My occasional take on important, cutting-edge or interesting legal news:
Legal News
Legal News
November 14th, 2013
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports that the trial judge who sentenced Joan Orie Melvin, a former Pennsylvania Supreme Court justice convicted of political corruption, has now threatened to suspend all of her sentence. Orie Melvin is appealing the part of her sentence ordering her to write letters of apology to every judge in the state on a photograph of herself in handcuffs. That part of the sentence was halted while the appeal is pending.... Continue Reading
November 14th, 2013
The New Mexico Human Services Department is citing a law enforcement exception to that state's public records law as the reason it doesn't have to disclose an audit of 15 health-care providers; the audit was passed onto law enforcement, New Mexico In Depth reports. The lawyer for two New Mexico media outlets is arguing in court that this situation could set a "terrifying" precedent because it would "... Continue Reading
November 14th, 2013
Ars Technica reports on the leak of draft language of a proposed free trade deal, the Trans-Pacific Partnership, between the United States and several other countries, including Australia, Brunei, Chile, Malaysia, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, Vietnam, Japan, Mexico, and Canada.
The draft's proposals include:
* imposing limitations on retransmissions of television signals on the Internet without the authorization of copyright holders... Continue Reading
November 14th, 2013
Google's book-scanning project has been ruled to be a fair use that doesn't violate copyright law, GigaOM reports. Judge Denny Chin, who now sits on the Second Circuit, ruled that the digitization of the books did not violate the authors' copyrights because the scanning project is "'highly transformative' and because it didn’t harm the market for the original work," GigaOM also reports. Continue Reading
November 14th, 2013
The Greenwich Time reports that a hearing on Michael Skakel's release from jail will be held next week. The Kennedy cousin has won a new trial after a judge ruled that he received inadequate representation by his defense lawyer. Skakel was convicted many years after teenager Martha Moxley was killed by being beaten and stabbed with golf clubs that belonged to Skakel's family. Continue Reading
November 14th, 2013
Hawaii became the 15th state to authorize same-sex marriage with Governor Neil Abercrombie's signature on the legislation, the Los Angeles Times reports. When the bill was in the House, "deliberations lasted for several days and included a committee hearing in which 5,000 people signed up to testify for more than 50 hours, followed by hours of debate on the House floor on nearly 30 proposed amendments."
A court challenge to... Continue Reading
November 12th, 2013
Hawaii has passed legislation to authorize same-sex marriage, the Associated Press reports. The governor is expected to sign it. Illinois also has legislation to authorize same-sex marriage, and that will be signed next week.
November 12th, 2013
The Recorder reports that student athletes have been certified as a class to challenge the National Collegiate Athletic Association's rules that require collegiate athletes to sign away their rights of publicity. That would include the right to license their names and likenesses for use in videogames and on television. However, the presiding California federal judge did not certify the athletes who were seeking to recover money... Continue Reading
November 12th, 2013
The Washington Post's Robert Barnes writes about the litigants who don't want their cases to go the U.S. Supreme Court because they won below. Or because they are worried about how the general-knowledge justices might change legal doctrine in their particular area of law. "For every prayer sent up by a losing party appealing a case, there is a winner who hopes — and sometimes, works hard to ensure — that it goes... Continue Reading
November 12th, 2013
In 1910, President Taft signed the Buy Indian Act into law, The Washington Times reports. The law requires the Interior Department's Bureau of Indian Affairs to give preference to American Indian-owned businesses in awarding contracts and funding. But the Interior Department only just approved the rules that will enforce the legislation, The Washington Times further reports. As a result of the law, an estimated $45 million would go to... Continue Reading
November 12th, 2013
sUAS News, a blog that follows news on small unmanned aerial systems (or drones), opined last week that "it is rare that industries come to Washington begging for more regulation. But that is how we in the unmanned systems business find ourselves with respect to small unmanned aerial systems (SUAS). A notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) has been on the shelf for years. We need to move forward before a serious accident occurs."... Continue Reading
November 12th, 2013
When the attorney for an apartment-building developer sent 52 Right-to-Know requests to a Pennsylvania township, that has not been without costs, the Reading Eagle reports. "Each request has led to minutes, hours or even weeks of digging out records, sending emails or conversing with attorneys - all of it tapping limited resources and money available to the small government entities," the Reading Eagle further reports. (The... Continue Reading
November 10th, 2013
The New York Times commentator Floyd Norris reports on a study that found that a federal law called the 2009 Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act--which requires more transparency on the fees credit card companies collect from their customers--actually worked. The researchers expected to find that, if credit card companies couldn't charge those fees anymore, they would start charging customers more interest or... Continue Reading
November 10th, 2013
An appellate court has upheld a $8,600 award in civil penalties and attorney fees against the New Orleans Police Department for violating a public records request made by the New Orleans-based Innocence Project, The Times Picayune reported. The newspaper further reported: "the local office of the Innocence Project, a non-profit legal group that seeks to exonerate wrongfully convicted defendants, sued the NOPD earlier this year after it... Continue Reading
November 10th, 2013
The Associated Press reported: "The head of Hawaii's Senate judiciary committee said Saturday he expects an amended bill legalizing gay marriage to pass easily in the Senate next week, with no changes to the measure passed by the House Friday night after two grueling floor sessions and a lengthy public hearing." The legislation would allow same-sex weddings to begin on Dec. 2 in Hawaii, the AP also reported.... Continue Reading
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