Author: Jessica Roberts Martin

The Supreme Court’s decision in Shelby County v. Holder effectively kills the most successful weapon our nation has ever produced against racial discrimination in voting, says constitutional and election law expert Gregory Magarian, JD, professor of law at Washington University in St. Louis. He says the Court’s decision reflects a victory for two big ideas: state power, at the expense of racial justice; and judicial power, at the expense of democracy.

In the Association for Molecular Pathology v. Myriad Genetics decision, the Supreme Court unanimously held that naturally occurring DNA sequences are “products of nature” and therefore cannot be patented. “The Court’s holding represents a significant shift form the status quo,” says Kevin Emerson Collins, JD, patent law expert and professor of law at Washington University in St. Louis. “It reverses both the lower court and twenty years of precedent at the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

Washington University will be participating in this year’s St. Louis PrideFest, held June 29 –30 at Soldiers’ Memorial in Downtown St. Louis. All WUSTL faculty, staff, students and alumni are invited to be a part of the celebration by marching in the 2013 Pride STL LGBT Parade on June 30 at 11 a.m. For more information visit http://pridestl.org/. To participate in the parade with members of the WUSTL community contact Nate Lucena at nlucena@go.wustl.edu.

.ExternalClass p.MsoNormal, .ExternalClass li.MsoNormal, .ExternalClass div.MsoNormal {margin-top:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:10.0pt;margin-left:0in;line-height:115%;font-size:11.0pt;font-family:Calibri;} .ExternalClass .MsoChpDefault {font-size:11.0pt;font-family:Calibri;} .ExternalClass .MsoPapDefault {margin-bottom:10.0pt;line-height:115%;} @page WordSection1 {size:8.5in 11.0in;margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in;} .ExternalClass div.WordSection1 {page:WordSection1;} David S. Law, JD, PhD, professor of law and professor of political science, has published a groundbreaking book on the Japanese judiciary and constitutional adjudication in Japan, titled The Japanese Supreme Court and Judicial Review (Gendaijinbunsha, 2013). Read more at http://law.wustl.edu/news/pages.aspx?id=9740.

An executive branch Inspector General played a critical role in exposing the IRS’s practice of targeting Tea Party groups, says Kathleen Clark, JD, anti-corruption expert and professor of law at Washington University in St. Louis. “As we see with the IRS controversy, an Inspector General investigation can cause heads to roll. Perhaps that’s why some government agencies have been without an Inspector General for a very long time – measured not in months, but in years.” Clark notes that the State Department has been without an Inspector General for more than five years.

The Washington University School of Law Women’s Law Caucus (WLC) recently gathered with faculty, alumni, judges and attorneys to honor the organization’s 40th anniversary and to observe the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day. As part of the annual celebration, the WLC also presented the International Women’s Day honorary awards.

The Supreme Court’s unanimous opinion in Bowman v. Monsanto holds that farmers who lawfully obtain Monsanto’s patented, genetically modified soybeans do not have a right to plant those soybeans and grow a new crop of soybeans without Monsanto’s permission. “The Court closed a potential loophole in Monsanto’s long-standing business model, prevents Monsanto’s customers from setting up ‘farm-factories’ for producing soybeans that could be sold in competition with Monsanto’s soybeans, and it enables Monsanto to continue to earn a reasonable profit on its patented technology,” says Kevin Collins, JD, patent law expert and professor of law at Washington University in St. Louis

The third annual Lavender Recognition Ceremony will take place at 3 p.m. Wednesday, May 15, in College Hall in the South 40 House. Co-hosted by LGBT Student Involvement and Leadership and the Social Justice Center, the ceremony honors the achievements and contributions of graduating lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer students and their allies. To register for the ceremony, visit getinvolved.wustl.edu/LGBT/Pages/RSVP-Form.aspx.

In the aftermath of the Boston Marathon bombings, some people are calling for an increase in surveillance cameras throughout U.S. cities. “This would be a mistake,” says Neil Richards, JD, privacy law expert and professor of law at Washington University in St. Louis. “It would be dangerous to our civil liberties, and it would be bad policy.” Richards gives his personal reaction to the Boston bombings and offers three reasons why increasing the number of surveillance cameras would be an unnecessary response to recent events in a CNN opinion piece, “Surveillance State No Answer to Terror.”

As Germany prepares to enact quotas that will mandate quotas for female participation on major corporate boards, the United States is feeling the pressure to improve board diversity, says Hillary A. Sale, JD, corporate governance expert and professor of law at Washington University School of Law. After years of little growth, the percentage of women directors on U.S. Boards remains at 12 percent.