My occasional take on important, cutting-edge or interesting legal news:
Legal News
Legal News
January 24th, 2014
Gigaom reports on the adverse affects the Federal Circuit is having on patent law: "There are many explanations for the sorry state of the U.S. patent system, but one that comes up on a regular basis is the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. The pro-patent proclivity of the court, which hears every patent appeal in the land, has given it a 'rogue' reputation and forced the Supreme Court to... Continue Reading
January 24th, 2014
The Indiana House has advanced a proposed state constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage, the Associated Press reports. So far the full House only took a technical vote to accept the action of the House Elections Committee in favor of the measure. A floor debate is expected next week.
January 23rd, 2014
The greater level of child abuse, domestic violence, and violence against women on American Indian reservations is horrifying. One of the recommendations of the nine-member Indian Law and Order Commission in "A Roadmap to Making Native America Safer" to improve that situation is to allow tribes to opt of currently existing law enforcement systems in favor of their own--along with the establishment of a "U.S.... Continue Reading
January 23rd, 2014
The Indiana House Elections Committee voted in favor of a proposed constitutional amendment to bar same-sex marriage last night, the Indianpolis Star reports. Nine Republicans were in favor and three Democrats were against the measure. If passed, the measure would go onto the November ballot for voters to consider. The measure has already been passed by legislators once before, but it has to be passed again before voters get the chance to... Continue Reading
January 23rd, 2014
Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring is slated to announce later today that the state government will join the two same-sex couples asking a federal court to strike down the state's ban on same-sex matrimony as unconstitutional, The Washington Post reports. The action "is a result of November elections in which Democrats swept the state's top offices," The Post reports. Herring will note that Virginia has been on the wrong... Continue Reading
January 22nd, 2014
After the Third Circuit rejected the Delaware Court of Chancery from overseeing private arbitrations, Delaware has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review what some called "secret trials," Reuters reports. "The arbitration process was seen by Delaware attorneys as a key to boosting the attractiveness of the Court of Chancery," Reuters further reports. "It was also considered economically important to the state, as at... Continue Reading
January 21st, 2014
Six same-sex couples in Florida have sued over that state's ban on same-sex marriage, Miami New Times reports. While the ban is only five years old, polling shows "that nearly 75 percent of Floridians approve of some sort of recognition of gay couples," the blog further reports. Continue Reading
January 21st, 2014
The U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the Raging Bull copyrght case today. Reuters reports. The plaintiff, who inherited rights to the screenplay after her father's death in 1981, is seeking damages for alleged copyright violations. MGM, however, raised a laches defense, arguing that the plaintiff took too long to seek redress. Continue Reading
January 20th, 2014
Even though the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled unconstitutional sentencing juveniles to mandatory life sentences, the New York Times reports that "most states have taken half measures, at best, to carry out the rulings, which could affect more than 2,000 current inmates and countless more in years to come." State supreme courts have been split on whether the ruling was retroactive, The Times further reports.
One example of a long... Continue Reading
January 20th, 2014
The Washington Post's Robert Barnes writes that "compulsory union fees conflict with the First Amendment’s protection against forced association and speech," but Supreme Court precedent allows for public employees who opt out of union membership to still be forced to "pay 'fair share' fees to support the organization’s collective-bargaining work." The issue is coming up in a case pending before the U... Continue Reading
January 20th, 2014
Two separate pieces caught my eye today: the adminstrative-law systems for disability claims and Medicare are failing. The Medicare adminstrative-law system is facing a tremendous backlog, while the disablity-claims system could be facing many fake claims.
The Office of Medicare Hearings and Appeals has a backlog of 357,000 claims, which developed because the number of cases grew by 184 percent while the system's resources remained... Continue Reading
January 20th, 2014
The Iowa Supreme Court is considering removing the bar examination as a requirement for bar admission for graduates of the two law schools in Iowa, the Des Moines Register reports. One of the arguments in favor of the elimination of the bar exam is that graduates wouldn't have to wait months in order to start working as a lawyer. One law-school official told the Register that, by his calculation, graduates would reduce their debt level by... Continue Reading
January 19th, 2014
Oxfam's Emily Greenspan writes about threats to a Peruvian law requiring the consultation of indigenous people before development occurs. Peru is apparently considering foregoing such consultation in its most productive oil block. "This would violate Peru’s indigenous peoples’ consultation law and the human rights of the indigenous communities inhabiting the area, as articulated in the International Labor Organization... Continue Reading
January 19th, 2014
Vermont is considering two pieces of legislation to seek the prevention of wrongful convictions. One bill would require blind lineups "in which the officer conducting them doesn’t know which participant is the suspect and therefore can’t influence the witness," The Rutland Herald reports. The other bill would call for taping police interogations in homicide and sexual-assault interrogations, the paper further reports. Continue Reading
January 18th, 2014
The U.S. Supreme Court granted certiorari in two cases on whether police making an arrest must get a warrant before searching a suspect's mobile phone, Bloomberg reports. "More than 90 percent of American adults own mobile phones, giving the cases broad practical significance. The outcome also may hint at how the justices would view the National Security Agency’s telephone-data program, an issue likely bound for the high court,... Continue Reading
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