Category: Politics

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Unsecure Health: What the BIOSECURE Act Could Mean for the Biopharmaceutical Industry

A Note by Megna Raghuraman

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On January 19, 2025, TikTok, a social media platform owned by Chinese company ByteDance which provides short form video content to over 170 million users, shut down in the United States. The bill to block TikTok was passed in April 2024 with an overwhelming majority in both the House and the Senate due to growing bipartisan fears of national security risks. The Supreme Court upheld the TikTok ban, sharing Congress’s national security concerns of TikTok’s collection of data privacy. However, the ban lasted a mere eighteen hours. The first day of President Trump’s term, his administration effectively stalled the ban and brought TikTok back to the U.S. via executive order. However, while the Trump administration appears supportive of TikTok in the U.S., the executive order only delays the ban: TikTok must eventually sever its ByteDance—and essentially Chinese—connection to maintain … Read the rest

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Mobley v. Workday: An Evolving AI Compliance Landscape

A Note by Ashley Morris

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Mobley v. Workday is a groundbreaking legal dispute that sits at the intersection of artificial intelligence (“AI”) and employment law. The key issues in Mobley are whether the use of algorithmic screening tools in hiring decisions, as implemented by Workday, result in unlawful disparate impact discrimination under the Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, (“Title VII”), under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (“ADEA”), or under the Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”). Another key issue in Mobley centers around whether Workday can be held liable as employer’s agent for unlawful disparate impact discrimination under these three acts. While this case is still pending, it is among the first major cases to challenge algorithmic hiring under antidiscriminatory statutes. It could set precedent for how AI hiring systems are regulated in the U.S. While Mobley was filed in … Read the rest

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Which Side Are You On: Cemex, Mandatory Bargaining, and the Future of Organized Labor

A Note by Jarrett Krouss

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Under President Joe Biden, the frequency of union elections exploded– election petitions increased by roughly a quarter in 2024 compared to 2022 and 2023, and were double those filed in 2021. While many factors have likely contributed to the rise in union elections, the August 2023 National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB”) decision in Cemex Construction Materials Pacific, LLC plays a major role. A three-to-one ruling of the NLRB Board, Cemex lowered requirements for the issuance of mandatory bargaining orders. . . .… Read the rest

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Scarcity Does Not Create Value: H-1B Visa Reform that Protects American Workers Without Reducing Immigration

A Note by Justin Fernando

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Amidst rising tensions surrounding immigration, the H-1B visa program has found itself under fire from all sides of the political spectrum. Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, two businessmen who were tapped to lead the proposed Department of Governmental Efficiency, made headlines towards the end of last year for arguing in favor of the H-1B visa system as a way to bring talented workers to the United States. Senator Bernie Sanders directly opposed these comments, criticizing companies for replacing American workers with lower-paid immigrant workers, going as far as to call these workers “indentured servants.” This debate, while not new, presents a false dichotomy. . . .
… Read the rest

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Toeing the Line: Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner’s Possible Conflicts of Interest as Federal Employees

By Elizabeth Rice

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Federal employees are required to adhere to ethical standards of conduct, including eliminating conflicts of interest that may arise from their business and financial assets.  In their roles as federal employees, Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner continue to hold business and financial assets that may result in conflicts of interest in the course of their duties.  This note provides a general background about federal conflicts of interest, including the process of divestiture federal employees must follow.  It then examines more closely the problematic assets of Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, and the ways in which they may manage these assets so as to avoid conflicts of interest.… Read the rest

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Internet Speech as Commerce: Tackling the Violent Left

By Julian Jankowski

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A faction of the left has so increased in boldness in the past few years as to cause violence and an effective reign of terror to any who would dare question the faction’s central tenants.  This faction under the name Antifa gained in strength through the support of college students, academics, university administration, and technological giants that traffic in the dissemination of information.  This constitutes a clear and present threat to the health of the body politic of the United States.  This threat in universities must be met by removing university courses and policies that lend its strength to this violent faction on the left, and by implementing anti-propaganda policies in universities to ensure this threat is not repeated.  Further, technological companies must be given monetary and tax subsidies to create an incentive for affected technological companies to reform their ways, and to … Read the rest

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The Danger of the Gas Tax: to People, Businesses, and even to the Environment

By: Joe Zender

Representative Earl Blumenauer of Oregon proposed an amendment earlier this year to raise the federal ‘gas tax’ from 18 cents per gallon to 33 cents.[1] While the proposal failed, this 82 percent increase is endemic of the exorbitant gas taxes and increases around the country, both at the federal and state levels. Even as gasoline consumption has leveled off in the U.S., national production of gasoline has increased drastically, leading to lower gas prices.[2][3] Even so, legislatures have moved to increase the burden on each gallon consumed by the taxpayers. The gas tax is now to a point where it unduly burdens businesses, citizens, and even potentially the environment. It should be eliminated and replaced with a more efficient and effective system for funding infrastructure.

The retail cost of a gallon of gasoline across the U.S. on October 1, 2015 was $2.42.[4] At the … Read the rest

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Why Everyone Should Condemn the BDS Movement

By: Jacob Mezei

The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement is a global movement started by 171 Palestinian organizations in 2005 with the goal of harming the Israeli economy by urging people, private corporations, and governments to boycott Israeli goods and services, divest funds, and establish economic sanctions on Israel. [1] Simply put, the BDS movement is bad. It is bad for the Palestinians. It is bad for the Israelis. It is bad for the world. The BDS movement harms third world countries in dire need of economic stimulus and hampers the growth of business and the development of technology. In addition, it incites hatred and discrimination, is harmful to future peace negotiations, and, as the Cour De Cassation (the highest court in France) recently ruled, it is illegal.[2]

The point of a peaceful boycott movement is to harm the entity being boycotted more than harming the ones doing … Read the rest

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National Security Space Launch: No Contest

             Competition and innovation are key ideals in American society, and they were the main focus on March 5, 2014 when the CEOs of SpaceX and United Launch Alliance (“ULA”) testified before the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense.[1] The ULA, a joint venture between aerospace giants Boeing and Lockheed Martin, currently provides launch services for the U.S. National Security Space Launch programs.[2] SpaceX, a relative newcomer to the space launch business,[3] is seeking to break ULA’s current monopoly on national security launches and open the procurement process to other launch providers.[4]     

The EELV Program

            In 1994, the U.S. Air Force initiated the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (“EELV”) program to ensure that the U.S. military and civilian national security organizations would have reliable access to Earth’s orbit for spy satellites, military communications, and other important payloads.[5] As … Read the rest

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Take Your Business Elsewhere: Why the Federal Corporate Income Tax is Destroying our Economy

The national debt of the United States now exceeds $16 trillion. Current estimates suggest that the present year’s deficit will amount to approximately $1.1 trillion, a negligible improvement upon 2011’s $1.3 trillion deficit. The present unemployment rate is one of the highest of the past sixty years, with approximately eight percent of Americans unable to find work. Unless significant changes are made in both federal income and expenditure, the economic livelihood of future generations is bleak.

Searching high and low for a remedy to our nation’s economic woes, many politicians and businessmen have set their sights on the federal corporate income tax. Hoping to simultaneously create jobs and stimulate our economy, individuals from across party lines, including Barack Obama and Mitt Romney, have suggested that we lessen the federal taxation of corporate profits. A small group, though, including individuals such as Gary Johnson and Ron Paul, are of the
… Read the rest