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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News and Reporting
December 10th, 2014
Supporters of an Oregon measure that would require labels on genetically modified food lost their effort to prevent the state from certifying the results of a recount, The Oregonian's Laura Gunderson reports. The measure failed by 812 votes out of 1.5 million cast. A Multnomah County judge denied the request for a temporary restraining order, which leaves the Secretary of State's Office likely to certify the results from a recount next... Continue Reading
December 10th, 2014
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that federal evidentiary rules bar the use of statements made during jury deliberations, so a South Dakota man can't get a new personal injury trial over his motorcycle accident because of comments made by the jury forewoman during deliberations, the Washington Post's Robert Barnes reports. The forewoman allegedly said that her daughter had been at fault in a fatal accident and would have had her... Continue Reading
December 10th, 2014
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that an Amazon contractor does not have to compensate warehouse workers for the time they spend going through security checks at the end of their shifts, the Associated Press' Sam Hananel reports. The justices held that the security checks are not related to workers' primary job duties. Under the federal Portal-to-Portal Act, employers are exempted from paying for "pre- and post-work activities such as... Continue Reading
December 10th, 2014
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that Amazon does not have to compensate warehouse workers for the time they spend going through security checks at the end of their shifts, the Associated Press' Sam Hananel reports. The justices held that the security checks are not related to workers' primary job duties. Under the federal Portal-to-Portal Act, employers are exempted from paying for " pre- and post-work activities such as waiting to pick up... Continue Reading
December 9th, 2014
After U.S. Sen. Jay Rockefeller dropped a hold on a bill to reform the Freedom of Information Act, the Senate passed a bill that would create a presumption of openness among government agencies, Politico's Burgess Everett reports. The House passed a similar bill earlier this year. The question is if the House finds time to consider the Senate bill during the current lame-duck session. Continue Reading
December 9th, 2014
Parents of children killed in the Sandy Hook school shooting two years ago have filed wrongful death claim notices on the behalf of their children, the Hartford Courant's Dave Altimari reports. Filing the notice does not mean that the parents will definitely proceed with lawsuits, and no defendants are filed in the notice. But Altimari indicates that "sources said several families met over the weekend with lawyers from Koskoff,... Continue Reading
December 9th, 2014
Less than half of law school graduates who took the July 2014 bar exam in California passed, the Los Angeles Times' Jason Song reports: "The 48.6% pass rate in California is a drop of nearly 7 percentage points from the previous year; nearly 8,500 people took the test in July. The last time the passage rate dipped below half was in 2005." Brian Z. Tamanaha, a critic of legal education and a law professor at the Washington University School of... Continue Reading
December 9th, 2014
The House Transportation is going to be holding a hearing Wednesday about the status of the Federal Aviation Administration's regulations for commercial drones, The Hill's Tim Devaney and Lydia Wheeler report: "Pressure is mounting from the GOP and the business community for the FAA to approve the use of commercial drones, though, Republicans acknowledge the need to address certain safety and privacy issues."
In a separate... Continue Reading
December 8th, 2014
The American Red Cross has been claiming that 91 percent of charitable dollars are spent on services, ProPublica and NPR reports. But overhead expenses are more than charitable officials have been claiming, with fundraising expenses alone taking up 26 cents of every donated dollar, the two journalism outlets report. While the Red Cross changed the wording on its web site to now explain that 91 cents of every dollar goes to humanitarian... Continue Reading
December 4th, 2014
SCOTUSBlog's Amy Howe reports that there was bipartistan backing for the introduction of cameras in the Supreme Court at a House Judiciary Committee subcommittee hearing Wednesday. The bill under consideration would authorize, but not mandate, the Supreme Court to allow televised proceedings. Mickey Osterreicher, the GC for the National Press Photographers Association, "noted that interest in the Supreme Court is high when, as now,... Continue Reading
December 4th, 2014
U.S. Senator Diane Feinstein, D-California, plans on introducing legislation to strengthen drone safety laws, Lawfare's Cody Poplin writes. The legislation would expand the moratorium on private drone use unless the FAA authorizes it, while imposing felony penalties. The bill would require a "safety certification for expansions of private drone use," Feinstein wrote to the head of the FAA. Continue Reading
December 4th, 2014
The Second Circuit appeared skeptical during oral argument Tuesday over the Authors Guild's claim that it's not fair use for Google to scan millions of out-of-print books and post them online, Gigaom's Jeff John Roberts reports. The guild argued the scanning project is not fair use because it is commercial in nature, Roberts reports, which was a shift in strategy after "Judge Denny Chin awarded a decisive victory to... Continue Reading
December 3rd, 2014
The New York Times' Adam Liptak reports on the U.S. Supreme Court's oral arguments today on whether Peggy Young was unlawfully discriminated against by UPS when the company refused to assign her to lighter duty during her pregnancy: "The basic question in the case, Young v. United Parcel Service, No. 12-1226, was what to make of language in the pregnancy law that requires employers to treat 'women affected by pregnancy'... Continue Reading
December 3rd, 2014
A Staten Island grand jury cleared a NYPD police officer in the death of Eric Garner while he was held in a chokehold after being arrested for allegedly selling loose cigarettes, the New York Post's Larry Celona and two others reports. Garner's death was caught on a video that went viral and involved the same specter of white-officer brutality toward white men that the Michael Brown case has inspired. City Council Speaker Melissa... Continue Reading
December 3rd, 2014
Several conservatives have joined United Nations human rights lawyers seeking to stop the execution of a severely mentally ill Texas man. Scott Panetti's execution is slated to proceed today at 6 p.m. unless last-minute appeals filed yesterday have any effect, UPI reports.
Kathryn Kase of the Texas Defender Service told the Los Angeles Times, '"He thinks the prison system implanted a listening device in his teeth and knows... Continue Reading
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