Lynette Martins
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lynettemartins.bsky.social
Lynette Martins
@lynettemartins.bsky.social
790 followers 740 following 550 posts
Jaharis Faculty Fellow in Health Law, DePaul University College of Law. Adjunct @Georgetown Law ; LLM Georgetown Law; Penn Bioethics; Univ of Man. Pop Health Evidence; Univ of Huddersfield 🇧🇸🇵🇹Health Law, Tech & Bioethics
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lynettemartins.bsky.social
Lynette Martins @lynettemartins.bsky.social · May 5
Excited to announce my new role as the Jaharis Faculty Fellow in Health Law and Intellectual Property at DePaul University College of Law this Fall. Thrilled to be teaching the Law and Ethics of A.I. in Healthcare!
Reposted by Lynette Martins
Malcolm Gladwell's new book on gun violence in the US is engaging and interesting but his analysis of the 2nd Amendment is badly confused (although I share his disdain for SCOTUS 2nd Am rulings). That makes me skeptical about what he says about other topics about which I'm not an expert. Details👇
Malcolm Gladwell, Confused Originalist
In 1950, Immanuel Velikovsky published  Worlds in Collision , in which he argued that astronomical events such as the supposed expulsion of ...
www.dorfonlaw.org
October 7, 2026 at 11:37 AM
Reposted by Lynette Martins
professorgriggs.bsky.social
Hot off the press! I am honored to join the 6th edition of Traversing the Ethical Minefield as a co-author. If you teach P.R. and want a text that has substantial A.I. coverage, this book's for you.
October 7, 2026 at 6:51 PM
Reposted by Lynette Martins
scottschweikart.bsky.social
Wrote this piece with @lynettemartins.bsky.social and @profcraig.bsky.social important issue in criminal law and bioethics. and the unprecedented story is still unfolding....

www.thehastingscenter.org/lethal-injec...
Lethal Injection: America’s Unethical Answer to an Unethical Punishment : The Hastings Center for Bioethics
When Christa Pike did not die from lethal injection, physicians were obligated to save her life. We are concerned about the predicament the healthcare workers are placed in.
www.thehastingscenter.org
October 7, 2026 at 2:59 AM
Reposted by Lynette Martins
annmlipton.bsky.social
this is great

papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
October 7, 2026 at 9:12 AM
Reposted by Lynette Martins
profbardlaw.bsky.social
Like I everyone else with a professional interest in bio defense,  my questions are 1. “what kind of ‘plague’ were they working with?” & 2. “what actually happened?”because a “broken test tube” infecting someone directly is impossible under the normal conditions these pathogens are studied.
cidrap.bsky.social CIDRAP @cidrap.bsky.social · 2d
Suspected plague incident leaves 1 dead, 200 under quarantine in Siberia

Russia has yet to confirm what caused the lab worker’s death.

Read more: https://bit.ly/4jpfPzR

📷: NIAID
plague bacteria
October 6, 2026 at 2:37 PM
Reposted by Lynette Martins
matthewkavanagh.bsky.social
“In the meantime, Mangala relies on the district hospital, where in the early months of the outbreak, Ebola patients were treated in a mud house with no windows, an earthen floor and little ventilation.
www.nytimes.com/2026/10/05/w...
How Congo’s Ebola Epidemic Got So Bad So Quickly
What happened in Mangala, where residents were left with little outside support, helps explain how this outbreak became the worst seen in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
www.nytimes.com
October 6, 2026 at 1:22 AM
lynettemartins.bsky.social
Happy to have co-written this with @profcraig.bsky.social and @scottschweikart.bsky.social. As we note, the case is complex but the ethics are clear. “Christa Pike is now in critical condition at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Healthcare professionals are working hard to save her life…
hastingscenter.bsky.social The Hastings Center for Bioethics @hastingscenter.bsky.social · 2d
⚖️ What happens when an execution by lethal injection goes wrong?

A NEW HC Bioethics Forum essay examines the ethical questions surrounding lethal injection following Tennessee’s failed execution of Christa Pike.

📖 https://bit.ly/4AOyE5D
October 5, 2026 at 11:20 PM
Reposted by Lynette Martins
annacarpenter.bsky.social
@uofoklahomalaw.bsky.social Professor @staceytovino.bsky.social gave a CLE for the ABA Section on State, Local, and Tribal Government Law on "Government Use of Health Data: HIPAA, Oversight, and Responsible Data Governance.”

Description here: learningcenter.americanbar.org/courses/332918
October 2, 2026 at 11:13 PM
Reposted by Lynette Martins
joedunman.bsky.social
My new article, Ignoring Religious Sincerity, has finally found a home. Grateful to the editors of the Denver Law Review for their offer and for the opportunity to participate in their symposium early next year. Great school, great law review. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
Ignoring Religious Sincerity
Over the past decade and a half, scholars of law and religion have formed a strong consensus in favor of religious sincerity tests in constitutional and statuto
papers.ssrn.com
October 2, 2026 at 7:08 PM
Reposted by Lynette Martins
helenbranswell.bsky.social
The #Ebola outbreak in DRC isn't getting much attention these days. It should be. www.statnews.com/2026/10/02/e...
An Ebola treatment center was burned down as the death toll in Congo passes 4,000
Congo's Ebola outbreak has killed more than 4,000 people, authorities said, as they struggle to contain what has become the fastest-growing Ebola outbreak in history.
www.statnews.com
October 2, 2026 at 3:07 PM
Reposted by Lynette Martins
adambonin.bsky.social
Op-ed, "What the failed Tennessee execution shows about lethal injection," by Erwin Chemerinsky, Lisa Tucker, and @skyeperryman.bsky.social.
archive.ph/K7lQQ
In light of this experience, and that in other failed executions by lethal injection, the Supreme Court should hold that under current protocols this method of execution is cruel and unusual punishment, given that it is an unreliable means of carrying out a death sentence and one that can cause great pain. There is an immediate opportunity for the Supreme Court to do the right thing. Next Wednesday, Texas is scheduled to execute Jamaal Howard by a lethal injection of phenobarbital, the same drug that failed with Pike. In fact, at least seven individuals are scheduled for execution by the end of 2026, all of them in states that use lethal injection as a primary method of causing death. This should not be an ideological issue with the Supreme Court or in society. Even supporters of the death penalty should agree that executions must be carried out humanely, and it should be apparent to all that death by lethal injection has now unquestionably been shown to be inhumane. Procedurally, how could the Supreme Court halt executions by lethal injection, at least for the time being? Howard’s attorneys can ask the court to stay his execution, using the failure of the Pike execution to show that, as currently implemented, execution by lethal injection constitutes cruel and unusual punishment under the Eighth Amendment. The justices could issue a stay of execution with an opinion explaining why, given current protocols for lethal injection and recent experience, this method of execution has too great a likelihood of imposing the type of pain which the court previously has said constitutes cruel and unusual punishment.
October 2, 2026 at 12:06 AM
Reposted by Lynette Martins
davidasimon.bsky.social
This paper will be published by the Arizona Law Review. Still have some revisions to make and comments to incorporate, but I should post a draft by Dec. Happy to entertain title suggestions. Not sure I have this one yet.
September 2, 2026 at 7:19 PM
Reposted by Lynette Martins
vgkoch.bsky.social
My newest article, Disinformed Consent, is now posted on SSRN. In it, I grapple with the problem of state-mandated medical disinformation – false medical claims disseminated with awareness of their inaccuracy or with deliberate disregard for scientific consensus.

papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
Disinformed Consent
At both the state and federal level, lawmakers and regulators are increasingly interfering with the physician’s independent duty to provide patients w
papers.ssrn.com
September 29, 2026 at 4:37 PM
Reposted by Lynette Martins
msmith750.bsky.social
A bunch of weirdos spent years eating handfuls of thumbtacks and are now complaining that their stomachs hurt.

www.wsj.com/tech/ai/clau...
Now We’re All Starting to Talk Like AI Chatbots Too
In team meetings, group texts and over lattes, people are catching themselves using ‘prompt speak.’
www.wsj.com
September 30, 2026 at 12:22 PM
Reposted by Lynette Martins
drnoelhealy.bsky.social
The assault on US universities didn't start in 2025. Our new paper traces the decades of corporate capture that made it possible, and why climate research is a primary target.

Open access:
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
September 25, 2026 at 5:24 PM
Reposted by Lynette Martins
dfroomkin.bsky.social
"Beyond Neoliberal Administration," my forthcoming chapter in Building Democratic Capacity (Cambridge University Press, edited by @blakeprof.bsky.social, @joshuamacey.bsky.social, @ksabeelrahman.bsky.social, and Bijal Shah, forthcoming 2027), is now posted to SSRN.

papers.ssrn.com/abstract=752...
Abstract: Recent developments in administrative law limit Congress’s ability to confer regulatory discretion on its administrative agents. Commentators have tended to view these developments as undermining progressive social policy, which has operated throughout the twenty-first century primarily through the administrative state. But Congress can respond by avoiding reliance on regulatory discretion in the first place. The new judicial doctrine does not constrain the use or acquisition of public resources. Thus, Congress has incentives to rely on a different set of tools: Pigouvian instruments (taxes and subsidies), redistribution, public infrastructure, and social control of investment. Despite recent progressive coding of regulatory bureaucracy, this alternative toolkit might well result in more egalitarian consequences. In many ways, the regulatory state was the instrument of a neoliberal mode of governance that offloaded ownership and control of resources onto private parties. The ultimate victim of the Roberts Court’s war on the regulatory state might be neoliberalism.
September 28, 2026 at 3:37 PM
Reposted by Lynette Martins
carlzimmer.com
Four days ago, a scientist was surprised by the news that Anthropic discovered new virus genes for making DNA. He says he’s been studying them for years—and feeding his data to Anthropic’s AI as part of his own research. Coincidence? Here’s my story. nyti.ms/3VSWayc
Did Anthropic’s A.I. Really Make a Scientific Discovery on Its Own? (Gift Article)
An expert at the University of Copenhagen said his team had been sharing its research with the company’s A.I. model, Claude, and that its new finding matched their work.
nyti.ms
September 27, 2026 at 9:14 PM
lynettemartins.bsky.social
“I’d morphed from a prudent, just-for-fun $40 bettor into a “degen” (sports betting slang for a degenerate gambler) who casually yeets $1,500 on a game.”
propublica.org ProPublica @propublica.org · 12d
NEW: ProPublica’s Jake Pearson lost $10,000 mimicking the betting patterns of a problem gambler on DraftKings to test the company’s “responsible gaming” safeguards.

One week in, he was invited to become a VIP — and faced little pushback as he spiraled.
I Deliberately Bet Like a Problem Gambler. DraftKings Made Me a VIP.
Amid growing public health concerns, operators like DraftKings have touted “responsible gaming” tools and prompts. But as I went off the deep end, I found they were no match for the incentives and pro...
www.propublica.org
September 26, 2026 at 3:59 PM
Reposted by Lynette Martins
npr.org
In the 1950s and 1960s, doctors gave the drug thalidomide to pregnant patients without telling them — and without FDA approval. Now those patients' children want recognition. n.pr/3VweixJ
The U.S. has more thalidomide survivors than the government admits
In the 1950s and 1960s, doctors gave the drug thalidomide to pregnant patients without telling them — and without FDA approval. Now those patients' children want recognition.
n.pr
September 26, 2026 at 1:33 PM
Reposted by Lynette Martins
msmith750.bsky.social
My article, "Criminal Reform and Originalism's Limits," is forthcoming in the Ohio State Journal of Criminal Law! papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

This paper will be part of the 2026 Symposium on Originalism and Criminal Justice, which I attended a few weeks ago.
Criminal Reform and Originalism's Limits 25 Ohio State Journal of Criminal Law (forthcoming 2027) 42 Pages Posted: Michael L. Smith University of Oklahoma - College of Law Date Written: September 24, 2026 Abstract In the face of a harsh criminal legal system and unforgiving doctrine, some proponents of reform suggest that a turn to originalism may be warranted. Historical practices and founding-era understandings of the Constitution’s text, they argue, are inconsistent with modern treatment of those investigated, charged, and convicted. This Article argues that a turn to originalism is unlikely to make a substantial difference due to the Court’s selective application of originalism—a selectivity exacerbated in the criminal context by the Court’s focus on adjudicative considerations like federalism and deference to law enforcement. History also contains plenty of evidence supporting harsh treatment, and shifts focus away from immediate, profound harms current practices cause. While originalism may be a tool worth considering for advocates who must make every available argument, it may work best outside the courtroom to ground arguments for reform that might appeal to those otherwise inclined against change. Keywords: originalism, criminal law, criminal procedure, criminal reform, constitutional law, constitutional interpretation, history, traditionalism, pluralism
September 24, 2026 at 8:27 PM
Reposted by Lynette Martins
jackiantonovich.bsky.social
Here's one small thing about this. His wife and his staff absolutely know his phone number and his address. I guarantee it. The "Offloading" is always on loaded to other people and AI is never going to change that for those people.
mford.bsky.social Matt Ford @mford.bsky.social · 13d
Ezra Klein asked Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang about AI making kids worse at math and reading. Huang’s reply: “Does it matter?”

Then he said he doesn’t know his own address or phone number. “We’re going to lose some fine intellectual dexterity.” www.nytimes.com/2026/09/23/o...
So the message of this research out of China, where you were seeing a lot of kids using A.I. to help them, was that when they were using the A.I., they were getting things done faster. But it turned out that the skills they were learning were not holding, that their actual personal performance, at least in the way we traditionally measure it, was degrading. What do you think when you hear that? The last part — I completely agree. Try to get a kid to do long division right now. The multiplication table is starting to be forgotten. Doing square roots, my goodness. Basic math is being forgotten. Does it matter? That’s my question for you. Yeah. I don’t think it does. I don’t think it does. But there must be some set of skills that matter. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. But maybe not those. We’re going to discover new ones. Just maybe not those. There are a lot of skills that don’t matter. My first confession, I actually don’t know my address. And I —— I don’t really believe that to be true. It’s completely true. Janine will tell you and Lori will tell you. One day I had to pump gas — it was a few years ago. They needed my ZIP code, and I panicked. I didn’t know my ZIP code. I don’t know my telephone number. I forget these things. I can live with it. But let me take the other side because I don’t want to fall into a thing where, because some skills can be safely offloaded —— Yeah. I also can’t get anywhere without a mapping system now. Never could, frankly. But I’m a big reader. And one of the skills I really value, one of the capacities I have that I really value is an attention span formed on physical books. You’re a big reader. I’ve read about the kind of reading you do. And there is, prior to A.I., a lot of concern and noticing among college professors and others that the way people use the internet has probably shortened attention spans. Some skills can be safely given away. Others are valuable. They are capacities that are needed for that flexibility, for that creative thinking, for that focus. It can’t be the case that everything can be traded off. Some skills can be safely given away. Others are valuable. They are capacities that are needed for that flexibility, for that creative thinking, for that focus. It can’t be the case that everything can be traded off. Yeah. Well, I think that we’re going to lose some finer intellectual dexterity, but we’re going to be better systems thinkers. Today’s engineers are far better systems thinkers than I was when I graduated from school. But I was a much better transistor thinker. What do you mean by systems thinker? They think of large systems. Today’s computers have trillions, hundreds of trillions of transistors in them. When I first graduated from school, the first chip I worked on had 200 transistors. I knew every one of them by name. No engineer does that today. Most engineers now work well above the transistor, well above the functionality, and they’re cobbling things together to do things. So you need to think much more about systems and interactions of systems. So some of the lower-level knowledge is gone.
September 24, 2026 at 7:33 PM
lynettemartins.bsky.social
John Oliver did a terrific job on the danger of kratom. From May of this year youtu.be/mRZqHzDG_c8
September 24, 2026 at 9:21 PM
Reposted by Lynette Martins
lsepper.bsky.social
My contribution to Texas Law's psychedelics and the law symposium is out! Psychedelic churches have faced lots of skepticism and resistance. But the religion clause doctrine that the Supreme Court designed for conservative Christians is so expansive that these churches should be winning exemptions.
Psychedelic Churches in a Time of Religious Exemption - Yale Journal on Regulation
Religious use of psychedelics is largely thought to be bookended by two Supreme Court decisions. The first, Employment Division v. Smith (1990), rejected a constitutional exemption for Native American...
www.yalejreg.com
September 24, 2026 at 7:40 PM
Reposted by Lynette Martins
apstylebook.com
Artificial intelligence systems do not think, feel, want or understand. Avoid language that gives them human characteristics.
https://apnews.com/article/openai-safety-ai-framework-089e75b95bc935af092da7b79d92706d
apnews.com
September 23, 2026 at 5:11 PM
Reposted by Lynette Martins
jdmortenson.bsky.social
Con law peeps do not miss Greg Ablavsky's latest. Dead nuts on about two competing visions of Territory in the early republic. And incisive meta reflections on what it means to do historically inflected legal analysis of Qs that were, in fact, pervasively contested.

papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
Original Understandings of the U.S. Territories
Recently, judges and scholars alike have given renewed attention to the constitutional and legal status of the U.S. territories, including Founding-era understa
papers.ssrn.com
September 23, 2026 at 12:40 AM