Harvard Law and Policy Review

Republican Bill Would Make it Easier for Employers to Access Your Genetic Makeup

May 8, 2017

By Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-N.Y.)* When scientists started the process of sequencing the human genome, it began to unlock limitless advancements in medicine that were and remain virtually unparalleled in our history. At the same time, a new risk arose that genetic information could be used for employment and health insurance discrimination. Every American was…

Presidentializing Incivility: Trump and the Expansion of Presidential Opportunity

April 5, 2017

By Brian Christopher Jones* No government or military experience…fine. Don’t read (beyond Twitter)…fine. Refuse to release your tax returns…fine. Encourage violence at your campaign rallies…fine. Degrade women about their “looks”…fine. Mock disabled persons…fine. Belittle political opponents and defame their families…fine. Brag about groping and touching (potentially sexually assaulting) women…fine. Openly lie to the American public…fine. And…

Repeal of Dodd Frank Act-Heralding a new financial crisis?

April 3, 2017

By Nicolas Deising* & Nihal Dsouza** The Dodd Frank Act is considered to be the most ambitious and far reaching legislation regulating the financial sector since the Great Depression of the 1930’s. On the surface, it instills confidence in the financial system. At a deeper level, it is aimed at preventing similar occurrences to the 2008…

Repealing the ACA Would be a Step Backwards in Treatment of HIV

March 25, 2017

By Mark Satta* “It was a holocaust…All of my peers died of AIDS, and I have no one to celebrate my past or my journey, or to help me pass down stories to the next generation. We lost an entire generation of storytellers with HIV.” Those are the words of David Mixner, a civil rights…

No Democrat Should Vote for Neil Gorsuch

March 21, 2017

By Ian Silverii* He’s a nice guy. He’s a fair and good jurist. Well, he could be worse. If everything is an outrage, nothing is. These are some of the arguments I hear from friends, political operatives, and conservatives and progressives alike when discussing the nomination of Judge Neil Gorsuch to the United States Supreme Court…

Assisting Personal Responsibility: Using Nudges to Reduce Sugar Consumption

March 17, 2017

By Steven J. Gonzalez[1] I. Introduction The prevalence of obesity and its related chronic illnesses has been increasing for decades and takes a heavy toll not only on individual households, but also on public health institutions. The over-consumption of sugar, especially through Sugar Sweetened Beverages (SSBs), is an important contributor to this epidemic. Curtailing Americans’ intake…

What to do With an Alt-Right White House: The Present Need for, and Future Challenges to, Suing the Federal Government for Discrimination

March 15, 2017

By Alexander Reinert* Many remarkable events have taken place during the first month of President Donald Trump’s Administration. Among these, the Administration’s restrictions on immigration, and the role litigants and judges have played in at least temporarily halting those restrictions, have received much deserved attention. But perhaps overlooked is that the challenges have been successful…

The Moral Foundations of the Insurance Mandate

March 14, 2017

By Tina Rulli* Republicans’ new plan to replace the Affordable Care Act ditches the health insurance mandate, the requirement for individuals to purchase health insurance or pay a penalty. Instead, their American Health Care Act favors tax credits to incentivize people to purchase insurance. There are many vantage points from which to assess the health…

The Travel Ban is Just for Show—The Real Threat is from Individual Officials Who Can Act on its Discriminatory Message

March 9, 2017

By Angela D. Morrison* The administration’s revised travel ban represents only the most visible part of the administration’s discriminatory immigration policy. The U.S. immigration system has a sexist and racist history. The travel ban, along with many of the administration’s other immigration policies, builds on that legacy. Because the administration has been so apparent in…

Leaks, Leakers, and a Free Press

March 9, 2017

By Heidi Kitrosser* President Trump supports accountability regarding his campaign’s alleged contacts with Russia. He is similarly responsive to stories about his administration’s early missteps, including embarrassing phone calls with world leaders and the crafting of the controversial travel ban. The accountability that he has in mind, however, is not for himself or his surrogates. Rather,…

A Drop in the Ocean of Casualties

February 12, 2017

By Maseeh Moradi*

The recent immigration executive order promises in its title to protect “the nation from foreign terrorist entry.” It does so by barring the entry of, among hundreds of millions of others, all of my aunts, uncles, and cousins (my own parents, once aliens, now citizens, would have been barred as well). Protecting the nation from terrorists evidently means banning everyone from Iran, even though no national from there, or any of the other listed countries, has committed deadly acts of terrorism in the United States since and including 9/11. The order does not care if one is in poor health, elderly, or requires a full minute to walk from one wall of a room to the other. It thus also bans my 97-year-old grandmother, one of the lights of my life.

My grandmother’s name is Tavoos, which means peafowl in Farsi. It fits well, as she is the most beautiful person I know, possessing a heavenliness that only time can bestow. Her beauty comes from raising seven children in rural Iran’s lower class during the mid-20^th century, waking up before dawn to begin her daily 16 hours of backbreaking farming and cooking. It’s the beauty of being in the wrinkled twilight of a full life, one marked by the exultation of seeing a son realize his dreams in America and the endless sorrow of burying a daughter many decades too soon.

Grandma Tavoos has been a widow for a quarter of a century now, and during this period she has visited us regularly, and for six months at a time, on a B2 visa. She loves being here, semi-skipping during her morning walks in our backyard and around the block, and, though not able to speak English, excitedly waving to our neighbors. She is deeply proud of these interactions—when she returns to Iran, she always brags about having met, and exchanged smiles, with those Americans. She enjoys watching the NBA, especially the final two rounds of the playoffs (her favorite player ever is Shaq). Ten years ago, we took her to Santa Cruz for a weekend, and it was a transformative experience; she claims that was the closest she has ever been to heaven. When her stay is over, she always takes back two extra suitcases. One is filled with Americana she will gift to her many grandchildren and great-grandchildren. The other brims with large containers of Heinz Hot & Spicy Ketchup, her favorite flavor, but one that is harder to find in Iran (a perfect meal for her is plain Basmati rice drenched with this condiment).

Grandma Tavoos helped raise and educate me. Seventy-two years her junior, I had much to learn. During elementary and secondary school, I was usually the first one home, and she, along with her pots of bubbling fesenjan and aush-e-reshteh, would be there to greet me and ask about my day. Once, in 7^th grade, I came home sobbing after doing poorly on a grammar test. She soothed me, telling me that having weaknesses is something to celebrate as a hallmark of existence; after all, even the most beautiful peafowl still has ugly feet. She is wise like this; she always knew the right Hafez couplet, or the right story from her own childhood, to recite when I needed perspective. She originally taught me to read and write Farsi, crafting daily, one-hour lessons during the summer after I completed 5^th grade. During those sessions, she was my teacher, not grandma, and would be hard on me until I mastered the lesson. At the end of the hour, the roles would flip, and I would teach her English. She eventually knew the English words for all of the fruits in our house.

In recent years, her mind has stayed as lucid as ever, but her body has worn down. During this time, we have brought her over primarily to take care of her. We help feed and shower her; she showers us in return with the countless poems, legends, and fables she has written and learned over her lifetime.

But the executive order threatens all of that now. Our current administration thinks allowing her into the country would be too much of a threat. While it’s certainly possible that the Supreme Court will strike the order down, or it will be re-written before then, the order’s effects transcend its text; the damage has been done. How can we risk bringing over a soon-to-be centenarian when our president has shown a propensity to act so callously and capriciously at a moment’s notice? Lately, my grandma ends our phone calls with, “I hope I’ll get to see you again at least one more time.” I use confident words to assuage her, but my quivering voice more faithfully reflects my feelings.

My story is just a drop in the ocean of casualties resulting from this order and the rhetorical posture of this administration; many families are facing the prospect of being ravaged. But no executive order, and no demagogue, can outlaw that which is lodged in our hearts. Grandma Tavoos will always be as close as can be, right there in my heart, her wisdom and beauty an inextricable part of my identity. You can exploit people to your political advantage, conflate them with terrorists, threaten to deport them, bar their entry, and even intern them, but you can never sap their capacity to appreciate and love.

*Maseeh Moradi is a 2L at Harvard Law School and a Senior Online Editor for the Harvard Law & Policy Review.