Natural law in American jurisprudence: Calder vs. Bull and Corfield v. Coryell and their progeny

This dissertation seeks to answer the question of whether and to what extent principles of natural law have figured in Supreme Court jurisprudence in the last two centuries. In the last quarter-century, scholars and judicial analysts have displayed a renewed interest in natural law reasoning and whether justices do or should take cognizance of natural law considerations. The issue became prominent during the 1991 confirmation hearings of Clarence Thomas, who had written and spoken favorably of natural law as a guiding principle in constitutional adjudication. Two cases and their progeny figure herein. In Calder v. Bull (1798), Supreme Court Justices Samuel Chase and James Iredell discussed whether principles of natural justice placed limits on legislatures beyond which they could not go, or whether judges could rely only on specific constitutional restraints in evaluating legislative acts. In Corfield v. Coryell (1823), Justice Bushrod Washington explained that the Constitution’s Privileges and Immunities Clause protects those rights that are “fundamental,” and many subsequent commentators and courts have given this statement a natural rights gloss. This work contributes to existing Supreme Court literature by tracing the entire history of Calder and Corfield, the two cases most frequently cited for potentially having natural law implications. The paper considers each citation as it is relevant to the natural law debate; cases are excluded only because they are cited for another point. For example, cases that cite Calder for its holding that the Constitution’s Ex Post Facto clause only applies to criminal cases are not considered. The paper concludes that natural law considerations now figure in Supreme Court jurisprudence only in a mediated sense. While several Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century opinions, including Corfield itself, accept natural law principles as interpretative guides, natural law as a free-standing source of adjudication has faded from Supreme Court jurisprudence. Concomitantly, the Privileges and Immunities Clause as a source of rights has been largely discarded in favor of a substantive due-process jurisprudence, with the Court adopting a gradual, common-law type of approach in determining the constitutional limits of government interference with Americans’ rights

An Analysis of Rachel Carson\u27s Silent Spring

Rachel Carson\u27s 1962 publication of Silent Spring is often cited as one of the most influential pieces of media in American environmental legislation. Carson, who spent the majority of her career working for the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, was inspired to write Silent Spring due to a heightened level of environmental concern regarding modem agricultural practices. The issue at hand was America\u27s increasing reliance on chemical pesticides, with Carson specifically targeting dichlorodiphenyl- dichloroethane (DDT) as among the worst defenders. These chemicals weaken natural defenses and wreak havoc upon wildlife populations. Carson\u27s publication and its willingness to openly share these concerns were initially met with resistance by some scientists, chemical industry managers, and corporate lobbyists in agriculture. Despite this, the book was ultimately successful in shifting the perspective of the American public toward the growing environmental movement. This influence extended into the realm of public policy, as President Kennedy utilized Carson\u27s publication to create a special pesticide study panel of the Science Advisory Committee. This panel would establish a trend of increased federal involvement in issues of environmental protection. Overall, the book details Carson\u27s primary themes in a chapter-by-chapter analysis and highlights the significance of these claims towards American public perceptions and American environmental policy in the mid-late twentieth century.https://scholarworks.moreheadstate.edu/celebration_posters_2024/1073/thumbnail.jp

The International Surface Pressure Databank version 2

The International Surface Pressure Databank (ISPD) is the world's largest collection of global surface and sea-level pressure observations. It was developed by extracting observations from established international archives, through international cooperation with data recovery facilitated by the Atmospheric Circulation Reconstructions over the Earth (ACRE) initiative, and directly by contributing universities, organizations, and countries. The dataset period is currently 1768–2012 and consists of three data components: observations from land stations, marine observing systems, and tropical cyclone best track pressure reports. Version 2 of the ISPD (ISPDv2) was created to be observational input for the Twentieth Century Reanalysis Project (20CR) and contains the quality control and assimilation feedback metadata from the 20CR. Since then, it has been used for various general climate and weather studies, and an updated version 3 (ISPDv3) has been used in the ERA-20C reanalysis in connection with the European Reanalysis of Global Climate Observations project (ERA-CLIM). The focus of this paper is on the ISPDv2 and the inclusion of the 20CR feedback metadata. The Research Data Archive at the National Center for Atmospheric Research provides data collection and access for the ISPDv2, and will provide access to future versions

Effects of Anacetrapib in Patients with Atherosclerotic Vascular Disease

BACKGROUND: Patients with atherosclerotic vascular disease remain at high risk for cardiovascular events despite effective statin-based treatment of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol levels. The inhibition of cholesteryl ester transfer protein (CETP) by anacetrapib reduces LDL cholesterol levels and increases high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol levels. However, trials of other CETP inhibitors have shown neutral or adverse effects on cardiovascular outcomes. METHODS: We conducted a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial involving 30,449 adults with atherosclerotic vascular disease who were receiving intensive atorvastatin therapy and who had a mean LDL cholesterol level of 61 mg per deciliter (1.58 mmol per liter), a mean non-HDL cholesterol level of 92 mg per deciliter (2.38 mmol per liter), and a mean HDL cholesterol level of 40 mg per deciliter (1.03 mmol per liter). The patients were assigned to receive either 100 mg of anacetrapib once daily (15,225 patients) or matching placebo (15,224 patients). The primary outcome was the first major coronary event, a composite of coronary death, myocardial infarction, or coronary revascularization. RESULTS: During the median follow-up period of 4.1 years, the primary outcome occurred in significantly fewer patients in the anacetrapib group than in the placebo group (1640 of 15,225 patients [10.8%] vs. 1803 of 15,224 patients [11.8%]; rate ratio, 0.91; 95% confidence interval, 0.85 to 0.97; P=0.004). The relative difference in risk was similar across multiple prespecified subgroups. At the trial midpoint, the mean level of HDL cholesterol was higher by 43 mg per deciliter (1.12 mmol per liter) in the anacetrapib group than in the placebo group (a relative difference of 104%), and the mean level of non-HDL cholesterol was lower by 17 mg per deciliter (0.44 mmol per liter), a relative difference of -18%. There were no significant between-group differences in the risk of death, cancer, or other serious adverse events. CONCLUSIONS: Among patients with atherosclerotic vascular disease who were receiving intensive statin therapy, the use of anacetrapib resulted in a lower incidence of major coronary events than the use of placebo. (Funded by Merck and others; Current Controlled Trials number, ISRCTN48678192 ; ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT01252953 ; and EudraCT number, 2010-023467-18 .)

2012 ACCF/AHA/ACP/AATS/PCNA/SCAI/STS guideline for the diagnosis and management of patients with stable ischemic heart disease

The recommendations listed in this document are, whenever possible, evidence based. An extensive evidence review was conducted as the document was compiled through December 2008. Repeated literature searches were performed by the guideline development staff and writing committee members as new issues were considered. New clinical trials published in peer-reviewed journals and articles through December 2011 were also reviewed and incorporated when relevant. Furthermore, because of the extended development time period for this guideline, peer review comments indicated that the sections focused on imaging technologies required additional updating, which occurred during 2011. Therefore, the evidence review for the imaging sections includes published literature through December 2011

Frap, FKBP12 rapamycin-associated protein, is a candidate gene for the plasmacytoma resistance locus Pctr2 and can act as a tumor suppressor gene

Susceptibility to mouse plasmacytomagenesis is a complex genetic trait controlled by several Pctr loci (Pctr1, Pctr2, etc). Congenic strain analysis narrowed the genetic interval surrounding the Pctr2 locus, and genes identified in the interval were sequenced from susceptible BALB/c and resistant DBA/2 mice. Frap (FKBP12 rapamycin-associated protein, mTOR, RAFT) was the only gene differing in amino acid sequence between alleles that correlated with strain sensitivity to tumor development. The in vitro kinase activity of the BALB/c FRAP allele was lower than the DBA/2 allele; phosphorylation of p53 and PHAS1/4EBP1 (properties of heat and acid stability/eukaryotic initiation factor 4E-binding protein) and autophosphorylation of FRAP were less efficient with the BALB/c allele. FRAP also suppressed transformation of NIH 3T3 cells by ras, with DBA/2 FRAP being more efficient than BALB/c FRAP. Rapamycin, a specific inhibitor of FRAP, did not inhibit growth of plasmacytoma cell lines. These studies identify Frap as a candidate tumor suppressor gene, in contrast to many reports that have focused on its prooncogenic properties. Frap may be similar to Tgfb and E2f in exerting both positive and negative growth-regulatory signals, depending on the timing, pathway, or tumor system involved. The failure of rapamycin to inhibit plasma cell tumor growth suggests that FRAP antagonists may not be appropriate for the treatment of plasma cell tumors. Pctr2 joins Pctr1 in possessing alleles that modify susceptibility to plasmacytomagenesis by encoding differences in efficiency of function (efficiency alleles), rather than all-or-none, gain-of-function, or loss-of-function alleles. By analogy, human cancer may also result from the combined effects of several inefficient alleles