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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January 6th, 2015
The Ninth Circuit has ruled that the First Amendment rights of a video-game maker don't trump the rights former NFL players have to be compensated for the use of their avatars in the Madden NFL series, the Associated Press' Sudhin Thanawala reports. Courthouse News' Maria Dinzeo reports that the panel ruled that Electronic Arts can't "use incidental use as a defense for its depictions of football... Continue Reading
January 6th, 2015
This week is bringing a tremendous confluence of events regarding same-sex marriage, the Washington Post's Robert Barnes reports: the U.S. Supreme Court is slated to consider on Friday whether to take up the constitutionality of bans on same-sex marriage, same-sex marriages started in Florida today, and the U.S Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit will consider cases regarding the bans on same-sex marriage in Texas, Mississippi and... Continue Reading
January 6th, 2015
Maine Governor Paul LePage spent close to $53,000 on private lawyers to try to remove low-income young adults from the state's Medicaid program, even though Attorney General Janet Mills rejected pursing the case and told the governor he couldn't win, the Associated Press reports. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit ruled that the Affordable Care Act requires the state of Maine to keep providing Medicaid... Continue Reading
January 6th, 2015
The New York Times' James Risen reluctantly took the stand in a preview of what testimony he would give if compelled by the Justice Department to give testimony about his confidential sources for classified information in a book chapter about the Iranian nuclear program, his colleague Matt Apuzzo reports. Risen refused to say anything to help prosecutors in their case against Jeffrey Sterling, a former CIA officer who allegedly provided... Continue Reading
January 5th, 2015
A member of the grand jury that decided against indicting Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson in the death of Michael Brown is seeking to have the gag order on talking about the grand jury process lifted, alleging that the prosecutor Robert McCulloch handled the case differently than hundreds of other cases presented to the grand jury, The Huffington Post's Ryan J. Reilly reports. ACLU of Missouri Legal Director said in a statement... Continue Reading
January 5th, 2015
The New York Times' Jack Healy reports about how Longmont, Colorado, and several other local governments that passed bans on fracking for natural gas are being sued: "state officials, energy companies and industry groups are taking Longmont and other municipalities to court, forcing local governments into what critics say are expensive, long-shot efforts to defend the measures." The bans in Longmont, Lafayette and in Fort Collins... Continue Reading
January 3rd, 2015
The Ebola virus has killed over 20,000 people, Reuters reports, and the disease is still spreading in West Africa: "The Ebola crisis in West Africa is likely to last until the end of 2015, according to Peter Piot, a London-based scientist who helped to discover the virus in 1976 in the former Zaire, now the Democratic Republic of Congo." Continue Reading
January 3rd, 2015
Legislators in Montana have proposed a limited expansion of Medicaid that would cover 15,000 to 18,000 people earning less than 100 percent of the federal poverty level, the Independent Record reports, but the plan would not allow Montana to take a federal subsidy that would expand coverage to 70,000 more people. Democratic Governor Steve Bullock wants to accept the money. The federal government would pay the entire cost in 2016 and... Continue Reading
January 3rd, 2015
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has ruled against lifetime registration for juvenile sex offenders, ruling a state law is unconstitutional because the juveniles have no ability to challenge an irrebuttable presumption they are likely to reoffend, the Associated Press reports: "'We agree with the juveniles that (the law)'s registration requirements improperly brand all juvenile offenders' reputations with an indelible mark... Continue Reading
January 3rd, 2015
Cornell law professor Michael C. Dorf, writing in a column in Justia, notes how Nebraska and Oklahoma, two of Colorado's neighboring states, are challenging Colorado's law legalizing marijuana in the U.S. Supreme Court. The basis for the Supreme Court's jurisdiction is the part of the federal constitution covering cases in "which a state shall be a party," Dorf notes.
Nebraska and Oklahoma's attorneys general argue... Continue Reading
January 2nd, 2015
A pro se plaintiff who got the U.S. Supreme Court to take his case over the razing of his property in Baltimore still can't be found, the Associated Press' Jessica Gresko reports. Bobby Chen has missed the December 22 deadline to mail his main legal brief. At issue in Chen's case is whether he was properly given an extension to notify the people he was suing that he had filed his lawsuit. Lawyers familiar with the case said... Continue Reading
January 2nd, 2015
A British photojournalist was arrested by police as he used a drone above the scene of a fatal fire, The Guardian's Ben Quinn reports. Even though Eddie Mitchell had permission from the landowner to use his drone and is one of the few journalists authorized by the Civil Aviation Authority (the UK equivalent to the Federal Aviation Administration) to fly drones, he was held in police custody for more than 5 hours and had the controller... Continue Reading
January 1st, 2015
The U.S. government missed a deadline at the end of 2014 to issue rules on drones, Reuters' Alwyn Scott and Robert Rampton reports. While the Federal Aviation Administration has given a draft of the rules to the White House, the Office of Management and Budget has not finished reviewing them yet.
Reuters also reports that the Motion Picture Association of America and other industry groups want the FAA rules to preempt state or city... Continue Reading
January 1st, 2015
U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle has clarified that marriage licenses should be issued throughout Florida, not just in the county in which he ruled that it was unconstitutional not to give a same-sex couple permission to get married, BuzzFeed's Chris Geidner reports. The judge, however, said his current injunction applies only to couples who sued to have the right to marry, but he warned court clerks that "'the constitution... Continue Reading
January 1st, 2015
Cyrus Farivar, writing for Ars Technica, features five cases that the U.S. Supreme Court could grant certiorari in and take on privacy and surveillance issues involving the National Security Agency: Klayman v. Obama, First Unitarian Church v. National Security Agency, American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) v. Clapper, United States v. Moalin, and United States v. Muhtorov. Farivar notes the Supreme Court held in United... Continue Reading
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