Equal Access

• Without following the notice-and-comment process, EIA Administrator Joseph DeCarolis requested on January 24 that OMB allow his agency to demand monthly information collections from cryptocurrency mining companies about their energy consumption, including sensitive and highly proprietary information.
• On February 23, NCLA secured a Temporary Restraining Order blocking EIA’s survey for 14 days nationwide.
• They also agreed to withdraw their February 9 notice, which sought comments about continuing the emergency survey.
• of Energy lawsuit alleged that in unlawfully demanding these companies’ data, EIA appeared to be responding to political pressure rather than a genuine emergency implicating public harm.

• To view the full announcement, including downloadable images, bios, and more, click here .
• The company argues that it is entitled to its attorneys' fees and expenses under the Equal Access to Justice Act.
• The petition is related to the currently contested authority of federal regulators, an issue now under consideration by the U.S. Supreme Court.
• Among 12 allegations against the company initiated in the spring of 2021, a total of nine were either withdrawn by OSHA, which is under the U.S. Department of Labor, or overturned in proceedings before an Administrative Law Judge.

• But not all hot-button topics in education are about what goes on in class.
• Over the past few years, conflict has trailed attempts to establish After School Satan Clubs sponsored by the Satanic Temple, which the U.S. government recognizes as a religious group.
• Organizers have tried to form clubs in California, Colorado, Illinois, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia.

More ‘science’ than ‘Satan"

• The group emphasizes “the seven tenets,” which celebrate ideas like rationality, compassion and bodily autonomy.
• What often draws attention, though, are the temple’s political and legal activities.
• Therefore, excluding any group because of its views would constitute discrimination, violating organizers’ First Amendment rights to freedom of speech.

Equal access

• The principle that all student-organized extracurricular groups have equal access to educational facilities was established in 1981 with Widmar v. Vincent, a dispute from a public university in Kansas City, Missouri.
• That requirement was extended to secondary schools under the Equal Access Act, which Congress adopted in 1984.
• Officials cannot deny clubs opportunities to gather due to “the religious, political, philosophical, or other content of the speech at such meetings.” The Equal Access Act specifies that voluntary, student-initiated clubs cannot “materially or substantially interfere” with educational activities.
• The Supreme Court upheld and extended the Equal Access Act’s logic in two major cases.

Expose children to new ideas?

• In an increasingly intellectually diverse world, though, children are bound to encounter ideas with which they disagree – and I would argue each encounter can sharpen their critical thinking.
• As a federal trial court judge in Missouri once observed, provocative speech “is most in need of the protections of the First Amendment.

• Alexandra Guio has been selected to receive the prestigious 2022 American Inns of Court Sandra Day OConnor Award for Professional Service , which honors an American Inn of Court member in practice 10 years or fewer for their excellence in public interest or pro bono activities.
• Guio will receive the award at the 2022 American Inns of Court Celebration of Excellence at the Supreme Court of the United States October 29.
• Her achievements are all the more remarkable given the obstacles she overcame before she began her professional journey.
• A native of Colombia, Guio was an undocumented immigrant until her junior year at the University of Texas at Arlington.