In Case You Missed It (Law)
Digest for Wednesday February 15, 2023

First, from news.bloombergtax.com: Biden Falls Short With His Single-Digit Stock Buyback Excise Tax
The Inflation Reduction Act introduced a 1% excise tax on stock buybacks into effect this year, but President Joe Biden has called for quadrupling the rate to 4%. Advocates argue that the rate should be higher to push corporations to invest in research and development or labor, while opponents predict all manner of market catastrophe.

Next, from jezebel.com: Does HIPAA Law Protect Information About Abortion?
Sens. Mazie Hirono (D-HI) and Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) have introduced a bill that would strengthen HIPAA to ban medical providers from disclosing information on abortion or pregnancy loss without patients’ consent in a court proceeding. Advocates argue the privacy loophole in HIPAA has caused fear among pregnant people, leading to a lack of trust between patients and healthcare providers and decreased access to reproductive care. A poll has found that 41 percent of women and 53 percent of people under 45 would be worried about sharing medical information while seeking reproductive care.

Finally, from news.bloomberglaw.com: Here’s How AI and ChatGPT Tools Can Help Scale Pro Bono Work
This article discusses how ChatGPT, Bard, and other AI tools can be used to scale up pro bono work, allowing attorneys and programs to reach more communities in need. The article gives examples such as a software program created by a former legal aid attorney that assists tenants in Massachusetts, an app created by Chapman and Cutler to help people with past criminal records for cannabis possession seal their criminal records, and ChatGPT's ability to summarize and extract relevant information from documents. The author, Quinten Steenhuis, calls this new approach "grow bono" and encourages others to join or start similar efforts in their own states.

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Today's paper of the day is Higher Ed ‘Do Not Resuscitate’ Orders by Matthew A. Bruckner. The article discusses how Congress has effectively precluded all institutions of higher education from reorganizing in the bankruptcy courts. It argues that Congress should reverse its decision and allow colleges to reorganize in bankruptcy, and it contrasts the bankruptcy treatment of healthcare enterprises to that of higher education enterprises.

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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