Cultivated Compendium is my personal website with the occasional link to my reporting and to important, cutting-edge or interesting legal news.
Welcome
News and Reporting
December 20th, 2013
The United Nations has called on countries, including the United States, which use drone strikes for counterterrorism purposes to comply with international law, The Dawn, a newspaper in Pakistan, reports. The resolution was sponsored by Pakistan.
It is the first time the United Nations has spoken on the issuse of remote-controlled drones, The Dawn reprots.
December 20th, 2013
The United Nations adopted a resolution, sponsored by Brazil and Germany in the wake of the revelation that the United States was eavesdropping on leaders in those countries, supporting the protection of Internet privacy, the BBC reports. The non-binding resolution affirms that '"the same rights that people have offline must also be protected online,'" the BBC further reports.
The hope of such non-binding... Continue Reading
December 20th, 2013
Republican-red Indiana is seeking to ban same-sex marriage in its constitution; lawmakers must approve the proposed constitutional amendment a second time before sending it to voters, the Associated Press reports. But "polls have shown increasing numbers of Indiana voters oppose a constitutional ban even though most still oppose gay marriage," the AP reports. Moreover, at least two lawmakers who voted for the amendment in 2011... Continue Reading
December 20th, 2013
The Associated Press reports that Wisconsin has enacted a law to make it harder for public schools to be forced to drop American Indian mascots and nicknames. A 2010 law required " Wisconsin's Department of Public Instruction to hold a hearing on a school's race-based nickname if it received even one complaint," according to the AP. Now complainants must submit a petition with signatures equal to 10 percent of the school... Continue Reading
December 19th, 2013
In a ruling today, the New Mexico Supreme Court has made that state the 17th in the state to allow same-sax marriage. “'All rights, protections, and responsibilities that result from the marital relationship shall apply equally to both same-gender and opposite-gender married couples,"' the court said, according to the Albuquerque Journal. Continue Reading
December 19th, 2013
The Washington Post reports on the recommendations of the panel, appointed by President Obama, to curb surveillance by the National Security Agency. Instead of the NSA collecting virtually all of Americans' phone records, the panel "urged that phone companies or a private third party maintain the data instead, with access granted only by a court order," The Post reports. The panel also suggested a ban on warrantless NSA searches... Continue Reading
December 19th, 2013
Judge Timothy Black, a federal district judge in Ohio, questioned the authority of state officials to refuse to recognize same-sex unions entered in other states, the Associated Press reports. Black heard arguments this week on a narrower question than other same-sex marriage lawsuits: not on whether Ohio's ban on same-sex marriage ban can stand, but on whether same-sex marriages from other states must be recognized on Ohio death... Continue Reading
December 19th, 2013
A Texas judge blocked the city of Houston from providing benefits to the same-sex spouses of Houston city employees---but it's pending another court hearing next month, LGBTQ Nation reports. The lawsuit was filed by Harris County Republican chair Jared Woodfill. Houston Mayor Annise Parker decided to extend benefits to the same-sex spouses of city employees. The plaintiffs claims that Parker violated the Houston city-charter ban on... Continue Reading
December 18th, 2013
Science 2.0 has a blog about a study done at the University of Utah on attitudes toward sharing personal health information. The researchers found that when study subjects were educated about "the intricacies involved in collecting and using this information in population-based research—particularly the safeguards and confidentiality measures in place to maintain anonymity—that they support it," Science 2.0 reports. This... Continue Reading
December 18th, 2013
Reuters reports on the concerns raised as the U.S. Senate consider legislation to curb patent trolls. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, Democrat of Connecticut, said he is "wary of unintended consequences," while bill sponsor Sen. Patrick Leahy said the legislation balances the rights of patent holders against patent trolls who buy up patents just to pursue litigation. Among other measures, the legislation would require losers... Continue Reading
December 18th, 2013
While there has been a lot of celebration of Judge Leon's opinion that the National Security Agency's collection of telephone metadata likely violates the federal Constitution, Just Security's Steve Vladek argues that the district judge faces being reversed by the D.C. Circuit on his holding that the plaintiffs’ Administrative Procedure Act "claim (challenging the metadata program on statutory grounds) is... Continue Reading
December 18th, 2013
Another battlefront has opened up against Aereo's Internet TV service in Utah. Two broadcast TV affiliates are seeking a preliminary injunction against Aereo's service because the TV stations argue it "'engages in public performances for which it must obtain copyright licenses,'" the Salt Lake Tribune reports.
Aereo streams free broadcast TV programming through individualized antennas dedicated to each of its... Continue Reading
December 18th, 2013
The Connecticut legislative panel, appointed to examine restrictions on access to records in the wake of the Sandy Hook school shooting, voted 14-3 to recommend "setting up a new system that will allow the public, including members of the media, to privately inspect [crime photos, 911 audio tapes and other information from homicides], also including video and internal police communications from a homicide. They would then go through a... Continue Reading
December 17th, 2013
The Wall Street Journal reports that the Federal Communications Commission, at the behest of its new chairman, has withdrawn a plan to weaken the ban on a radio station and newspaper in the same market having the same owner. "The proposal would have also paved the way for smaller TV stations to own newspapers, a change pushed by the struggling newspaper industry," The Journal also reports. Continue Reading
December 17th, 2013
Even though the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in United States v. Jones the law enforcement's installation of GPS devices on suspects' vehicles are searches under the Fourth Amendment, the Second Circuit has reasoned '"Jones left open the question of whether the warrantless use of GPS devices would be 'reasonable—and thus lawful—under the Fourth Amendment [where] officers ha[ve] reasonable suspicion, and... Continue Reading
Pages
Lawyer and Legal Journalist
