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
February 16th, 2014
James Risen and Laura Poitras report for the New York Times that Mayer Brown, while representing Indonesia in trade talks, might have been spied upon by the National Security Agency and its overseas partner. A February 2013 document "reports that the N.S.A.’s Australian counterpart, the Australian Signals Directorate, notified the agency that it was conducting surveillance of the talks, including communications between... Continue Reading
February 14th, 2014
Development groups have called upon the United Nations to make media freedom and access to information central to the global body's sustainable development agenda, according to The Guardian. Some advocates prefer a "distinct global development plan on good governance, with access to information at its heart." The argument, Thomas Hughes opines in The Guardian, is that "quality, current and accessible information is... Continue Reading
February 14th, 2014
The Delaware Coalition for Open Government is arguing to the U.S. Supreme Court that it should not take up a case in which the Delaware Court of Chancery is trying to reinstate its secret, confidential arbitration program, my former colleague, Delaware Business Court Insider's Jeff Mordock, reports. "'Judicial arbitrators are deciding the substantive legal rights of the parties,'" the coalition's attorney... Continue Reading
February 14th, 2014
There have been more positive developments this week in favor of same-sex marriage and LGBT rights:
One, Virginia's ban on same-sex marriage was struck down, Christian Science Monitor reports. The ruling is the first in the south to overturn a voter-backed prohibition on same-sex matrimony as unconstitutional.
Two, the Associated Press reports that a federal judge ruled this week that Kentucky must recognize same-sex marriages... Continue Reading
February 13th, 2014
Special master Louis Freeh found that an official involved in the administration of settled claims over the BP oil spill frequented a New Orleans bar that received $500,000 in oil-spill compensation and mishandled an email regarding the claim, the National Law Journal reports. While Freeh recommended procedural changes, BP wants witness statements and transcripts, NLJ reports. Freeh and plaintiffs lawyers oppose that request. Continue Reading
February 13th, 2014
Politico's Josh Gerstein reports that the 7th Circuit is questioning its authority to review an "unprecedented order giving defense attorneys access to the paperwork supporting secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act orders used to build a criminal case." The 7th Circuit issued a one-page order expressing doubt that it has the jurisdiction to consider the pre-trial ruling. Responses to the jurisdictional... Continue Reading
February 13th, 2014
"The collection of phone records by the National Security Agency has no basis in the law, a member of an independent federal advisory board said Wednesday," The Hill reported on a Congressional hearing yesterday in which members of the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board testified. The Hill further reported: "'With all respect to both executive branch officials and judicial officials, nobody looked at the statute as... Continue Reading
February 12th, 2014
An Indiana Senate committee voted this week to send a proposed constitutional ban on same-sex marriage to the full legislative body, the Associated Press reports. House legislators stripped out a sentence that would ban civil unions, but the amendment's supporters want the sentence restored. If the sentence is restored, a public vote could happen this fall. If the sentence is not restored, then legislators would have to pass the amendment... Continue Reading
February 12th, 2014
The cause of same-sex marriage and LGBT rights advanced in several states around the country this week:
* The Idaho Supreme Court will now allow the adoption of a same-sex partner's children, The Washington Post's Eugene Volokh writes: "More broadly, the court concludes that such a second-parent adoption doesn’t require that the parties be married to each other, so that adoption of an opposite-sex partner’s (... Continue Reading
February 12th, 2014
Millions of Americans are stuck in a health coverage gap created by the Supreme Court strucking down the Obamacare mandate that states expand Medicaid and the refusal of many states to voluntarily expand their existing Medicaid programs, The Wall Street Journal reported this week. The WSJ reports on one woman who earns $7,000 as a cleaner, which is too little to get help buying coverage on the healthcare insurance exchanges and too much... Continue Reading
February 11th, 2014
The Asbury Park Press in New Jersey reports that the exoneration of 25 people across the country who were mistakenly linked to crimes through bitemark evidence has led to some questioning whether that type of evidence should ever be allowed in court. I covered one such case in upstate New York: Roy Brown's conviction of a woman's brutal murder on the basis of bitemark evidence was overturned.
"Critics says a key... Continue Reading
February 11th, 2014
The Federal Aviation Administration has opened an investigation into a TV station's use of a drone to investigate a car crash, the Associated Press reports. "The case of the Hartford crash, in which the victim's body was left hanging out of a mangled car, highlights some of the safety, privacy and ethical issues that journalists will wrestle with as interest grows in using drones for newsgathering," the AP notes.
For now,... Continue Reading
February 10th, 2014
A recent documentary is highlighting the issue of racial bias in the juvenile justice system. In reporting a piece for the Connecticut Law Tribune, I learned that Connecticut is widely praised for making great steps in improving its juvenile justice system. But statistics show that, despite those reforms, racial bias hasn't been erased. More kids of color than white kids are sent into the system and sent into the system for longer.... Continue Reading
February 10th, 2014
Connecticut homeowners who still haven't been paid by their insurers over damage from Superstorm Sandy are running out of time to sue their insurers, I reported for the Connecticut Post and the Stamford Advocate.
Here's the full story:
Homeowners whose insurance companies still have not paid them for Superstorm Sandy damage and may need to sue their insurers will soon run out of time to do so.
Even though Connecticut law... Continue Reading
February 10th, 2014
While American Indian reservations are sovereign nations, tribes have not had the legal authority to arrest non-Indian women who assault or rape Indian women on reservations, The Washington Post reports. But the Violence Against Women Act, signed in March, will for the first time give Indian tribes jurisdiction over some crimes of domestic violence committed by "non-Indians in Indian Country," The Post further reports (The law won... Continue Reading
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