Health Law and Policy Commons^™

Patient Privacy In The Digital Age: Reimagining Health Data Laws To Protect Patients’ Constitutional Rights, Adriana Almeida Mehtani

Barry Law Review

No abstract provided.

Arrest Rates And Police Presence In East Bay Area Counties Of Northern California, Christiana M. Tyler

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

In this research study, we discuss the social phenomenon of mass incarceration in the United States. Previous research has evidenced clear racial disparities within this social issue, but has yet to make a connection between high incarceration rates and the sheer volume of police officers in many communities. This descriptive study sets out to discover whether there is a difference in incarceration rates based on the level of police presence in select counties in Northern California. The study will measure police presence by the number of police officers, using secondary data from U.S. government and nonprofit agencies. The researcher hypothesizes …

Preserving Life In An Age Of Autonomy: A Critique Of Physician-Assisted Suicide, Adeline Holcombe

Senior Honors Theses

This thesis critiques physician-assisted suicide (PAS) as a reflection of Western thought’s shift from a biblical sanctity-of-life ethic toward autonomy and relativism. Through analysis of biblical and historical foundations, major cases, and state PAS laws, it argues that legalization weakens the state’s interest in preserving life, normalizes suicide, and exposes vulnerable populations to coercion, inadequate safeguards, and legal expansion. The thesis concludes that PAS laws should be repealed and that palliative care, hospice, and mental health treatment provide more compassionate and ethically sound alternatives.

Vaccines, Religious Liberty, And The Gvr As Doctrinal Signal, Zalman Rothschild

Articles

This Essay proceeds in four Parts. Part I traces the doctrinal baseline, showing that vaccines have long functioned as the limit case for religious liberty. Part II briefly describes the doctrinal changes of the COVID-19 era — the Supreme Court’s expansion of religious equality doctrine, and its emergency-docket denials that left vaccine mandates formally unresolved — before explaining why the GVR in Miller signals a different move: the extension of the religious liberty framework to vaccine mandates, bypassing the comparability analysis that had allowed most courts to sustain them under the equality model. Part III turns to Miller itself and …

A Mass Disabling Event: Why California Courts Must Protect Workers’ Families From Take-Home Covid, Ellery Armstrong

Seattle Journal for Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Frontmatter, Case Western Reserve University School Of Law

Health Matrix: The Journal of Law-Medicine

No abstract provided.

Incentivizing Bidirectional Ev Charging Stations, Luke Warkall

Health Matrix: The Journal of Law-Medicine

California recently enacted a law that gives the California Energy Commission authority to require that Electric Vehicles (“EVs”) sold in California be capable of bidirectional charging. A bidirectional EV is capable of sending energy stored in the EV battery to a person’s home and to the grid. Bidirectional EVs are a novel step in the right direction in the global fight against climate change. They offer a substantial and mobile power source to communities recovering from natural disasters and can offset the demand for nonrenewable energy consumption by storing solar, wind and other renewable energy, then sending that energy back …

Right To Life, Right To Arms: Conservative States' Antithetical Approaches To Abortion And Gun Laws, Kristen Mehalko

Health Matrix: The Journal of Law-Medicine

Following Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization and New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, twelve states enacted total abortion bans while simultaneously maintaining among the weakest gun safety laws in the nation. This Note explores the policy contradiction inherent in this approach: states invoking fetal life protection experience gun death rates substantially exceeding national averages, with firearms becoming the leading cause of death for children in these jurisdictions. The Note reveals how these states employ divergent strategies across two policy domains. Abortion restrictions receive vigorous enforcement through criminal statutes and private liability mechanisms, whereas gun regulations face …

Volume 36 Cover, Case Western Reserve University School Of Law

Health Matrix: The Journal of Law-Medicine

No abstract provided.

Waking Up From The Resident Duty-Hour Nightmare, Olivia Jack

Health Matrix: The Journal of Law-Medicine

Lengthy, grueling hours have long been the tradition for physicians-in-training, but resident exhaustion is a threat to patient and resident safety in the United States. This Note outlines the historical development of resident duty-hour regulation and examines the political and professional forces that continue to shape the current system. It argues that the current accreditation-based approach, that nearly all states rely on, inadequately protects residents and patients. This Note proposes several legislative and regulatory solutions, but suggests that in this moment of history, states are uniquely positioned to fill the regulatory gap. Such solutions include mandatory automated duty-hour tracking, regular …

Trapped: How Asset Restrictions Impact Supplemental Security Income Eligibility And Impoverish Individuals With Disabilities, Jaclyne Berger

Health Matrix: The Journal of Law-Medicine

For almost forty years, Congress and the SSA have failed to update the asset limit for SSI eligibility despite the punitive nature of it toward individuals with disabilities who wish to attain financial security. This Note argues that this failure forces individuals with disabilities to choose between financial stability and the Medicaid coverage that they need, contributing to a vicious cycle of poverty. By exploring current eligibility requirements, legislative gaps, and inadequacies of current savings options for individuals with disabilities, this Note makes the case for updating the current requirements and increasing access and accountability of ABLE accounts. These changes …

It's Magic?: Ozempic, Addiction Treatment, And The Law, Amandeep S. Grewal

Health Matrix: The Journal of Law-Medicine

The world may finally have a cure for drug addiction: Ozempic. That drug, popularly used for weight loss treatment, has spawned miracles for many patients. Their cravings for alcohol, opioids, nicotine and other addictive substances have disappeared along with their waistlines. But the legal system might not be ready to handle Ozempic. Some laws and policies discourage medication-assisted addiction treatment, especially in drug court systems. Drug court participants often face pressure to achieve sobriety through Alcoholics Anonymous and other twelve-step programs, rather than with medical assistance. Legal scholars and harm reduction advocates probably go too far in the other direction. …

Abortion Bites Back: An Analysis Of Direct Democracy Efforts In A Post Dobbs-Era, Kathleen Darcy, Pamela Aronson, Lisa Martin, Sarah Chaban

Health Matrix: The Journal of Law-Medicine

The legal landscape surrounding reproductive rights is in flux, and direct democracy is a method by which increasingly informed and connected citizen voters are able to skirt perceived slowmoving or biased legislatures. Myriad factors shape state-level referendums, including social movements that intersect with gender ideology to challenge or defend existing arrangements. Yet, we know little about referendum rhetorical framing as tied to successes or failures in this pivotal post-Dobbs era. We use a content analysis to look at the rhetoric in state-level ballot proposals on reproductive freedom that were put in front of voters after the Dobbs decision (2022–2024). We …

Stop Preventing Prevention: Securing Minors' Access To Hiv Care, Sarah Steadman

Health Matrix: The Journal of Law-Medicine

A troubling state legislative trend is emerging, marked by regressive restrictions on minors’ sexual health care autonomy, which increases their risk of HIV infection. This trend aligns with the current political hostility towards access to reproductive health care, including minors’ access to contraceptives. Access to HIV preventive care may become collateral damage as politicized parental control legislation aims to roll back established norms that recognized the public health imperative of allowing minorsto independently consent to sexual health care, including HIV testing and treatment, thereby encouraging their uptake. This backsliding is occurring as rates of HIV infection among youth are unacceptably …

Evaluating Drug Use Through Examination Of Local Water Sources: Drug Concentrations Within Biota Systems, Madeleine Freyhof

Honors Projects

Understanding drug usage based on drug concentrations found within biota samples grown in different concentrations of cocaine and benzoylecgonine. Drug policy then can be potentially based on how drug concentrations display drug usage for a specific community.

Du Statut Juridique De L’Embryon Humain En Droit Libanais, Roula El-Husseini Begdache

Proche-Orient, Études juridiques

The legal status of the human embryo has not been specifically studied in Lebanon and is the subject of an uncertain regime resulting from scattered texts and very few court decisions. As the moment marking the beginning of human life remains debated, the recent issues relating to bioethics accompanying scientific advances, particularly in relation to reproductive medicine techniques and their corollaries, including surplus embryos, do not find clear-cut answers in Lebanese law. As scientific progress is at the heart of concerns relating to human life before birth, an abdication of legal experts in favour of doctors and ethics committees can …

Dignity For The Deceased: The Abolition Solution To The Laws Governing Unclaimed Body Donation, Lauren Bayerl

Cleveland State Law Review

This Note explores the dangers bubbling under the surface of body donation law across the United States. Specifically, this Note investigates the little-known contours of Ohio law that open the door for body donation practices that may bypass an individual’s consent. While data is slim on the real-world outcomes that such quirks in state law have produced, a recent news story out of Texas highlights the very real danger that the structure of these state body donation laws can produce. This Note first details the laws in place in Ohio that govern body donation, using one state’s laws as a …

The Retreat Of Federal Power And The Rise Of Post-Supremacy Federalism, Victoria Grace Litman

Cleveland State Law Review

This Article introduces the theory of post-supremacy federalism to describe a structural condition in which federal law remains formally binding, but enforcement has durably receded or collapsed. Unlike frameworks grounded in intergovernmental friction or negotiated cooperation, this account begins from federal retreat—the cumulative erosion of enforcement capacity across judicial, administrative, legislative, and executive institutions. Post-supremacy federalism arises when three conditions are met: (1) federal law remains intact; (2) enforcement retreats; and (3) no formal devolution occurs. In this vacuum, states are not merely filling gaps. They are governing by default—under laws that still bind but no longer structure governance in …

Addictive By Design: Can States Regulate Social Media Algorithms In The Face Of Free Speech Challenges?, Niamh Kathleen Keane

University of Miami Business Law Review

The foe we did not know, the stranger that stole the show. Social media once presented itself as a friendly way to connect with loved ones through shared pictures and catchy captions. Yet, it has since shown its true colors; intentionally addicting its users—for its own financial benefit—and showing no remorse doing so.

Entranced, users set off on a digital journey, veering down paths they never imagined . . . Today, children as young as eight years old are exposed to extremely harmful content such as medically unsupported dieting techniques, substance abuse, and dangerous, life-threatening social media “trends,” all of …

The Deregulation Of Cancer, Daniel G. Aaron

Texas A&M Law Review

Fifty years ago, the U.S. embarked on a radical new path. Under pressure from the environmental movement, Congress passed an array of statutes aimed at regulating carcinogens out of our world. This regulatory experiment sprawled from air and water to food and consumer products.

Legal scholars have paid scant attention to this wave of cancer regulation despite its size and importance and the public’s apparent interest in avoiding carcinogens. But there is a growing literature finding flaws with individual regimes within the framework, such as the Clean Air Act, the Toxic Substances Control Act, and the Tobacco Control Act. In …