My occasional take on important, cutting-edge or interesting legal news:
Legal News
Legal News
September 4th, 2014
The Seventh Circuit ruled today that Indiana's and Wisconsin's bans on same-sex marriage are unconstitutional, the Associated Press reports. Judge Richard Posner, writing for the court, opined that “'the challenged laws discriminate against a minority defined by an immutable characteristic, and the only rationale that the states put forth with any conviction — that same-sex couples and their children don’t... Continue Reading
September 3rd, 2014
The federal government was before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit yesterday to defend the National Security Agency's collection of phone call metadata for millions of Americans in order to investigate foreign terrorism, the New York Law Journal's Mark Hamblett reports: [Assistant U.S. Attorney General Stuart] Delery said the case was governed by Smith v. Maryland, 442 U.S. 735 (1979), where the U.S. Supreme Court... Continue Reading
September 1st, 2014
Detroit's future is in the hands of U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Steven W. Rhodes, the New York Times reports: If the judge "approves a blueprint drawn up by Detroit officials to eliminate more than $7 billion of its estimated $18 billion in debts and to invest about $1.5 billion into the city’s now dismal services, it will mark the beginning of the end of the nation’s largest-ever municipal bankruptcy. The outcome will set this... Continue Reading
September 1st, 2014
Capital New York's Dan Goldberg reported last week on the problems with electronic health records. For example, a Columbia University physican inadvertently exposed thousands of patient records by accessing a server at New York Presbyterian Hospital with his personal laptop. The result was the hospital paid $3.3 million and Columbia paid $1.5 million.
Moving patient information into electronic form comes with a greater risk of data... Continue Reading
August 31st, 2014
The ALS Association, which has raised over $100 million due to its ice bucket challenge going viral, has withdrawn its efforts to trademark the phrases "ice bucket challenge" and "ALS ice bucket challenge," the Washington Post reports. The applications with the U.S Patent and Trademark Office sought to trademark the phrases for purposes of charitable giving. One trademark attorney Erik Pelton said the effort was... Continue Reading
August 29th, 2014
In huge healthcare news, Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett has relented on expanding Medicaid to cover more poor Pennsylvanians under Medicaid, the Huffington Post reports: "Federal regulators accepted a modified proposal from Gov. Tom Corbett (R) that will offer an estimated 500,000 low-income individuals subsidies to purchase private insurance. The plan allows some low-income individuals to be charged premiums for coverage, and permits... Continue Reading
August 26th, 2014
MintPress News' Christine Graef reports on how a revised Violence Against Women Act is putting tribal authorities in charge of cases of abuse and violence against American Indian women: "The reauthorized act extends tribal jurisdiction to non-Native Americans who commit acts of violence or sexual assault against their Native American spouse or partner. While such incidents often go unreported, the amount that are reported reflect a... Continue Reading
August 25th, 2014
The Guardian, the Oklahoma Observer, the American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Oklahoma have filed a lawsuit seeking to allow journalists and other witnesses to executions to "see everything that happens from the moment an inmate enters the execution chamber," the Washington Post reports. The lawsuit cites the fact that witnesses were not allowed to see the entirety of the execution of Clayton Lockett,... Continue Reading
August 25th, 2014
Oregon has sued Oracle America for allegedly shoddy work on the Cover Oregon health exchange, The Oregonian's Nick Budnick reports. The state is prosecuting various theories all alleging that the IT firm fraudulently enriched itself at Oregon's expense.
Both sides blame each other for the failure to hire a systems integrator, or a general contractor to oversee Oracle's work, Budick further reports. When the systems... Continue Reading
August 25th, 2014
As the investigations and civil turmoil continue after Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson shot Michael Brown to death in Ferguson, Mo., a 25-year-old U.S. Supreme Court case will shape the paramaters on how the officer will be judged, the Associated Press reports: "The Supreme Court case, decided at a time when violence against police was on the rise, has shaped the legal standards that govern when police officers are justified in... Continue Reading
August 22nd, 2014
The Associated Press reports on a trio of lawsuits filed today by "model aircraft hobbyists, research universities and commercial drone interests ... challenging a government directive that they say imposes tough new limits on the use of model aircraft and broadens the agency’s ban on commercial drone flights." Public comment was not allowed on the FAA's June directive, Brendan Schulman, a New York attorney... Continue Reading
August 22nd, 2014
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court upheld the conviction of former Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice Joan Orie Melvin on charges of misusing the resources of her judicial chambers on her political campaigns, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette's Paula Reed Ward reports. The most unusual part of Orie Melvin's sentence was thrown out: an order requiring her to write apologies to every judge in Pennsylvania on her picture in handcuffs.... Continue Reading
August 21st, 2014
The Wall Street Journal reports that Bank of America is going to pay a record settlement of $17 billion over its mortgage lending: "The deal will resolve a government investigation that stems largely from the bank's purchases of Merrill Lynch & Co. and Countrywide Financial Corp. as they teetered in the housing crisis." More than $9 billion is expected to be in cash, WSJ further reports. Continue Reading
August 20th, 2014
Privacy exceptions to the federal Freedom of Information Act have been invoked to reject records requests regarding Edward Snowden, Osama bin Laden and former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, The Huffington Post's Matt Sledge reports: "Along with a 'deliberative process' exemption that allows an agency to withhold documents produced as part of a decision-making process, the government regularly cites privacy. The... Continue Reading
August 20th, 2014
As electronic health records reach a critical mass in the healthcare field, the litany of problems with them could be "hazardous to your mental health," the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette's Bill Toland reports. The symptoms of issues with electronc health records (EHRs) include "pharmacy errors, hard-to-find clinical alerts, 'farcical' training, and potentially life-threatening design flaws," Toland further... Continue Reading
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