The blood shortage in the United States grows more critical every day, but for those of us lucky enough to not urgently need blood, the threat feels more removed and less important than similar threats to the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the food we consume.
Continue readingCategory: Old Comments
The Need for Centralized Government to Encourage a Decentralized Energy Grid
Global warming and the subsequent climate change caused many nations and states to rethink energy production and consumption. In place of carbon-emitting energy sources, countries adopted renewable energy sources. However, in the United States, use of these energy sources, while available, is largely hampered by a lack of uniformity in state regulations.
Continue readingCaring for Aging Prisoners is Taxing: How Missouri Can Ease Its Prison Health Care Burden
Because of the government’s obligation to provide medical care to inmates based on the decision in Estelle, caring for the aging prison population has become more expensive and more burdensome on the taxpayer. Missouri has one of the highest incarceration rates in the world and one of the highest aging prisoner populations.
Continue readingThe Fight to Filter: Navigating Copyrights to Legally Edit Films
Over the past two decades, a number of companies tried and failed to create a business model built upon editing (or filtering) movies for at-home viewers. Repeatedly, these entities encountered fatal obstacles—legal, business-related, or otherwise—in their endeavors to do so.
Continue readingThreats to Copyrighted Code: Bots, Mods, and Reverse Engineering
Computer software is constantly under attack from malicious software and techniques, including “bots,” “mods,” and reverse engineering. Therefore, the need for stronger copyright protection for code is crucial.
Continue readingTaking the Next Step: Simple Changes Regulators Can Make to More Effectively Combat Financial Exploitation
Since 2016, three regulatory measures that put financial institutions at the forefront of combatting financial exploitation of elderly adults have been adopted. These three regulatory measures . . . permit, and sometimes require, financial institutions to take certain precautionary measures when they reasonably suspect financial exploitation of vulnerable adults.
Continue readingBetter the Devil You Know: An Examination of Manufacturer Driven Lethal Injection Drug Shortages
In an attempt to make executions more humane, Oklahoma’s Department of Corrections (“DOC”) consulted a physician to overhaul the state’s execution protocol. This consultation resulted in the implementation of the modern three-drug lethal injection cocktail. However, recent challenges to lethal injection protocols tell a different story.
Continue readingTaming the Wild West: How the SEC Can Legitimize Initial Coin Offerings (“ICOs”), Protect Consumers from Bad Actors, and Encourage Blockchain Development
An Initial Coin Offering (“ICO”) is the first time a blockchain-based company sells its cryptocurrency to the public. ICOs provide any blockchain entrepreneur the ability to quickly receive funding from anyone in the world.
Continue readingInvisible Inequality and Economic Empowerment: Domestic Violence, Discrimination, and the Creation of a New Protected Class
Today, there is a large population of Americans whose plight is invisible to much of the rest of society – the survivors of domestic and sexual abuse and violence. While in the last few years survivors’ voices are beginning to be heard, the legal landscape is still lagging far behind and is sorely inadequate to provide protections and relief to survivors in many areas of life.
Continue readingA Slanted View on the Morality Bars: Matal v. Tam, In re Brunetti, and the Future of Section 2(a) of the Lanham Act
Section 2(a) of the Lanham Act contained two “morality bars” to the registration of trademarks: the Disparagement Clause and the Immoral and Scandalous Clause. Two recent cases, the Supreme Court decision in Matal v. Tam and the subsequent decision from the Federal Circuit, In re Brunetti, both held that the morality bars violate the First Amendment.
Continue reading