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 5th, 2014
New Mexico Supreme Court Justice Edward Chavez kept his seat on the bench despite his ruling in 2013 clearing the way from same-sex marriage, The New Mexican's Phaedra Haywood reports: "Despite being singled out by the New Mexico Center for Family Policy, NM Watchman Jose Vasquez, For God’s Glory Alone Ministries and political blogger Politix Fireball — all of whom advised voters not to retain Chavez because he had co-... Continue Reading
November 5th, 2014
Tennessee voters opted to change the way that judges are selected, The Tennessean's Dave Boucher reports. The constitutional amendment tweaks the state's judicial selection process from one in which the governor appoints judges to one in which judges, after appointment by the governor, must be approved by legislators and face judicial retention vote from the general public vote every eight years.
Control of the Tennessee appellate... Continue Reading
November 5th, 2014
A California ballot initiative to raise the cap on medical malpractice damages for pain and suffering was defeated, the Associated Press' Michael R. Blood reports. The battle over the initiative resulted in $60 million in donations and was the most expensive campaign in the state. If enacted, it would have raised the cap from $250,000 to $1.1 million.
The initiative also attracted national attention because it would have imposed random... Continue Reading
November 5th, 2014
Alabama voters passed an amendment barring judges from using foreign law when "doing so would violate any state law or a right guaranteed by the Constitution of this state or of the United States.” Eugene Volokh blogs that the amendment is not really banning foreign law. Alabama judges can use foreign law in "tort cases arising from injuries in foreign countries, determining the family status of people who were married or... Continue Reading
November 3rd, 2014
Here's a piece I wrote for the Connecticut Law Tribune regarding a gay schoolteacher's discrimination lawsuit:
A former Hartford elementary school teacher alleges she was forced to quit her job after school administrators mistreated her when they found out she was married to a woman. The case could test the scope of protection provided by the federal Civil Rights Act of 1964 in claims of discrimination based on sexual orientation... Continue Reading
November 3rd, 2014
In an exclusive report, the Associated Press' Jack Gillum and Joan Lowy report that public safety was the ostensible reason for restricting the airspace above Ferguson, Missouri, during large protests following the shooting of a young black man by a white police officer. But the AP, through an Freedom of Information Act request, has exposed recordings in which govermental officials acknowledged the purpose was to keep news helicopters away... Continue Reading
November 2nd, 2014
Bloomberg's Susan Decker had an interesting piece this week: firms that aggressively pursue patent litigation have found their business model to be less lucrative after the U.S. Supreme Court limited what types of software are eligible for legal protection and after the Patent and Trademark Office changed how it reviews patent disputes. Total patent lawsuits declined 23 percent in the third quarter of the year, Bloomberg reports. Adam... Continue Reading
November 2nd, 2014
Oracle Corp. has asked legislative leaders to defund a lawsuit Oregon has brought over the failed health insurance website the company built for the state, the Associated Press reports. Oracle contends that the insurance portal Cover Oregon failed because of mismanagement by the state. The state is suing Oracle for false claims and other causes of action, while Oracle has sued for state for breach of contract and alleged violations of its... Continue Reading
November 1st, 2014
Kaci Hickox, who is back in her home state of Maine after treating Ebola patients in West Africa, won a court victory in her home state against having her movements curtailed, The Washington Post reports. A judge ruled she "should continue daily monitoring and coordinate any travel with public-health officials," the Post further reports. When Hickox was forcibly quarantined by New Jersey after treating Ebola patients, claimed she was... Continue Reading
November 1st, 2014
The Washington Post's Annie Gowen reports that employees at a courthouse in India think there are ghosts haunting their judicial complex: "Books have disappeared, strange noises have been heard. Computers and lights have seemed to switch on by themselves." The local bar installed closed-circuit television cameras to investigate the strange occurrences. One lawyer reported hearing loud knocking and seeing a "padlock swinging... Continue Reading
October 31st, 2014
At least $730,000 has been spent on a Montana Supreme Court race, Hungry Horse News reports. More money has been spent on challenger Lawrence VanDyke than incumbent Justice Mike Wheat. Wheat has been labeled as more liberal than VanDyke. Trial lawyers have contributed to Wheat and conservative groups like the Republican State Leadership Committee and Americans for Prosperity-Montana have been contributing to VanDyke.
Wheat blames some... Continue Reading
October 31st, 2014
New York Law Journal's Mark Hamblett reports that the New York Court of Appeals is going to answer a question posed to it by the Second Circuit: does New York City's law governing debt collection apply to law firms? A federal district court judge held "in 2013 the law does not apply to plaintiff law firms that attempt to collect debts, and violates a provision of the New York City Charter because it purports to grant New York... Continue Reading
October 30th, 2014
Mother Jones has a piece asking if Americans can get a fair day in court: "These days, as more candidates for the bench face rough contests—buffeted increasingly by outside money, thanks to the US Supreme Court's 2010 decision in Citizens United—state judges around the country often raise six- and seven-figure sums, mount statewide campaigns, and fend off attack ads from groups that don't disclose their donors. This... Continue Reading
October 30th, 2014
Omar G. Encarnación, writing in Foreign Affairs, argues that the recent advance in ensuring same-sex couples can marry in the United States is much more modest progress on LGBT rights than one would think: "the United States lacks not only federal legislation protecting same-sex marriage but also federal laws banning discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. The Employment Non-Discrimination Act, better known as ENDA -- a... Continue Reading
October 29th, 2014
Even though Congress repealed the "don't ask, don't tell" policy that banned gay members of the military of serving openly, a ban remains on transgendered people serving in the military, the Washington Post reports: "The ban remains firmly in place, with about two dozen service members known to have been discharged over the past two years, according to advocates." About 15,500 transgender people are serving in the... Continue Reading
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