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
November 24th, 2014
The Washington Post's Robert Barnes has a preview of arguments next week in the U.S. Supreme Court in the case of United States v. Elonis. Anthony Elonis made several threats on Facebook in rap-style lyrics toward his estranged wife, law enforcement, schoolchildren and co-workers, and he was convicted in federal court of making "true threats" toward most of those people. At issue in the Supreme Court is whether the test for... Continue Reading
November 23rd, 2014
The Tulsa World's Ziva Branstetter reports that few Oklahomans receive compensation after their convictions are overturned because of evidence they are innocent: "Like most other states, Oklahoma’s wrongful conviction law requires a legal finding of 'actual innocence' after convictions are overturned. In practice, the process often requires exonerated people to prove their innocence again in court." Branstetter... Continue Reading
November 23rd, 2014
The New York Times reports on the "Civil Gideon" movement, which is pushing to guarantee low-income Americans lawyers in civil cases involving basic needs like housing and employment. The problem is "free legal assistance in noncriminal cases is rare and growing rarer. A recent study in Massachusetts found that two-thirds of low-income residents who seek legal help are turned away." Several projects around the country are... Continue Reading
November 23rd, 2014
Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe's efforts to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act was thwarted because former Senator Phillip P. Puckett quit the state Senate, The Washington Post's Laura Vozzella reports. McAuliffe had hoped to sneak budget language past the Republicans to expand Medicaid on his own: "Then McAuliffe’s camp found an obscure bit of language in the previous year’s budget that appropriated... Continue Reading
November 22nd, 2014
KYW's Cherri Gregg reports that sheriff's deputies strip-searched juveniles appearing in criminal and custody cases in Philadelphia family court this week after the new courthouse officially opened. The juveniles were made to take off all their clothes, squat and cough. The practice was stopped by court administrators, Gregg reports. "Sources said the main concern of adults who complained about the procedures was ongoing... Continue Reading
November 21st, 2014
A humane society is not a government agency subject to freedom of access laws, the Maine Supreme Judicial Court has ruled.
Gina Turcotte sought to get access to records regarding her cat from the Humane Society Waterville Area under Maine’s Freedom of Access Act, arguing that the society is the functional equivalent of a public agency and provides animal-shelter services to the city.
In a ruling earlier this month, Justice Warren M... Continue Reading
November 21st, 2014
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has decided it will not follow the Restatement (Third) of Torts, which "would have allowed defendants to introduce elements regarding the foreseeability of a product's risks, and whether alternative, safer designs were available when the product was manufactured," The Legal Intelligencer's Max Mitchell reports. The Second Restatement does not consider the feasibility of an alternative design or... Continue Reading
November 20th, 2014
U.S. District Judge Brian Morris ruled yesterday that Montana's ban on same-sex marriage is unconstitutional, the Los Angeles Times reports. He found that the state's constitutional ban on same-sex matrimony violated the U.S. Constitution's guarantee of equal protection.
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November 20th, 2014
Even though the National Transportation Safety Board ruled that the FAA can fine drone operators for commercial use of their aircraft, including toy models, Popular Mechanics reports that the ruling was narrowly focused on "'whether unmanned aircraft systems are subject to an aviation safety regulation concerning reckless operation.'" A rule to integrate drones into American airspace will take up to a year before it goes into... Continue Reading
November 19th, 2014
USA Today's Brad Heath reports that it's not just Ferguson, Mo., where more blacks get arrested than whites: "At least 1,581 other police departments across the USA arrest black people at rates even more skewed than in Ferguson." For example, more than half of the people arrested in Detroit suburb Dearborn, Mich., are black, but only 4 percent of the city's residents are black. Phillip Goff, president of the University of... Continue Reading
November 19th, 2014
Courthouse News' Jack Bouboushian reports that the First Circuit ruled that the Affordable Care Act requires the state of Maine to keep providing Medicaid coverage to 19- and 20-year-olds from low-income families: "the federal Department of Health and Human Services would not approve the change, because the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act requires states accepting federal Medicaid funds to 'freeze' their Medicaid... Continue Reading
November 19th, 2014
Montana Governor Steve Bullock, a Democrat, has asked legislators once again to expand health coverage for 70,000 low-income Montanans, the Independent Record reports: "Legislative Republicans rejected a Medicaid-expansion proposal in 2013, arguing the state couldn’t afford it and that they didn’t want to implement part of 'Obamacare,' the 2010 federal health-care law. Bullock ... said his new plan is a unique proposal... Continue Reading
November 17th, 2014
Rebecca Liao, writing in Foreign Affairs, reports on how China has proposed several legal reforms to provide "a stronger, more independent, and more professionalized judiciary," including separation of the courts from party interference and ensuring judges are chosen from the legal profession. The reforms are needed because, even though many mechanisms have been created for citizens to seek redress with the government, corruption... Continue Reading
November 15th, 2014
I wrote a guest column for the Connecticut Law Tribune about the 14 months I spent as the Media Law Resource Center, how lawyers can use their law degrees in non-traditional ways and the need for lawyers to take on advocacy for public access to information:
For the past year, my byline has appeared in the Connecticut Law Tribune atop freelance news articles. But this time, I'm writing to discuss how the day job I've held for the... Continue Reading
November 15th, 2014
The costs of health-insurance policies bought under the Affordable Care are projected to go up in 2015--even as much as 20 percent, the New York Times reports. The solution? Switching plans: "The new data means that many of the seven million people who have bought insurance through federal and state exchanges will have to change to different health plans if they want to avoid paying more — an inconvenience for consumers just... Continue Reading
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