Cultivated Compendium is my personal website with the occasional link to my reporting and to important, cutting-edge or interesting legal news.
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March 7th, 2015
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has taken up a sealed case to consider whether a lawyer for a nonprofit corporation can break her duty of confidentiality and disclose her concerns to the Attorney General's Office that charitable assets are being unlawfully diverted, The Legal Intelligencer's Lizzy McLellan reports. The anonymous petitioner said the public charity had a fiduciary duty to the public and the charity's lawyer... Continue Reading
March 7th, 2015
The Sixth Circuit has ruled that a congressman wasn't defamed when an anti-abortion advocacy group falsely tied his vote in support of Obamacare to supporting abortion, Courthouse News' Kevin Koeninger reports. Steven Driehaus, a pro-life Democrat, lost reelection, and he filed a complaint with the Ohio Election Commission, alleging that the Susan B. Anthony List group falsely advertised that his vote in support of Obamacare supported... Continue Reading
March 7th, 2015
The current chief justice of the Kansas Supreme Court, a former chief justice of the Texas Supreme Court, a former chief justice of the Florida Supreme Court and a former justice on the Montana Supreme Court have both come out against judicial elections in their states.
Kansas Chief Justice Lawton Nuss has come out against plans being considered by legislators to elect justices or have the governor appoint justices instead of... Continue Reading
March 6th, 2015
Even though Internet providers are expected to challenge the new net neutrality rules in court, some companies may not go to court because they're seeking to get approval for their mergers, the Washington Post's Brian Fung reports. Comcast is trying to merge with Time Warner Cable, AT&T is trying to merge with DirecTV, and Verizon is trying to get approval for a deal with Frontier Communications. Continue Reading
March 6th, 2015
The Appellate Division, First Department, has upheld the $8.5 billion settlement of claims against Bank of America for its involvement with the mortgage crisis, the New York Law Journal's Ben Bedell reports. The appellate panel reversed a lower court judge, who ruled that Bank of New York Mellon, which was the trustee for the pooled mortgage trusts, had abused its discretion in waiving claims that dissident investors said were worth $... Continue Reading
March 6th, 2015
A duel is being set up between the Utah Senate and the Utah House on how much to expand Medicaid, The Salt Lake Tribune's Kristen Moulton reports. A House committee voted down a plan backed by the governor and passed by the Senate. Instead, the House Business and Labor Committee passed a plan sponsored by the House majority leader that would cover 46,500 more people. Continue Reading
March 5th, 2015
Federal Aviation Administration Michael Huerta testified in Congress Tuesday that his agency is seeking ways to speed up the approval process for commercial drones, Reuters reports. For example, the FAA is trying to address as a class similar applications from companies that are seeking exemptions from the current ban on commercial drone use. The FAA also finally released its proposed rules for integrating commercial drones into the American... Continue Reading
March 5th, 2015
Earlier this month, regulations in Taiwan went into effect to give indigenous peoples intellectual property rights over their traditional cultural expression, including religious ceremonies and folk crafts, Focus Taiwan News Channel reports. For example, that Tao people on Orchid Island has applied to protect the "Flying Fish Festival, the launching ceremonies of Tao balangays, or 'big boats,' along with the various... Continue Reading
March 5th, 2015
The consensus about the latest Supreme Court case involving the Affordable Care Act is that the two key votes are Justice Anthony M. Kennedy and Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. The rest of the Supreme Court justices appeared to be split along ideological lines during oral arguments yesterday over whether the statutory language in the health law only allows federal subsidies to consumers who bought their health insurance through a state-run... Continue Reading
March 4th, 2015
Colorado lawmakers have delayed a vote on legislation that would criminalize the use of drones and other surveillance technology to photograph or monitor people, the Associated Press reports. The legislation would make it a crime first-degree trespassing to take images of someone with a reasonable expectation of privacy. One legislator said the bill, as drafted, would be a "'teribbly sweeping criminalization of photography.'... Continue Reading
March 4th, 2015
A Republican Tennessee state senator has introduced legislation to bar drones from flying at sporting events, concerts and other large events, ABC local affiliate WKRN's Jamey Tucker reports. The bill also would address copyright issues when event sponsors hire vendors to record their events. Continue Reading
March 4th, 2015
The updates about the U.S. Supreme Court's arguments today in King v. Burwell are coming fast and furious. The petitioners are seeking to invalidate the insurance subsidies in states with federal exchanges. SCOTUSBlog reports that Justice Anthony Kennedy, often the swing justice on the court, "expressed deep concern with a system where the statute would potentially destroy the insurance system in states that chose not... Continue Reading
March 4th, 2015
Tenative insurance settlements have been reached in 160 cases stemming from Superstorm Sandy in which engineers' damages estimates were changed, the New York Law Journal's Andrew Keshner reports. The settlements are between the Federal Emergency Management Authority and lawyers for plaintiffs and involve FEMA's "write your own" program that lets insurance companies write and service federal flood insurance. Continue Reading
March 4th, 2015
A New York Assemblyman has proposed legislation that would make it a felony to film patients receiving medical treatment without prior consent and give patients and their families a private cause of action to sue for damages, ProPublica's Charles Ornstein reports. The bill was filed after a TV show aired the final moments of a patient's life while he was being treated at NewYork-Presybterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center,... Continue Reading
March 4th, 2015
The California Supreme Court has rejected San Diego's blanket ban on where convicted sex offenders can live, the Los Angeles Times' Maura Dolan reports. The Supreme Court ruled that prohibiting sex offenders from living within 2,000 feet of schools and parks was unconstitutional because the blanket ban"'has severely restricted their ability to find housing.'" Continue Reading
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