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 11th, 2013
The Hill reports on the oral arguments held in the U.S. Supreme Court Tuesday on the authority for the Environmental Protection Agency to regulate pollution that crosses state lines. The case could be tied because Justice Samuel Alito Jr. recused himself, leaving four justices each from "the bench's liberal and conservative wings," The Hill also reports.
At issue is a rule by the EPA requiring 28 states to cut... Continue Reading
December 11th, 2013
The case of the auction of sacred Hopi masks in France highlights the lack of protection for indigenous peoples' culture under intellectual property law in Western countries.
The Associated Press reports that the Drouot auction house in France sold 25 sacred Hopi Kachina masks, despite protests, for $1.6 million this week. "Though a judge ruled last week that the sale of the artifacts is legal in France, the American... Continue Reading
December 11th, 2013
Bloomberg Businessweek reports that the India Supreme Court upheld a "153-year-old colonial-era law that criminalizes gay sex, leaving it up to lawmakers to amend the legislation in a setback for homosexual rights in the world’s second-most populous country."
Niranjan Sahoo, an analyst with the New Delhi-based Observer Research Foundation, told Bloomberg: '“Indian society is largely conservative, feudal, and... Continue Reading
December 11th, 2013
Even though same-sex marriage has been authorized in New Jersey in court decisions, "key Senate Democrats" are seeking to codify the court decisions, The Newark Star-Ledger reports. Legislators want to protect the right to same-sex marriage from being removed by future courts. For example, state Sen. Raymond Lesniak (D-Union), told the newspaper that one of the rationales for the court decision to legalize same-sex marriage was that... Continue Reading
December 10th, 2013
The U.S. Supreme Court has decided against granting Pfizer's appeal of a $142 million award in favor of Kaiser Foundation's health plan and hospitals regarding the off-label marketing of the Neurontin epilepsy drug, Bloomberg Businessweek reports. The Supreme Court's action also means that a national class action can proceed in which insurance companies, union funds and employers are suing for paying for coverage of "... Continue Reading
December 10th, 2013
The New York Court of Appeals ruled today that Fox News reporter Jana Winter is protected by that state's media shield law from identifying her anonymous law enforcement sources in reponse to a Colorado defendant's subpoena, Politico reports. New York's highest court was sharply divided in a 4-3 decision.
Winter had an exclusive about a notebook belonging to James Holmes, who is charged with the mass killing at... Continue Reading
December 10th, 2013
Joan Orie Melvin, a former Pennsylvania Supreme Court justice convicted of using the resources of her judicial chambers on her political campaigns, is arguing that the charges against her should be dismissed or that she should get a new trial or sentence, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports. Orie Melvin's defense counsel said in their brief to the Pennsylvania Superior Court that the trial judge, Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Lester... Continue Reading
December 10th, 2013
Joan Orie Melvin, a former Pennsylvania Supreme Court justice convicted of using the resources of her judicial chambers on her political campaigns, is arguing that the charges against her should be dismissed or that she should get a new trial or sentence, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports. Orie Melvin's defense counsel said in their brief to the Pennsylvania Superior Court that the trial judge, Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Lester... Continue Reading
December 10th, 2013
Five regulatory agencies are going to be voting today on the Volcker rule, which limits the ability of banks to invest in hedge funds or trade the money they hold for their own gain, The New York Times reports. Meanwhile, "lobbyists for Wall Street banks and business trade groups," including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, are hinting that they will litigate to undercut the rule, The Times further reports.
At the same time as the... Continue Reading
December 9th, 2013
The U.S. Supreme Court looks like it is prepared to throw out a pilot's $1.4 million award for defamation, Reuters reports. According to Reuters, the 2001 Aviation and Transportation Security Act immunizes airlines from defamation suits based on security-threat reports, so long as those "reports were not intentionally false or misleading." The Colorado Supreme Court said it did not need to decide whether the reports about the... Continue Reading
December 9th, 2013
The Justice Department has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to take up a case involving Argentina and its defaulted debt, Global Post reports. Lawyers for the federal government argue Second Circuit precedent giving "hedge fund bondholders the power to pursue the country's non-US assets was wrong," Global Post further reports.
The Justice Department's brief increases the chance the justices will grant certiorari, Global Post... Continue Reading
December 9th, 2013
Colleen Logan, writing in the Huffington Post, writes about five reasons why the LGBT community is ready for same-sex marriage but not divorce. The upshot is that there are legal ramifications from state-sanctioned matrimony. Those include:
One- The law's notion of presumed parenthood does not protect non-biological mothers and fathers. "Until the law sees fit to protect both parents in a same-sex couple in the case of divorce, we... Continue Reading
December 9th, 2013
Sinclair Broadcast Group has agreed to buy eight TV stations from Allbritton Communications Co. for $985 million. But the Federal Communications Commission is questioning Sinclair's plan to use "sidecar companies" in order to purchase the TV stations and skirt the FCC rules "governing the number of stations a broadcaster can own in a particular market," The Wall Street Journal reports. The move by the regulator is... Continue Reading
December 9th, 2013
The U.S. Supreme Court is going to hear oral arguments tomorrow about the cross-state feud over pollution, USA Today reports. At issue is the Environmental Protection Agency's rule that "as many as 28 upwind states, mostly in the Midwest and South, ... slash ozone and fine particle emissions for the benefit of their Middle Atlantic and Northeast neighbors," the newspaper reports.
According to USA Today, 24 states want the... Continue Reading
December 9th, 2013
An excerpt of the piece I wrote for The Connecticut Law Tribune on the Children's Law Center of Connecticut, which is celebrating 20 years of protecting children this year:
After 6-year-old Ayla was murdered, Judith Hyde heard a voice inside her head. The message: Create a children's legal advocacy center to represent young children in family court.
Hyde had founded the Child Protection Council of Northeastern Connecticut, which... Continue Reading
Pages
Lawyer and Legal Journalist
