My occasional take on important, cutting-edge or interesting legal news:
Legal News
Legal News
November 19th, 2013
The Washington Post reports that law enforcement sources indicate no sealed indictment has been filed against Julian Assange, founder of Wikileaks. "The Justice Department, at least for now, appears to be drawing a distinction between those who were government employees or contractors and were required by law to protect classified information and those who received and published the material," The Post furthe reports.
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November 19th, 2013
The Miami Herald reports that the latest military hearings for Guantanamo detainees are going to be closed to the press. "Officials have not been able to explain why the Pentagon is unprepared to fulfill its transparency pledge. First Amendment attorney Dave Schulz said he had been seeking assurances from the Defense Department’s Office of General Counsel that reporters would be able to watch captives argue for their freedom since... Continue Reading
November 18th, 2013
Click on over to Page 29 of b, a publication of the Baltimore Sun, on how the next frontier for LGBT rights in Maryland (after establishing same-sex marriage) is the fight for trans rights. b reports: "Maryland, like 34 other states, lacks laws prohibiting discrimination on the basis of gender identity--laws that would protect transgender people ... and others who transgress traditional notions of male and female."
One positive... Continue Reading
November 18th, 2013
Four wrongfully convicted women were freed today after being convicted of ritualistic sex abuse, The Huffington Post reports. Mark Godsey, director of the Ohio Innocence Project and writing in the Huffington Post, said the exonerations were possible because of Texas' "new law, known locally as the 'Junk Science Writ,' allows inmates to overturn their convictions and seek new trials when outdated and/or unreliable forensics... Continue Reading
November 18th, 2013
Major League Baseball and the National Football League are arguing in an amicus brief to the U.S. Supreme Court that Aereo's steaming service of free broadcast TV could drive sports television away from free broadcast TV onto platforms that consumers have to pay for, Broadcasting & Cable reports.
"'If copyright holders lose their exclusive retransmission licensing rights and the substantial benefits derived from those... Continue Reading
November 18th, 2013
The Knoxville Daily Sun has run a report on the Tennessee Bar Association's position in favor of merit selection to fill judicial vacancies. The bar association's board of governors also voted to support a constitutional amendment "that provides for gubernatorial appointment, legislative confirmation and retention elections for judges." The governor has said he would consider the merit of candidates for his appointments, if... Continue Reading
November 18th, 2013
BuzzFeed has a profile of Mary Bonauto, a lawyer without whom marriage equality might never have happened.
Here's why, according to BuzzFeed: "The lawyer brought marriage equality cases in Vermont, Massachusetts, and Connecticut. She argued the case to the justices in Massachusetts who brought marriage equality to the United States. She won the first decision striking down the Defense of Marriage Act’s federal definition of... Continue Reading
November 18th, 2013
Gretchen Morgenson, a columnist for The New York Times, writes that the approval of a $8.5 billion settlement between Bank of American and 22 investors in mortgage-backed securities could set the standard for what duty trustees have to protect investors. Morgenson writes: "Trustees for asset-backed securities have a duty to ensure that the companies administering them, known as servicers, do right by the investors who own them. But... Continue Reading
November 18th, 2013
The Wall Street Journal reports that the 22-year-old Telephone Consumer Protection Act, which curbs the phone calls allowed to consumer phone calls, has seen an uptick in litigation in recent years: "Since 2012, more than a dozen companies, including Papa John's International Inc., Bank of America Corp. and a Jiffy Lube International Inc. franchisee, have agreed to more than $200 million in settlements in TCPA suits. Four-fifths of... Continue Reading
November 18th, 2013
Forbes contributor Eric Goldman writes that Judge Denny Chin's decision last week that Google's book-scanning project is a fair use under copyright law is a big deal in some ways and a not so big deal in other ways.
Among the ways that the ruling is a big deal:
1. It strengthens Google's position as the go-to search engine.
2. It adds to the canon of search engine law (of which there is not a lot).
Among the ways that... Continue Reading
November 15th, 2013
Joan Orie Melvin, the former Pennsylvania Supreme Court justice convicted of political corruption, had her entire sentence suspended today, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports. Judge Lester G. Nauhaus ordered the change because the Pennsylvania Superior Court suspended part of his unusual sentence ordering Orie Melvin to write apologies on a picture of herself in handcuffs to every judge in Pennsylvania. The Post-Gazette reported... Continue Reading
November 15th, 2013
Missouri Governor Jay Nixon has ordered the state to recognize joint tax returns from same-sex couples who married in other states, according to the Associated Press. Missouri's tax code is tied to federal tax code, which now requires same-sex couples to file taxes together.
"PROMO, a statewide organization that advocates for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender equality, said Missouri is the lone state to let same-sex... Continue Reading
November 14th, 2013
This week, Law and Order Commission issued its findings on the lack of public safety on American Indian reservations, according to the Associated Press. Governmental statistics show the violent crime rates can be 20 times the national average, the AP also reported. The commission set the goal of improving those crime rates within a decade, including giving tribes more control over policing crime on reservations.
November 14th, 2013
An estimated 65 journalists have been assassinated so far this year, according to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
UNESCO is the entity of the United Nations charged with tracking the freedom of press worldwide.
The InterDependent reports that Guy Berger, UNESCO’s director of the Division of Freedom of Expression and Media Development, said UNESCO focuses on the murder of journalists... Continue Reading
November 14th, 2013
Journalist Jana Winter was subpoeaned by defense lawyers for James Holmes, the defendant charged with the mass murder of movie theatregoers in Aurora, Colorado, in 2012, about who her law enforcement sources were for a story "which said Holmes sent a notebook to his psychiatrist that indicated he had plans for the shootings," the New York Law Journal reported this week. The New York Court of Appeal heard arguments on whether the New... Continue Reading
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