{"id":11936,"date":"2019-10-28T15:26:51","date_gmt":"2019-10-28T19:26:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/crcl\/?p=11936"},"modified":"2019-10-28T15:26:51","modified_gmt":"2019-10-28T19:26:51","slug":"this-week-in-civil-rights-and-civil-liberties-october-28-2019","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/crcl\/this-week-in-civil-rights-and-civil-liberties-october-28-2019\/","title":{"rendered":"This Week in Civil Rights and Civil Liberties: October 28, 2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Welcome to <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/crcl\/category\/weekly-news-roundup\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">This Week in Civil Rights and Civil Liberties.\u00a0<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">This week, researchers reported that a popular medical algorithm used to predict which patients will benefit from extra medical care dramatically underestimates the health needs of the sickest black patients. Meanwhile, Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerburg announced initiatives to protect against foreign election interference, and Rose McGowan sued Harvey Weinstein and his lawyers for efforts to discredit her and prevent her from going public with her rape allegations.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>A widely-used medical algorithm amplifies long-standing racial disparities in medicine by favoring white patients over sicker black patients. <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The algorithm uses a seemingly race-blind metric to determine to which patients it should allocate its resources: how much patients would cost the health-care system in the future. Nevertheless, in the health systems researchers studied, correcting this bias would more than double the number of black patients flagged as at risk. Professor Senhill Mullainaithan, who oversaw the work believes that \u201cit is truly inconceivable . . . that anyone else\u2019s algorithm doesn\u2019t suffer from this.\u201d (<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/health\/2019\/10\/24\/racial-bias-medical-algorithm-favors-white-patients-over-sicker-black-patients\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Washington Post<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">)\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Barack Obama delivered a eulogy for Representative Elijah Cummings, a celebrated civil rights leader<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">,<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">at his funeral on Friday. \u201cElijah Cummings was a man of noble and good heart.\u201d The former President remarked. \u201cHis parents and his faith planted the seeds of hope, and love, and compassion, and righteousness in that good soil of his.\u201d House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi, former Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, and former President, Bill Clinton, also offered remarks at the funeral. (<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.huffpost.com\/entry\/barack-obama-elijah-cummings-funeral-eulogy_n_5db333b9e4b006d4916e1f24\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Huffington Post<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">)<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Civil rights journalist Kathryn Johnson passed away at age 93. <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Johnson was an award-winning Associated Press reporter. On the day Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated, Johnson was the only journalist allowed inside his home. (<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/homenews\/media\/467187-civil-rights-journalist-kathryn-johnson-dies-at-93\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Hill<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">)\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Facebook discloses the existence of Iran and Russia\u2019s efforts to influence the 2020 election.<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Mark Zuckerburg, the company\u2019s chief executive, also announced several initiatives to protect against foreign election interference. Among these is a ban on political ads designed to suppress voter turn-out. (<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/technology\/2019\/oct\/21\/facebook-us-2020-elections-foreign-interference-russia\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Guardian<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights finds that the Trump Administration\u2019s immigration policies violate the civil rights of migrants. <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The commission was created by the Civil Rights Act of 1957 and serves as a bipartisan fact-finding agency aimed at informing national civil rights policy. Their report notes that Trump Administration immigration policies \u201cappear to violate constitutional due process rights and basic standards of medical and mental health care.\u201d (<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.usnews.com\/news\/national-news\/articles\/2019-10-24\/trump-administrations-immigration-policies-violate-civil-rights-government-agency-says\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">US News<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">)\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Actress Rose McGowan sues Harvey Weinstein and his lawyers for illegal measures to discredit her and prevent her from going public with her rape. <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">McGowan, one of Weinstein\u2019s first public accusers, alleges 11 complaints including civil racketeering, wiretapping, fraud, invasion of privacy, computer crimes, intentional infliction of emotional distress and negligent hiring. She seeks compensatory and punitive damages. (<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/story\/entertainment\/celebrities\/2019\/10\/23\/rose-mcgowan-sues-harvey-weinstein-lisa-bloom\/4076019002\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">USA Today<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">)\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>The Electronic Frontier Foundation asks San Diego law enforcement officials to stop using facial recognition technology. <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The organization\u2019s letter asks the government agency to \u201cbegin the process immediately to suspend this fatally flawed program that threatens the civil liberties of people in California.\u201d The technology is used to allow some officers to take pictures of individuals and compare them to the agency\u2019s database of mugshots. (<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sandiegouniontribune.com\/news\/public-safety\/story\/2019-10-23\/civil-liberties-group-asks-local-law-enforcement-to-stop-using-facial-recognition-technology\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">San Diego Tribune<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>The Supreme Court\u2019s gerrymandering rulings could lead to stricter abortion laws. <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u00a0long-standing provision in the Michigan state constitution allows the state\u2019s citizens to work with the state legislature to pass bills that are exempt from the governor\u2019s veto or a popular vote. This will put the power to pass stricter abortion laws back in the hands of Republican lawmakers, who critics say are not representative of the state\u2019s mostly Democratic electorate. (<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/nation\/2019\/10\/22\/an-overlooked-consequence-supreme-courts-gerrymandering-rulings-stricter-abortion-laws\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Washington Post<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>No action on Indiana Abortion Case.<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Indiana law requires pregnant women to have an ultrasound at least 18 hours prior to obtaining an abortion. This week, the Supreme Court considered for sixth time whether this law violates the constitution, but did not make a ruling. (<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.scotusblog.com\/2019\/10\/no-new-grants-no-action-on-indiana-abortion-case\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">SCOTUSblog<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">). <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Welcome to This Week in Civil Rights and Civil Liberties.\u00a0 This week, researchers reported that a popular medical algorithm used 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