Harvard Law & Policy Review

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No Democrat Should Vote for Neil Gorsuch

By Ian Silverii* He’s a nice guy. He’s a fair and good jurist. Well, he could be worse. If everything is an outrage, nothing is. These are some of the arguments I hear from friends, political operatives, and conservatives and progressives alike when discussing the nomination of Judge Neil Gorsuch to the United States Supreme Court by President Trump. None of these arguments hold water. Conservatives in Colorado lead with the fact that Judge Gorsuch is a fourth-generation …

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Assisting Personal Responsibility: Using Nudges to Reduce Sugar Consumption

By Steven J. Gonzalez[1] I. Introduction The prevalence of obesity and its related chronic illnesses has been increasing for decades and takes a heavy toll not only on individual households, but also on public health institutions. The over-consumption of sugar, especially through Sugar Sweetened Beverages (SSBs), is an important contributor to this epidemic. Curtailing Americans’ intake of sugar cannot be done effectively by only encouraging "personal responsibility," because the food …

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What to do With an Alt-Right White House: The Present Need for, and Future Challenges to, Suing the Federal Government for Discrimination

By Alexander Reinert* Many remarkable events have taken place during the first month of President Donald Trump’s Administration. Among these, the Administration’s restrictions on immigration, and the role litigants and judges have played in at least temporarily halting those restrictions, have received much deserved attention. But perhaps overlooked is that the challenges have been successful in achieving what is unusually rare: articulating and demonstrating when federal action is motivated …

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The Moral Foundations of the Insurance Mandate

By Tina Rulli* Republicans’ new plan to replace the Affordable Care Act ditches the health insurance mandate, the requirement for individuals to purchase health insurance or pay a penalty. Instead, their American Health Care Act favors tax credits to incentivize people to purchase insurance. There are many vantage points from which to assess the health insurance law, including legal, economic, and public health perspectives. My focus is on the moral foundations of the individual mandate, …

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The Travel Ban is Just for Show—The Real Threat is from Individual Officials Who Can Act on its Discriminatory Message

By Angela D. Morrison* The administration’s revised travel ban represents only the most visible part of the administration’s discriminatory immigration policy. The U.S. immigration system has a sexist and racist history. The travel ban, along with many of the administration’s other immigration policies, builds on that legacy. Because the administration has been so apparent in its discriminatory motives for the travel ban, lawyers challenging the ban have an unusual opportunity. Advocates …

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Leaks, Leakers, and a Free Press

By Heidi Kitrosser* President Trump supports accountability regarding his campaign’s alleged contacts with Russia. He is similarly responsive to stories about his administration’s early missteps, including embarrassing phone calls with world leaders and the crafting of the controversial travel ban. The accountability that he has in mind, however, is not for himself or his surrogates. Rather, as he has said (and tweeted) again and again, “[t]he real story is all of the illegal leaks of …

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