Using Community Benefits to Bridge the Divide Between Minnesota’s Nonprofit Hospitals and Their Communities
By Meredith Gingold. Full Text. Nonprofit hospitals receive numerous state and federal tax exemptions. In return, communities expect that hospitals will give back what they can. This giving, called “community benefits,” can take many forms including money spent on educating a hospital’s doctors and residents, free or discounted care to low-income patients, and Medicaid shortfalls—the…
Continue ReadingSomebody’s Tracking Me: Applying Use Restrictions to Facial Recognition Tracking
By Matthew E. Cavanaugh. Full Text. Facial recognition tracking is the use of facial recognition technology to track a person’s movements based on the appearance of their face at particular locations. It is one of many rapidly advancing technologies that are forcing a judicial reckoning with how the Fourth Amendment right against unreasonable searches applies…
Continue ReadingSuing the Aiders and Abettors of Torture: Reviving the Torture Victim Protection Act
By Ryan Plasencia. Full Text. While universally condemned by the international community, state-sponsored torture and extrajudicial killing are still pervasive practices around the globe. This Note examines a specific form of state-sponsored torture and killing—those acts that are facilitated or aided by multinational corporations with profit motives. In 1992, the United States enacted the Torture…
Continue ReadingEmbedded Deception: How the FTC’s Recent Interpretation of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act Missed the Mark
By Olivia Levinson. Full Text. Every year, YouTube amasses billions of dollars in online advertising revenue. While many advertisements play before, in between, and after YouTube videos, there are often more elusive advertisements within the videos themselves. Embedded advertisements within videos pose unique consumer protection concerns, especially as they pertain to young audiences. Ryan’s World,…
Continue ReadingStanding Up to the Treasury: Applying the Procedural Standing Analysis to Post-Mayo, Pre-Enforcement APA Treasury Challenges
By Casey N. Epstein. Full Text. Administrative law and tax law have clashed for the past several decades. While recent caselaw, starting with Mayo Foundation in 2010, has indicated that administrative law, such as the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), does apply to the Treasury, many questions remain unanswered. Much attention has recently focused on the…
Continue ReadingMoving Beyond Reflexive Chevron Deference: A Way Forward for Asylum Seekers Basing Claims on Membership in a Particular Social Group
By Seiko Shastri. Full Text. Asylum applicants face a mounting number of barriers to being granted refuge in the United States. This is especially true for individuals applying for asylum based on their membership in a “particular social group,” one of the few protected grounds for asylum. In recent years, the Board of Immigration Appeals…
Continue ReadingLIBOR: The World’s Most Important Headache
By Alec Foote Mitchell. Full Text. The London Inter-Bank Offered Rate, or LIBOR, is known as “the world’s most important number.” Referenced in almost $350 trillion of financial contracts, LIBOR is central to modern finance. But in 2023, it is vanishing. As central banks, governments, financial institutions, and private parties rush to find replacement rates,…
Continue ReadingHow a New Standard of Care Can Make Social Media Companies Better “Good Samaritans”
By Jenna Hensel. Full Text. Social media companies enjoy a broad scope of protection from liability due to Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act offers social media companies two prominent protections: (1) protection from liability for user content posted on their websites because social media companies “cannot…
Continue ReadingSiting Natural Gas Pipelines Post-PennEast: The New Power of State-Held Conservation Easements
By Zach Wright. Full Text. The Natural Gas Act (NGA) governs the siting of interstate natural gas pipelines. There is not a federal body that sites pipelines—instead, the NGA delegates federal eminent domain to private actors to site pipelines through a certificate of need. Private actors have condemned private and state land to site pipelines…
Continue ReadingThe Critical Need for State Regulation of Assisted Living Facilities: Defining “Critical Incidents,” Implementing Staff Training, and Requiring Disclosure of Facility Data
By Lexi Pitz. Full Text. Assisted living facilities are wildly popular among elderly Americans. This trend is expected to persist due to increasing life expectancy, an aging baby boomer population, and the growing preference for assisted living facilities over nursing homes. Despite their growing popularity, the assisted living industry remains alarmingly underregulated at both the…
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