Author: Jessica Roberts Martin

Policy advocates and groups looking at proposing legislation now have a budget-friendly tool that facilitates effective research of information from the 50 public domain state legislative databases. Created by researchers at the Prevention Research Center in St. Louis (PRC StL), the State Legislative Search Guide is designed for anyone interested in cross-state comparison of legislation. PRC StL is a collaboration between the School of Medicine and the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis and the Saint Louis University School of Public Health.

A new online service designed to “match” law students with potential employers is backed by a proprietary algorithm written by Andrew Martin, PhD, professor of law and director of the Center for Empirical Research in the Law (CERL) at Washington University in St. Louis School of Law, and Kevin Quinn, PhD, professor at the University of California at Berkeley. JD Match, the brainchild of law firm consultants Bruce MacEwen and Janet Stanton, is loosely based on a medical school model, which is operated by the National Residency Matching Program and links medical students to available residency opportunities annually on Match Day.

The inaugural Lavender Recognition Ceremony will take place at 3 p.m. on Wednesday, May 18, in College Hall in the South 40 House. Co-hosted by LGBT Student Involvement and Leadership and the Social Justice Center, the ceremony honors the achievements and contributions of graduating lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer students and their allies.

President Barack Obama released his birth certificate on April 27, but “birther” arguments continue. Election and constitutional law expert Gregory Magarian, JD, professor of law at Washington University in St. Louis, says that Obama clearly meets the constitutional qualifications to hold his office. Magarian discusses various situations where “natural born citizen” (as required by Art. II, sec., 1 cl. 4 of the Constitution) may come into question during a presidential election.

Social Security’s yearly cost-of living adjustments (COLA) are targeted for reduction through a proposed “chained COLA” formula, and that could be a huge problem for those dependent on Social Security income. “COLA is an invaluable feature of Social Security,” says Merton C. Bernstein, LLB, a nationally recognized expert on Social Security. According to Bernstein, Republican “reformers” propose to reduce COLA claiming that the current method of calculating it overstates inflation. “This unrealistically assumes that people have the opportunity to buy lower priced substitutes when millions of people lack access to markets that offer such choices,” he says.

Evidence supporting the link between savings and college success is growing. Three studies out of the Center for Social Development (CSD) at the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis offer a connection between assets and college enrollment and completion. “This research underscores the importance of policies and programs that help Americans of all income levels to save for college,” says Margaret Clancy, policy director and College Savings Initiative director at CSD. In a study forthcoming in the Journal of Children and Poverty, CSD researchers found that among youth who expected to graduate from a four-year college, those with a savings account in their name were approximately six times more likely to attend college than those with no account.  

As fuel prices soar, food prices are beginning to creep up to crisis levels most recently seen in 2007. “Coupled with the financial crisis, high food prices can take a significant toll on nutrition, especially in developing countries,” says Lora Iannotti, PhD. “The same consequences can be true for wealthier countries, as households opt for less expensive, poor quality foods. Hidden hunger is a problem across the globe.”

In the late 20th century, Chinese authorities enacted sweeping legal reforms, but in recent years, officials have stepped back from these reforms in the face of increasing citizen protests and concerns about social stability. “Horrified by the chaos of the Maoist era, Chinese authorities rebuilt their legal system in the 1980s and 1990s,” says Carl Minzner, JD, leading expert on Chinese law and politics and associate professor of law at Washington University in St. Louis. Now Chinese Party and court authorities have begun to move away from the reform track of the last several decades, reasserting tighter control over the Chinese judiciary, restricting the activities of public interest lawyers, and resurrecting earlier mediation practices.

With over a dozen states considering banning Sharia (Islamic law) in their courts, laws governing other countries are facing increased scrutiny. “This is emblematic of U.S. fears about international law,” says Leila Nadya Sadat, the Henry H. Oberschelp Professor of Law and director of the Whitney R. Harris World Law Institute at Washington University in St. Louis. “International law has become a ‘whipping boy’ for the ills that are being felt because of globalization.” Sadat say that this is unfortunate because the United States proudly led the trial of the major German leaders at the end of World War II at Nuremberg. “In fact, the entire post-World War II framework of modern international law was, if not an American creation, at least American inspired and American driven,” she says.

What does it take for a family in the U.S. to have long-term economic security and not just “get by”? This question inspired the creation of the Basic Economic Security Tables Index (BEST), a joint effort of Wider Opportunities for Women (WOW) and the Center for Social Development (CSD) at the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis. The BEST is different from other ‘living wage’ indexes in that it aims to capture what is needed for household stability and development rather than focusing on subsistence. Findings suggest that families’ largest economic security challenges are rent and utilities, transportation, and childcare. The report calls the high cost of quality childcare “the greatest threat to many families’ security.” Childcare is so expensive that income needs for a one-parent family with two preschoolers are equivalent to those of a one-parent family with five teenagers.