Protecting Democracy
DISCOVERY presented by UW Law
In this episode of the Discovery podcast, we talk with Timothy Heaphy about the similarities between the 2017 Charlottesville riot and the January 6th insurrection. Heaphy led the House investigation into the January 6th attacks on the U.S. Capitol and recently authored Harbingers: What January 6 and Charlottesville Reveal About Rising Threats to American Democracy. Heaphy reflects on his unique role in investigating both the 2017 Charlottesville rally and the 2021 Capitol insurrection, drawing strong parallels between the two events. We explore what these events reveal about...
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The Black Box Algorithm
DISCOVERY presented by UW Law
During the first wave of the opioid pandemic, the U.S. federal government encouraged states to establish prescription drug monitoring programs (PDMPs) which use predictive algorithms to determine risk scores for patients. These scores, which can point correctly or inaccurately to substance use disorder (SUD), drug diversion, doctor shopping or drug misuse, have a risk themselves, as overreliance on PDMP information for clinical decision making often influences clinicians in their treatment, or refusal to treat, vulnerable people. In this episode, we speak with health law and policy expert...
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They Had Standing
DISCOVERY presented by UW Law
We interview new faculty member Jeremiah Chin, an expert on children’s rights and constitutional rights, about Held v. Montana, the first constitutional climate trial led by children in U.S. history. The Montana Supreme Court ruled in favor of the 16 youth plaintiffs in December 2024 that Montana’s fossil fuel energy policies and actions violate the children’s state constitutional rights. An expert in children's rights and constitutional rights, Professor Chin joined the UW Law faculty in fall 2024. He is an assistant professor of law with a J.D. and Ph.D. in justice studies from...
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Why Would I Bother?
DISCOVERY presented by UW Law
To open season seven of Discovery, we’re discussing voter suppression through a social science lens with UW Law faculty member Danieli Evans. The 2024 U.S. Presidential Election is just weeks away and concerns around preserving voters’ rights are ever-present as Americans begin casting their ballots. Poll taxes, strict voter ID laws and restrictions on mail voting are examples of policies limiting voting rights. But the carceral state — loosely defined as citizens' encounters with any type of criminal system — also inflicts harm on voters that can ultimately cause them to...
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The History of Impeachment
DISCOVERY presented by UW Law
Some scholars call our politically fraught and hyper-partisan times “the age of impeachment.” They claim the increased use of impeachment and removal proceedings signals an erosion in institutional norms, perhaps that we’ve even “overwhelmed” the use of impeachment and diluted impeachment of any significance. What does U.S. impeachment history tell us? The Constitution provides that treason, bribery, and other high crimes and misdemeanors are impeachable offenses. A common thread that runs throughout presidential impeachment proceedings is an effort by legal counsel to try and...
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An Unprecedented Rollback of Human Rights
DISCOVERY presented by UW Law
In 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court held that the Fourteenth Amendment’s guarantee to personal liberty does not include the right to abortion and returned the power to regulate abortion to individual states. Justice Samuel Alito said in the Court’s majority opinion that the decision in Dobbs v. The Jackson Women's Health Organization would end the abortion controversy once and for all. However, in overruling both Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, an unprecedented new landscape interfering with human rights has emerged, factors which intersect with rights related to environmental...
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Big Data Searches and the Future of Criminal Procedure
DISCOVERY presented by UW Law
Beginning with the tale of an unsolved mystery, and expanding to the U.S. Capitol riots on January 6, 2021, UW Professor of Law Mary D. Fan takes us through a look at how crimes are being solved through the use of digital searches. Keyword and geofence warrants are now tools helping law enforcement identify unknown perpetrators. However, courts are split over their constitutionality. Search and arrest warrants are in the text of the Fourth Amendment, but how do we apply constitutional rights with “technological probable cause” and the deployment of big data searches? Twice recognized as...
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The Youth Tax
DISCOVERY presented by UW Law
The Supreme Court has categorically ruled that the application of neuroscience research to the legal culpability of minors committing crimes, no matter how serious, must be considered in the criminal justice system. In addition to maintaining public safety, the primary goals of the juvenile justice system include rehabilitation and successfully reintegrating youth into the community after time is served. But what if just going to prison as a young person ends up working against you when you seek parole? Parole systems, the back end of criminal justice reform, often do not receive much...
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The Extraordinary Career of Stephen Bright
DISCOVERY presented by UW Law
In this episode of “Discovery,” we interview our first return guest, Professor Robert Tsai of the Boston University School of Law. Tsai visited the UW Law Faculty Colloquium to discuss his forthcoming (and fourth) book, Demand the Impossible: One Lawyer’s Pursuit of Equal Justice, a historical thriller about the decline of the death penalty adjacent to the career of attorney Stephen Bright, executive director of the Southern Center for Human Rights. Bright argued four Supreme Court cases following the McCleskey v. Kemp ruling in 1987. The ruling declared that, even if the death penalty...
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The Laws of Space Mining
DISCOVERY presented by UW Law
If fishing in international waters is legal, what about mining asteroids and the moon for water ice and precious metals? Turns out in-situ resource utilization (ISRU) is lawful, as governed by the Outer Space Treaty and Artemis Accords, and embraced as advancing the cause of space exploration. Of interest to NASA and other civil space agencies around the globe, as well as a number of companies and academic organizations, ISRU actually offers lucrative opportunities for the rise of the world’s first trillionaire. So what laws govern the pursuit of commercial space exploration, and what...
info_outlineExploring space involves launching satellites which create debris. The international community is working on the process of debris mitigation and traffic coordination to avoid interference and future collisions. Though technical regulations exist, there are no binding regulations nor enforcement mechanism in space. Information sharing and data collection, particularly from as many sources as possible, are critical to heightening space situational awareness and reducing the potential for conflict in space.
P.J. Blount, J.D., LL.M., M.S., Ph.D., is a lecturer in law at Cardiff University in the UK and executive secretary of the International Institute of Space Law. He has published and presented widely on space security law and has given expert testimony on space traffic management before the U.S. Congress.
As the fourth season of the Discovery podcast takes off, Dr. Blount addresses the challenges of international law and geopolitical tensions in creating a sustainable space environment and explains why space traffic management is a future-oriented idea. He shares his hopes for future communication and data collection among states, as well as de-escalation of competitive interests, so that we can all benefit as a global community from space as a precious resource.