Students in Texas A&M Law's environmental law program, officially named the Energy, Environmental, and Natural Resource Systems Law Program (EENRSLP) created a toolbox for entities building water desalination and water recycling facilities. Desalination is the process of turning brackish or salty water into drinking water, while water recycling extracts water from the waste stream, treats it, and makes it usable for certain productive uses. Given the scarcity of water, in Texas particularly, both processes are highly sought after solutions.

Texas A&M University School of Law is launching a new blog and associated website www.TradeRxReport.com, which explores questions of access to affordable medicines and health care that arise at the intersection of intellectual property law and international trade. With the increasing impact of the Coronavirus on the global economy and our healthcare systems, the importance of issues around the affordability of pharmaceuticals, access to healthcare and medication and globalization become more apparent each day. The inter-relationship of health, trade and intellectual property has been a “hot topic” since the 1980s, when the World Trade Organization was established and the TRIPS Agreement on intellectual property rights was enacted. The current global pandemic merely underscores the need to find a workable solution to the challenge of ensuring innovation and access to medicines on a global scale – and the value of a forum focused on that topic.

The Texas A&M Immigrant Rights Clinic filed a petition in federal court last Friday demanding that ICE immediately release eleven medically-vulnerable immigrants from the Prairieland Detention Center, where 45 detained individuals have tested positive for COVID-19. Professor Fatma Marouf, Adjunct Professor Sehla Ashai and students Teresa Reyes Flores, Marisela Gonzales, Mario Guerra, Maria Jose Rosales Lagos and Emily Malden, joined forces with RAICES and the civil rights firm Loevy & Loevy in bringing the case. 

"One for the ages," said a Texas A&M School of Law social media follower of the law school's virtual celebration of graduates hosted on Zoom the first week of May.

This unprecedented Texas A&M School of Law event convened more than 330 students, faculty, staff, family and friends online to honor law school journeys and celebrate new beginnings. Like many educational institutions, Texas A&M School of Law did not want to rob graduates of the jubilation that accompanies a major feat such as graduating from law school.

The Coronavirus pandemic has brought about many changes in higher education. Most news, lately, highlights the movement from in-person to online instruction of students. To many, Texas A&M Law faculty performed miracles practically overnight when the virus contributed to the university closing in March. However, professors aren’t the only university "miracle workers." Despite working from home, the Texas A&M Law admissions team is hard at work preparing for the incoming class--Class of 2023. In order to do so, they’ve had to get creative with their efforts. The team:

Texas A&M School of Law Professor Peter Yu is among the top 250 legal authors (both current and deceased) listed on HeinOnline. The list is created based on an analysis of all the articles in the database, including those from the past two centuries.

"Does anybody know anything about this stimulus money?"

The question struck Texas A&M Law professor Gabriel Eckstein like a sledgehammer. Posed to an internal listserv by an IT staffer at the law school, Eckstein immediately saw the greater implications. The massive $2.15 trillion stimulus package known as the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act came with a blizzard of rules and requirements, all encoded in legalese that few could understand.

Texas A&M School of Law Professor Fatma Marouf spearheaded the drafting of a letter to Chief Immigration Judge Christopher Santoro on behalf of professors who teach immigration clinics. The letter urges the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) to:

1. Order the of release individuals held in detention and temporarily close the immigration courts;
2. Prioritize bond hearings and grant subsequent bond redetermination hearings based on COVID-19 as a changed circumstance;
3. Facilitate VTC and telephonic appearances by counsel and witnesses; and
4. Temporarily stop the issuance of removal orders. 

Texas A&M School of Law faculty members analyze and discuss portions of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act) in a three-part, free webinar series starting Monday, April 6. If you want answers and a practical interpretation of this historic legislation, these webinars are for you.