Protections for Prisoners
A federal trial in Texas will decide whether inmates have a constitutional right to air‑conditioning, arguing that extreme heat violates the Eighth Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment. Five prisoners have died from heat‑related illnesses since 2023, and the Texas Department of Criminal Justice says installing AC would cost over $1 billion. The case highlights the difficulty prisoners face under the Prison Litigation Reform Act, which forces them to exhaust internal grievance procedures before suing. Scholars at a recent seminar examined broader health‑rights challenges, from menstrual product access to the limits of compassionate release and private‑sector incarceration alternatives.
Week in Review
This week’s regulatory roundup featured a U.S. Supreme Court order pausing a Fifth Circuit ban on telehealth‑only access to the abortion drug mifepristone, a $1.5 million civil‑penalty settlement between the SEC and Elon Musk over undisclosed Twitter (X) stock holdings, and...
The Future of Marine Renewable Energy
Global electricity demand is surging, driven by AI and digitalization, heightening climate risks unless clean power expands. Researchers led by Enwei Tang argue that marine renewable energy—offshore wind, tidal, wave, and others—offers a vast, land‑free resource pool capable of delivering...
State-Based Restrictions on Corporate Political Speech
Corporate political spending in the 2024 election cycle exceeded $14 billion, with SpaceX and Citadel among the top contributors. Law professor W.C. Bunting argues that state corporate law can be used to curb "pure" political speech, citing ultra vires doctrines and...
How Performance-Based Regulation for Utilities Can Go Wrong
Performance‑based regulation (PBR) shifts utility oversight from prescriptive rules to outcome‑based incentives, rewarding or penalizing utilities based on metrics such as reliability, safety, and efficiency. While proponents argue PBR aligns utilities with modern energy challenges—distributed resources, smart grids, and storage—poorly...
We Can Learn From the Oscillations of U.S. Environmental Law
The Trump administration repealed the EPA’s 2009 greenhouse‑gas endangerment finding, prompting a coalition of more than 20 states to sue in the D.C. Circuit. The legal clash arrives as authors Brigham Daniels and Camacho release *Lessons for a Warming Planet*,...
Tackling the U.S. Housing Crisis
Nearly half of U.S. renters now spend more than 30% of their income on housing, with over a quarter allocating over half of their earnings. Eviction filings are climbing, disproportionately affecting Black and Hispanic households and linking to higher homelessness...
Week in Review
The week featured sweeping legal and regulatory actions, beginning with the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that Louisiana’s new electoral map is an unconstitutional racial gerrymander. A federal appeals court halted the Trump administration’s policy of mandatory detention without bond for...
The Hidden Debate Behind a €120 Million Fine
The European Commission imposed a €120 million (≈ $130 million) fine on X in December 2025 for breaching the Digital Services Act’s transparency rules, marking the first DSA penalty. U.S. officials, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, denounced the sanction as censorship of...
Regulating Digital Surveillance of Workers
A recent breach exposed 21 million screenshots of employee computers, revealing passwords, emails and other sensitive data. The leak underscores the rapid expansion of digital surveillance tools—ranging from automatic screen captures to wearable motion trackers—used by employers. Scholars Pauline Kim and...
Shooting a Gnat With an Unconstitutional Elephant Gun
The U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee has marked up the App Store Accountability Act, which would require major app stores to implement mandatory age verification and parental consent for minors. The bill shifts liability for age‑verification failures from individual...
Congress Stalls, Xylazine Spreads
Xylazine, a veterinary sedative, remains unscheduled under the Controlled Substances Act, allowing unrestricted importation despite its presence in roughly 25% of the U.S. fentanyl supply and its link to thousands of preventable amputations each year. The DEA has detected the...
Week in Review
President Trump signed an executive order allocating $50 million to accelerate state‑led psychedelic research and to streamline FDA, DEA and DOJ reviews of ibogaine‑based therapies. A federal appeals court vacated a halt on the “Alligator Alcatraz” immigration detention center, while a...
Consequences of the SAVE America Act
The SAVE America Act, passed by the House in February 2026, expands the earlier SAVE Act by demanding documentary proof of U.S. citizenship for anyone registering to vote or changing registration. The bill would require passports, certified birth certificates, or...
History, Ambassadors, and Birthright Citizenship
President Donald Trump’s executive order reclassifies children born in the United States to undocumented parents as non‑citizens, directly challenging the long‑standing interpretation of birthright citizenship. The move has prompted the Supreme Court case Trump v. Barbara, which will decide whether...