My occasional take on important, cutting-edge or interesting legal news:
Legal News
Legal News
January 13th, 2014
The Connecticut Supreme Court heard oral arguments last week on conflicting interpretations of that state's Freedom of Information Law. Law enforcement representatives are arguing that, once they have released the names and addresses of people who've been arrested, as well as the dates, times and places of their arrests and the offenses with which they were charged, that they can decide what's exempt from disclosure until... Continue Reading
January 13th, 2014
The Connecticut Supreme Court heard oral arguments last week on conflicting interpretations of that state's Freedom of Information Law. Law enforcement representatives are arguing that, once they have released the names and addresses of people who've been arrested, as well as the dates, times and places of their arrests and the offenses with which they were charged, that they can decide what's exempt from disclosure until... Continue Reading
January 13th, 2014
The U.S. Supreme Court's workload might reach a new low because the court will consider only half the usual number of cases when it convenes in March, The Washington Post's Robert Barnes reports. Yet the issues the court will consider are central to American society- whether corporations are entitled to religious expression, affirmative action and separation of powers between the presidency and Congress over the appointment of... Continue Reading
January 13th, 2014
One of the cases that the U.S. Supreme Court granted certiorari on last week was the case of bondholders who are seeking repayment of the sovereign debt Argentina defaulted on, BBC reported. The court will decide if American law protects Argentinian sovereign assets from collection. Argentina defaulted on "some $100bn (worth £60.7bn in 2014) of debts and has since restructured its debt twice, cancelling around 75% of the nominal... Continue Reading
January 12th, 2014
The Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity & Ecosystem Services, which was established in "April 2012 with a mandate to assess the state of the world’s biodiversity and ecosystems," is going to intergrate the knowledge of indigenous peoples into eco-policy, according to a Thomson Reuters Foundation report. Unlike other international fora, including the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, do not engage indigenous... Continue Reading
January 12th, 2014
The Fifth Circuit has upheld the multibillion settlement of the claims of the residents and businesses impacted by BP's oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, The Washington Post reports. BP had objected to the approval of the settlement by arguing "that U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier and court-appointed claims administrator Patrick Juneau have misinterpreted settlement terms in ways that would force the London-based oil giant to pay for... Continue Reading
January 12th, 2014
The Texas Supreme Court took up two cases this week on whether injunctions in defamation cases are constitutional: "Treading the gray area between freedom of speech and permissible government censorship, the Texas Supreme Court heard arguments in two cases Thursday that could determine whether state judges may permanently ban people from repeating information found to be false and defamatory," the Austin American-Statesman reports... Continue Reading
January 10th, 2014
The U.S. Supreme Court has decided to take up a case that could reshape the contours of copyright law: whether Aereo's streaming service violates the copyrights of broadcasters. It appears that an evenly divided court may hear the case since Justice Alito did not participate in the decision to grant certiorari: 011014zr_bp24.pdf Continue Reading
January 10th, 2014
Leo Strine, current chancellor of the Delaware Court of Chancery, has been nominated to lead the Delaware Supreme Court, Delaware Law Weekly's Jeff Mordock writes in a more indepth report on this week's development: "'Strine heads the most important business court in the world,' said Thomas J. Reed, a professor at Widener University School of Law, after the chancellor had submitted his application. 'He's been there... Continue Reading
January 10th, 2014
Whether history and what the Founding Fathers thought about things controls how we interpret the American Constitution is going to get another ride in the U.S. Supreme Court in the upcoming term. USA Today reports on the historical issues implicated in the case in which the justices will decide the constitutionality of the president making appointments during Congressional recesses: "For two centuries, presidents have found ways to get... Continue Reading
January 9th, 2014
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has adopted a new code of judicial conduct, including a rule against nepotism in judicial hiring decisions, The Legal Intelligencer's P.J. D'Annunzio reports. Abraham C. Reich of Fox Rothschild, co-chair of the PBA Task Force on the Code of Judicial Conduct, told The Legal "that the nepotism provision represented a cultural shift in the judiciary. 'I thought that was a very bold move by the court... Continue Reading
January 8th, 2014
The epicenter of corporate law has a new leader. The Wall Street Journal reports that Leo Strine, the colorful and outspoken head of the Court of Chancery, is going to be nominated to lead the Delaware Supreme Court.
January 8th, 2014
Wall Street banks are being investigated by federal authorities on whether they "deliberately mispricing a type of mortgage bond that was central to the economic turmoil," The Wall Street Journal reports. Its the first "known wide-ranging examination of mortgage-bond sales by banks in the years that followed," The Journal reports. The investigation could upset the financial recovery those institutions have made, but it also... Continue Reading
January 7th, 2014
The Washington Post reports on new data that shows that health spending, as a share of the economy, has shrunk. The Post further reports: '"There are two explanations,' says David Cutler, a Harvard economist who served as a health care adviser in President Obama's 2008 campaign. 'One is the recession was a big and drunken episode that has a very long hangover. The alternative view is that something big has actually changed... Continue Reading
January 7th, 2014
Law professor Noah Feldman argues in a piece for Bloomberg that the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to strike down the federal Defense Against Marriage Act without declaring same-sex marriage a fundamental constitutional right has left the issue "a total friggin' mess." The result is the limbo in Utah in which a federal judge has declared that state's ban unconstitutional and same-sex nuptials have been proceeding until the... Continue Reading
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