This Week’s Report: Assessing the New Health Care Law

When a sharply divided U.S. Supreme Court upheld the Affordable Care Act (ACA) in June, the decision hardly spelled the end of controversy over President Obama’s signature health care law. Conservative politicians, including Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney, vow to repeal the measure, while the ACA’s supporters say doing so would drive up medical costs and leave millions of Americans uninsured.

As veteran health care reporter and CQ Researcher staff writer Marcia Clemmitt explains in this important contribution to the law’s journalistic coverage, little is known yet how the ACA will affect medical costs and insurance coverage. “With implementation of the law’s major provisions more than a year away, much of the debate is still driven by theories rather than data,” she notes. But Clemmitt explores those theories and the underlying economic and legal principles in depth, offering a comprehensive examination of one of the most important pieces of legislation in a generation or more.

This report is ideal for classes and papers in law, health policy, political science and American government and is important reading for faculty and researchers seeking to understand the new health care law’s far-reaching implications.

--Thomas J. Billitteri, Managing Editor 

This Week’s Report: Solitary Confinement

Tens of thousands of U.S. prison inmates are locked in solitary confinement for months or years at a stretch, a practice that some prison officials defend as necessary but that critics charge is rarely justified.   

“Accounts of bizarre and self-destructive behavior by prisoners have multiplied as long-term solitary confinement has become commonplace in the U.S. prison system over the past two decades,” veteran journalist Peter Katel writes. And “questions about psychological effects are part of a larger debate in criminal-justice and human-rights circles over whether confining anyone for long periods in strict isolation is humane and whether isolation is effective in keeping order” in prisons.    

But supporters of solitary confinement and special “supermax” prisons say prisoner isolation is “essential for public safety and management of potentially explosive prison populations,” Katel continues. “Strict solitary keeps highly dangerous inmates in conditions in which they’re less able to harm prison staff or other inmates or induce other prisoners to commit violent acts.” 

This report is ideal for classes and papers on criminal justice, human rights, public safety,   psychology, mental health and general public policy.

--Thomas J. Billitteri, Managing Editor

This Week’s Report: Re-examining the Constitution

As Americans prepare to mark the U.S. Constitution’s 225th anniversary on Sept. 17, many are questioning whether the nation’s founding document remains right for the times. Some wonder whether the Constitution, with its intricate system of checks and balances and separation of powers, is an adequate guide for dealing with contemporary issues such as gun control, abortion and political gridlock. Others argue that the document’s structural features, such as the Electoral College, are outmoded.

Associate Editor Kenneth Jost provides a compelling and thorough examination of the issues and controversies surrounding the Constitution and offers a layman’s guide to the document’s most important parts. A separate pro/con debate in Jost’s report deals with the question of whether a constitutional convention should be called to amend the document.

“Americans appear more ambivalent or divided about the Constitution than they were 25 years ago,” Jost writes.  As David Bodenhamer, a history professor at Indiana University, told Jost, “We’re very much divided as a nation about what we see as the appropriate role of the government. We’re forced to think once again about what those fundamental assumptions of the relationship of the government to the individual are.”

--Thomas J. Billitteri, Managing Editor

Weekly Roundup 9/4/2012

Prying Open the Ultimate Cold Case
David Carr, The New York Times, Sept. 2, 2012

Synopsis:  A book by filmmaker Errol Morris takes a new look at the controversial case of Jeffrey MacDonald, an Army doctor and Green Beret, who was convicted of killing his pregnant wife and two young daughters in 1970.

Takeaway:  Carr writes that Morris’s book may not have proved MacDonald’s innocence, “but it makes a forceful argument that his conviction was riddled with shortcomings.”

For background see the CQ Researcher report “Wrongful Convictions,” 4/17/2009, updated June 14, 2012.

--Thomas J. Colin, Contributing Editor

Weekly Roundup 8/20/2012

Cleaning Up Coal 

Richard K. Morse, Foreign Affairs, July/Aug. 2012

Synopsis: Coal contributes nearly as much total energy to the global economy as every other source – oil, natural gas and alternatives – combined. Increased use over the past decade has come mostly from the developing world, where it remains the cheapest and most reliable source of electricity. The rock that once fueled the Industrial Revolution is now remaking the global energy landscape. As the largest source of carbon dioxide emissions, however, it is also remaking the climate.

Takeaway: Instead of pursuing visions of a coal-free world, policymakers should support new technologies that reduce how much carbon coal emits.

For background see the CQ Researcher reports “Mine Safety,” June 24, 2011, and “Coal’s Comeback,” Oct. 5, 2007.

--Darrell Dela Rosa, Assistant Editor

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Afghan Attacks Prompt NATO To Shift Policy 

Richard A. Oppel Jr. and Graham Bowley, The New York Times, Aug. 19, 2012

Synopsis: The escalating number of American and NATO troops killed by the Afghan forces serving with them has prompted a reappraisal of the war-fighting effort.

Takeaway: New policies include requiring American and NATO troops to carry loaded weapons, and assigning one or two soldiers to monitor Afghans during every mission.

For background see the CQ Researcher report “America at War,” Aug. 13, 2010.

--Thomas J. Colin, Contributing Editor