Cultivated Compendium

A federal judge has ruled that the city legislative districts in Cranston, Rhode Island, are unconstitutional because 3,433 inmates housed in the state's only prison are counted as city residents and allocated to a city ward, The Huffington Post's Cristian Farias reports.

Each of the city's wards are divided into 13,500 residents each, but one ward includes the 3,433 inmates. U.S. District Judge Ronald Lagueux concluded that this situation violates the one person, one vote principle of the U.S. constitution because including prisoners--who cannot vote--in one ward dilutes the voting power of all city residents, Farias reports.

Kansas Governor Sam Brownback has signed a bill making the state's nominating commission for Supreme Court justices subject to open records and open meetings laws, the Wichita Eagle's Bryan Lowry reports.

The bill also requires the governor to disclose the names of applicants for the intermediate appellate court, the Kansas Court of Appeals, and will require the clerk of the Kansas Supreme Court to submit a list of lawyers eligible to vote to the Secretary of State before elections.

The expansion of Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act has lowered the burden of medical debt for some low-income consumers, according to a study from the National Bureau of Economic Research. The study looked at the medical-debt collection balances referred out to debt collectors in areas with high populations of low-income patients. The study's authors' estimates "'imply a reduction in collection balances of around $600 to $1,000 among those who gain Medicaid coverage.'"

A showdown between bitter opponents of the Affordable Care Act and Republican Governor Asa Hutchinson has resulted in the state preserving its expansion of Medicaid, AJMC's Mary Caffrey reports. As a result, Medicaid will continue for 267,000 residents who earn up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level. The expansion includes a waiver from the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services with provisions to require "more personal responsibility."

The Kansas Supreme Court is under attack by conservatives, including Governor Sam Brownback, for its rulings overturning death penalty verdicts, blocking anti-abortion laws, and ruling in favor of public-school funding, The New York Times' Erik Eckholm reports.

Those efforts include: A bill was passed by the Republican-controlled Senate to authorize the impeachment of justices if the court's opinions allegedly usurp the power of the executive and legislative branches. Conservatives also hope to unseat four justices this fall during retention elections. The governor also is pushing for an amendment "that would give the governor more control over choosing new justices, who are now winnowed through a merit system."

The New York Court of Appeals has ruled that a patient's family can continue their privacy lawsuit because the patient's death was filmed without their permission and aired on medical show, ProPublica's Charles Ornstein reports. The court greenlighted the plaintiffs' claim that doctor-patient confidentiality was breached, but the court rejected the plaintiffs' intentional infliction of emotional distress claim.

“'We conclude that defendants’ conduct here, while offensive, was not so atrocious and utterly intolerable as to support a cause of action'” for emotional distress, the court opined.

The widow of Mark Chanko recognized her husband moaning in pain on an episode of "NY Med." He was treated at New York Presbyterian Hospital after being struck by a vehicle while crossing the street.

The Montana Supreme Court has ruled that a plaintiff can pursue a lawsuit against the company that promised to help her with credit-card debt relief, the Montana Standard's Kathleen J. Bryan reports. The plaintiff alleges that Global Client Solutions used '“deceptive and fraudulent representations to solicit her participation in an illegal debt settlement plan.”'

The Supreme Court held that the plaintiff's contract with debt-relief firm Global Client Solutions included an arbitration clause that lacked mutuality and was therefore unenforceable, Bryan reports.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has proposed several changes to that state's Freedom of Information Law in the state budget. Open access advocates are criticizing the changes, saying that one would make it "harder for litigants to win court awards of attorney's fees in cases where agencies disregard valid FOIL requests or had no valid reason for delaying compliance with the law" and the other would reject FOIL requests regarding "critical infrastructures", The New York Law Journal's Joel Stashenko reports.

Cuomo also has proposed extended FOIL to the New York Legislature.

Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice J. Michael Eakin has resigned from the court amid an ethics probe into a multitude of sexist, racist and pornographic emails he received. However, his resignation has deepened the skepticism about Pennsylvania's judicial discipline system. The Philadelphia Inquirer's Craig R. McCoy, Angela Couloumbis and Mark Fazlollah report. After Eakin resigned, the Pennsylvania Judicial Conduct Board asked for permission to drop the most serious charge it had brought against Eakin, which would let Eakin keep his $153,000 annual pension.

Eakin was cleared the first time the JCB reviewed the emails. But the JCB began a new investigation when Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane (facing her own criminal charges for allegedly leaking grand jury material to the press) raised "additional questions about his email with jokes that mocked women, minorities, immigrants, and others," The Inquirer reports.