Arizona State Law Journal Blog

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…

By Maria Raciti.“I’m here live. I’m not a cat.”Coming home from a particularly grueling day at law school (but I mean, what else is new?), I headed to bed with a tub of ice cream in tow. I was all set to binge The Office for the tenth time in a row when I received a text from a friend asking, “Have you seen the cat lawyer video?! .” Not knowing what she was talking about, but liking the sound of it, I googled “cat lawyer video.” Sure enough, a video with over a million views popped up. Much to my delight, the video was everything I hoped for and more. If you have not seen it yet, do yourself a favor and watch it right now. I myself have watched…

By Madison Leake.Arizona, once the state with some of the harshest marijuana laws in the country, has now legalized marijuana for recreational use. While the proposition passed after the November 2020 election, it was not until recently (the end of January) that the Department of Health Services approved licenses for facilities to begin selling recreational marijuana in the state. This dramatic shift in Arizona law is bound to impact the state’s entire criminal justice system, including prior convictions. Now that Arizonians can go buy marijuana almost as easily as liquor, what does this mean for those with prior marijuana convictions?What is Proposition 207?Proposition 207 dramatically changed marijuana policies in Arizona. Now, possession of up to an ounce and use of marijuana is legal for adults over twenty-one. Further, residents can…

By Tessa Patterson.Self-driving cars have always been a staple of the future. In this Jetson-esque paradise, cars would talk, deliver riders safely to their destinations, and, ideally, fly. Although cars have yet to hit the sky, Arizona continues to attract companies to its desert streets, positioning itself as one of the most automated-vehicle-friendly states in the nation.This past October, Alphabet’s Waymo took to Phoenix to offer riders a fully driverless experience. Once only available to beta testers, customers in Phoenix can now step into the future and buckle up for an artificial-intelligence-controlled ride. Automated vehicles have sped into other industries too. With Arizona State University rolling out autonomous food-delivery robots in Tempe and Walmart’s recent partnership with self-driving car company Cruise to deliver groceries in Scottsdale, the future for automated…

By Jillian Knox.According to Charlie Day, the noted but fictional bird lawyer in It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, “bird law in this country [is] not governed by reason.” Over the last four years, the Trump Administration seemed anxious to prove Mr. Day right—reinterpreting a century-old bird law, upending the remarkably consistent interpretation of “every administration (Republican and Democrat) since at least the 1970’s.” Thankfully, the Biden Administration has already taken concrete steps to restore order to bird law in the United States.The Migratory Bird Treaty ActThe Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918 (“MBTA”) was enacted in response to plummeting bird populations across North America. It currently protects over 1,000 species—nearly all native bird species in the United States, including Arizona’s state bird, the cactus wren. In broad language, the MBTA…

By Andrew Jacobsohn.Amidst the constant barrage of unprecedented and breaking news in the post-2020 election and pre-inauguration season, it was easy to miss a less-notable first: on January 1, 2021, Congress overrode a then-President Trump veto for the first (and only) time of his term. Trump vetoed the bill because it did not include changes to the Communications Decency Act § 230 (“CDA 230”). He claimed CDA 230 unfairly permitted large technology platforms to censor him and other conservative figures. But Trump wasn’t the only one clamoring for change to CDA 230. President Biden and Speaker Pelosi, along with other congressional Democrats, have expressed support for removing or reforming the provision.This bipartisan support indicates that CDA 230 reform (or perhaps even revocation) seems inevitable. But given CDA 230’s immense impact…