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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October 2nd, 2013
Wired looks at how the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Smith v. Maryland has been used to justify the massive level of surveillance conducted of Americans. That 1979 decision started with a purse-snatcher whose obsession with the victim of his crime led police to use a pen register to track all of his phone calls, including the multitude of times he rang her. "Nobody is more surprised by the long-term ramifications of the case than... Continue Reading
October 2nd, 2013
A federal judge in New York has ruled the state's banking regulator can control the lending done to New York consumers by online lenders associated with sovereign American Indian tribes, the Washington Post reports. Loans are made by the lenders that violate state law, including on maximum interest rates. "Once states began introducing interest rate caps, some ... lenders began forging relationships with Native American... Continue Reading
October 2nd, 2013
PENNSYLVANIA: The register of wills in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, ordered to stop issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples is seeking the Pennsylvania Supreme Court's review on whether the lower appellate court had jurisdiction and if the state health department opposing the licenses' issuance made out its burden of proof in the case, Reuters reports: http://whtc.com/news/articles/2013/oct/01/pennsylvania... Continue Reading
October 1st, 2013
The Pennsylvania Superior Court has upheld a jury's decision to award punitive damages over the death of a nursing-home and hospital patient whose bed sores led to an infection that went septic in his body, the failure of one of his kidneys and his eventual death.
According to the opinion, the jury found nursing home Hillcrest Center and Jeanes Hospital each 50 percent liable for the April 18, 2008, death of Joe Blango. The jury awarded... Continue Reading
October 1st, 2013
Thomas M. Cooley Law School has lost its claims of defamation, tortious interference with business relations, breach of contract and false light at the summary judgment stage against plaintiffs lawyers who posted on-line to solicit law-school clients and suggested in their proposed complaint that the law school used "'Enron-style'" accounting techniques, according to the opinion.
U.S. District Judge Robet J. Jonker of the... Continue Reading
October 1st, 2013
Reuters reports that the U.S. Supreme Court did not take action today on a case involving what Argentina owes some bondholders after its default over a dozen years ago. "Based on the court's usual practice, Tuesday's development may mean either that the court will decline to hear the case or that it will ask the Obama administration to weigh in on whether the dispute is worth the court's attention," Reuters reported.... Continue Reading
October 1st, 2013
ALM's The Legal Times reports on en banc arguments held yesterday "in a case that could undo a terrorism conviction and reshape how the government prosecutes criminal charges against other detainees held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba." Continue Reading
October 1st, 2013
Long after Argentina rebounded from its 2000-2001 financial crisis, lawsuits over its debt are still working their way through the American courts. Some cases are not yet at the U.S. Supreme Court, but the Buenos Aires Herald reports "the case that is now in the hands of the US Supreme Court is the one that relates to whether Argentina violated an equal treatment clause known as 'pari passu' because it failed to treat... Continue Reading
October 1st, 2013
The San Francisco Chronicle reports on a case that could go even farther than Citizens United in limiting campaign-finance controls in favor of free speech. The case the U.S. Supreme Court will hear this term "involves a law that puts a ceiling of $123,200 on individuals who donate to multiple federal candidates, parties and political action committees during a two-year election cycle," the Chronicle reports. Advocates of overturning... Continue Reading
October 1st, 2013
Now that American consumers can start shopping for private health insurance through exchanges, the Washington Post has a great explainer on how the exchanges will work.
Some things I learned that I didn't know:
1. If folks can't find an affordable plan, they don't have to buy coverage if it's more than 8% of their income.
2. The proportion of people who won't be affected by the law is higher than I... Continue Reading
September 30th, 2013
The clash over the requirement that most employers, as well as insurers for religious institutions that are not directly associated with houses of worship, cover female employees' contraception is primed for the U.S. Supreme Court, UPI reports. The Sixth and Third Circuits ruled against challenges to the insurance mandate to cover contraception, but the 10th Circuit has ruled in favor of a challenge by two private, secular... Continue Reading
September 30th, 2013
Republican lawyer Theodore Olson and Democrat lawyer David Boies, who successfully prosecuted the constitutional challenge to California's ban on same-sex marriage, have joined a case in Virginia that could be a test case in the U.S. Supreme Court to establish the rights of same-sex couples to marry anywhere in the United States, the Washington Post reports. There are many challenges proceeding in many states in the wake of... Continue Reading
September 29th, 2013
The Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008 was supposed to ensure mental-health treatment and addiction-treatment services get the same coverage from insurers as physical ailments. "But five years after President George W. Bush signed the law, there is widespread agreement that it has fallen short of its goal of creating parity for mental health coverage," the New York Times reports. One of the issues is... Continue Reading
September 29th, 2013
A physician-legislator opined this weekend in The Washington Post that a moratorium should be declared on rolling out electronic health records. One problem is "entry errors and inconsistencies are becoming common." Another problem is different institutions all have different systems. Another problem is doctors end up staring at computer screens, not listening to patients during visits. The columnist wants one national system. Continue Reading
September 28th, 2013
The Record (Bergen County) reports that Friday's ruling by a trial judge that same-sex marriage violates that state's constitution is a "blessing and curse" for proponents. "While Superior Court Judge Mary Jacobson’s 53-page opinion Friday was hailed as a landmark, a 'tipping point' in the decadelong crusade, some advocates worried it could hinder their main objective — getting the Legislature to... Continue Reading
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