Feature Channels: Government/Law

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Expert addresses the battle over school prayer in public schools and the landmark US Supreme Court case, Engel vs. Vitale.

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Larry Van Horn, associate professor of health care management and executive director of health affairs at Owen, co-teaches a course with U.S. Rep. Jim Cooper, D-Tenn., on health care policy. His current research interests include nonprofit conduct, governance and objectives in health care markets, and the measurement of health care outcomes and productivity.

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American Thoracic Society President Dean E. Schraufnagel, MD, today expressed “grave concerns” with legislation released by House Energy and Commerce Committee chairman Fred Upton (R-MI) and Senate Environment and Public Works Chairman Jim Inhofe (R-OK) to make changes to the Clean Air Act.

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Even the most horrible criminals feel guilt, and according to new research from the University of Montreal, playing on that sentiment might be a good way to extract a confession.

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Sara Rosenbaum, Chair of the Department of Health Policy at The George Washington University, is available to comment on the Florida federal judge ruling health care reform law unconstitutional.

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The American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) today praised President Obama’s call for a renewed focus on education and innovation issues, as he stated in yesterday’s State of the Union address.

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The Crimes Against Humanity Initiative at the Whitney R. Harris World Law Institute of Washington University in St. Louis School of Law recently released the text of a proposed multilateral treaty on the prevention and punishment of crimes against humanity. Leila Nadya Sadat, JD, director of the initiative, says that this is the first time that such a convention has been drafted. “It represents a real opportunity for the international community to complete the Rome Statute system by imposing a clear obligation on states to prevent and punish crimes against humanity,” says Sadat, also the Henry H. Oberschelp Professor of Law and Harris Institute director. “Moreover, it offers mechanisms designed to help states cooperate with each other in the investigation and prosecution of such crimes,” she says.

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This month's referendum on South Sudan's independence brings renewed attention to the importance of self-determination in ensuring global peace, according to Timothy Waters at the Indiana University Maurer School of Law.

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Jonathan Adler, Professor of Law and Director of the Center for Business Law and Regulation at Case Western Reserve School of Law, testified before the U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Subcommittee on Courts, Commercial, and Administrative Law regarding proposed legislation to assert greater legislative control over regulatory policy.

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A just-published paper explores gambling history in Hawaii and Utah and points out that while those states may not currently have any form of legalized gambling, that wasn't always the case.

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When the Senate convenes Tuesday, Jan. 25, it is expected to weigh a resolution to reform the filibuster rule and eliminate secret holds — protocols that many have blamed for encouraging congressional gridlock. Although the proposal is put forth by members of the Senate’s Democratic majority, it contains a series of relatively modest changes that should hold some appeal to the Senate’s Republican minority, suggests congressional expert Steven S. Smith of Washington University in St. Louis.

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Criminologist Alex Piquero has won the 2011 Academy Fellow Award from the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences (ACJS), and it’s no wonder. Piquero ranks No. 1 in the nation for scholarly contributions to his field, and so does The Florida State University College of Criminology and Criminal Justice, where he and other top-ranked faculty are bringing research to life.

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Women in Congress deliver more federal projects to their home districts than men do, even when controlling for such factors as party affiliation and ideology. Congresswomen also sponsor and co–sponsor more legislation than their male counterparts, the authors found. The study has recently been accepted for publication at the American Journal of Political Science.

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The new Maryland legislature significantly under-represents women compared to the general population, though African American membership is less out of balance, finds a new University of Maryland study. “Minority candidates are quite effective at winning elections, but there aren’t enough seeking office,” said UMD researcher Paul Herrnson.

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The following health policy experts at the GW Medical Center are available to comment on the State of the Union address.

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States might be better off combating teen sexting with new laws that directly address the issue rather than adapting existing obscenity or pornography laws, a University of Iowa law student and researcher suggests.

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This commentary by renowned social scientist Dennis Embry emphasizes the severity of mental health issues facing our nation's youth. Dr. Embry advocates for the use of "behavioral vaccines" to improve mental health and reduce the problems it causes.

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Given the conflicted politics of the death penalty, it was probably inevitable that the Illinois legislature would vote to abolish the practice, says Indiana University legal expert Joseph L. Hoffmann.

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International outsourcing has come to the legal profession. In what may be the most comprehensive article written thus far on the increasingly hot-button topic of offshore legal process outsourcing (LPO), Associate Law Professor Cassandra Burke Robertson concludes that the LPO trend is revolutionizing the way in which law is practiced in the West.

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Health care reform as presented will be good for Americans, according to Dr. Joel Rudin, a professor in the Management and Entrepreneurship Department in the Rohrer College of Business at Rowan University, Glassboro, N.J.

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Maryland’s smart growth program made barely discernible progress in the past decade concludes a new report from the University of Maryland's National Center for Smart Growth. "The state made a significant effort to encourage development in designated areas, but the smart growth tools in place are apparently inadequate,” says researcher Gerrit Knaap.

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NSF International, an independent public health organization that tests and certifies a wide range of plumbing and drinking water treatment products, strongly supports the passage of the Reduction of Lead in Drinking Water Act on January 4th, which significantly reduces the amount of lead allowed in plumbing products that contact drinking water.

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How far should individuals or churches be able to push free exercise of religion -- especially when it comes to accommodating prisoners with unconventional beliefs and congregations whose ministries and missions may not jibe with restrictions on land use? A Baylor University professor explores those questions in a new book.

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Steven Johnson, industrial engineering professor at the University of Arkansas, is available to comment on the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s recent proposal to enact federally mandated rules that would require trucks to activate speed limits. Johnson has studied speed limits and car-vs.-large-truck speed differentials on rural, interstate highways and found that different speed limits for cars and large trucks compromise safety by causing greater speed variation and a higher number of vehicles passing each other. He is currently involved in research funded by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration regarding the implementation of speed-limiting devices on commercial vehicles.

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The Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) commends Congress for passage of landmark food safety legislation, which represents the largest changes in the country’s food safety laws in more than 70 years. These changes will be discussed at a special food safety forum on January 7th, 2011.

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One expert on electoral politics is throwing a little cold water on pundit predictions that Republicans are the big winners from the 2010 census, which will see “red” states picking up House seats and “blue” states losing representation as a result of the once-a-decade reapportionment.

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Prof. Katherine Hayes is available to comment on the recent court ruling by Virginia Judge Henry E. Hudson on health reform.

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The South could pay less for its electricity in 20 years than is currently projected if strong public policies are enacted to spur renewable energy production and use, according to a report released today by researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology and Duke University.

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Physicians' fears of being sued for malpractice are out of proportion to their actual risk of being sued, according to a recent study by a University of Iowa researcher and colleagues.

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The ruling by Judge Henry E. Hudson of the Federal District Court in Richmond, Va., finding the individual mandate provision of the new health-care law unconstitutional is an important ruling, but it does not settle the question, says Timothy D. McBride, PhD, health economist and associate dean for public health at the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis. McBride says that the individual mandate, while just a small piece of the health-reform structure, is very important to making all of the parts of health reform work. “It is more or less like pulling on the thread of a garment, and having the whole garment come apart if this disappears,” he says.

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Do black leather pants qualify as a tax deduction for rock stars? Fans, musicians, journalists, researchers and anyone else interested in music can see how the courts dealt with this question and nearly any other legal issue involving the music industry at The Discography: Legal Encyclopedia of Popular Music accessible through thediscography.org. The site was created by Loren Wells, JD, musician and recent graduate of the Washington University in St. Louis School of Law and is supported by the Center for Empirical Research in the Law (CERL) at the School of Law. The site’s database — the most elaborate of its kind — covers 2,400 court opinions spanning nearly 200 years of the music industry.

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John D. Graham, a dean at Indiana University and an official in the Bush administration, says the Obama-GOP tax-cut deal is "remarkably creative and practical," especially given the polarized state of the two-party politics.

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An independent analysis of data in East Palo Alto, CA shows a dramatic drop in crime over the past two decades. Once known as the U.S. per capita “murder capital,” the city’s crime rate dropped 62% between 1986 and 2008.

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Cheryl Block, JD, federal budget and tax expert and professor of law at Washington University in St. Louis, weighs in on tax cut extensions. “Finger pointing aside, both parties have been at the helm at various times since 2001,” Block says, “both standing watch over the growing imbalance between revenues and spending and both aware of threats to the nation’s future fiscal health in light of the aging population, escalating health care costs, and growing government commitments under entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicaid.”

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Steven H. Shiffrin, First Amendment expert and Professor of Law at Cornell University, comments on the Westoboro Baptist Church protest at the funeral of Elizabeth Edwards.

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Researchers with the University of New Hampshire’s nationally and internationally recognized sexual and intimate partner violence prevention program, Bringing in the Bystander, are available to discuss new federal legislation that recommends universities implement bystander programs to help protect college students from sexual assault.

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The president of the American Thoracic Society today criticized the Environmental Protection Agency for seeking a six-month delay in issuing a final rule for ozone pollution.

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This week, Professor Michael Scharf traveled 30 hours to Mombasa, Kenya to personally deliver his team’s legal research to the Chief Judge of the Kenya Piracy Court.

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As members of Congress spar over whether or not to provide tuition benefits and a path to legalization to undocumented students through the DREAM Act, an examination of the nation’s first state-level “dream act” indicates such policy effectively boosts college enrollment by these students.

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Texas Tech University professor Robert Ricketts, Frank M. Burke Chair in Taxation in the Rawls College of Business, says that taxes do not discourage job creation or investment in the economy, and that tax cuts do not increase revenues.

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Craig Altier, associate professor of population medicine and diagnostic science at Cornell University’s College of Veterinary Medicine, comments on U.S. Senate approval today of a long-stalled food safety bill that was partially inspired by last summer’s Salmonella contamination of eggs.

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American University's Mary Hansen helped pass a subsidy extension for adopted children that matches the level for foster children in Washington, D.C.

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To help young people prepare to sort through the overwhelming flood of information that will soon pour forth from the media about the 2012 presidential campaign, a media literacy initiative at Ithaca College has published an update to its popular curriculum kit for teachers.

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American University has experts available to provide commentary about higher education, immigration and the DREAM Act.

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Americans passing through airport security lines this week will find themselves victims of overaggressive, theatrical safety precautions that waste resources and do almost nothing to protect travelers, a privacy expert says.

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UAB psychologist Josh Klapow, Ph.D., believes new security measures at the nation’s airports are the straws that broke the travelers’ backs. UAB forensic scientist Jason Linville, Ph.D., says serious questions about the validity of the forensic data generated by full body scanners need to be answered.

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How far individuals or churches should push free exercise of religion -- especially when accommodating prisoners with unconventional beliefs and congregations whose ministries may not jibe with zoning restrictions -- is the topic of a new book by a Baylor University professor.

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Two Michigan environmental scientists advocate for scientist-advocacy on issues of environmental ethics.

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The Council on Undergraduate Research joins undergraduate students, faculty members and colleges and universities engaged in undergraduate research in celebrating this week’s action on the floor of the US House of Representatives that honored undergraduate research and its invaluable contributions. On November 16, 2010, the House designated the week of April 11, 2011 as “Undergraduate Research Week.”

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A How-To Primer from Rensselaer Polytechnic institute on "mashing-up" the treasure trove of government web data.