Author: Christian Fernandez

By Andrew KudlinskiOn March 22, a gunman opened fire at a grocery store in Boulder, Colorado, killing ten people. The shooting occurred soon after another gunman killed eight people at three different spas in Atlanta, Georgia. The horrifying attacks have reignited a long-unresolved debate on the nature of gun control in the United States. In response to the shootings, President Biden urged Congress to swiftly pass new gun control legislation. The House of Representatives has sent two bills to the Senate that would broaden background checks on gun purchases.However, gun control activists have demanded more, calling on President Biden to utilize executive orders for an immediate response. A specific demand has emerged from a coalition of state attorneys general: close the loophole on “ghost” guns.What is a “ghost” gun?Ghost guns…

By Joel TruettAt the beginning of this year Arizona Ethics Rule 5.4 formally ended. The Arizona Supreme Court announced the elimination of the rule last year, and has since gone into effect on January 1, 2021. The rule prohibited partnerships between lawyers and non-lawyers working together where any part of their services involved the practice of law.In the United States, model ethics rules for lawyers are proposed by the American Bar Association, but the laws governing lawyers are enacted on a state-by-state basis. This means that the rules about how lawyers can behave change from one state to the next. The provisions enacted in Rule 5.4, however, were uniformly accepted in every state until this year. This makes Arizona the first state to cast off its restrictions on attorney/non-attorney partnerships.The…

By Alexandra Nathe.Fresh water is the Earth’s most precious commodity, and its scarcity has been asserted to be the root of every major social challenge. Drought conditions are consistently prevalent in the deserts of the Southwest and are becoming worse with climate change. Consequently, desert residents, including Arizonans, are constantly working to conserve the little water they have access to. In February, Arizona Governor Doug Ducey signed a bill that should work to aid these conservation efforts.Modifying “Use It or Lose It”Arizona water law is exceedingly complex, and this bill only touches on a small portion of it.Regardless, this bill creates significant change in Arizona water law by modifying the traditional “use it or lose it” clause. A major benefit of water rights is that once an individual has them, they have…

By Mitchell AntalisA series of four federal appellate court decisions in 2020 created a new circuit split regarding the legality of a Trump-era immigration rule adopted by the Department of Homeland Security (“DHS”) that altered the grounds for “public charge” inadmissibility determinations for noncitizens. The circuit split set the stage for a Supreme Court showdown early in 2021 in an appeal from a Second Circuit case, but it was recently dismissed upon joint request from all parties as the government lost interest in pursuing the appeal following policy changes instituted by the Biden administration. However, eleven states recently filed a motion to intervene in a Ninth Circuit appeal, so the issue is far from resolved.What Is the Public Charge Rule?TheImmigration and Nationality Act (INA), enacted in 1952, governs U.S. immigration…

By Elyse Pendergrass.The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit created shockwaves when it ruled in October 2019 that administrative patent judges are unconstitutional as currently appointed. On March 1, 2021, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in United States v. Arthrex, Inc., and will soon decide whether or not the Patent Trial and Appeal Board’s structure should be dismantled. America Invents Act (AIA) Restructures the Patent and Trademark OfficeIn 2011, Congress passed the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act (AIA) to modernize the U.S. patent system. Among other reforms, the AIA established the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) as an adjudicatory body within the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. PTAB is composed of over 200 administrative patent judges appointed by the Secretary of Commerce. The AIA grants PTAB the authority…

By Sarah Brunswick.Climatechange has had a rough few years. Last year, California saw a historic fire season, and Arizona had its hottest summer on record. Texas was recently devastated by an extreme winter storm that left millions without power or running water, and the aftermath quickly turned political.Rewinding a few years, disdain for climate change was a hallmark of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign. He proudly exited the Paris Agreement early in his presidency, pushed for fossil fuel development across the country, and opened federal lands for oil leases. Responding to Trump’s actions and growing concerns about climate change, House members introduced a sweeping climate change bill in early 2019, dubbed the Green New Deal.Then-President Trump was openly hostile to the plan, and now-President Biden was a vocal skeptic during primary…

By Sydney Finley. Brief Background on Transgender Discrimination in the U.S.About 1.4 million transgender individuals live in the U.S., which is less than 1% of the total population. Despite these seemingly low numbers, however, transgender individuals face significant amounts of prejudice and discrimination, often starting in early education environments and continuing throughout their lives. The unfortunate stigma that continues to surround transgenderism and gender nonconformity can lead to significant mental health concerns and increased rates of suicide in transgender individuals (especially in transgender youth). Although progress often seems slight, federal courts over the last two decades have slowly and systematically begun to chip away at transgender discrimination. For example, numerous federal courts have held that national sex discrimination laws such as Title VII, Title IX, the Fair Housing Act, and the…

By Nyla Knox. After seventeen years without a federal execution, the U.S. Department of Justice recently executed thirteen people in a six-month period. In this six-month period, the federal government executed more than three times as many people than it did in the past six decades. In fact, prior to the seventeen-year hiatus, only three people were federally executed since 1963. These executions occurred in the wake of growing disapproval of the death penalty, as people across the country urge the Supreme Court to abolish capital punishment. The death penalty is currently legal in twenty-eight states, in the federal government, and in the U.S. military. However, capital punishment remains a hotly debated issue nationwide. In 1972, the United States Supreme Court ruled that the death penalty was unconstitutional because it constituted cruel and unusual…

By Cole Cribari.A History of Protecting Customer DataThe internet age and advancements in technology have completely transformed our society over the last forty years, causing corporations to radically change their business practices. Digital advertising is king and has created some of the most valuable firms in the world. Data giants—Facebook, Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Apple—constantly collect customer information to improve customer experience, provide better services, and generate ad revenue through targeted advertising.  However, this data collection phenomenon goes beyond the technology giants. Everything from basic websites to retail corporations like Borders and RadioShack also collect personally identifiable customer information in the course of conducting business.At the beginning of the internet era, companies placated consumers’ fears of giving their information out over the internet through self-policing in the form of “privacy policies.”…

By John ButzerIntroductionAs the COVID-19 pandemic shut down businesses across the United States, many experts expected a flood of business and individual bankruptcy filings. Instead, in 2020, bankruptcy filings across all chapters were the lowest they had been in thirty-five years. Some have argued that government stimulus programs have given companies and individuals a lifeline that have merely delayed these filings. Are we on the precipice of a deluge of bankruptcies as the economy reopens and congressional response to the pandemic withers?BackgroundFrankly, the economic situation of many businesses was not rosy even prior to the pandemic. Economic researchers found that many companies entered 2020 carrying historically heavy debt loads. By one estimate, corporations in the United States owed $10.5 trillion to creditors in 2020, reflecting debt levels thirty times higher…