Alexander Barouch

By Stefan Oakley. The Arizona Supreme Court, in Dinsmoor v. City of Phoenix et al., ruled that schools do not typically owe a duty of care to students who experience violence and/or injury after school. Rather, the duty a school owes to its students is a narrow one, strongly grounded in time and place, rather than based on foreseeability of harm occurring. The Court concluded the “key consideration is whether a known and tangible risk of harm arose that endangered the student while under the school’s custody and control.” Therefore, students who encounter harm off school grounds are  likely out of the “custody and control” of the school.  The facts that gave rise to Dinsmoor Dinsmoor involved the fatal shooting of a student, Ana, by another student, Michael, at a…

By Joanna Jandali. [TW: this blog post contains graphic descriptions and content related to suicide.] “Notice of Impending Death.” This was the title of a handwritten message sent to a federal district court judge on August 29, 2017. The author, Walter Jordon, was a 67-year-old inmate in an Arizona prison suffering from cancer. In his message, Jordon warned the judge that he would “be luckey [sic] to be alive for 30 days,” all because the Arizona Department of Corrections (ADC) and Corizon Health, the state’s for-profit prison health care contractor at the time, had delayed treating Jordon’s treatable cancer. And Jordon couldn’t have been more accurate. Nine days after his impending death notice was delivered, Jordon died. His invasive skin cancer ate through his skull and invaded his brain. Horrifyingly,…

By Sarah Doberneck. Defective products pose a risk of personal injury and property damage to consumers. Because of this, manufacturers and sellers have been held liable for injuries arising from these items for well over a century. Yet, as technology advanced and led to the creation of online marketplaces, the definition of what constitutes a “seller” for products liability purposes is up in the air. The issue has a potential impact on millions of Americans. Online shopping has greatly increased due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and is expected to reach an all-time high this holiday season. Amazon.com, the giant online marketplace, has been at the center of this issue for the past several years. While early court decisions held that Amazon was not liable for defective third-party products, some states…

By Julianne Baggett. On October 18, 2021, the U.S. Supreme Court issued two per curiam opinions extending qualified immunity protections to law enforcement officers accused of using excessive force—one case coming from the Ninth Circuit and the other from the Tenth Circuit. These opinions come as a surprise to some after a decision reached by the Court last November seemed to take a step back from the stringent requirements of qualified immunity. The cases here illustrate that the Court is still inclined to continue to apply the doctrine as it stands, and may even be poised to expand its protections, despite nationwide calls to seriously reconsider it. What is Qualified Immunity? Before defining qualified immunity, it’s necessary to first discuss the law typically avoided by its application: 42 U.S.C. §…

By Nick Hodder. The United States Supreme Court recently agreed to take a closer look at the Environmental Protection Agency’s (“EPA”) statutory authority. Specifically, the Court agreed to hear four cases challenging the agency’s power to limit CO2 emissions from coal power plants. The actual cases—West Virginia v. EPA, 20-1530; North American Coal Co. v. EPA, 20-1531; Westmoreland Mining Holdings v. EPA, 20-1778; and North Dakota v. EPA, 20-1780—should be heard early next year, but even agreeing to hear these cases sent shockwaves through the energy and environmental sectors. The Clean Air Act The EPA is responsible for setting environmental policy and regulating pollution in the United States. These cases address the Clean Air Act (“CAA”), the principle federal statute regulating air emissions. The provision at issue empowers the EPA…

By Matt Lutz. As of September 29, Arizona allows community colleges to offer four-year degrees. Senate Bill 1453 (SB 1453), which was signed into law by Governor Ducey on May 4, 2021, was intended to expand access to higher education among historically underrepresented populations. However, the bill’s opponents, including the Arizona Board of Regents, argue that the state needs its community colleges to focus on increasing graduation rates for its existing two-year programs, not to expand into four-year degrees. Whether the new law will create meaningful impacts and increase education attainment for diverse students remains to be seen. ARIZONA’S ROCKY EDUCATION HISTORY  Arizona has a well-known history of underperformance in education. And the situation, at least in our public school systems, does not appear to be improving. In 2021, WalletHub…

By Claire Newfeld. Coined by renowned lawyer and civil rights advocate Kimberlé Crenshaw, critical race theory is a body of scholarship and an academic movement anchored in the premise that the social construction of race, along with racial bias, permeate American institutions, laws, and policies. Though critical race theory has existed for over thirty years—and its foundational ideas for centuries—it recently made headlines due to efforts to introduce critical race theory into public instruction and conservatives’ subsequent attempts to shut down those efforts. Arizona is one of eight states that have passed legislation banning instruction on critical race theory in schools. In early November, the Arizona Supreme Court unanimously affirmed a Maricopa County Superior Court ruling that held the law unconstitutional. Arizona’s Ban on Critical Race Theory Section 21 of…

By Avery Cartwright. Did you know that you can now buy stock shares in Bitcoin on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), simply by using any stock brokerage app? Last week, ProShares launched an exchange-traded fund linked to Bitcoin futures. This means that people can invest in Bitcoin like any other company traded on the NYSE. Of course, someone who invests in this way does not actually hold any cryptocurrency directly. However, this may be the beauty of it—people can now get involved with Bitcoin without needing to take any of the perceived risks associated with unregulated cryptocurrency exchanges. Here’s how the exchange-traded fund (ETF) works: the ETF speculates on the future price of Bitcoin, meaning that investors on the NYSE are essentially betting on actual Bitcoin’s price fluctuations. Therefore,…

By Benjamin A. Longbottom. Introduction Western water insecurity. Ninety percent of the Western United States is experiencing severe drought. Lake Mead is at its lowest level since the Hoover Dam was built in the 1930s. The recent declaration of a shortage on the Colorado River has heightened concerns about water security and drought resilience in the West. Climate change is exacerbating fundamental sustainability problems like population growth and water insecurity. The United Nations defines water security as “[t]he capacity of a population to safeguard sustainable access to adequate quantities of acceptable quality water for sustaining livelihoods, human well-being, and socio-economic development . . . .” Drought, along with legal and socioeconomic factors, is making Arizona an increasingly water-insecure state. For example, some farmers in Arizona’s Pinal County, hit hardest by…

By Chloe Plaisance. Introduction In November of 2020, Arizona voters passed Proposition 207, also known as the Smart and Safe Arizona Act (the “Act”), which legalized adult-use marijuana for individuals 21 and older. Proposition 207 defines the terms of legal possession of marijuana and sets forth guidelines for retail establishments which intend to sell marijuana. In addition to regulating the use and sale of marijuana, Proposition 207 goes one step further to aid those who were previously impacted by marijuana laws. First, the Act allows for certain individuals to petition for expungement of their criminal records pertaining to certain marijuana related offenses. Second, the Act creates “social equity licenses” for adult-use marijuana establishments. Social Equity Licenses The social equity program created by Proposition 207 is intended to make adult-use marijuana…