Newsroom Stories

News reports indicate that Rep. Darrell Issa (D-Calif.), chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, dropped confidential information from a Justice Department wiretap application into the Congressional Record last week. “While the executive branch sometimes seeks civil or criminal penalties against those who reveal confidential information, it cannot seek such penalties against Issa because the speech or debate clause of the constitution protects members of Congress when they expose sensitive information in the Congressional Record,” says Kathleen Clark, JD, government ethics expert and professor of law at Washington University in St. Louis.

Four staff members — including Assistant Dean Sean McWilliams (right) — received the Arts & Sciences Outstanding Staff Award from Gary S. Wihl, PhD, the Hortense & Tobias Lewin Distinguished Professor in the Humanities and 
dean of the faculty of Arts & Sciences. Presented annually, the award honors non-teaching personnel for creative contributions and exemplary performance that significantly add to the effectiveness of the teaching, advising, counseling and research efforts in Arts & Sciences.

Victor Davila-Roman, MD, professor of medicine; and Yeshey Penjose, MD, a cardiologist from the National Referral Hospital in Thimpu, Bhutan, study a sonogram of a heart at the Center for Advanced Medicine. Penjose was training in echocardiography at the School of Medicine for two months as part of the Global Health Scholars Program.

“I expected the Court to uphold the Affordable Care Act (ACA), however, two elements of this decision are very surprising: the fact that the mandate survives under the taxing power while failing under the Commerce Clause and Necessary and Proper Clause, and the fact that Chief Justice Roberts was in the majority without Justice Kennedy,” says Gregory Magarian, JD, constitutional law expert and professor of law at Washington University in St. Louis. “Roberts’ vote looks to me, as a first impression, like a brilliant piece of judicial strategizing.” Magarian is a former U.S. Supreme Court clerk 
for Justice John Paul Stevens.

The Supreme Court’s decision today means the implementation of the Affordable Care Act can go forward, thus improving the delivery and affordability of medical care, says Timothy McBride, PhD, health economist and associate dean for public health at the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis.

“Chief Justice Roberts’ opinion on the Affordable Care Act mostly conforms with the way I previously understood the taxing power of the federal government,” says Adam Rosenzweig, JD, tax law expert and associate professor of law at Washington University in St. Louis. Rosenzweig says that there were two important pieces of the Roberts opinion from a tax standpoint.

p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Cambria;} .MsoChpDefault {font-family:Cambria;} @page WordSection1 {size:8.5in 11.0in;margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in;} div.WordSection1 {page:WordSection1;} “The Republicans in the House of Representatives apparently believe that they can get some political traction in the ‘Fast and Furious’ controversy, and plan to increase the political pressure on the Obama administration to disclose additional information by holding Attorney General Eric Holder in criminal and civil contempt,” says Kathleen Clark, JD, government ethics expert and professor of law at Washington University in St. Louis. “The criminal contempt is essentially symbolic,” Clark says. Clark notes that the federal prosecutor actually works for Holder, and almost certainly will not prosecute his boss.

Because Wednesday, July 4, is a staff holiday, the summer edition of the Record email will not publish next week. The Record website, record.wustl.edu, will be updated regularly and the Record email will return Wednesday, July 11. The Record staff wishes everyone a safe and happy 4th of July!

Talk about climbing the walls. In Leo, the gravity-defying new show from Berlin’s Circle of Eleven, the acrobatic star, Tobias Wegner, is trapped in a room seemingly absent the laws of physics. Leo is one of two striking works of physical theatre set to launch Washington University in St. Louis’ 2012-13 Edison Ovations Series this fall. In all, the season will feature 14 events by nationally and internationally known dance, theatre and musical artists.

Finland’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has named Peter MacKeith its Honorary Consul for Missouri, in St. Louis. MacKeith, associate dean and associate professor of architecture in the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts, has long worked to deepen cultural and educational relations between Finland and the United States, particularly in the fields of architecture, education and design. Finnish Ambassador Ritva Jolkkonen inaugurated McKeith during a visit to campus June 21 and 22.