The 1996 Jaffee v Redmond US Supreme Court decision established a privilege for psychotherapeutic communications in the federal courts. The new privilege has both substantive and symbolic importance. In its strongly worded opinion in Jaffee v Redmond, the US Supreme Court made clear that confidentiality in psychotherapy takes precedence over certain other important societal goals. The new Healt...

The death penalty remains an intensely divisive topic in American society. Recently, there has been a series of cases, first involving defendants with mental retardation and more recently involving juveniles, in which the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled by a five-to-four margin that the death penalty in both these classes violates the Constitution's prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment...

In June 2005, the U.S. Supreme Court issued the decision in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios v. Grokster Ltd., a case that asked whether peer-to-peer networks may be held liable for facilitating the illegal distribution of music over the internet. The music industry petitioned the Supreme Court to settle the disagreement between the circuit courts over the standard of liability for aiding in copyrig...

The Supreme Court’s plurality opinion in Baze v. Rees begins with a seemingly simple assertion of constitutional law. “We begin with the principle, settled by Gregg, that capital punishment is constitutional.” It continues, “[i]t necessarily follows that there must be a means of carrying it out.” This second pronouncement provides the foundation for the Supreme Court’s holding in Baze that Kent...

Like the United Kingdom, Canada traditionally has been committed to the doctrine of parliamentary supremacy, which leaves little room for judicial protection of individual rights. In 1982, however, the Canadian Constitution, originally a product of the United Kingdom, was "patriated" to Canada. It was also amended to include a judicially-enforceable Charter of Rights and Freedoms. This amendmen...

The LMA Supreme is a new extraglottic airway device which brings together features of the LMA ProSeal, Fastrach and Unique. We test the hypothesis that ease of insertion, oropharyngeal leak pressure, fibreoptic position and ease of gastric tube placement differ between the LMA ProSeal and the LMA Supreme in paralysed anesthetised patients. Ninety-three females aged 19-71 years were studied. Bot...

This Article discusses potential policies regarding assisted reproductive technologies (ARTs). The initial question is whether ARTs should be viewed as private matters or as issues that affect overall social good. The author explains that this question may be answered by the Supreme Court’s interpretation of the principles of procreative liberty. He then examines Supreme Court decisions regardi...

Direct-to-consumer (DTC) genetic testing refers to testing sold directly to consumers via the Internet, television, or other marketing venues without involving health care professionals. As the recent Supreme Court ruling eliminated the patentability of human genes, this rapidly evolving segment in the laboratory testing industry is starting to attract increasing scrutiny by government, scienti...

In a decision having implications for the healthcare, biotechnology, and pharmaceutical industries, on June 13, 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court held that a naturally occurring DNA sequence is not patentable simply because it has been isolated from surrounding genetic material. Assoc. for Molecular Pathology v. Myriad Genetics, Inc., 569 U.S. ___ (2013). The Court observed that Myriad’s claims to n...

the United States Supreme Court held that market power sufficient to impose an illegal tying arrangement can, at least in theory, derive from buyers' uncertainty regarding a product's costs and quality. Although commentators disagree on the implications of the Kodak decision, all seem to agree that the opinion's emphasis on product information costs is a departure from previously accepted econo...