The Eleventh Circuit has denied Alabama's request to stay a decision striking down that state's ban on same-sex marriage, the Montgomery Advertiser's Brian Lyman reports. The bans include a statute and a constitutional amendment. Now the request for a stay is being pursued to the U.S. Supreme Court.
A bill has been introduced in the California Senate to make it illegal for drones to be flown over private property unless drone operators have the permission of owners, the San Francisco Business Times' Patrick Hoge reports.
In another drone-legislative development, a bill has been proposed in Oklahoma to shield anyone from liability if they destroy a drone that flies below 300 feet over their property and encroaches on their privacy, The Oklahoman's Rick Green reports.
An Arkansas bill that would have banned the use of drones over private property unless owners gave permission won't be taking off, Northwest Arkansas Democrat Gazette's Doug Thompson reports. Instead, the bill will be replaced with another bill to amend the state's anti-voyeurism laws.
NPR's Kenya Downs mused in a recent post whether the fight over the propriety of the Washington Redskins' trademark could end up changing this body of law. After years and years of efforts by American Indian activists to have the trademark canceled on the grounds that it is racially offensive and disparaging, petitioners won the cancellation of the trademark and the U.S. Department of Justice also has decided to intervene in the lawsuit. The team's owner argues that the Lanham Act, which prohibits disparaging trademarks, is too vague and an unconstitutional impediment to free speech, but trademark attorneys told Downs that the First Amendment challenge to the Lanham Act will be a tough sell. However, lawyers said the case's outcome, whether the football team wins or not, will impact whether ethnic groups can challenge trademarks as offensive.
There's been an interesting debate going on the Volokh Conspiracy this week on whether there is an originalist case for a right to same-sex marriage (originalism being the theory of constitutional interpretation that the U.S. Constitution should be viewed through the lens of what the public at the time, or, alternatively, what Founding Fathers or the framers of later constitutional amendments, intended about the constitution). Orin Kerr argues there is no serious case under the theory of originalism for same-sex marriage. He notes that there have been originalist arguments that reason that the 14th Amendment recognizes the principles of freedom and equality, equal treatment in marriage choices, rejection of caste legislation or rejection of sex discrimination, and that same-sex marriage laws violate those principles. But Kerr says none of the theories seem to be based on "specific constitutional text as it was understood by the public at the time of its enactment."
U.S. District Judge Callie V.S. Granade issued an order clarifying her ruling that Alabama's bans on same-sex marriage violate the equal protection and due process protections in the 14th Amendment, the Washington Blade's Chris Johnson reports. The clarification came after the Alabama Probate Judges Association issued a non-binding order saying the decision only applies to the plaintiffs before Granade, and the judge's order implies that the ruling has universal effect in Alabama.
After the Republican governor of Indiana reached an agreement to expand Medicaid under Obamacare by imposing new costs on poor adults, promoting healthy behaviors and relying on financing from smokers and hospitals, other Republican-led states might be more interested in signing up more Medicaid enrollees, Kaiser Health News's Phil Galewitz reports. Indiana is the 28th state to expand Medicaid.
The Obama administration granted Governor Mike Pence's administration a three-year waiver from the federal government to make Medicaid more like private insurance by including cost-sharing for receipients below the poverty level.
While advocates favor the expansion, there is criticism for the part of the plan that would lock people out of their Medicaid coverage for six months if they don't pay their premiums, Galewitz reports.
The Southern Poverty Law Center has filed an ethics complaint against Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore. Moore, a conservative jurist who already was replaced once as chief justice because he refused to remove a monument depicting the 10 Commandments from a judicial building, stated in a letter that a federal judge's decision striking down Alabama's ban on same-sex marriage could lead to the legal recognition of polyamorous or incestuous marriages. Moore also said he will continue to recognize Alabama's ban. The SPLC said Moore's statement did not conform to the canons of judicial ethics.
On Friday, US District Judge Callie V.S. Granade ruled that Alabama's constitutional ban on gay marriage violated the due process and equal protection clauses of the federal Constitution's 14th Amendment, Christian Science Monitor's Jessica Mendoza reports.
Barrett Brown, a hacktivist, journalist and writer, was sentenced to 63 months in federal prison, less 28 months for time served, for threatening an FBI agent, for being an accessory after the fact in the unauthorized access to protected computers owned by securities firms and interfering with a serach warrant, The Dallas Morning News' Tasha Tsiaperas reports.
At issue was whether Brown was aware that a link he shared online contained credit card information that had been hacked by others. Brown and his supporters argued that heightening his sentence for sharing the link would chill journalism and the First Amendnment. But U.S. District Judge Sam Lindsay said Brown's involvement with the Anonymous hack was "'more than a mere posting of that link.”'
Brown said in a satirical statement that '“I’ll be provided with free food, clothes, and housing as I seek to expose wrongdoing by Bureau of Prisons officials and staff and otherwise report on news and culture in the world’s greatest prison system.'"
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