My occasional take on important, cutting-edge or interesting legal news:
Legal News
Legal News
April 4th, 2015
After the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that two Georgia mental health patients are entitled to care in the community, there has been a push by the U.S. Department of Justice to move patients out of state hospitals, The Augusta Chronicle's Tom Corwin reports. Transfers from institutional to community settings can't be carried out over the opposition of patients, if their placements can't be reasonably accommodated or if patients... Continue Reading
April 4th, 2015
U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Viken of South Dakota has ruled that the state Department of Social Services has been violating the rights of American Indian parents when removing their children into the foster-care system, NPR's Laura Sullivan reports. Hearings over the termination of parental rights and custody rights have been short as a minute, parents have not been allowed to speak during some hearings, and Native children have been... Continue Reading
April 3rd, 2015
According to the Associated Press, the Tennessee Senate has voted to ban drones from recording jails as well as ticketed events with more than 100 people in attendance. The law was requested by the NFL's Tennessee Titans.
A different version of the bill passed in the House and a compromise version has to be negotiated, the AP reports. Continue Reading
April 3rd, 2015
The tension between the rights of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people to be protected against discrimination and the right to religious freedom to express condemnation of LGBT people has come to the forefront this week. Indiana Governor Mike Pence and Arkanas Governor Asa Hutchinson have both signed compromise bills that backed off some of the most overt discriminatory impacts of new religious freedom laws in those... Continue Reading
April 2nd, 2015
The Electronic Privacy Information Center and other groups have appealed the Federal Aviation Administration's refusal to create privacy regulations for drones, IDG News Service's Martyn Williams reports. The groups are appealing to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.
When the FAA proposed rules governing the commercial use of drones, those rules did not mention privacy concerns, only safety rules. Instead, the... Continue Reading
March 28th, 2015
The Otoe-Missouria Tribal Nation is suing the Connecticut Department of Banking over the agency's efforts to curb the payday loans the tribe offers over the Internet, The Connecticut Law Tribune's Jay Stapleton reports. The tribe argues Connecticut's administrative enforcement action to stop its payday-loan businesses violates its tribal sovereignty. The tribe's lending companies charge up to 700 percent.
The U.S. Court... Continue Reading
March 27th, 2015
Indiana Governor Mike Pence signed a law yesterday allowing businesses to deny services to gays on the grounds of religious freedom, Reuters' Mary Wisniewski reports. LGBT-rights groups are concerned that the law will be used by businesses that do not want to provide services for same-sex weddings. Proponents of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act said it will allow business owners of all faiths to protect against being forced to... Continue Reading
March 27th, 2015
A bill is being proposed in Nevada that would place privacy restrictions on the use of drones, the Associated Press' Riley Snyder reports: the bill "would limit how police can use drones in investigations and require the state's public safety department to keep a public listing of all drones used by state agencies. The bill also criminalizes using a drone to take a clandestine photo of a person in a private setting and sets... Continue Reading
March 26th, 2015
There are two key events slated for April 20 in the legal controversy between plaintiffs lawyer Steven Donziger and Chevron, which argues that Donziger used fraud to win a $9.5 billion environmental-pollution judgment in Ecuador, The Litigation Daily's Michael D. Goldhaber reports. An arbitration panel is going to hear a three-week trial on the merits of Chevron's claims under international law that Ecuador violated its... Continue Reading
March 26th, 2015
The U.S. Supreme Court has taken up a police shooting case--and this time the victim wasn't a man of color, but a woman with mental illness who was shot to death in her own residence, Slate's Cristian Farias reports. Farias notes that one advocacy group estimates that at least half of all people shot to death by police have mental health issues. One issue in the case is "the extent to which the Americans With Disabilities Act... Continue Reading
March 26th, 2015
The Massachusetts Supreme Court, 5-2, has ruled that inmates serving life sentences for murders committed while they were juveniles are constitutionally entitled to be represented by lawyers and to have access to expert witnesses at their parole hearings, NECN reports. The 5-member majority said providing defendants access to lawyers and to experts would ensure they have meaningful access to argue for parole.
The court also ruled... Continue Reading
March 25th, 2015
The U.S. Supreme Court, 6-3, has ruled in favor of a former UPS employee who sued for pregnancy discrimination, Huffington Post's Dave Jamieson reports. Justice Stephen Breyer, author of the majority opinion, said the issue is why UPS did not accomodate Peggy Young with lighter duty during her pregnancy when it offered such accommodations to employees with on-the-job injuries or to satisfy the American with Disabilities Act. Under the... Continue Reading
March 25th, 2015
The U.S. Supreme Court heard argument in a couple of cases yesterday over whether homeowners can void mortgages that are completely underwater, Supreme Court Brief's Marcia Coyle reports. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit allowed homeowners whose homes were worth less than their primary mortgage to void a second mortgage. Bank of America appealed.
At issue is whether a bankruptcy court can "strip off" those... Continue Reading
March 24th, 2015
The Ohio Supreme Court ruled last week that a prosecutor must pay attorney fees to The Cincinnati Enquirer for withholding 911 recordings, that newspaper's Kevin Grasha reports. The prosecutor did not have legal authority to withhold the recordings from a murder case, the court ruled, and must pay attorney fees to the newspaper. Continue Reading
March 24th, 2015
The first lawsuits have been filed to challenge the Federal Communications Commission's new rules prohibiting internet service providers from treating Internet traffic unequally, The New York Times' Rebecca R. Ruiz reports. The United States Telecom Association, as well as a small broadband provider in Texas, have filed the lawsuits against the rules that reclassify broadband Internet providers as common carriers and would... Continue Reading
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