My occasional take on important, cutting-edge or interesting legal news:
Legal News
Legal News
February 28th, 2014
Courthouse News reported on a Media Law Resource Center study led by Staff Attorney Michael Norwick and on which I assisted: "Libel and privacy cases against the media continue to drop, and cases against print outlets that lead to verdict-ending trials are also declining steadily, a nonprofit dedicated to press rights reported.
The Media Law Resource Center's 2014 Report on Trials and Damages says that 12 new cases... Continue Reading
February 27th, 2014
After Politico reported that Washington Post reporter Barton Gellman says he's been told his telephone records were obtained by a national security letter, Julian Sanchez posted on Just Security that there at least two ways in which a national security letter would appear to strain the limits of the authority from the only NSL statute allowing for access to telecommunications records.
"First, §2709 may only be used in... Continue Reading
February 27th, 2014
As the U.S. Supreme Court takes up the fraud-on-the-market theory underpinning most securities fraud class actions, the Wall Street Journal asks if this sort of class action will become an endangered species and if the "balance of power between companies and the lawyers who sue them" will be rebalanced.
Under the fraud-on-the-market theory, shareholders don't have to show a direct connection between the alleged fraud and their... Continue Reading
February 27th, 2014
The National Security Agency needs to keep phone-call metadata longer than the five-year limit in order to preserve evidence for the civil lawsuits challenging the legality of surveillance, the Justice Department said in a court filing Wednesday, The Hill reports. "'The United States must ensure that all potentially relevant evidence is retained,'" government lawyers said, according to The Hill. The government does say the... Continue Reading
February 27th, 2014
Arizona Governor Jan Brewer, a Republican, vetoed legislation that would have allowed conservative religious business owners to refuse to provide services to same-sex couples regarding their marriages, such as wedding photography, wedding cakes and flowers, The Washington Post reports. In deciding to veto the legislation, Brewer said, "'I have not heard of one example in Arizona where business owners' religious liberty... Continue Reading
February 26th, 2014
A federal judge has issued a preliminary injunction of Texas' state constitutional ban on same-sex marriage, the Associated Press reports.
It appears that Judge Orlando Garcia may have applied the lowest level of constitutional scrutiny, rational basis, in reaching the decison. According to the AP, Garcia opined: "'Without a rational relation to a legitimate governmental purpose, state-imposed inequality can find no refuge in... Continue Reading
February 25th, 2014
The Supreme Court did not grant certiorari in appeals over allegedly defective washing machines that accumulated mold, The Wall Street Journal reports. "The court's decision to stay out of the dispute marks a breather for justices who in recent years have issued a string of rulings disallowing class-action cases," WSJ notes. The Seventh Circuit and Sixth Circuit held that the lawsuits could be certified as class actions... Continue Reading
February 25th, 2014
Two Supreme Court watchers got into a bit of a tit-for-tat this week on the eighth anniversary since Justice Clarence Thomas last asked a question from the bench.
Jeffrey Toobin opined that Thomas' famous habit of not asking questions during oral arguments is "disgraceful" because "they are, in fact, the public's only windows onto the Justices' thought processes, and they offer the litigants and their lawyers... Continue Reading
February 25th, 2014
Craig Mundie, writing in Foreign Affairs, says that in the era of big data a new approach is needed. Instead of worrying about limiting data collection, control should be focused on "the moment when it is used."
One of Mundie's arguments against curbing the collection of data is that there can be dividends from aggregated data, such as learning how to "better address public health issues, learn more about how... Continue Reading
February 25th, 2014
The Guardian's Cyril Ghosh writes that one downside to the fight to establish same-sex marriage rights in the United States is the demise of civil unions. Most states that had civil unions have phased them out in favor of converting them to marriages, Ghosh says. Civil unions have many advantages, he says: "There are a number of good reasons why both heterosexual and homosexual couples may wish to enter into a civil union instead of a... Continue Reading
February 25th, 2014
Re/code reports that the four biggest television networks told the U.S. Supreme Court in their brief filed Monday that "Aereo, which provides broadcast TV shows to subscribers over the Internet without paying licensing fees to stations, is violating federal copyright law designed to protect content creators and distributors. Aereo has denied violating broadcasters’ copyrights through its unique online delivery system,... Continue Reading
February 24th, 2014
SCOTUSBlog's Lyle Denniston reports that a majority of the U.S. Supreme Court appears to favor the Environmental Protection Agency's position in favor of climate-change regulation in the six cases the court heard today: "As is so often the case when the Court is closely divided, the vote of Justice Anthony M. Kennedy loomed as the critical one, and that vote seemed inclined toward the EPA, though with some doubt. ... Continue Reading
February 24th, 2014
The Third Circuit is considering a constitutional challenge to New Jersey's ban on lawyers putting complimentary quotes from judges' opinions into ads, the New Jersey Law Journal. Only the full text of the opinion with the comments can be presented, the Journal notes.
On one hand, proponents of the ban argue it ensures that the judiciary does not appear to be biased in favor of one side and won't be pulled into ... Continue Reading
February 24th, 2014
Brennan Center for Justice's Andrew Cohen wrote in an opinion piece that "not a single national news organization has filed a single motion recently seeking to dissolve or at least diminish the great cloud of secrecy that has sprung up over the past few months over lethal injections in America." But several media organizations went to court to exercise their First Amendment rights to access the police videos of the arrest of... Continue Reading
February 24th, 2014
A challenge to Michigan's ban on same-sex marriage and on joint adoption by same-sex couples is going to a bench trial this week, the Detroit Free Press reports: "A key issue in this trial will be whether children raised by same-sex parents fare better or worse in life than children raised by heterosexual parents — or whether there’s no difference in their well-being." The plaintiffs argue that even under the lowest... Continue Reading
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