It’s Time for the Department of Veterans Affairs to Give Veterans Online Access to their Claims File

Arizona State Law Journal Blog
By Gordon Siu.             In recognition of their sacrifices, the United States provides monthly compensation to veterans who incur a disability connected to their active-duty military service during a congressionally defined period of war. These benefits are managed by the Department of Veterans Affairs (“VA”). The VA maintains a claims file (known as a “C-File”) on every veteran who files a claim for VA benefits. The C-File contains the evidence that the VA considered in granting or denying benefits, such as reports of medical exams ordered by the VA to determine eligibility for VA benefits. Careful review of the C-File is crucial to effective advocacy before the VA regarding a veteran’s claims. Veterans cannot get their C-Files in a timely manner             Despite its importance, the VA doesn’t make it…
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Arizona Judge Rules School Mask Mandate Ban Is Unconstitutional

Arizona State Law Journal Blog
By Sydney Plaskett. On September 27, Arizona Superior Court Judge Katherine Cooper ruled that the recent Republican-backed budget plan, which included a ban on school mask mandates, is unconstitutional. The budget plan included not only COVID-19 related mandate bans, but also anti-fraud election proposals and a ban on requiring schools to teach critical race theory. Judge Cooper’s ruling declared all of these measures unconstitutional, but not for the reason you may think. Uncharted Territory The pandemic has created a wave of constitutional debates that the legal community has had to address with little guidance. Most of these debates have centered around federalism: who has the power to impose COVID-19 policies? Is it the federal government, state governments, or local municipalities? In the case of mask mandates, this question has produced…
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Accessory to the Holocaust: Litigating Ownership of Nazi Art in California Federal Courts

Arizona State Law Journal Blog
By Michael O’Neill. History of the Art The United States Supreme Court recently granted certiorari in the case of Cassirer v. Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection Found., 862 F.3d 951 (9th Cir. 2017). Cassirer’s grandmother owned Rue Saint Honoré, après-midi, effet de pluie, oil on canvas, 81 x 65 cm (1897) by Camille Pissarro (the “Painting”) from 1926 until 1939 when she was forced to surrender the painting in order to obtain an exit visa to flee Nazi Germany. This painting was later sold at auction in 1943 to an unknown buyer and resurfaced in the United States in 1951. In the United States, various private parties owned the painting until it went up for auction again in 1976. That year, a Swiss art collector purchased the Painting in New York and proceeded…
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The NCAA and the Myth of “Amateurism”: The National Labor Relations Board’s Call to Arms

Arizona State Law Journal Blog
By Turner Smith. The National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB”) has again directly challenged the NCAA’s notions of amateurism. It leveled the latest attack on September 29, 2021. Jennifer A. Abruzzo, the NLRB’s General Counsel, issued a memorandum which emphatically declared that “scholarship football players at private colleges and universities, or other similarly situated Players at Academic Institutions, are employees under the [National Labor Relations] Act.” Abruzzo then took aim at the term “student-athletes,” arguing that the term is a misclassification that “lead[s] [athletes] to believe that they do not have statutory protections [in] violation of . . . the Act.” The NCAA wasted no time in issuing a pointed response to the memo. Though brief, the September 30, 2021 statement asserted that “college athletes are students who compete against other…
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Cocktails To-Go: Arizona’s New Takeout Law for Mixed Drinks

Arizona State Law Journal Blog
By Oscar Porter. According to the Arizona Restaurant Association, the COVID-19 pandemic wiped out around 1,000 to 1,200 Arizona restaurants in 2020. Last year, in order to help restaurants stay afloat, Governor Ducey relaxed rules around serving to-go cocktails, specifically for restaurants. Now, restaurants have convinced state lawmakers to codify a version of these new rules. As of October 1, 2021, HB 2773 allows restaurants to sell cocktails to-go if they meet certain conditions. While the new law has significant support from the restaurant industry, it has been met with opposition arguing that the benefits to restaurants come at the expense of bars and liquor stores. BACKGROUND: GOVERNOR’S ORDER In March of 2020, to help struggling restaurants that couldn’t serve customers in-person due to the lockdown Governor Ducey issued an…
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Arizona’s Water Woes

Arizona State Law Journal Blog
By Matthew Adler. On October 1, 2021, Arizona lost 18% of its annual Colorado River water allocation. This cut, amounting to 512,000 acre-feet of water per year (equivalent to over 150 billion gallons), is a result of the Department of the Interior’s recent declaration of a water shortage on the Colorado River. The declaration followed a projection by the Bureau of Reclamation that water levels in Lake Mead will, for the first time ever, fall below 1,075 feet within the next two years. As of now, the shortage declaration only affects the lower basin states of Arizona, Nevada, and California, as well as the country of Mexico. However, a similar shortage declaration for the upper basin states may be on the horizon. Inequity Between the States This dire projection implicates…
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Feeling Lucky?: Sports Betting Goes Live in Arizona

Arizona State Law Journal Blog
By Savannah Wix. Last April, Arizona Governor Doug Ducey signed House Bill 2772 into law, joining 25 other states and the District of Columbia in legalizing sports gambling, ushering in a new era for Arizona sports fans. However, the Yavapai-Prescott Indian Tribe recently challenged the constitutionality of the law, which allows professional sports teams to obtain licenses to run sports gambling operations. A Maricopa County judge refused to issue an injunction prohibiting the enactment of the law, allowing sports betting to become officially legal in Arizona on September 9, 2021, the first day of the 2021 NFL football season. This law has long-term implications, not only for Arizona, but more seriously for the tribal communities in the state. The Surrounding Controversy: Effects on Tribal Communities The Yavapai-Prescott Indian Tribe filed…
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From Venire to Voir Dire: Arizona Should Keep Reforming the Jury Selection Process

Arizona State Law Journal Blog
By Noah Goldenberg. You may have heard that Arizona is disallowing peremptory challenges starting January 1st, 2022. If you missed the news, make sure to read Emily Tegley’s post on how peremptory challenges work and why it is so significant that Arizona is disallowing them.             Here is a quick refresher: before a jury trial, a jury must be selected. Arizona summons potential jurors to create a venire, or jury pool—a group from which the ultimate petit jury will be picked. During voir dire, lawyers from each side question potential jury members. If a lawyer shows that a juror cannot be impartial, the judge will exclude that juror from the final jury. Typically, lawyers also have a limited number of peremptory challenges–a tool lawyers use to exclude potential jury…
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Supreme Court Silent on Texas Abortion Law: Is the End in Sight for Roe v. Wade?

Arizona State Law Journal Blog
By Kelsey Weinman. On May 19, 2021, Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed into law Senate Bill 8 (S.B. 8), also known as the Texas Heartbeat Act. SB 8 effectively bans abortion in Texas as it prevents abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy, often before a woman even knows she is pregnant. The current Supreme Court precedent, Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, holds that women have a constitutional right to pre-viability abortions. On September 1, 2021, the Supreme Court signaled that it may be prepared to overturn Roe and Casey by letting S.B. 8 go into effect. How did we get here?  In 1973, the Supreme Court decided the seminal abortion case Roe v. Wade. In Roe, the Court held that a state could not regulate abortion…
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Up in Smoke: The Smart and Safe Arizona Act and the Effect of Expungement Provisions

Arizona State Law Journal Blog
By Kaylee Racs. In November 2020, citizens of Arizona voted to pass Proposition 207, otherwise known as the Smart and Safe Arizona Act (SSAA). In addition to legalizing recreational marijuana use for adults 21 and older, the SSAA contained a provision (now codified as A.R.S. 36-2862) allowing certain individuals to petition the court for an expungement order sealing past marijuana-related convictions. Who Is Eligible to Have Their Past Convictions Expunged? Beginning July 12, 2021, those who were arrested for, charged with, or convicted of any of the following three offenses are eligible to apply for expungement: Possessing, consuming, or transporting two and one-half ounces or less of marijuana, of which not more than twelve and one-half grams was in the form of marijuana concentrate. Possessing, transporting, cultivating, or processing not…
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