Harvard Law & Policy Review

Archives for April 2014

by on

Can Playing with a Barbie Doll Impact a Young Girl’s Career Aspirations?

By Tharuni Jayaraman In a recent study that has created some buzz (The Guardian, The Boston Globe, and The Atlantic), researchers Aurora Sherman and Eileen Zurbriggen investigated whether playing with a Barbie doll for just five minutes could affect a girl’s belief in the type of career she could pursue. To test their hypothesis, they recruited a pool of 37 girls between the ages of four and seven. 59% of the girls studied had at least one Barbie doll at home and 57% reported having two or …

Continue Reading about Can Playing with a Barbie Doll Impact a Young Girl’s Career Aspirations? →

by on

Net Neutral?

By Noah Marks  Last week, the Wall Street Journal broke the news that the FCC’s third attempt to regulate “in defense” of net neutrality would allow “commercially reasonable” agreements between content providers and Internet service providers. The “commercially reasonable” test aligns with the January DC Appeals Court decision striking down the FCC’s previous attempt but affirming their right to regulate broadband. Net neutrality is based on the premise that all Internet traffic is treated …

Continue Reading about Net Neutral? →

by on

Jonathan Peters on the Constitutionality of Prosecuting Wikileaks

HLPR Online editorial staff Writing for the online edition of the Harvard Law and Policy Review, Jonathan Peters argues that the Justice Department should proceed carefully in any prosecution of Wikileaks or Julian Assange due to serious constitutional concerns: [T]he standard the Court used for prior restraint in the Pentagon Papers case could be roughly the same standard the Court would use in a criminal prosecution of WikiLeaks or Assange for publishing classified information. In other …

Continue Reading about Jonathan Peters on the Constitutionality of Prosecuting Wikileaks →

by on

The “Pen and Phone”: Executive Action in Immigration Reform

By Ana Choi The comprehensive immigration reform package passed by the Senate last year has yet to be taken up by the House of Representatives, due to partisan disagreement over issues such as the path to citizenship and reinforcement of border security.  Meanwhile, President Obama has come under increasing pressure to use his executive power to unilaterally suspend deportations. There have been about 2 million deportations under this administration—a number that exceeds that of previous …

Continue Reading about The “Pen and Phone”: Executive Action in Immigration Reform →

by on

Create Real Redistricting Reform through Internet-Scale Independent Commissions

Micah Altman, MIT Libraries; Brookings Institution Michael P. McDonald, George Mason University; Brookings Institution Discussion of redistricting reform often generates more heat than light. Much of the commentary dismisses the possibility of thoughtful, responsible electoral mapping altogether. Critics who dismiss responsible electoral mapping generally takes one of two lines of argument: Either they urge the nation to “let a computer do it” based on traditional criteria such as geographic …

Continue Reading about Create Real Redistricting Reform through Internet-Scale Independent Commissions →

by on

Elections in America: Campaign Finance Reform

Mr. Robert Maguire did not express any opinions about what the future of campaign finance should be; he just presented the findings of his research. Likewise, Mr. O’Mara made it clear that his comments only reflect his personal opinion and not that of Congressman Sarbanes. With the McCutcheon decision fresh in everyone’s minds, the panelists on our Campaign Finance panel had a lot to talk about. The discussion opened with Robert Maguire of the Center for Responsive Politics giving an overview …

Continue Reading about Elections in America: Campaign Finance Reform →