SSRN
New: Gina, the Ada, and Genetic Discrimination in Employment
The Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2008 (GINA) was signed into law on May 21, 2008, after a 13-year struggle in Congress. GINA prohibits genetic discrimination in employment and health insurance, thereby supplementing existing federal protections against genetic discrimination in employersponsored group health plans contained in the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) and state laws prohibiting genetic discrimination in employment and individ
REVISION: Health Risk Reduction Programs in Employer-Sponsored Health Plans: Part II-Law and Ethics
We sought to examine the legal and ethical implications of workplace health risk reduction programs (HRRP's) using health risk assessments, individually focused risk reduction, and financial incentives to promote compliance. Methods: We conducted a literature review, analyzed relevant statutes and regulations, and considered the effects of these programs on employee health privacy. Results: A variety of laws regulate HRRP's, and there is little evidence that employer-sponsored HRRP's violate the
REVISION: The Ghost in Our Genes: Legal and Ethical Implications of Epigenetics
Epigenetics is one of the most scientifically important, and legally and ethically significant, cutting-edge subjects of scientific discovery. Epigenetics link environmental and genetic influences on the traits and characteristics of an individual, and new discoveries reveal that a large range of environmental, dietary, behavioral, and medical experiences can significantly affect the future development and health of an individual and their offspring. This article describes and analyzes the ethic
New: Health Risk Reduction Programs in Employer-Sponsored Health Plans: Part I - Efficacy
We sought to determine whether workplace health risk reduction programs (HRRPs) using health risk assessments (HRAs), individually focused risk reduction, and financial incentives succeeded in improving employee health and reducing employer health benefit costs. Methods: We reviewed the proprietary HRA available to us and conducted a literature review to determine the efficacy of HRRPs using HRAs, individualized employee interventions, and financial incentives for employee participation. Results
New: Rethinking Press Rights of Equal Access
The prevailing approach to First Amendment equal-access litigation, turning on the "general inclusivity" of government access, is deeply flawed. The standard has proved to be, in the end, unduly formalistic, hopelessly vague, and, perhaps most importantly, theoretically incompatible with the Supreme Court's emerging view that access is a form of government subsidy.
This paper calls on the courts to abandon their reliance on inclusiveness, and, in its place, tailor the definition of "access"
REVISION: Health Risk Reduction Programs in Employer-Sponsored Health Plans: Part II-Law and Ethics
We sought to examine the legal and ethical implications of workplace health risk reduction programs (HRRP's) using health risk assessments, individually focused risk reduction, and financial incentives to promote compliance. Methods: We conducted a literature review, analyzed relevant statutes and regulations, and considered the effects of these programs on employee health privacy. Results: A variety of laws regulate HRRP's, and there is little evidence that employer-sponsored HRRP's violate the
REVISION: Rethinking Press Rights of Equal Access
The prevailing approach to First Amendment equal-access litigation, turning on the "general inclusivity" of government access, is deeply flawed. The standard has proved to be, in the end, exceedingly permissive, hopelessly vague, and, perhaps most importantly, theoretically incompatible with the Supreme Court's emerging view that access is a form of government subsidy. This essay calls on the courts to abandon their reliance on inclusiveness, and, in its place, tailor the definition of "access
REVISION: Water Privatization Trends in the United States: Human Rights, National Security, and Public Steward
This article examines 3 aspects of water privatization in the United States: 1) the privatization of public water services and systems; 2) the dominance of private property rights in water amid a complex legal regime of mixed public and private characteristics of water; and 3) the cultural framing of water as a consumer commodity. These trends raise significant human rights issues, not unlike global debates over human rights to water, and also critical national security issues related to confli
REVISION: Body, Body, Who Gets the Body? The Resolution of Bodily Remains Cases
What do celebrity Anna Nicole Smith; Godfather of Soul James Brown; baseball immortals Ted Williams and Kirby Puckett; artist Mark Rothko; some United States service members killed in the Iraq War; and even the Reverend and Mrs. Billy Graham have in common? All have been the objects of disputes over who controls final disposition of their mortal remains. Those, in turn, have brought into public scrutiny an ancient legal issue - who decides the place and method of disposal of the bodies of the d
REVISION: Nursery of a Supreme Court Justice: The Library of James Harlan of Kentucky, Father of John Marshall
Probate records show that James Harlan, the father of Supreme Court Justice John Marshall Harlan, assembled during his lifetime a law library impressive in its breadth and balance. This paper discusses how Harlan might have acquired the collection, analyzes its content, and attempts to identify titles listed in the executor's inventory.
REVISION: Avoid Clichés
This article defines the term 'cliché' and provides examples from both common usage and legal writing. It then cites reported opinions in which judges have disapproved of lawyers’ trite phrasing. The article concludes by advising legal writers to replace clichés with strong, direct language.
New: Disability Law Issues for High Risk Students: Addressing Violence and Disruption
The article addresses the disability discrimination laws that apply to how individuals with mental health problems are treated in various contexts where concerns about campus violence or disruption are at issue. It discusses what educators are required to do (legal requirements), what they should do (what ethically should be considered in balancing the interests of the individual with mental health challenges and others that might be affected by conduct that relates to those challenges), and wh
New: Disability Law Issues for High Risk Students: Addressing Violence and Disruption
The article addresses the disability discrimination laws that apply to how individuals with mental health problems are treated in various contexts where concerns about campus violence or disruption are at issue. It discusses what educators are required to do (legal requirements), what they should do (what ethically should be considered in balancing the interests of the individual with mental health challenges and others that might be affected by conduct that relates to those challenges), and wh
REVISION: Avoid Clichés
This article defines the term 'cliché' and provides examples from both common usage and legal writing. It then cites reported opinions in which judges have disapproved of lawyers’ trite phrasing. The article concludes by advising legal writers to replace clichés with strong, direct language.
REVISION: Rhetorical Neutrality: Colorblindness, Frederick Douglass, and Inverted Critical Race Theory
My article is a forward-looking, historical piece that offers a critique of colorblind constitutionalism through an examination of the Court's race jurisprudence. Justice O'Connor's affirmative action decisions serve as a model for a critique of neutrality and inversion - the doctrinal technique of turning substantive concepts inside out in the name of neutrality only to preserve systemic oppression - the Court has dramatically reinterpreted the Fourteenth Amendment. Justice O'Connor's decisio
Update: Got Issues? An Empirical Study about Framing Them
Grounded in framing theory and the analyses of judges and commentators, this article examines issue statements in a sample of recent briefs from six states. The data cover various aspects of issue statements, including sentence structure, length, and the most common beginning words. Issue statements from recent briefs provide examples throughout the discussion. The article concludes with recommendations for framing effective issue statements.
New: Got Issues? An Empirical Study about Framing Them
Grounded in framing theory and the analyses of judges and commentators, this article examines issue statements in a sample of recent briefs from six states. The data cover various aspects of issue statements, including sentence structure, length, and the most common beginning words. Issue statements from recent briefs provide examples throughout the discussion. The article concludes with recommendations for framing effective issue statements.
REVISION: Body, Body, Who Gets the Body? The Resolution of Bodily Remains Cases
What do "celebrity" Anna Nicole Smith; "Godfather of Soul" James Brown; baseball immortals Ted Williams and Kirby Puckett; artist Mark Rothko; some United States service members killed in the Iraq War; and even the Reverend and Mrs. Billy Graham have in common? All have been the objects of disputes over who controls final disposition of their mortal remains. Those, in turn, have brought into public scrutiny an ancient legal issue--who decides the place and method of disposal of the bodies of th
New: Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue
The Bluebook has transcended its role as a legal citation manual. As the citation for the flagship law reviews at Harvard, Yale, Columbia, and Penn, the Bluebook acts as the contract, combination, or conspiracy in restraint of trade that keeps its publishers solvent. As the condensed expression of the familial relationship between legal academia and student-edited law reviews, the Bluebook represents the prenuptial contract between the professors and the journals. Finally, as the unofficial U
New: Feudalism Unmodified: Discourses on Farms and Firms
The regulation of firm size and structure, in agriculture and industry, assumes that certain forms of market structure and industrial organization are economically or socially pernicious. Large farms and large firms, according to this view, are reservoirs of economic and social evils. The law often targets these purported evils by restricting the formation and structure of firms. Structural regulation exploits the connection between the internal firm organization and overall market structure.
