Patent legislation is a balancing act — the protection of legitimate patent holders and non-infringing operators while stopping malicious attacks from so-called “patent trolls.” Unfortunately, finding that balance is proving a herculean task; the current debate is controversial for good reason. The Problem Proponents of patent reform target their ire at patent trolls. These perfidious … Continue reading
What would you say a physician does? Chances are, your response would have something to do with healing people who are sick. Would you think about describing doctors as people who readily expedite death for their patients? There are currently three states that have legalized physician assisted suicide (PAS), and there are at least twenty-two … Continue reading
With Congress attempting to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) this year, the allocation of Title I funding is being reexamined. Both the House and Senate have offered an answer in Title I portability. Portability allows the transfer of funds from one school to another. In other words, funding through Title I would … Continue reading
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu‘s reelection last week has surprised many Israelis as well as the rest of the world. Almost every poll taken prior to the election showed Netanyahu’s conservative Likud Party losing by around two to five seats to the center-left Zionist Union Party led by Isaac Herzog and Tzipi Livni. Many attribute … Continue reading
If search engines and search advertisers were playing each other in Hasbro’s Monopoly, Google would definitely have hotels on both Boardwalk and Park Place, according to a Federal Trade Commission (FTC) staff report. Unfortunately, reality is no board game, and Google has been accused of using anticompetitive tactics to harm both rivals and consumers. The … Continue reading
As I have previously discussed, the Open Internet Order (OIO) recently passed by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an unconstitutional breach of the Fifth Amendment’s Takings Clause. That is not the only legal pitfall of the order, however. It also violates the Telecommunications Act, the very law which it is using to apply Title … Continue reading
The Federal Government’s role as a safety net for the vulnerable has been growing steadily since the passage of the New Deal in the wake of the Great Depression, when President Roosevelt introduced such novel concepts as Social Security. Follow-up legislation in the 1960s established Medicare, which continues to help senior citizens remain independent as … Continue reading
In his State of the Union address, President Obama announced his proposal for mandatory paid sick leave. He is proposing that businesses be required to provide seven days of paid sick leave per year to each employee. Currently, many people are forced to choose between going to work sick and forgoing a much needed paycheck. … Continue reading
The use of nuclear weapons is perhaps the most dangerous threat one state can make against another. Dropping a single bomb can kill millions of civilians, destroy cities and cause massive economic damage. When the U.S. dropped the Atom bomb on Nagasaki, it destroyed approximately 40 percent of the buildings in the city. In Hiroshima, … Continue reading
Now that the Federal Communication Commission’s (FCC) so-called Open Internet Order (OIO) has finally been released, we can begin to assess where we go from here. Besides the numerous reasons why the FCC’s decision is bad policy, it is also unconstitutional. The OIO is a violation of the takings clause of the Fifth Amendment. The … Continue reading
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