All Issue Briefs

ACS Issue Briefs

See below all issue briefs since January 2017. Click here for past issue briefs.

Reforming the Office of Legal Counsel: Living Up to Its Best Practices

Although reforming OLC might be difficult, Annie Owens explains in a new ACS Issue Brief what a path forward might look like and why previous efforts to reform the Office have failed to produce lasting change.

STATEMENT: The Office of Legal Counsel and the Rule of Law

Backdoor Repeal: How Health Care Opponents are Rewriting History to Challenge the Affordable Care Act in Court

While walking through the legislative history and basic severability principles, author Joel Dodge concludes that there is no room for doubt: Congress opted to eliminate the mandate penalty while retaining the rest of the ACA.

The Roberts Court, The Shadow Docket, and the Unraveling of Voting Rights Remedies

Author David Gans highlights the need to reconsider the Purcell principle, a judicial doctrine created by the Roberts Court to close the courthouse doors on voters.

How Section 230 Enhances the First Amendment

The People’s Lawyer, for All the People: State Attorneys General and Immigrants’ Rights

The U.S. Constitution Meets Democratic Theory: The Puzzling Cases of Puerto Rico and D.C.

The Aftermath of Janus v. AFSCME: An Ongoing Assault on Public Sector Unions

To Save and Not to Destroy: Severability, Judicial Restraint, and the Affordable Care Act

Overcoming Constitutional Objections to the CLOUD Act

Racial Exclusion Through Crime-Free Housing Ordinances

Protecting Digital Data at the U.S. Border

Discriminatory Driver’s License Suspension Schemes

Shifting Gears: The Federal Government’s Reversal on California’s Clean Air Act Waiver

Preparing for the 2020 Census: Considerations for State Attorneys General

Reforming “Regulatory Reform”: A Progressive Framework for Agency Rulemaking in the Public Interest