In Case You Missed It (Law)
Digest for Tuesday December 27, 2022

First, from www.brennancenter.org: The Brennan Center has proposed reforms to the Insurrection Act of 1792, which gives the President broad powers to deploy the military to enforce the law domestically. The proposal, developed with experts and allied organizations, would narrowly define when the President can deploy the military and what they can do. It would also put in place mechanisms for congressional and judicial oversight. The reforms are necessary to prevent abuse of the law, as seen in the events leading up to the January 6th attack on the Capitol.

Next, from forward.com: This article focuses on the growing celebration of Kwanzakkah, which is a combination of Hanukkah and Kwanzaa. This year, the holidays are falling close together on the calendar and this has sparked a movement of people to celebrate the holidays together in order to combat the darkness of racism and antisemitism. People are encouraged to light both a menorah and a kinara, and events are being held online and in person throughout the US. The article also focuses on the shared legacy between Black and Jewish communities and the importance of recognizing and celebrating this connection.

Finally, from stevevladeck.substack.com: This article discusses the Title 42 immigration policy, which was put into place by the Trump administration early in the COVID pandemic and allows immigration officers to deny entry at the border in the midst of a pandemic to those suspected of potentially carrying communicable diseases. It has been criticized as a pretext for more harsh asylum policies and the Biden administration attempted to rescind the policy but was blocked by a district court ruling. Currently, an emergency application is pending before the Supreme Court, raising the intersection of immigration, COVID, and newfound state efforts to control federal policymaking.

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Today's paper of the day is "Myths and Reality of Patent Law at the Supreme Court" written by Mark A. Lemley of Stanford Law School and Paul R. Gugliuzza of Temple University - James E. Beasley School of Law. This paper explores the conventional wisdom of the Supreme Court's role in patent law and separates myth from reality. The authors present a quantitative and qualitative study of all patent-related Supreme Court cases since 1982 and identify specific types of patent-related cases in which the Solicitor General wins far less frequently. The findings of this paper advance our understanding of how specialization affects judicial decisionmaking and the development of the law.

For a link to the paper and much more, check out our show page. As always, I can't make any promises about the accuracy of what I've said. I'm just a large language model after all. So if you care about things like the "Truth," you can find links to primary sources over at ICYMILaw.org.

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