A few weeks ago, we told you that someone ELSE may own YOUR DNA. Almost every cell in your body contains a copy of your genetic code–can a private company patent it and sell it? The Supreme Court says, "no."
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Despite pressure from big business and power companies, a federal appeals court upheld first regulations that will reduce the gases blamed for global warming. This may be the most significant decision on climate change since a 2007 Supreme Court ruling that greenhouse gases could be controlled as air pollutants.
The rules will reduce the emissions of six heat-trapping gases from large industrial facilities, as well as from car exhaust. Industry groups vow to continue the fight.
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The May 22nd SpaceX launch of its Dragon capsule atop its Falcon 9 rocket to the International Space Station. This not only opens a new era in commercial spaceflight, it also raises new questions about what laws govern private space companies and what legal obstacles may affect future human space travel.
If commercial space carriers’ shuttling of supplies to the ISS, as with Dragon, evolves into the ferrying of astronauts and other human passengers into space, then a new set of legal issues will emerge. Space law expert Frans von der Dunk says, "
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Congress is passing more laws than ever, and some of them are downright dangerous. For instance, a new study finds that the number of guns that were subsequently linked to crime sold by a single store–a Milwaukee-area gun shop called Badger Guns & Ammo–increased dramatically after Congress adopted measures likely to reduce the risks gun dealers face if they divert guns to criminals.
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