My occasional take on important, cutting-edge or interesting legal news:
Legal News
Legal News
February 21st, 2015
Next month, the US Supreme Court is going to hear a case over whether the Affordable Care Act authorizes the federal government to give subsidies to people who purchase health-insurance policies through the federally run insurance exchange. The argument against allowing the subsidies is that the law may have been drafted to only authorize subsidies given to people who buy their policies through state-run exchanges. If the justices rule in... Continue Reading
February 21st, 2015
Two of newly elected Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf's nominees for the Pennsylvania Supreme Court are under fire, one for allegedly forwarding a racially insensitive email, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports. Centre County Judge Thomas K. Kistler allegedly forwarded an email showing a black man and a black woman during a visit in a prison with the caption "Merry Christmas From the Johnsons." You can see the meme here.... Continue Reading
February 20th, 2015
Peter Suderman, writing on Reason's blog, piggybacks off the concerns that Dr. Jeffrey Singer made about the government mandate for electronic health records in the Wall Street Journal's op-ed section. Singer pointed to research that found that physicians think that electronic health records drive up healthcare costs because, among other reasons, of high implementation costs, which is particularly burdensome for small... Continue Reading
February 20th, 2015
The New York Court of Appeals has ruled that South Brooklyn Legal Services is not entitled to recover attorney fees from the Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance under the New York Equal Access to Justice Act when it got a client's monthly shelter allowance restored to a higher amount, the New York Law Journal's Joel Stashenko reports.
The Equal Access to Justice Act "was intended to employ the 'catalyst... Continue Reading
February 20th, 2015
There are just a few states that doesn't mandate outpatient treatment for the "frequent fliers"--the people with serious mental illnesses who repeatedly are in local jails and hospitals, the Washington Post's Annys Shin reports. The Treatment Advocacy Center, released a report this week "on the outcomes of established mandatory outpatient treatment programs in New York City and Summit County, Ohio, where assisted... Continue Reading
February 19th, 2015
A Washington state judge has ruled that a florist violated that state's consumer protection law when she refused to sell flowers for a same-sex marriage, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer's Joel Connelly reports. Benton County Superior Court Judge Alex Ekstrom said that, despite the florist's religious beliefs, "'in trade and commerce, and more particularly when seeking to prevent discrimination in public... Continue Reading
February 19th, 2015
According to an investigation by The Guardian, Richard Zuley, a detective on Chicago’s north side from 1977 to 2007 and who interrogated terrorism detainees at Guantanamo Bay, imported the type of harsh tactics used at America's holding center for terrorism suspects into his work as a police officer. The newspaper's Spencer Ackerman reports that Zuley allegedly "repeatedly engaged in methods of... Continue Reading
February 19th, 2015
Three federal magistrate judges called off a hearing to explore whether damage reports were altered to justify denials of insurance claims related to Superstorm Sandy, the New York Law Journal's Andrew Keshner reports. The judges, who are presiding over the storm-related insurance litigation, did so after the Federal Emergency Management Agency said it was going to create a process for disputes about the integrity of... Continue Reading
February 18th, 2015
The future of three of President Barack Obama's signature policies rest in the hands of federal judges: health care, immigration and climate change, the Washington Post's David Nakamura and Juliet Eilperin report. "'We’re getting used to getting sued,'” John Podesta, White House counselor, said last week.
U.S. District Judge Andrew S. Hanen ruled Monday that the administration... Continue Reading
February 18th, 2015
The Florida Supreme Court stopped an execution scheduled this week because of questions over whether the state's lethal drug cocktail constitutes cruel and unusual punishment, Huffington Post's Kim Bellware reports. The execution has been halted pending the outcome in a U.S. Supreme Court case over whether a similar cocktail used in Oklahoma is unconstitutional. Continue Reading
February 18th, 2015
Alstory Simon was freed after serving 15 years for a double murder after prosecutors questioned the evidence against him, Slate's Beth Ethier reports. Now Simon is suing a former journalism professor that once led an Innocence Project class at the Medill School of Journalism, his defense attorney and a private investigator. Simon alleges that the defendants conspired to get him to confess to a fatal shooting for which then-professor... Continue Reading
February 18th, 2015
Outgoing Attorney General Eric Holder wants executives at Wall Street banks to face criminal charges, Bloomberg's Keri Geiger reports. Holder has asked U.S. attorneys involved in residential mortgage-backed securities cases to report in 90 days whether they can develop cases against individual bankers. The decision on whether action will be appropriate will be up to Loretta Lynch, the nominee to replace Holder, he said in a speech Tuesday. Continue Reading
February 18th, 2015
After a Georgia state-court judge ruled that the state's law protecting speech related to government proceedings doesn't protect a TV station from a defamation lawsuit, many in the media bar are concerned that his ruling, if upheld, could threaten the freedom of press, The Daily Report's Kathleen Baydala Joyner reports. The TV station reported that the plaintiff faked having a Purple Heart to get a free... Continue Reading
February 18th, 2015
Many plaintiffs suing their insurers over Superstorm Sandy are alleging that engineering reports were "as part of an effort to minimize insurance payments to flood victims in New York and New Jersey after the 2012 hurricane," The New York Times' David W. Chen reports. A hearing will be held Thursday, February 19, on the engineering reports. Continue Reading
February 17th, 2015
The Lone Star State's ban on same-sex marriage is unconstitutional, a county probate judge ruled today, Los Angeles Times' Lauren Raab reports. Travis County Probate Judge Guy Herman ruled that Texas' constitutional and statutory bans violate the due process and equal protection clauses of the 14th Amendment.
A federal judge already overturned the bans last year. Continue Reading
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