Author: Neil Schoenherr

When lawyers blow the whistle on clients, should they be financially rewarded by the government? Kathleen Clark, JD, professor of law at Washington University in St. Louis, tackles this issue in a forthcoming article in the Boston College Law Review.

A decision by the U.S. Supreme Court that the Constitution guarantees a right to same-sex marriage is justified, say two constitutional law experts at Washington University in St. Louis.

The Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis has launched the Evaluation Center to provide client-driven evaluation services and training for nonprofit organizations, funders, universities and governmental agencies.

An analysis of Twitter hashtag use on the subject of diabetes provides new insights about spreading health information through social media. The study, led by Jenine Harris, PhD, assistant professor at the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis, looked at the hashtag #diabetes and its interaction with two Twitter measures of engagement, retweeting and favoriting. The study found retweeting and favoriting was significantly lower for tweets about the number or percentage of people with diabetes, while favoriting was higher for tweets about health problems associated with diabetes.

The Syrian civil war began in 2011. Its spread since that time has caused refugees to spill across its borders and created a fertile environment for the rise of ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria). How can the international community get a handle on a conflict that already has claimed some 220,000 lives? One possible solution is to refer the Syrian situation to the International Criminal Court, says Leila Sadat, PhD, an expert in international criminal law at Washington University in St. Louis.

The Affordable Care Act has great potential to improve health and health care for people with diabetes, finds a new study led by Derek Brown, PhD, assistant professor at the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis.

Caitlyn Jenner’s first public appearance on the cover of Vanity Fair has sparked quite a stir. The Twitter account for Jenner, formerly Bruce Jenner, reached 1 million followers in just over four hours. Her story reminds us that even the most personal decisions are linked to broader social conditions, says an expert on later-in-life gender transitions at Washington University in St. Louis.

Several key provisions of the Patriot Act ended this week, after the Senate let them expire. As a result, the National Security Agency has, at least temporarily, halted the bulk data collection program used to amass phone data for millions of Americans. Neil Richards, JD, professor of law at Washington University in St. Louis and one of the country’s foremost academic experts on privacy law, said the fact that expiration of these powers hasn’t provoked mass outrage shows Americans deeply value privacy.

Studies show that despite demonstrating high interest, African-American girls have fewer support systems, less exposure to, and lower academic achievement in STEM fields than their Caucasian counterparts. Sheretta Butler-Barnes, PhD, assistant professor at the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis, is working to change that.

This week, a federal appeals court panel decided against allowing President Barack Obama’s controversial immigration plan to go into effect immediately, pending a review of the merits of the plan in July. While the court’s decision is a temporary setback, it’s still possible that the government could win the overall appeal, said Washington University in St. Louis immigration expert Stephen H. Legomsky.