room ACs with a large amount of this cooling equipment destined for export. This article highlights one of China’s policies, the “Same Line, Same Standard and Same Quality” policy (“Same-Line …

About Sdlp

Sustainable Development Law & Policy

The Sustainable Development Law & Policy Brief (ISSN 1552-3721) is a student-run initiative at American University Washington College of Law that is published twice each academic year. The Brief embraces an interdisciplinary focus to provide a broad view of current legal, political, and social developments. It was founded to provide a forum for those interested in promoting sustainable economic development, conservation, environmental justice, and biodiversity throughout the world.

Because our publication focuses on reconciling the tensions found within our ecosystem, it spans a broad range of environmental issues such as sustainable development; trade; renewable energy; environmental justice; air, water, and …