Category: Arizona State Law Journal Blog

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…

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…

By Lindsay Ficklin. In recent weeks, United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has begun releasing asylum-seekers into Yuma, Arizona, a small town on the United States–Mexico border. The releases follow a surge in border apprehensions coupled with detention centers…

By Anna Boerwinkle. In 2017, Arizona state prisoner Walter Jordan called his daughter and told her he had severe skin cancer. In a Notice of Impending Death that he filed with the court, he claimed that he was being given…

By Danika Marzillier. INTRODUCTION Early in 2021, the Arizona legislature was set to hear several bills that would impose regulations on groundwater pumping in rural areas. However, these bills never made it out of committee, or were lost on a…

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”…

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…

By Brie Alford. At the close of 2020, Congress enacted the long-awaited No Surprises Act, a bill providing federal protections against surprise medical bills. The Act will fill gaps in protection caused by states’ patchwork legislation and help prevent American…

By Catherine Swett.On February 26, 2021, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill that would protect nearly 3 million acres of public lands in the West. The Protecting America’s Wilderness and Public Lands Act is a collection of eight…

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…