My occasional take on important, cutting-edge or interesting legal news:
Legal News
Legal News
July 12th, 2015
Due to a funding crisis, Connecticut's three major legal aid nonprofits have had to close their joint office that lobbied legislators, The Connecticut Law Tribune's Michelle Tuccitto Sullo reports. The closure of the Legal Assistance Resource Center of Connecticut is stemming from a funding shortfall with court filing fees being lower than expected and low interest rates on money held in attorney IOLTA accounts generating reduced... Continue Reading
July 12th, 2015
Triple-digit heat indices on Louisiana State Penitentiary's death row do not constitute cruel and unusual punishment, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit has ruled. The Times-Picayune's Emily Lane reports that the court did agree that extreme temperatures constituted cruel and unusual punishment for the three plaintiffs who filed the lawsuit. However, the court ruled that air conditioning does not have to be provided to all... Continue Reading
July 12th, 2015
A federal judge has ordered the Washington Redskins football teams' federal trademark registrations canceled, The Washington Post's Ian Shapira reports. U.S. District Judge Gerald Bruce Lee upheld a ruling by the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board, which found that the team's name is offensive to American Indians and may disparage people. The win was at the summary judgment stage.
Lee reasoned that the U.S. Supreme Court's... Continue Reading
July 11th, 2015
Utah will not be expanding Medicaid, The Washington Examiner's Paige Winfield Cunningham reports. Lawmakers ended their session this week without adopting an expansion.
Even though Republican Governor Gary Herbert wanted to expand health coverage for more low-income Utah residents, legislators could not reach agreement on an expansion plan, according to Cunningham: "Utah's stalemate puts it among a number of states with GOP... Continue Reading
July 11th, 2015
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit has ruled that the Labor Department acted in bad faith when investigating an oil and gas servicing company for allegedly owing backpay to independent contractors, The Houston Chronicle's L.M. Sixel reports. As a result, Gate Guard Services will get more money from the government to pay its legal expenses.
Legal observers told Sixel the case will make it easier for others to bring bad-faith... Continue Reading
July 6th, 2015
The legacy that President Barack Obama could leave on the federal judiciary could be diminished because the Republican party is blocking dozens of his court picks, Politico's Burgess Everett and Seung Min Kim report: "Democrats believe the GOP is creating an unprecedented expansion of the Thurmond Rule, which holds that the Senate shuts off the confirmation valve of lifetime judicial appointments in July of an election year."... Continue Reading
July 6th, 2015
Both Rhode Island and Oregon recently expanded their laws allowing for DNA testing by people trying to prove they were wrongfully convicted.
Both states have enacted laws to expand access to DNA testing for people convicted of a crime who are no longer in prison, The Oregonian's Maxine Bernstein and The Providence Journal's Katie Mulvaney respectively report.
Steve T. Wax, legal director of Oregon's Innocence Project, told... Continue Reading
July 5th, 2015
Florida's rule providing protection for the honest errors of attorneys in their judgment about a debatable point of law has shielded a law firm facing a malpractice suit for its choice not to use a particular expert witness in support of hurricane damage claim, Harris Martin reports. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit found that Florida's judgmental immunity doctrine applied to the law firm's decision.
Law 360's... Continue Reading
July 5th, 2015
The Economist opines that lawsuits over what it means to be an employee should shape the future of several industries.
For example, ride-sharing service Uber is facing cases, including a ruling by the California Labor Commissioner, that its drivers are employees, not independent contractors. McDonald's is being treated as a joint employer, together with franchisees, by the National Labor Relations Board's general counsel.
The... Continue Reading
July 5th, 2015
The American Lawyer's Susan Beck reports that big law firms are failing legal aid nonprofits representing people too poor to afford their own lawyers. Even the most generous firms are contributing little more than one-tenth of 1 percent of their gross revenue.
She profiles the need for legal services in Cleveland, noting that "a lack of adequate public funds and private donations means that, as in Cleveland, more than half of those... Continue Reading
July 5th, 2015
Ohio Governor John Kasich has signed a state budget that continues the expansion of Medicaid, the Associated Press reports. The plan would require about 1 million low-income Ohio residents to pay a monthly charge for Medicaid health coverage.
However, federal regulators would have to approve requiring some adults to pay into a health savings account regardless of their income: "Beneficiaries, except pregnant women, could be cut from... Continue Reading
July 1st, 2015
Now that the U.S. Supreme Court has struck down the Environmental Protection Agency's power plant regulations, environmental groups say that the decision was narrow and temporary, The Washington Post's Steven Overly report.
The court ruled that the EPA should have considered the financial burden on power plant operators when crafting the regulations of emissions of mercury by power plants. The case has been remanded to the U.S.... Continue Reading
July 1st, 2015
As of this morning, U.S. District Judge Callie Granade has ordered all probate judges in Alabama to issue same-sex marriage licenses, NBC News' Pete Williams and Kathryn Robinson report.
Prior to the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling Friday that denying same-sex couples the right to marry is a constitutional violation, there was back-and-forth in Alabama on whether to issue same-sex marriage licenses. Granade overturned Alabama's ban... Continue Reading
July 1st, 2015
The Second Circuit, 2-1, has upheld a finding that Apple violated antitrust laws with its e-book pricing, Fortune's Philip Elmer-DeWitt reports.
The majority found that the Sherman Antitrust Act was violated if a conspiracy results in higher prices to consumers--no matter other factors, he notes. Dissenting Judge Dennis Jacobs argued that market conditions like competitor Amazon's e-book monpoly and Apple's status as a book... Continue Reading
June 29th, 2015
There have been a lot of headlines about a Canadian truth and reconciliation commission taking that country to task for how it has treated its indigenous peoples.
The Truth and Reconcilaition Commission has called for Canada to adopt the United Nations Declaration On the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, The Toronto Globe and Mail's Kim Mackrael reports. But critics are raising the concern that the declaration isn't compatible with... Continue Reading
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