Online Edition
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The Case for Banning Off-Label Use
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New uses for drugs that are already on the market could help treat hundreds of diseases and thousands of people; however, the current system of push-and-pull incentives in the modern American pharmaceutical regulatory system is not adequately inducing the expensive research needed to market these old drugs for new uses.[i] One commentator, Ben Roin, elegantly distills the issue down to…
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Appellate Jurisdiction in Sanchez-Gomez: A Hard Case That Should Be Easy
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Introduction In 2013, the Southern District of California adopted a rule requiring all criminal defendants to appear in full restraints—hands cuffed and connected to a waist chain, feet shackled and chained together—for most non-jury proceedings.1 There were a few exceptions, including appearances at sentencing. And a defendant could ask the district court to have the shackles removed. Four…
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Free the Data! The Scramble to Access Data in Light of Schrems I & II
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Maximillian Schrems was a PhD student in Austria when he decided to participate in a study abroad program with Santa Clara University. While Schrems was at Santa Clara, Ed Palmari, Facebook’s privacy lawyer, spoke to his class. It was during this lecture that Schrems received the ammunition that he needed to challenge the legitimacy of EU–U.S. data transfers.…
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Appointing Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer Judges in the Trump Administration
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President Donald Trump incessantly brags that American citizens selected him to “Make the Judiciary Great Again” and constantly reminds the public that the huge number of federal jurists whom Trump has appointed will be deciding cases decades after his tenure is over. Trump has rapidly submitted many circuit and district court candidates, but not one of his 123…
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Zoom Wills
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Abstract This brief essay suggests that suddenly popular online meeting platforms like Zoom can be used to execute wills while people are subject to shelter-in-place orders following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Although will execution ceremonies using Zoom do not strictly comply with statutory formalities, Zoom-based ceremonies satisfy the two primary curative doctrines—the substantial compliance doctrine and the UPC’s…
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The Unconstitutionality of Espinoza’s Blue Sky Scholarship Program
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In Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue,1 the Supreme Court ruled that providing state funds to private secular schools but not private religious schools amounted to unconstitutional discrimination against religion in violation of the Free Exercise Clause.2 In this short piece, I explain how the Court’s decision is inconsistent with its prior Establishment Clause precedents on religious school funding. Montana offered a…
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A Matter of “Principal”: A Critique of the Federal Circuit’s Decision in Arthrex v. Smith & Nephew, Inc.
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Abstract The Supreme Court recently granted certiorari in United States v. Arthrex. In that case, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit held that administrative patent judges are principal officers of the United States under the Appointments Clause, and therefore must be appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate. This Note provides a critique of the Federal Circuit’s opinion…
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Affirming Personhood: Extending Title VII Protections to Prisoners in State-Operated Prison Industries
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Abstract This Note examines the application of Title VII protections to prisoners in the historical context of the Thirteenth Amendment. First, I outline the transition from traditional racial chattel slavery into our modern prison industrial complex through the Thirteenth Amendment. Next, I discuss the purpose of Title VII and review the different standards used by the circuit courts to determine…