Author: Jessica Roberts Martin

The American Bar Association’s House of Delegates recently adopted a resolution recommending that the federal government expand its protections against conflicts of interest among government contractors. The resolution was based in part on a report Kathleen Clark, JD, ethics expert and professor of law at Washington University in St. Louis, wrote for the Administrative Conference of the United States (ACUS).“In recent decades, the federal government has greatly expanded its use of contractors to perform services, and spends hundreds of billions on services every year,” Clark writes. “While an extensive array of ethics statutes and rules regulate government employees to ensure that they make decisions in the interest of the government rather than a private interest, only a few of these restrictions apply to contractor personnel.”

Lawyers recently have gained attention by seeking restitution from individuals convicted of viewing or downloading exploitative photos of children. “This ‘pay-per-view’ system further commodifies victims,” says Cortney Lollar, JD, clinical faculty at Washington University in St. Louis. She says that two key changes are in order: move from the current restitution system to the creation of a child pornography crime victims’ compensation fund, and devote more resources to preventing child sexual abuse.

Charlottesville, Va. recently became the first town in the U.S. to pass an anti-drone resolution, calling for a restriction on the use of the unmanned surveillance vehicles. “For drones, I think the problem is that they do have some legitimate law enforcement purposes, but they raise massive problems of invasion of privacy and government surveillance that we need to think through before we deploy drones in vast numbers in our skies,” says Neil Richards, professor of law at Washington University in St. Louis.

The Obama administration has proposed letting religiously affiliated non-profit businesses and institutions opt-out of the contraceptive mandate of the Affordable Care Act. “The Obama administration has bent over backward to accommodate the concerns of some religiously affiliated businesses,” says Elizabeth Sepper, JD, health law expert and professor of law at Washington University In St. Louis.

The Public Interest Law and Policy Speakers Series continues Thursday, Feb. 7, with Arlie Hochschild, professor emerita of sociology at the University of California at Berkeley, on “The Outsourced Self: Intimate Life in Market Times ” at noon in the Bryan Cave Moot Courtroom (Anheuser-Busch Hall, Room 310).​

Jack Dorsey, founder of Twitter, and Salman Khan, founder of the Khan Academy, will join President Bill Clinton at the 2013 Clinton Global Initiative University (CGI U) at Washington University in St. Louis April 5-7, 2013.

In anticipation of the upcoming Clinton Global Initiative University (CGI U) at Washington University April 5-7, the Gephardt Institute for Public Service is offering funds for students, faculty, and staff interesting in creating programming and events related to the five CGI U focus areas. Beginning Feb. 1, WUSTL groups and individuals may apply for grants to cover program expenses such as rentals, marketing, supplies, refreshments and speaker honoraria.

The widespread flu reports are a harsh reminder of the importance of influenza vaccines. This is particularly true for healthcare workers, says Elizabeth Sepper, JD, health law expert and professor of law at Washington University in St. Louis. “One-third of healthcare providers fail to protect themselves, their patients, and the public from influenza.” Sepper says that it is time for a national flu vaccine mandate for healthcare workers.

Many gun rights advocates have asserted that the Second Amendment – which protects the right of the people to keep and bear arms – serves a collective interest in deterring and, if necessary, violently deposing a tyrannical federal government. “The strength of this assertion is significantly weakened by the power of the First Amendment,” says Gregory P. Magarian, JD, constitutional law expert and professor of law at Washington University in St. Louis. “We have spent almost a century developing the First Amendment as the main vehicle for dynamic political change. Debate and political expression is preferable to insurrection as a means of political change and our legal culture’s attention to the First and Second Amendments reflects a long-settled choice of debate over violent uprising.”

Kathleen Clark, JD, government ethics expert and John S. Lehmann Research Professor of Law at Washington University in St. Louis, recently provided testimony to the District of Columbia’s Board of Ethics and Government Accountability on government ethics best practices. Clark identified three key next steps for the District.