Since the 1800s, the insanity defense has assisted mentally ill defendants in avoiding imprisonment on the basis that they were clinically insane upon performing the crime. However, “not guilty” does not equate to being free. Defendants submit an NGI (not guilty by reason of insanity) plea and if they are found insane, they are sent to the custody of a psychiatric facility or mental health institution, frequently for a longer period than defendants sent to prison for the same offense.

The Food and Drug Omnibus Reform Act of 2022 (FDORA) includes key revisions that heavily impact the FDA-regulated industry. The act demonstrates substantial potential in ameliorating the treatment of rare diseases through the accelerated approval pathway. As 2023 comes to a close, we begin to see how FDORA has changed the landscape of accelerated drug development for Americans in its first year.

The United Kingdom’s recent Illegal Immigration Act has been a major cause of concern for both the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the Human Rights Watch (HRW). The UNHCR’s Fillipo Grandi claims that “this new legislation significantly erodes the legal framework that has protected so many, exposing refugees to grave risks in breach of international law.” The UK government, however, insists that the Act — which was passed in July 202 3— is rooted in good intentions and seeks to deter migrants from taking unsafe passages into the country. Concerns over this issue have been on the rise since November 2021, when 27 migrants died in the English Channel en route to the UK from their pit stop in France. But if the Act aims to mitigate migrant-related tragedies, then why has it been met with such opposition?

The ongoing lawsuit against the Biden Administration involving concerns over First Amendment rights calls attention to the role of online platforms in debates of censorship and free speech. The lawsuit surfaced last year after several individuals claimed they were the victims of online censorship, as the Biden Administration allegedly urged social media platforms to remove certain content. In July 2023, U.S. District Judge Terry Doughty issued an injunction that would restrict multiple government agencies and officials' communication with social media companies such as Facebook and Youtube. The most recent development in this case surfaced on October 20, 2023, when the Supreme Court lifted the injunction imposed by the lower court. Plaintiffs are still waiting on an official ruling, which will not be judged until hearings are held in early 2024. This lawsuit bears the burden of setting a precedent for future cases calling government censorship over online platforms into question. To better contextualize this lawsuit, it is important to examine other relevant case law and statutes addressing the First Amendment and the right to free speech…

In just the past two years, the Peach State has seen two high-profile runoff elections for the U.S. Senate. However, before 2021, Georgia’s most recent runoff election for the U.S. Senate was in 2008 and the only one prior to that was in 1992. Runoff elections occur when no candidate reaches the required threshold for victory (for Georgia, this would be 50% of the general election vote for a statewide or congressional district race) and take place in only ten states — eight of those states being in the [South][1]. With the increased attention Georgia’s high-profile runoffs have received in the past few years, debates have increasingly erupted over the validity of these elections. However, one question must be addressed before any conclusions can be reached: why, exactly, is Georgia always running off?

In the coming weeks, the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas will rule on Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine v. U.S. Food and Drug Administration: the case that has thrown into question the validity of the FDA’s 20-year-long approval of the mifepristone, the essential medication for U.S. abortion services, which now accounts for 54% of abortions nationally. If the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas rules on the side of the Alliance, access to medical abortion will be limited for all Americans, even those in states where abortion is protected. As the post-Roe landscape in the United States continues to shift, however, one thing is certain: Dobbs was only the beginning.

Artificial intelligence (AI) has been growing rather rapidly in recent years. Especially now with the release of Chat GPT, AI has been the center of many conversations, and has become a controversial issue in many different professions as to whether it should be used and if it should be regulated. There is a large focus on the effects it will have on education. With easy access to AI resources, many students can get out of doing assignments by searching for the answer using an AI machine, such as Chat GPT, without doing any of their own work. AI has also become sophisticated enough that it can become difficult to differentiate between human work and what is created by a machine, which brings additional challenges to the field of education. Technological advancements will never stop, but should they be regulated? A discussion of AI should also be had in respect to different fields, including the legal field.

On April 4, 2023, former President Donald Trump was charged with 34 felony counts of falsifying New York business records, committed in order to undermine the integrity of the 2016 presidential election. The charges are related to a series of hush-money payments Trump paid to Stormy Daniels, a second woman who claimed to have had an affair with him, and his former doorman, which he disguised as reimbursements paid to his former attorney, Michael Cohen. Although falsifying business records is traditionally a misdemeanor in New York State, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has charged Trump with Class E felonies because, he argues, their payments were central to a larger scheme to avoid negative press and influence the outcome of the 2016 Election.

Advancements in artificial intelligence have contributed toward some of the most significant technological progress made in the 21st century. The rise of AI has transformed the way people live, from aiding transportation to other areas including education, healthcare, and even music in countries all over the world. However, AI’s progress has also led to numerous concerns regarding intellectual property infringement laws, along with copyright and defamation laws.

One popular and contentious AI-driven technology is ChatGPT, an AI language model that was released in November of 2022. ChatGPT provides users with a wide range of information, from self-generated music lyrics to explanations of mathematical concepts, after taking instructions and questions from users. Just two months after its release, ChatGPT boasted over 200 million users worldwide. Amidst the growing popularity of ChatGPT, questions regarding intellectual property laws have arisen. ChatGPT does not provide citations on the information it presents to users, which can be a source of problems. However, Michael Kelber, co-chair of law firm Neal Gerber Eisenberg, states that lack of citations may take away from credibility on a research standpoint, but is not detrimental in other standpoints as “[f]rom an intellectual property [IP] perspective, if the source material is not specifically quoted, there would be no requirement to include citations”.

Over 40 years ago, Apple designed its first computer, known as the Apple I. Since then, rapid evolution in technology has hastened advancements in the company’s smart devices, wireless communication, and location tracking services. One of Apple’s more recent technologies, the Apple AirTag, was released nearly 2 years ago in the Spring of 2021.

The Apple Airtag is a tracking device that is commonly attached to backpacks and keychains. However, the AirTag’s pocket-sized structure allows it to be attached onto inconspicuous places including purses, bikes, and even car license plates. The AirTag works by sending out a Bluetooth signal that is received by nearby devices that are registered under Apple's extensive “Find My” network. Through using the “Find My” app, users are subsequently able to view the location of the tracker. Starting at just $29, the AirTag provides an affordable way to track items, but the convenience of the AirTag has also led to concerns regarding stalking and illegal tracking of individuals.

The talk of the town to close out the year has been none other than Elon Musk’s coup of Twitter. The billionaire has been busy, to say the least, since taking over the social media platform three days ahead of Halloween. Before the controversy over the eight-dollar plan for blue verification checkmarks even had time to resolve itself, the app was already seeing millions of tearful “last tweets” as employees were dismissed in such large quantities that it was difficult to see how the platform would continue operating. After gutting the child safety team, removing the app’s COVID-19 misinformation policy, and reinstating former president Donald Trump’s account as the result of a poll (among other things), Musk has made many substantial changes in his apparent crusade for free speech, but whether or not they are for the better — or even legal — is still in contention.

On November 1, 2022, Taylor Swift announced her first concert tour in over five years. What should have been a joyous occasion turned into chaos as Ticketmaster crashed after receiving a record-breaking 3.5 billion system requests on the day of presale, four times their previous record. As a result of the site crash and insufficient ticket supply to meet demand, Ticketmaster canceled the general public ticket sale much to the dismay of both Taylor and her fans. The ticket fiasco has since called into question the legality of Ticketmaster's operations following its controversial merger with Live Nation in 2010. Several politicians and lawmakers have called for an investigation into whether Ticketmaster is operating as an illegal monopoly, possibly violating multiple antitrust laws. A lawsuit has also been filed against Ticketmaster for alleged breach of contract, intentional misrepresentation, and fraud.

Kim Kardashian’s recent lawsuit surrounding a cryptocurrency ad she posted on Instagram raised questions about what American policies actually are surrounding advertisements. This blog post discusses what Kardashian’s post violated and the implications of the related lawsuit. The rise of social media and how influencer advertising culture interacts with advertisement policy is also discussed.

This blog post reviews that background around the Work and Mobility Act that was recently passed in both the Massachusetts House and Senate. This law allows undocumented immigrants to apply for a drivers license while having to provide two pieces of documentation to prove their identity. This law passed but a petition stopped it from going into full effect, which caused the law to put on the Massachusetts ballot for voters to decide on it in November.

Supreme Court Justices refute the claims that the Court has become a political body, but recent trends indicate dramatic shifts in the Court’s role in the mainstream political landscape. The Court has decided a greater number of important cases with the shadow docket, Justices have begun to retire in a strategic manner, and Congress has also politicized the Court in the view of the public with confirmation proceedings. These trends all point toward the Court’s becoming more innately politicized, as well as in the public eye. The degradation of the Court’s apolitical stance has important implications for its legitimacy and prompts the need for reforms.

The “shadow docket” refers to the Supreme Court’s decisions on emergency applications. While emergency docket orders are intended to be used sparingly, the recent rise in “shadow docket” decisions suggests a broader expansion of power by the Court, calling its apolitical standing into question.