Legal Writing and Research Commons^™

All Health Care Is Local: Exploring The Roles Of Cities And States In Health Care Delivery And Reform Industry Panel, Jay Hardcastle, Andrew Mcdonald, Julie Watson Lampley, Kim Looney, Craig Stewart

Belmont Health Law Journal

A transcript of the Industry Perspectives panel discussion held during the Belmont Health Law Journal 2018 Symposium: “All Health Care is Local: Exploring the Roles of Cities and States in Health Care Delivery and Reform”.

All Health Care Is Local: Exploring The Roles Of Cities And States In Health Care Delivery And Reform Keynote #2, Jeff Yarbro

Belmont Health Law Journal

I'm going to talk a little bit about just the big changes in the way that we make healthcare policy at the state and local level. The daily barrage of political information, the shutdown scandals, the tweets and tantrums on Cable News, make it difficult to see what I think have been some pretty big shifts in the water that makes up the way that we actually make healthcare policy and maybe lots of other policy. And if we're going to continue on this pathway, where not only do we have an expansion/non-expansion divergence, then we have a work requirement/non-work …

All Health Care Is Local: Exploring The Roles Of Cities And States In Health Care Delivery And Reform Government Panel Summary, Tony Hullender, Gabe Roberts, Christopher Sabis, Jane Young, Marc Overlock

Belmont Health Law Journal

On Friday February 9th, 2018, the Belmont Health Law Journal hosted a symposium entitled All Health Care is Local: Exploring the Roles of Cities and States in Health Care Delivery and Reform. A panel of government lawyers representing various state and federal agencies and organizations took part in the symposium. The following is a summary of the discussion that took place.

America: Land Of The Shackled, Lauren Martin

Belmont Health Law Journal

This Note will demonstrate the detrimental effects of shackling a pregnant woman and will examine some of the efforts currently being made to prohibit the practice, as well as provide some suggestions for prohibitory legislation. Part II of this Note will discuss the background of this pervasive issue, both how it has been viewed by the courts and the ways in which it has been dealt with by state legislatures that have enacted anti-shackling laws. Part III of this Note will analyze the positions of those who support a ban on the use of restraints on pregnant inmates and detainees. …

Implementing 501(R): Has 501(R) Lived Up To Its Intended Purpose?, Brandon Huber

Belmont Health Law Journal

This Note proceeds in four parts. Part I steps back and takes a brief look at the history and background of federal tax law; specifically, as it relates to the hospital-specific requirements the IRS has placed on hospitals seeking to qualify or maintain taxexempt status over the years. Additionally, Part I discusses the incorporation and implementation of Section 501(r) into the Internal Revenue Code (“IRC”). Part II then explores the IRS’ enforcement of Section 501(r), including the IRS’ 2017 decision to revoke a “dual status” hospital’s tax-exempt status for non-compliance. Then, Part II will conclude by explaining how tax-exempt hospitals …

State Regulation Of Generic Drug Price Gouging, Philip Fitzgerald

Belmont Health Law Journal

This note acknowledges that the high cost of drugs, both generic and patented, is an important issue for patients and policy makers alike. This note focuses solely on generic drugs, as the rights of drug patent holders are protected by the Copyright Clause of the United States Constitution, which this note does not seek to address. Additionally, although the cost of drugs can be heavily impacted by Congress and federal regulatory agencies such as the Department of Health and Human Services and the Food and Drug Administration, this note will only look at the measures being taken by legislatures at …

At The Intersection Of Health And Justice: How The Health Of American Indians And Alaska Natives Is Disproportionately Affected By Disparities In The Criminal Justice System, Bette Jacobs, Mehgan Gallagher, Nicole Heydt

Belmont Law Review

American Indian and Alaska Natives (AI/AN) are a neglected population in the United States. Their health and welfare needs are often swept aside and, because of historical treaty agreements with the United States government, they suffer disparities in the justice system and, consequently, poor health. A deep look into everyday life for an AI/AN tells a story of poverty and relatively low life expectancy, proportionately high incidences of disease, high rates of incarceration, and prolific alcohol and substance abuse. AI/ANs are incarcerated at a higher rate proportionately than their white counterparts. They experience harsher sentences, due in part to jurisdictional …

Title Vii Discrimination Protections & Lgbt Employees: The Need For Consistency, Certainty & Equality Post-Obergefell, Regina Hillman

Belmont Law Review

This article explores employment protections against discriminatory practices for LGBT Americans. Factors such as jurisdiction, employment type, and geography all play a role in whether or not protections are extended to LGBT individuals. This article also examines Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the role of the EEOC in enforcing federal laws prohibiting discrimination, as well as executive orders and protections.

The Wake Of Wayfair: Addressing State Taxation Issues After South Dakota V. Wayfair., Leigh Stanfield

Belmont Law Review

This student note examines the impact of e-commerce on state tax revenue. It explores internet retail jurisprudence, and the South Dakota v. Wayfair, Inc. decision. It explores state approaches to taxing e-commerce revenue, as well as continuing issues in e-commerce taxation, and concludes with a model provision.

All Health Care Is Local: Exploring The Roles Of Cities And States In Health Care Delivery And Reform Keynote #1, Jeremy Faison

Belmont Health Law Journal

I'm going to talk to you about the legal justification for Tennessee to expand cannabis for certain sick Tennesseans. I believe I can prove to you if I had enough time that a prohibition on the cannabis plant was an unjust law from the beginning. So first of all the justification of what I'm doing, the justification starts with one thing. First of all, it was prevalent and commonplace in society for 5,000 years that we can trace humankind and nothing was bad. The next justification of what I'm doing is: America is there. In a poll from January 11th …

Justice Kennedy And The First Amendment, David L. Hudson Jr.

Law Faculty Scholarship

This essay reviews some of Justice Anthony Kennedy’s most significant contributions to First Amendment jurisprudence. These include his calls for absolute protection for pure political speech, his strong protection for commercial speech, his distaste for campaign finance reform laws that censored speech, his general concern for the silencing of sexual expression, his coercion test in Establishment Clause cases, and his significant failure in the public-employee free-speech decision Garcetti v. Ceballos.

The Content-Discrimination Principle And The Impact Of Reed V. Town Of Gilbert, David L. Hudson Jr.

Law Faculty Scholarship

The content-discrimination principle remains the chief analytical tool used in First Amendment jurisprudence. Under this doctrine, laws are categorized as content-based or content-neutral. Content-based laws are subject to strict scrutiny and content-neutral ones are subject to intermediate scrutiny.

The U.S. Supreme Court ratcheted up the content-discrimination principle in Reed v. Town of Gilbert. Previously, lower courts were divided on whether a law was content-based if the underlying purpose was not to engage in censorship or content-discrimination. In Reed, however, the Court declared that the law’s purpose is not the central inquiry. It concluded that if a law draws facial distinctions …

Ida B. Wells: Fearless Journalist From Memphis Who Changed The World, David L. Hudson Jr.

Law Faculty Scholarship

"Today's climate features hostility toward freedom of the press and negative attitudes toward journalists ... [T]here was a time when journalists were admired for their fearless pursuit of the truth and their exposure of corruption." This article provides an overview of the life and work of Ida B. Wells, particularly her work as a journalist and activist.

Freedom Now Or A Future Later: Pitting The Lasting Implications Of Collateral Consequences Against Pretrial Detention In Decisions To Plead Guilty, Lucian E. Dervan

Law Faculty Scholarship

This article examines whether informing defendants about the collateral consequences of criminal convictions influences their decisions to plead guilty, particularly when those future sanctions compete with the immediate incentive of release from pretrial detention. Drawing on prospect theory and temporal discounting theory, the authors hypothesize that delayed collateral consequences will exert limited influence when weighed against certain and immediate gains, such as freedom from jail. Across two experimental studies manipulating guilt status, pretrial detention, and the presentation of collateral consequences, results demonstrate that actual guilt strongly predicts plea decisions, but pretrial detention significantly increases the likelihood of guilty pleas—especially among …

Whole Health: A Community Approach To Healthcare Keynote #1, Professor Laura Hermer

Belmont Health Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Due Process Conundrum: Using Mathews V. Eldridge As A Standard For Private Hospitals Under The Health Care Quality Improvement Act, Amy L. Moore

Belmont Law Review

In response to growing litigation between doctors and hospitals and the recalcitrance of some hospitals to initiate proper peer review actions against incompetent or unprofessional doctors, Congress passed the Health Care Quality Immunity Act in 1986. HCQIA provided immunity for hospitals that engaged in peer review, presuming immunity from both federal and state law claims if the hospital had satisfied the statutory safeguards. One of these statutory requirements is “adequate notice and procedures” for the doctors at issue. It is abundantly clear in both the legislative history of HCQIA and the case law surrounding HCQIA immunity that section 11112(a)(3) was …

No Angels In Academe: Ending The Constitutional Deference To Public Higher Education, William E. Thro

Belmont Law Review

This Article’s thesis is simple—because public university administrators are no more angelic than other constitutional actors are, the judiciary’s deference to higher education officials must end. There is no reason for greater deference to the academy than to other governmental units. Instead, judges must subject higher education administrators to the same skepticism and doubt as other constitutional actors. This Article has three parts. Part I examines how the Courts treat academe’s constitutional actors more deferentially than constitutional actors in other spheres. Specifically, it discusses different approaches concerning racial preferences, student religious groups’ freedom of association, and due process for students …

The Problem Of Intradistrict Inequality, Kristen E. Murray

Belmont Law Review

American elementary and secondary school students have dramatically different educational experiences depending on the school in which they are enrolled. This raises an important question: where should we look to determine where any inequalities might lie? This Article discusses five different factors that contribute to inequalities within school districts. Part I addresses each of these in turn: school segregation; resource inequalities; gaps in private fundraising; school district secession; and the limitations of school choice. Taken together, these factors suggest that intradistrict inequalities create a complicated and difficult problem to solve. It is therefore imperative that if we are going to …

Searching For Balance With Student Free Speech: Campus Speech Zones, Institutional Authority, And Legislative Prerogatives, Neal H. Hutchens, Frank Fernandez

Belmont Law Review

In the essay, the authors examine the permissibility of student speech zones under the First Amendment. Related to this discussion, the essay also considers recent state legislative efforts to prohibit public colleges and universities from enforcing such campus speech zones. The authors are supportive of legislative measures related to speech zones, but several provisions in proposed state laws and model legislation go beyond this issue and would potentially undercut student free speech rights and unduly interfere with institutional autonomy to manage and respond to issues involving speech and expression on campus. Instead, legislators should exercise restraint when it comes to …

Katz-Calls: Application Of Fourth Amendment Protection To Police Use Of Smartphone Emergency Functionality, Ryan Russell

Belmont Law Review

In determining whether an officer’s use of the Emergency function of a phone is a search, it is important first to lay a foundation for why the Constitution provides protection against searches in the first place. Part I of this Note will provide a brief overview of why the Fourth Amendment was adopted, and what rights it is intended to protect. Next, it is impossible to know whether use of Emergency would qualify as a search unless we know how a search is defined. Part II of this Note will examine the tests that have developed over the years, namely …

Flying High In The Regulatory State: An Analysis Of State Regulatory Systems For The Distribution Of Medical Cannabis, Andrew Goldstein

Belmont Law Review

This Note examines a variety of factors common to existing state regulatory systems to identify the best ways to regulate the distribution of medical cannabis. These factors include: (1) the number and type of qualifying medical conditions, (2) patient access to medical cannabis through personal cultivation and dispensaries, (3) privileged health care professionals and recommendations of medical cannabis to patients, and (4) patient registration requirements and state reciprocity. In analyzing each factor, this Note discusses existing state systems that excel in relation to each factor and existing state systems that perform poorly in relation to each factor. Finally, this Note …

The Sequential Movement Challenge Of Higher Education Access, Jonathan D. Glater

Belmont Law Review

Too often, discussion of how best to promote greater and more equitable access to higher education in the United States centers on a single set of challenges when in fact they are many, varied, and interrelated. There is the challenge of student diversity: the student body at the most elite institutions does not look like the population of the nation as a whole. There is the burden of cost: the price of higher education both deters potential students and burdens those who must borrow to enroll, whether they graduate or not. There are disturbing disparities in standardized test scores: the …

Private School Vouchers And The Failed Promise Of Osmosis, Margareth Etienne

Belmont Law Review

Over the years, advocates for education reform have championed a range of strategies including accountability through high-stakes testing, incentives for students, teachers, small class sizes, parental involvement, school uniforms, technology in classrooms, extending the school year, curricular change, and so on. One recurring and consistent argument for school improvement and student achievement has been that students of lesser means do better in mixed settings or when grouped with students of higher means. This idea, that the rising tide lifts all boats, has been at the core, or at least figured as a central argument, in several social movements in education …

Promise Or Peril: Reframing Parental Rights In Special Education Through School Choice Reform Initiatives, Susan C. Bon

Belmont Law Review

While several court rulings have recognized parental rights over education to varying degrees, the emergence of a common public school agenda has led to an increasing establishment of barriers limiting opportunities for parents to exercise their rights and control over the upbringing of their children via school choice initiatives. Parental rights and the exercise of choice are further complicated and restricted for parents of students with disabilities. Although the right to an education is protected under the Individuals with Disabilities in Education Act (IDEA), parental choice is recast as parental participation in the educational decisions affecting children with disabilities. In …

Oral Argument: Transformation, Troubles, And Trends, Marshall L. Davidson Iii

Belmont Law Review

This article explores the dynamic transformation of oral argument from early in American history, its markedly changed significance relative to briefs, and where trends and innovative ideas, including some recently taking root in Tennessee, may take this enduring tradition in the future. To understand the transformation of oral argument and contemporary attitudes about it, one must be familiar with its origins and the crucial role it played in the decision-making process in England and in the formative years of the United States.

Metropolitan Nashville Board Of Public Education Panel Discussion, Sharon Gentry, Christiane Buggs, Will Pinkston, Mary Pierce

Belmont Law Review

Five Members of the Metropolitan Nashville Board of Public Education participate in a panel discussion on the current state of K-12 Education in Tennessee.

Hashing It Out: Blockchain As A Solution For Medicare Improper Payments, William J. Blackford

Belmont Law Review

Part I highlights the inadequacies and inefficiencies of our Medicare payment system, focusing on the initiatives currently in place and the susceptibilities that persist. Part II offers a broad overview of the development, importance, features, and collateral technologies surrounding blockchain. Part III posits that Congress and HHS, through its various subsidiary agencies, should work in tandem with private stakeholders to create and/or implement a blockchain-based infrastructure to facilitate federal healthcare payments and support future growth of quality-based initiatives. This Note concludes with a recommendation for future agency research focusing on the viability and cost efficiency of a blockchain solution.

Pursing The Guilty And Protecting The Innocent Through Smart Prosecution, Amy Weirich

Belmont Criminal Law Journal

Transcript of a presentation given during the 2017 Symposium by General Amy Weirich, who serves as the District Attorney General for the 30^th Judicial District in Memphis, Tennessee. She speaks about what district attorneys do and also, the big question posed: “If I could change one thing about the criminal justice system, what would that be?”. She starts by providing background on how the office in Shelby County, Tennessee, works and how most DA’s offices work around the nation and moves on to Shelby County's pilot of vertical prosecution including community policing, community prosecution and hopeful implementation of community …

It's Amazing What You Can Find In Those Books: Top Ten Underutilized Rules For The Criminal Law Practitioner, Wade Davies

Belmont Criminal Law Journal

Transcript of a presentation given during the 2017 Symposium by Wade Davies a partner at Ritchie Dillard Davies & Johnson in Knoxville, Tennessee. You should never assume that you know how to do something no matter how long you have been practicing law. One of the best things you can do if you’re trying cases, no matter how long you’ve been doing it, is to take out the rule book and re-read the Rules of Evidence and the Rules of Criminal Procedure. When you read the rules in a different context when you’re working on different cases, reconsidering the rules …

Public Defense In Tennessee: Public Pretense?, Dawn Deaner

Belmont Criminal Law Journal

Transcript of a presentation given during the 2017 Symposium by Dawn Deaner the Metropolitan Public Defender for Nashville-Davidson County. Today I will talk about the problems I see in Tennessee, and some solutions that could help. I am a public defender, and I am going to talk about public defense in Tennessee from a public defender’s perspective. I will touch upon ideals of equality, justice, fairness, and ethics. I will also touch on our legal duty, as well as our moral duty as people who care, hopefully, about equal justice in this country.