By Hailie Goldsmith
​Hailie Goldsmith is a freshman in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania.

As the novel coronavirus sweeps across the world, essential medical resources like N95 respirators, surgical masks, and ventilators are in incredibly high demand—and in dwindling supply—in the United States. With the federal government and state governments scrambling to determine ways to mass-produce the necessary materials to manage the pandemic, some public health and policy experts have pointed to the Defense Production Act (DPA) as a solution to spur the production of masks and ventilators and address the urgent needs of the U.S. population.

By Hailie Goldsmith
​Hailie Goldsmith is a freshman in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania.

With a presidential election on the horizon in November, each state’s current voting laws and what those laws mean for who can vote become increasingly important.

​As of 2016, 6.1 million people could not vote due to a felony conviction and accompanying voting restrictions on released felons; however advocacy groups such as the Sentencing Project hope to reduce this number. Voting restrictions on released felons disproportionately impact black voters, since systemic injustices within the prison system contribute to a higher likelihood of black Americans facing incarceration and felony convictions [1].

​On February 24, 2020, the Supreme Court added Fulton v. City of Philadelphia to its docket. This case, which was brought by Catholic Social Services (CSS), challenges the City Of Philadelphia’s decision to stop referring foster children to CSS for placement on the grounds that the agency does not certify same-sex couples as foster parents. The agency had lost in lower courts, but appealed their case to the Supreme Court. The ruling of this case may lay out further explanation to the types of religious discrimination claims that warrant legal remedy, alter the decision in Employment Division v. Smith, and address whether the government violates the First Amendment by making participation in the foster-care system contingent on whether an agency conducts themselves in a way that goes against their religious beliefs [1].

​On March 11th, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 a global pandemic. Since then, the number of confirmed cases has risen tenfold from 118,000 cases to over 1.8 million cases worldwide [1]. Of these, the U.S. houses over half a million cases with over 20,000 deaths and counting [2]. However, these numbers only showcase the beginning. Experts predict deaths will increase over threefold to about 70,000 by August when the projected infection curve finally begins to flatten [3]. Not to mention, experts predict a second wave of mass infection as society gradually returns to normalcy [4]. As a result, vaccine development is paramount in combating this global pandemic. However, due to the pressure of rising fatalities and plummeting economies, typical rules and regulations are being bypassed by researchers and regulators. In this race to develop vaccines, safety, liability and patent contention must be considered.