My occasional take on important, cutting-edge or interesting legal news:
Legal News
Legal News
February 9th, 2015
Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore has ordered a ban on same-sex marriage licenses, even though a federal judge in Alabama has found the state's ban on same-sex nuptials unconstitutional, the Montgomery Advertiser's Brian Lyman reports. The stay on the federal court decision is set to expire today. The chief justice argued that federal district and appellate courts had no binding authority on state courts, Lyman reports. What effect... Continue Reading
February 8th, 2015
The Seventh Circuit ruled that the Chicag0 Sun-Times broke the law when it published the heights and weights of Chicago cops who acted as fillers in a police lineup, Kim Janssen reported for that newspaper. The cops' height, weight, eye color, hair color and months and years of their birthdates were private information that was improperly obtained from the officers' drivers licenses in violation of the Driver's Privacy... Continue Reading
February 8th, 2015
A referendum aiming to strengthen Slovakia's ban on same-sex marriage and same-sex adoption failed because of low turnout, BBC reports. Only 21 percent of those eligible voted. One of questions was whether marriage can only be between opposite-sex couples. Continue Reading
February 8th, 2015
The stars were aligned for Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam to expand Medicaid in his state to 280,000 low-income Tennesseans: "Hospitals and chambers of commerce endorsed the plan. A recent poll showed Haslam had an 86 percent approval rating among Republicans in the state, and he has a GOP supermajority in the House and Senate." But the plan died this week after a state Senate committee voted the plan down, The Tennessean's Dave... Continue Reading
February 7th, 2015
Three University of Pennsylvania bioethicists recently called for reestablishing mental asylums, The Inquirer's Stacey Burling reports. When large-scale institutions for people with mental illness were abandoned decades ago, smaller, community-based institutions were not created to house people instead. Jails and emergency rooms have become the new mental asylums because there are few community-based beds for people with severe... Continue Reading
February 5th, 2015
Linda Greenhouse, writing in her regular column for the New York Times about the U.S. Supreme Court, suggests that the latest challenge to Obamacare may also fail before the justices because they would have to upend traditional ways of interpreting federal statutes in order to find for the challengers. At issue is "the validity of the Internal Revenue Service rule that makes the tax subsidies available to those who qualify by virtue... Continue Reading
February 5th, 2015
The Eleventh Circuit granted a stay Wednesday in litigation over same-sex marriage bans in Alabama, Georgia and Florida until the U.S. Supreme Court rules on the constitutionality of such laws, the Washington Blade reports. Continue Reading
February 3rd, 2015
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. Continue Reading
February 1st, 2015
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... Continue Reading
February 1st, 2015
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. Continue Reading
January 30th, 2015
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... Continue Reading
January 30th, 2015
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).... Continue Reading
January 29th, 2015
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... Continue Reading
January 29th, 2015
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... Continue Reading
January 28th, 2015
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... Continue Reading
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