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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April 10th, 2014
The first appellate court to hear arguments in one of the cases striking down same-sex marriage bans was heard today.
The three-judge panel on the Tenth Circuit appeared split during oral argument on a lower-court ruling striking down Utah's ban on same-sex marraiage, the Salt Lake Tribune reports. The state is arguing that children do better if they are parented by a mother and father, not same-sex parents, the Tribune further... Continue Reading
April 10th, 2014
The Fifth Circuit has rejected a newspaper's appeal against revealing identifying information about people who posted anonymous comments on its website, The National Law Journal's Mike Scarcella reports. The Times-Picayune has to disclose the information to a federal magistrate judge to review confidentially. The issue has arisen in the prosecution of a former New Orleans official. The defense alleges that the two anonymous... Continue Reading
April 9th, 2014
Many more people are eligible for Medicaid under the Obamacare expansion: adults with incomes under 133 percent of the poverty level. Can the government recover the expenses paid out for these new Medicaid enrollees through liens on their properties and recoveries from their estates?
The Health Affairs blog reports on how the Centers on Medicare and Medicaid Services is advising states on applying liens to consumers who are... Continue Reading
April 9th, 2014
Intellectual property law doesn't protect the traditional knowledge and folklore of people, including indigenous peoples like American Indians. The problems vary: Who is the identifiable author or inventor if it's part of a group's culture? When did the work come into being if it's part of an oral tradition that changes? How can localized knowledge about the healing benefits of particular plants be patented... Continue Reading
April 9th, 2014
The Federal Trade Commission has the authority to sue companies that neglect to secure their customers' data, U.S. District Judge Esther Sales of New Jersey ruled this week, according to a report in the National Journal. " If the court had sided with Wyndham [Hotels], it would have stripped the federal government of oversight of data security practices just as hackers begin to pull off more and more high-profile attacks,... Continue Reading
April 8th, 2014
Hearings are being held in Philadelphia federal court this week on the admissibility of the testimony of plaintiffs' expert witnesses in litigation over whether Zoloft caused birth defects. The Legal Intelligencer's Sara Spencer (my former colleague) reports that drugmaker Pfizer is seeking to winnow out some of those experts. Both sides focused on a general causation expert, Dr. Anick Berard, The Legal reports. One defense lawyer said... Continue Reading
April 8th, 2014
A federal jury awarded a $9 billion verdict in the first bellwether trial over whether Actos increases the risk of getting bladder cancer, The National Law Journal's Amanda Bronstad (and my current colleague) reports. U.S. District Judge Rebecca Doherty presided over the Louisiana federal trial. Eli Lilly & Co., which was found 25 percent liable, and Takeda Pharmaceuticals USA Inc., which was found 75 percent liable, are the... Continue Reading
April 8th, 2014
Clay Clavert, a communications professor at the University of Florida in Gainsville, argues in a Huffington Post piece that the U.S. Supreme Court should take up a Pennsylvania case in which rap lyrics were used as evidence in a criminal conviction. Anthony Elonis was convicted in federal court in Philadelphia for posting rap lyrics containing threats of violence on Facebook.
True threats are not protected by the First... Continue Reading
April 7th, 2014
The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles voted last week not to recommend a posthumous pardon for Cameron Todd Willingham, who was put to death after being convicted of killing his daughters in a housefire, the Texas Tribune reports. The Innocence Project argued new evidence showed the prosecutor who convicted Willingham might have made a deal with a jailhouse informant who testified against Willingham, even though the informant testified... Continue Reading
April 7th, 2014
The U.S. Supreme Court declined to take up the case of a New Mexico wedding photographer who refused to work at a same-sex wedding ceremony, USA Today reports: "The case would have posed an important constitutional question with potentially sweeping implications: whether merchants whose products are inherently expressive must serve customers even when it conflicts with their beliefs." The New Mexico Supreme Court ruled that turning... Continue Reading
April 7th, 2014
A federal judge is planning to strike as unconstitutional "'under all circumstances'" Ohio's ban on same-sex marriage, Reuters reports. U.S. District Judge Timothy Black previously ruled in favor of the plaintiffs in order to allow same-sex widowers married outside of Ohio to be listed on their husbands' death certificates, Reuters also reports. Continue Reading
April 5th, 2014
Last year, a Colorado judge ruled that a baker violated Colorado law when he declined to bake a wedding cake for a same-sex couple, the Associated Press reports in an interesting profile of the deeply-felt beliefs of the couple that was refused service and the baker who refused them service becuase of his Christian beliefs. The judge ruled that the state law that forbids refusal of service based on sexual orientation was violated, the AP... Continue Reading
April 4th, 2014
Here's the story I wrote for the Connecticut Law Tribune regarding a civil-rights attorney who alleges her own civil rights were violated by the city of Bridgeport in its hiring of outside counsel to represent city employees:
osephine Miller is no stranger to litigation involving the city of Bridgeport and its school district.
In the highest profile case, which went to the state Supreme Court, the Danbury-based civil... Continue Reading
April 3rd, 2014
A deceased Alabama man's same-sex spouse is seeking to overturn Alabama's ban on same-sex marriage and have their marriage in Massachusetts recognized for purposes of settling his estate, the Associated Press reports. But the man's mother opposes same-sex marriage and has intervened to prevent her son's estate being shared with his widower. Continue Reading
April 3rd, 2014
Barrett Brown, a journalist and activist who used crowdsourcing to investigate leaked information about private security firm Stratfor, has taken a plea deal with prosecutors, Wired reports: In a court document superseding two of Brown's previous three indictments, "the government charges Brown with two crimes: allegedly assisting the person who hacked Stratfor after the fact, and obstructing the execution of a search... Continue Reading
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