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May 2009

May 21, 2009
Why Gene Patents Are Unlawful
Guest Post

By Selene Kaye, Advocacy Coordinator for the ACLU Women's Rights Project and Sandra Park, Staff Attorney for the ACLU Women's Rights Project and one of the attorneys handling this case

Last week the ACLU and the Public Patent Foundation filed a lawsuit challenging the U.S. government's practice of granting patents on human genes - specifically, the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes, which are associated with breast and ovarian cancer. In the last 20 or so years the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) has issued patents on thousands of human genes - the segments of DNA that we all have in our cells - giving private corporations, individuals, and universities the exclusive rights to those genetic sequences and their usage.

The patents on the BRCA genes are particularly broad and offensive. The PTO has granted Myriad Genetics, a private biotechnology company based in Utah, patents on both the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genetic sequences, on any mutations along those genes, on any methods for locating mutations on the genes, without further specification on the type of methods, and on correlations between genetic mutations and susceptibility to breast and ovarian cancer.
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Speech and expression, Other courts, Technology and I.P., Women's rights, Equality and Liberty, First Amendment, Constitution, Diamond v. Chakrabarty, Gene Patents, Guest Post, LabCorp v. Metabolite, Patent Clause, PTO
May 21, 2009
ACS Announces New Executive Director
ACS is very proud to announce a successful conclusion to our search for a new executive director: Caroline Fredrickson (right).

Since 2005, Fredrickson has been the director of the American Civil Liberties Union's Washington Legislative Office, where she led the organization's efforts to promote its priorities in Congress, the White House and federal agencies. Her selection is the culmination of a thorough search process that began after the former ACS Director Lisa Brown was selected by President Obama to be Assistant to the President and White House Staff Secretary. Deputy Executive Director David Lyle has admirably served as acting executive director in the meantime.

Prior to assuming leadership of the ACLU's national legislative portfolio, Fredrickson served as General Counsel and Legal Director of NARAL Pro-Choice America. Before that, Fredrickson was Chief of Staff to Sen. Maria Cantwell and Deputy Chief of Staff to then-Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle. During the Clinton administration, Fredrickson served as Special Assistant to the President for Legislative Affairs. She has been widely published and appears frequently in the media on topics including labor law, anti-discrimination law, and human and civil rights issues. She holds a law degree from Columbia and graduated summa cum laude from Yale.
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Caroline Fredrickson, Goodwin Liu
May 21, 2009
The Warren Court is Alive ... in South Africa!
BookTalk

Constitutional Rights in Two Worlds

South Africa and the United States

By:
Professor Mark Kende is the James Madison Chair in Constitutional Law and Director of the congressionally endowed Drake University Constitutional Law Center.

The U.S. Supreme Court's 1954 decision in Brown v. Board of Education showed the court's potential to bring about social change. Chief Justice Earl Warren's court subsequently issued progressive rulings on access to justice, privacy, freedom of expression, voting rights and criminal procedure. By contrast, current Chief Justice John Roberts' court is often described as pro-business and pro-law enforcement. Yet perhaps the Warren Court's progressive legacy lives on in the first 15 years of the remarkable South African Constitutional Court. Indeed the U.S. Supreme Court could learn from some of these transformative yet pragmatic decisions, and thus contravene the famous African proverb that Westerners have a big mouth but small ears.

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Civil rights, Economic inequality, Supreme Court, Other courts, Economic, Workplace and Environment Regulation, Equality and Liberty, BookTalk, Brown v. Board, Comparative Law, Socio-economic Rights, South Africa, Warren Court
May 21, 2009
Protecting Consumers From (Financial) Products
The latest progressive thinker to see her ideas take shape in the nation's capital is Elizabeth Warren, who will be giving featured remarks on Saturday evening of the 2009 ACS National Convention. Warren (right) is a frequent ACS contributor who serves on the Board of Advisers for ACS's official journal, the Harvard Law and Policy Review. She was appointed by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) to chair the five-person oversight committee for the distribution of bailout funds.

According to Ezra Klein:

Apparently, Larry Summers, Tim Geithner, Barack Obama, and a variety of other "senior policymakers" met last night to discuss the creation of a new regulator who would have broad authority over consumer financial products.

This idea, put simply, is Elizabeth Warren's. The key document to understand the proposal is her article in Democracy calling for just such a commission.

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Corporate governance, Economic, Workplace and Environment Regulation, ACS National Convention, Elizabeth Warren, Ezra Klein, TARP
May 20, 2009
Bush-era Preemption Policy Dispatched
In a memo released by the White House press secretary's office, President Barack Obama has announced his administration's policy "that preemption of State law by executive departments and agencies should be undertaken only with full consideratin of the legitimate prerogatives of the States and with a sufficient legal basis for preemption." The Obama administration's move today was urged by Prof. David C. Vladeck in his January, 2008 ACS Issue Brief "The Emerging Threat of Regulatory Preemption."

The announcement signals a clear break with the Bush administration's more heavy-handed policy. As explained by the Constitutional Accountability Center, who scooped the story on their blog Text & History:

In an assault on federalism and our Constitution, the Bush Administration quietly inserted preemptive language into a number of important regulations in an attempt to favor corporate interests at the expense of state laws protecting their citizens. Today the Obama Administration recognized that states serve as "laboratories of democracy" and often are the most aggressive defenders of public health, safety, and the environment.
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Executive power, Federalism, Preemption, Separation of Powers and Federalism, President Bush, President Obama