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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December 23rd, 2014
SCOTUSBlog's Lyle Denniston reports that the justices will take up a new round of same-sex marriage cases at their conference January 9: "At issue in the Sixth Circuit cases is a ruling by the appeals court for that region, upholding all of the bans on same-sex marriage licensing or recognition in the four states. At issue in the Louisiana case is a decision by a federal trial judge in New Orleans upholding that state’... Continue Reading
December 23rd, 2014
The Fourth Circuit struck down North Carolina's requirement that doctors and ultrasound technicians perform an ultrasound at least four hours but not more than 72 hours before the abortion is to take place, display an image of the sonogram and "and specifically describe the fetus to any pregnant woman seeking an abortion, even if the woman actively 'averts her eyes' and 'refuses to hear,'" Slate's... Continue Reading
December 22nd, 2014
Elected state attorneys general are playing a new role: refusing to enforce their state's laws, "raising questions about where the line lies between discretion and derelicition of duty," the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette's Tracie Mauriello reports. For example, Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane refused to defend a new state law allowing the National Rifle Association to sue over local gun regulations and she refused... Continue Reading
December 22nd, 2014
When the Federal Aviation Administration granted waivers for Hollywood filmmakers to fly drones on movie sets, federal regulators did so despite warnings from safety inspectors that the plans were too risky and should not be authorized, The Washington Post's Craig Whitlock reports: "The warning turned out to be prescient. On Wednesday, a camera-toting drone operated by one of the filmmakers, Pictorvision, flew off a set in... Continue Reading
December 19th, 2014
Legislators in Utah have rejected Governor Gary Herbert's alternative plan to providing Medicaid expansion to low-income Utah residents in favor of two even more limited proposals, The Salt Lake Tribune's Kristen Moulton reports. The Legislature’s Health Reform Task Force "proposed recommending options that would cover between 12.5 percent and 20 percent of those below the federal poverty line — but only... Continue Reading
December 19th, 2014
Alabama Governor Robert Bentley, who "campaigned as an opponent of expanding Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act," now supports expanding Medicaid block-grant funding to more low-income Alabamans, Media Group's Mike Cason reports: Bentley said "he would support an Alabama-designed plan that required recipients to be working or in a work training program. ... Bentley [also] said with a block grant the state... Continue Reading
December 19th, 2014
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has proposed a rule that would require long-term care facilities to extend spousal rights to same-sex married couples, McKnight's Tim Mullaney reports. CMS said in the proposed rule "'our goal is to provide equal treatment to spouses, regardless of their sex, whenever the marriage was valid in the jurisdiction in which it was entered into, without regard to whether the... Continue Reading
December 19th, 2014
The Hawai'i Supreme Court heard arguments Thursday on a challenge to a law authorizing same-sex marriage, the Associated Press' Jennifer Sinco Kelleher reports. The challengers to the law argue that legislators did not have the authority to pass the law because of a constitutional amendment.
Sabrina McKenna, the first openly gay Supreme Court justice in Hawai'i, recused herself. Continue Reading
December 19th, 2014
New York City Councilman Dan Garodnick has introduced a bill to ban the use of all drones in the Big Apple except by law enforcement officers who have warrants, Ars Technica reports. Councilman Paul Vallone introduced a separate bill that would restrict drones, among other limitations, to not being flown at night, out of the operator's eyesight or above 400 feet. Continue Reading
December 18th, 2014
Barrett Brown, a freelance journalist who also has been portrayed as an Anonymous hacktivist, has had his sentencing delayed until January 22, The Intercept's Michelle Garcia reports.
Before taking a plea deal, Brown faced more than 100 years in prison for posting links to stolen credit-card information hacked by others from the servers of security intelligence firms HBGary and Stratfor: "The HBGary hack revealed a coordinated... Continue Reading
December 18th, 2014
The Wisconsin Supreme Court has accepted three cases arising out of an investigation into whether Governor Scott Walker's campaign illegally coordinated with the conservative groups supporting him, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's Patrick Marley reports.
The appeals will likely be shrouded with some secrecy: "Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson and Justice David Prosser ... expressed concern that much of the court record is... Continue Reading
December 18th, 2014
President Barack Obama has now appointed many more federal judges than his predecessors had by this point in their time in the Oval Office; this will define his presidency long after he is out of office, The Huffington Post's Jennifer Bendery reports: "He'll wrap up his sixth year in office with a grand total of 305 district court and circuit court confirmations -- a tally that puts him well beyond where his predecessors... Continue Reading
December 17th, 2014
The Washington Post's Supreme Court beat reporter Robert Barnes says that the regular pattern for the justices is to take a case before the end of January in order to set render a decision by the end of the term in June. While the court declined to take up the issue of same-sex marriage last fall, this time there is a split between circuit court of appeals on whether same-sex marriage bans are constitutional or not. Barnes notes a... Continue Reading
December 17th, 2014
Maybe Mr. Chen won't go to Washington. The U.S. Supreme Court has accepted the case of a man representing himself in his battle with the city of Baltimore over a rowhouse that has now been torn down, The Wall Street Journal's Brent Kendall and Colleen Wilson report. But Bobby Chen is missing and can't be found at his last known address. His email account is no longer functioning.
While Chen can't be found and his brief is... Continue Reading
December 17th, 2014
Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam has proposed expanding Medicaid to cover more poor residents of his state, although the plan, if accepted by regulators and conservative legislators, would not follow traditional Medicaid rules, The New York Times' Abby Goodnough reported. Haslam said he still opposes the Obamacare plan to expand Medicaid to everyone earning up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level, but he is proposing a second option... Continue Reading
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