Frank Housh We live a world of unparalleled scientific innovation; it’s a good thing, too, because we are wholly dependent on the scientific process to resolve the issues related to feeding the 7 billion people on the planet without destroying the earth in the process. Despite the crisis confronting us, political discourse in the United…
Mark Wilson I’m writing this from Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART), the San Francisco Bay Area subway system. As I write, the Oakland City Center/12th Street station is closed due to a “civil disturbance” arising out of the Occupy Oakland protest. Early Tuesday morning, Oakland police raided Occupy Oakland’s tent city in Frank Ogawa Plaza,…
Marshall Thompson Anonymous, one of the foremost hacktivist groups around, decided to clean up the Internet a bit last week by attacking websites and servers that either distribute or support the distribution of child porn. The loosely organized group of hackers has always had a soft spot for vulnerable groups of people and a feeling that they…
Jeremy Kreisberg The HLS American Constitution Society was honored to be joined by Chief Judge Lippman of the New York Court of Appeals today. Chief Judge Lippman spoke about New York’s efforts to fund civil legal services for low-income New Yorkers who are at risk of losing the essentials of life, including but not limited…
Najah Farley On October 22, 2011, the New York Times published “The Paradox of the New Elite.” In the opinion article, Alexander Stille, a professor of international journalism, discussed the paradox of the fact that as formerly oppressed groups, such as women, blacks and gays, have been accepted into the mainstream, economic inequality has increased. Stille posited…
Jessica Jackson When Officer Ornelas pulled over Malaika Brooks, seven months pregnant at the time, for speeding in November of 2004, neither of them had any idea that the next hour of their lives would eventually be scrutinized by half the judges of the Ninth Circuit. Ms. Brooks, who denied having sped and believed that Ornelas…
Peter Dunne On October 18, 2011, the European Court of Justice (the European Union’s court of final instance on Treaty matters) handed down a ruling which prohibits the granting of patents, in all twenty-seven member states, for research involving the destruction of an embryo. The case arose out of an attempt by German scientist Oliver…
Sushila Rao Video footage depicting a two-year old girl in China being run over twice by the same mini-van driver, and then once again by a light truck – while as many as 18 passersby ignored her plight – has sparked off the latest round of moral outcry and introspective reflection on modern societies’ lack…
Najah Farley Qaddafi’s death yesterday marked a turning point in the Arab Spring. The number of authoritarian regimes in the Arab world continues to dwindle and the number of rulers that have been subject to some type of reckoning (whether legal or justified) has increased. His capture (and the apparently gruesome videos) can only serve…
Peter Dunne Having completed my primary law degree in Ireland and France, I have spent much of the last five years speaking about “democratic legitimacy deficits” – the perception that the European Union is a fundamentally undemocratic institution, controlled by shadowy bureaucrats in Brussels who have little or no interest in the will of the…