State Legislatures Research Articles

We Just Leave It as "Other”: Undocumented Student Policy and Practice in Hispanic-Serving Institutions

This pilot study uses a mixed-method convergent design to explore what formal policy and informal practices exist at Hispanic-serving institutions (HSIs) and emerging Hispanic-serving institutions (eHSIs) in states with restrictive, ambiguous, or no undocumented student legislation. These policies and practices can be used to increase equity access in a biased political environment. Data was collected in two phases. Student-facing staff and administration at HSIs and eHSIs in states with restrictive/ambiguous or no policies completed a mixed-methods survey. Individuals could then choose to participate in a semi-structured interview. Initial results reveal that formal policies are limited to clarifying federal or state legislation. In contrast, informal practices provide ways to provide information and support, professional development, or ways to manage student disclosure of status. Of special interest are “don’t ask, don’t tell” practices that exist when a student’s status is disclosed and the number of respondents who believe no undocumented students are enrolled at their institution. Recommendations include policy and professional development considerations.

Context matters: Placing the sociopolitical context into research on enclave-health effects and immigration enforcement.

County governments across the U.S. adopt varied immigrant-related policies that facilitate or hinder immigrant inclusion. County-level social, economic, and geographic characteristics also differ by location-resulting in diverging immigrant inclusion goals and local contexts that disparately impact the lives and health of immigrants and their families. Although ethnic enclaves-communities where a large share of coethnic and immigrant residents live-are embedded within broader county governments, research on enclave-health effects have seldom considered the sociopolitical contexts, especially the immigration enforcement policies, in the settings where enclaves exist. This paper examines differences in immigration enforcement policies across U.S. counties. Data are from multiple sources, including the 2016-2020 American Community Survey, the National Center for Health Statistics, the Immigrant Legal Resource Center, the National Conference of State Legislatures, and the Kaiser Family Foundation. In a stepwise process, we generated nine county types using county-level social, economic, and geography-related characteristics. This resulted in 236 urban and suburban counties where Latino density was above 13.9%. In bivariate analyses comparing county types, we found significant statistical differences in the number of immigration enforcement (p<0.00) and immigrant inclusion (p<0.00) policies. There were also statistically significant demographic and diversity differences between county types (p<0.00). Our results suggest a need to examine the county-level immigration policy context in research on enclave-health effects, as such contexts shape immigrant inclusion, immigrant health, and community wellbeing. Integrating the sociopolitical context may help to clarify points of intervention that county governments and immigrant communities can lead.

State Legislators Knowledge and Awareness of Substance Use Prevention Research

State Legislators Knowledge and Awareness of Substance Use Prevention Research

Refining the Florida ecological greenways network for improved landscape planning and conservation prioritization

ContextThe Florida Ecological Greenways Network (FEGN), established in the mid-1990s, was developed to combat habitat loss and fragmentation from rapid population growth. Over the past 30 years, the FEGN has been pivotal in identifying areas essential for biodiversity and ecosystem services to support conservation land acquisition programs including Florida Forever and the Rural and Family Lands Protection Program. It also underpins the Florida Wildlife Corridor Act, demonstrating its critical role in shaping state legislation. Continuous updates to the FEGN have ensured its relevance by integrating new geospatial data and advanced modeling techniques.ObjectivesThis paper examines the methodology delineating and prioritizing the FEGN’s statewide ecological network. Using geospatial data to interface with environmental policy for strategic conservation planning, we demonstrate its cumulative importance for protecting the state’s biodiversity and ecosystem services.MethodsWe describe the data and methodological framework used to prioritize and refine the FEGN, including focal species, ecosystem services, connectivity models, and distribution of natural communities. We also compare the 2021 and 2016 versions of the FEGN to demonstrate the impact of updated data and land protection progress.ConclusionsOur findings emphasize the importance of regularly updating connectivity conservation plans to account for land use changes and advancements in geospatial modeling tools. The involvement of a Technical Advisory Group (TAG) has ensured objective data inclusion and building trust in the planning process. The FEGN provides essential guidance for stakeholders in landscape conservation planning, including government agencies, land trusts, and private landowners. The state legislature’s recognition and funding of the Florida Wildlife Corridor underscore the effectiveness of long-term scientific integration in conservation efforts.

PCI DSS: A Critical Analysis of Implementation, Effectiveness, and Legislative Impact in Payment Card Security

The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) has emerged as a pivotal framework in securing payment card transactions across global financial systems. This article presents a comprehensive analysis of PCI DSS, examining its evolution from disparate security programs to a unified standard, technical framework, and implementation challenges across different merchant levels. The article evaluates the effectiveness of the compliance validation mechanisms, including self-assessment questionnaires and third-party assessments, while analyzing the standard's incorporation into state legislation and its legal implications. This article reveals a complex relationship between compliance validation and actual security effectiveness by examining documented security breaches and industry responses. The findings indicate significant gaps between formal compliance and real-world security outcomes, highlighting the need for a more dynamic approach to payment card security. This article contributes to the ongoing discourse on payment security standards by identifying key challenges in implementation and suggesting potential areas for improvement in future iterations of the standard.

Privacy as a Matter of Public Health

This Article examines the striking parallels between contemporary privacy challenges and past public health crises involving tobacco, processed foods, and opioids. Despite surging state and federal privacy legislation, many of these new privacy law and policy activities follow familiar patterns: an emphasis on individual choice, narrowly defined rights and remedies, and a lack of holistic accounting of how privacy incursions affect society as a whole. We argue instead for a salutary shift in privacy law and advocacy: understanding privacy through the lens of public health. By tracing systemic factors that allowed industries to repeatedly subvert public welfare—from information asymmetries and regulatory capture to narratives of individual responsibility—we explore a fundamental rethinking of privacy protection. Our analysis of case studies reveals remarkable similarities between public health challenges of the past half-century or so and the ongoing consumer privacy crisis. We explore how public health frameworks emphasizing preventative policies and reshaping social norms around individual choices could inform privacy advocacy. To do so, we examine a spectrum of proposals to align privacy with public health, from adopting public health insights to provocatively reframing privacy violations as an epidemic threatening basic wellbeing. This Article offers a novel framework for addressing the current privacy crisis, drawing on the rich history and strategies of public health. In reframing privacy violations as a societal health issue rather than a matter of consumer choice, we see new avenues for effective regulation and protection. Our proposed approach not only aligns with successful public health interventions of the past but also provides a more holistic and proactive stance towards safeguarding privacy in the digital age.

Undesignated Glucagon in Schools for the Treatment of Diabetes-Related Hypoglycemia: A 2025 Update.

Hypoglycemia will occur on school grounds in students with diabetes who are receiving glucose-lowering drugs. Hypoglycemia may be severe, in which a student is unconscious or comatose. Fast-acting carbohydrates remain the first line of treatment for nonsevere hypoglycemia but preparedness with emergency injectable or intranasal glucagon is ideal. Students may not have their own glucagon devices, so unassigned or undesignated glucagon for use with any student in which glucagon is part of their hypoglycemia treatment plan is critical. Several states have laws permitting undesignated glucagon in schools, and school nurses residing in states without such laws could strongly advocate their state legislators to enact similar laws to ensure students in the nurses' care have access to this lifesaving treatment.

Ochrana práv dítěte za ozbrojeného konfliktu

The aim of this contribution is to examine the applicability and effectiveness of the norms of IHL and human rights relating to children in armed conflict situation. The question must be asked and answered in the context where the nature of armed conflicts has undergone profound changes since the 83 major international treaties, such as the 1949 Geneva Conventions and 1977 Geneva Protocols, were drafted. New armed conflicts; international as well as non-international are conducted in ways that have a profound, devastating impact on children, both as civilians and combatants. Question is, how does the international law effectively apply to armed conflicts that do not conform to earlier IHL models and their very aim has been the genocidal annihilation of ethnic group including its children, as in Rwanda and Yugoslavia. As clearly political trendy issue of the world community, new legal instruments have been created; UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), including its art. 38, a provision that traditionally belongs to the IHL, the Child Soldiers Protocol on the involvement of children in armed conflicts. The issue was also introduced in the 1998 Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court and the 1999 ILO Convention No. 182 on the worst forms of child work dealing with child soldiers. On the regional level, the only binding instrument was adopted, containing provisions on child recruitment and use in armed conflicts – African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (1990). Moreover, UN resolutions and recommendations discuss the issue, reports and extensively outlined disastrous effects of armed conflicts on children. New political and legal activities express broadly accepted conviction that children caught up in armed conflict constitute a group particularly vulnerable to human rights violations. In this way can be explained the inclusion of art. 38 in CRC. Being an IHL provision in human rights treaty, art. 38 contributes to fill a gap in the protection of the rights of children in armed conflicts. Hybrid character of art. 38 makes it possible to expand certain IHL features and new trends to human rights law. In the same way, being part of human rights treaty, art. 38 of CRC can also contribute to the actual interpretation of IHL. As to the significance of art. 38, the contribution of the Committee on Rights of the Child is the most important. Its concluding observations can actually change States Parties policies, legislation and practice. It is hoped that CRC Committee continues to be important actor in the era of application in which international community redirects its energy from the juridical task of the developing standards of protection of children in armed conflicts to the political projects of ensuring their application and respect on the ground.

The influence of international organizations on the national legislative process in EU member states

The article is devoted to the study of the influence of international organizations on the national legislative process in the European Union, focusing on the adaptation of EU legislation to global legal standards. The relevance of the topic is due to the growing role of international law in the context of globalization, when countries are forced to coordinate their actions to ensure stability, security, support for human rights and sustainable development. International organizations, such as the United Nations (UN), the World Trade Organization (WTO), the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Council of Europe, are considered to have a significant influence on the formation of EU legal norms, ensuring the harmonization of national legislation of the Member States and complete legal certainty throughout the territory of the Union. The paper highlights the main forms of influence of international organizations on lawmaking in the EU, in particular through the adoption of recommendations, directives, conventional international agreements, as well as through the implementation of decisions of international courts, such as the European Court of Human Rights. Particular attention is paid to the areas of human rights, economic regulation, environmental protection and security, international standards have become the basis for the development of European norms. The analytical approach allows us to assess how international organizations not only adapt EU legislative acts to global requirements, but also ensure the effectiveness of internal order, market security of citizens, social justice and protection of human rights. The article also considers the prospects for further integration of international standards into the EU legal system, in particular in the context of new global challenges, such as cyber threats, pandemics, migration crises and climate change. The conclusions of the study indicate the importance of EU cooperation with international organizations both for increasing the level of legal protection of citizens and for strengthening the role of the EU as a global legal actor. Based on the analysis, the article emphasizes the interaction of international law and regional regulations as a factor in increasing the stability and development of the EU legal system.

Velké oblasti harmonizace trestního práva – základy srovnání

The presence of fifty-two separate criminal processes in the United States would be much less significant if those processes all were subject to a single law that mandated an exclusive comprehensive regulation for all fifty-two jurisdictions. The U.S. Constitution is not such a law. It is only source of substantial legal regulation that is applicable to all fifty-two jurisdictions. It locks those fifty-two jurisdictions into a basic procedural structure that guarantees a commonality in most overarching principles reflected in the fifty-two different processes. In Australia there are nine different sets of criminal laws operating. Each of the six states, the two territories and the federal jurisdiction has its own criminal laws. Each state or territory has control over crimes occurring with its borders and a corresponding duty not to interfere with the affairs of other jurisdictions. Criminal Codes do not supersede the system of precedent as the provisions are not free of all ambiguity and need to be interpreted. Such a situation is quite similar to the European Union where separate twenty-seven jurisdictions reflect different systems of criminal procedure based on exclusive rights of each Member State to perform criminal justice on its own territory. Nevertheless the process of “europeisation” of criminal law launched after the ratification of EU Treaty in 1993 and in particular after its amendment through Amsterdam Treaty in 1999 opened a bulk of theoretical problems in this area. The criminal law in the U.S. is not a subject as to which there is a natural pressure to achieve uniformity. One factor said to lead to individuality in each state's criminal law is the diversity from state to state of the administrative environments in which that law is applied. Such differences exist in the EU as well but in general administrative a judiciary structure of European states does not differ that much as this is the case among some states in the U.S. In Australia the traditional territorial theory has been challenged by the rise of international offences. There are many offences where federal, state and territory legislatures have exercised their sovereign powers to apply the criminal law beyond their territories. There is as well a growing global interest in expanding the ambit of what are known as extraterritorial offences to include crimes against human rights such as torture, terrorism and sexual trafficking in women and children. There can be found other factors that encourage lawmakers of the different states to look to common sources in shaping criminal procedure of their individual state. All U.S. or Australian states started with the common heritage of the English common law. This is obviously not the case for Europe where we have a heritage of continental criminal procedure and English common law tradition. The American or Australian criminal Jaw thus has more common principles for its jurisdictions than we can find for twenty-seven jurisdictions in Europe. Concerning the instruments of criminal law harmonisation in Europe we definitely have a more formalised system (EC directives, EU framework decisions) than in the U.S. The American or Australian systems seem to be more voluntary for individual states to adopt common principles but less burdensome as to its effects.

How Can States Regulate De-Spatialized Phenomena? The Case of Occupational Licensing

The Covid-19 pandemic compelled U.S. states to forge their own paths to guide their citizens through new dangers and challenges, yet made clear that state borders cannot hold against pathogens, people, or technology. How can states regulate increasingly de-spatialized phenomena? State legislators and regulators face this dilemma in the case of occupational licensing. This paper identifies a spatial mismatch between the individual state jurisdiction of occupational licensing regulations and the interstate reach of services provision by practitioners of licensed occupations. It investigates the origins of this mismatch, as well as a functional mismatch between state occupational licensing regimes established before 1900 and the current context. By building on insights from historical analysis of legacy state occupational licensing regimes; learning from examples of regulation of de-spatialized and digitalized economic activity; enlisting historical institutionalist-defined modes of gradual institutional change; and updating a classic typology of policy tools for regulation, a risk-based classification template for state regulation of services provided by professionals and skilled workers in currently licensed occupations is proposed. More broadly, analysis of the case of occupational licensing illustrates the potential of diversifying regulation of de-spatialized phenomena from authoritative mandates to regulatory programs comprised of a policy mix of mandate, information, incentive, and multi-mechanism tools better suited to porous political borders.

Missing a Beat? Exploring U.S. State Legislative Coverage Beyond the Politics Desk

Existing research documents a loss in full-time statehouse reporters, inferring negative impacts on legislative coverage. However, little empirical work actually examines statehouse news content. Using Washington State as a case study, we analyze content produced by eight news organizations to examine what audiences receive as part of the current legislative reporting landscape. We find that nearly half of legislative reporting is produced by reporters working outside the statehouse beat. Moreover, story topic and sourcing patterns vary depending on the type of reporter conducting this work. Additional implications and directions for future research are discussed.

Criminal liability for improper performance of professional duties by a medical professional in the criminal legislation of Ukraine and certain States: a comparative legal study with due regard for international standards and practice

The purpose of this article is to study and analyze the criminal liability of healthcare professionals based on national and foreign experience. The author analyzes the national legislation of the States in the field of regulation of criminal liability of medical professionals, and identifies the existing achievements and problems. The author analyzes the case law of the European Court of Human Rights on positive obligations of the State in cases involving the proper provision of services by healthcare professionals. Using the comparative legal method of research, the author compares the legal norms regulating the issue of liability for failure to provide or improper provision of medical care, namely, the legislation of Ukraine, Latvia, Poland, Slovenia, Romania, Croatia, Georgia, Armenia, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, France, Estonia, Germany, Spain, Canada, Japan and others. A legal analysis of possible options for the process of transferring and implementing the relevant legal provisions from foreign legislation to national legislation through legal mechanisms and methods of bringing a medical professional to criminal liability for improper performance of his/her professional duties is crucial for determining approaches to improving the legal framework of Ukraine regarding the criteria of liability of a medical professional for improper performance of his/her professional duties. It is established that due to the different structure of health care systems in each State and different concepts of legal regulation, approaches to addressing the issue of criminal liability of medical professionals for professional crimes differ primarily in that in most States, such entities are liable for causing harm to life and health of a person, while in the legislation of other States such acts are provided for in a separate chapter or section dealing directly with criminal offenses in the medical field It is determined that foreign countries widely use medical insurance against improper treatment as a guarantee mechanism for compensating patients for harm caused by medical error, which helps to protect violated rights.

The role of international financial law in combating money laundering

The article examines the role of international financial law in combating money laundering on a global scale. Money laundering, which involves the legalization of proceeds obtained through criminal means, is one of the main threats to modern financial stability and security. This issue has a cross-border nature, as financial crimes often span multiple jurisdictions, significantly complicating their detection and suppression. The absence of unified standards or coordinated actions between countries creates favorable conditions for illegal activities, including the use of offshore zones and complex schemes to conceal the origins of funds. The article analyzes key international instruments such as the FATF (Financial Action Task Force) recommendations, which establish general standards for combating this phenomenon and provide methodologies for detecting and addressing financial crimes. Special attention is given to the role of European Union regulatory acts, including the Sixth Anti-Money Laundering Directive (6AMLD), which significantly expands the requirements for the national legislation of member states, introducing new rules for the identification of financial crimes and enhancing liability for their commission. Furthermore, the article emphasizes the importance of international cooperation, which is essential for the effective counteraction of financial crimes and ensuring transparency in financial transactions. The Ukrainian context of implementing international standards into national legislation is also highlighted. Key challenges are addressed, including corruption, limited technical resources, and the insufficient efficiency of law enforcement agencies. The article underscores the pressing issues of digitalizing financial monitoring processes, introducing automated reporting systems, and expanding international information exchange on suspicious transactions. Finally, it outlines prospects for further regulatory improvements that can strengthen financial security at both national and international levels.

Legislative Watch: State legislative bills

The following bills are being considered or have passed in the state legislature. To express your support or opposition, contact your state senator or representative.

Protecting trees in the urban forest: a systematic review of literature on acts, bylaws, ordinances, and regulations

Trees contribute to the livability of cities. To preserve the urban forest, many governments have turned to regulatory mechanisms, ranging from local bylaws and ordinances to state and federal legislation. To understand the history, scope, perspectives, successes, and challenges of disincentive-based tree protection legislation, a systematic review was conducted using PubMD, EBSCOHost, Web of Science, and Scopus. The review, which was not geographically constrained but contained only English-language articles, included 114 publications. The literature highlights that the history of urban forest legislation is long. However, tree protection regulations were popularized more recently, built on years of more general environmental policies. While the adoption processes for tree protection legislation vary across both cities and countries, it is often driven by appreciation of urban forests and led by municipalities with the support of the public and non-governmental organizations. Tree protection legislation defines what trees are to be protected, typically based on size, species, or land use, although cultural or heritage trees are often protected as well. Some tree protection legislation includes replanting clauses and enforcement procedures to increase their effectiveness. The protection of large, culturally important trees and replanting requirements are largely supported by both the public and urban foresters, although support is greater in urban areas. However, whether the legislation actually works is unclear. Conflicting evidence and study limitations preclude direct causal relationships, although areas where tree protection legislation was removed experienced subsequent tree loss. On-going challenges at the local level include underenforcement, conflicting legislation, and underfunded programs. Tree protection legislation is also vulnerable to socio-political changes that prioritize private property rights and development over private tree protection. Amidst widespread urban tree loss, further research that provides a better understanding of the successes of tree protection legislation will help justify their continued use in urban forestry programs globally.

Current challenges of Spanish religious heritage

Le sfide attuali del patrimonio religioso spagnolo ABSTRACT: Historical and artistic heritage is an essential element of a country's culture, and in Spain it is also an important economic and tourist asset. A large percentage of the historical and artistic heritage belongs to the Catholic Church. State legislation on cultural heritage does not provide for a differentiated regime for ecclesiastical heritage, which nevertheless poses unique challenges. This article analyses some of the main challenges facing the Spanish ecclesiastical heritage in the light of the current legislation: the definition of the categories of property protected by the regulations, the distribution of powers between the State and the Regions, the harmonisation of religious and cultural use, and the financing of the necessary actions for the conservation, dissemination and promotion of the historical and artistic heritage. SUMMARY: Introduction - 1. Background and current situation - 1.1 Background - 1.2. Regulation - 1.3 Competence - 2. Composition of the heritage - 2.1. Assets and their types - 2.2 Particular categories - 3. Protection of the heritage. 3.1 - Responsibility - 3.2. Actions - 3.3. Criminal protection and administrative sanctions - 4. Religious and cultural interplay - 4.1 Harmonization of religious and non-religious uses - 4.2 Tourist and study visits – 5. Funding of the heritage - 5.1. Public sources - 5.2 Private sources - 6. Conclusions.

Out with the Old, In with the Republicans? The Partisan Push of Legislative Term Limits

AbstractLegislative term limits garnered public support because they promised to drain the swamp, removing entrenched incumbents from office. There is often a partisan dimension to this appeal since “the swamp” that is to be “drained” has often been controlled by one party for a lengthy period. However, it remains unclear to what extent term limits realign partisanship within US state legislatures. Using newly available turnover data, this research evaluates how legislative partisanship shifted after the implementation of term limits in state legislatures and continued over 20 years. The initial surge effects of term limits did appear to level the playing field between parties. The passage of term limits reversed party majorities in state legislatures, primarily benefiting newfound Republican majorities. These findings have important implications for current understandings of legislative term limits, as more states revisit these proposals, and provide insight into party trends at the state legislative level.

Testing the Multiple Streams Framework in US state legislatures

Despite a robust literature applying the Multiple Streams Framework (MSF) to national government institutions, there remains a dearth of research examining the theory’s explanatory power in US state legislative contexts. This omission is problematic given the critical role state legislatures play in driving policy change in a host of policy domains, including healthcare, emergency preparedness and voting rights policy, to name a few. To fill this gap in the research, this study applies the MSF to the case of climate adaptation policy making in the Massachusetts State Legislature. Using a mixed methods design, it assesses the effect of all three of the MSF’s streams (the problem, politics and policy streams), as well as the concept of policy entrepreneurship on the climate adaptation policy agenda of the Massachusetts State Legislature between the years 2001 and 2020. The findings suggest that agenda activity was largely driven by changes within the political stream, namely the election of a Republican governor. In addition to advancing the MSF by providing one of the most comprehensive quantitative analyses of the framework to date, this article draws on new data from the State House News Service and other sources of state legislative floor debates to present a new methodological approach for measuring agenda change. In this way, the article makes a clear theoretical contribution to the MSF literature as well as providing new analysis of state-level climate adaptation policy adoption.

Introduction: Perspectives on Term Limits in Democratic Society

Discussions of term limits are happening in the United States and abroad. In July 2024, President Biden announced his support for limiting the number of years that federal judges may serve. Surveys suggest that limits for judges are popular with Americans.1 Relatedly, voters have historically supported term limits for members of Congress, with the most recent survey (from July 2023) finding support among 87%.2 For now, limits are unlikely to be imposed on federal judges or members of Congress, but there are recent changes in the states. Voters in North Dakota imposed limits on their state legislators in 2022, and those limits will take effect in 2028. In Michigan, also in 2022, voters shortened the long-standing lifetime limits for their legislators from 14 to 12 years. Discussions or reforms, including the elimination of limits, have also occurred outside of the United States. In Russia, voters seemingly reset the term limits that applied previously to President Vladimir Putin, thereby allowing him to serve in office until 2036. In China, where limits for various leaders including the president were first added to the country’s constitution in 1982, limits were abolished in 2018. Although these are prominent examples of limits being lifted, a remarkable number of new limits have been enacted elsewhere, with limits on executives being imposed in 17 countries within the past decade alone. To date, only a handful of countries, most of which are in the Americas, have legislative limits.3 Conversely, nearly every country limits the service of judges.4