My occasional take on important, cutting-edge or interesting legal news:
Legal News
Legal News
October 10th, 2013
A Connecticut panel, appointed to review the state's public records laws in the wake of the Sandy Hook school shootings, heard testimony related to its charge to "recommend to lawmakers how to alter the delicate balance of victims' right to privacy and the public's right to know about crimes and the operations of agencies like police departments," The Connecticut Post reports. One father whose son was murdered... Continue Reading
October 10th, 2013
The Washington Post has a great explainer on why the exchanges for American consumers to buy health insurance policies are buggy and having problems since they opened. One issue: "the site needs to interact with a large number of databases operated by various federal and state agencies. If these back-end systems are poorly designed, it could take months or even years to straighten out the mess," The Post reports. Continue Reading
October 10th, 2013
Broadcasters who lost their copyright challenge in the Second Circuit to Aereo's Internet streaming service of free broadcast TV programming are going to seek certiorari in the U.S. Supreme Court, Variety reported in an exclusive. Contrary rulings against Aereo rival FilmOn X could set up a circuit split if the Ninth Cicrcuit followed the lead of trial-court rulings. Continue Reading
October 9th, 2013
There was a lot of buzz about the study finding that half of the links in U.S. Supreme Court cases don't work anymore. Moreover, 70 percent of the links in law reviews and other law journals also have rotten away. But what I love about this study is that the scholars behind it are part of an effort to come up with a solution.
Jonathan Zittrain wrotes that "the Harvard Library Innovation Lab has pioneered a project to unite... Continue Reading
October 9th, 2013
The Atlantic blogs on a report from the Brennan Center for Justice on "what the surveillance state does with our private data" as a strong synthesis of everything that's been revealed in recent months. Further, The Atlantic writes, "even though the people being spied on are often totally innocent, the government stores their information for a very long time."
The full report is here: http://www.brennancenter.org/... Continue Reading
October 9th, 2013
The Washington Post has a piece that begins: "Courts from Moscow to Murmansk sent out a broad and uncompromising message Tuesday: Russian authorities will not tolerate protest, not from the weak or the powerful, not on land or at sea." A photojournalist and Greenpeace activists detained after a protest of Arctic drilling were denied bail in one case. In another case, a man with disabilities was confined to indefinite psychiatric... Continue Reading
October 9th, 2013
A British study found 1/3 of "British people in their 50s and above said they had experienced age discrimination, researchers reported in the journal Age and Ageing. That included being treated with less courtesy or getting poorer service at restaurants and hospitals," Reuters Health reported. The impact? One researcher said "frequent perceived discrimination may be a chronic source of stress and build up over time, leading to... Continue Reading
October 8th, 2013
The Philadelphia Inquirer has this report on a judge ordering a new trial in a Pennsylvania Innocence Project case: "Calling the original trial evidence 'extremely weak' and newly uncovered evidence compelling, a Philadelphia judge has granted a new trial for two men serving life for the 1995 robbery-murder of a North Philadelphia business owner." Continue Reading
October 8th, 2013
The First Amendment Center has this report from Tony Mauro on six First Amendment cases on the U.S. Supreme Court's docket this year, including a case in which media groups are worried that news organizations could be left exposed to defamation lawsuits involving true news reports. That case regards a Colorado Supreme Court decision upholding a defamation judgment against an airline whose report about a "disgruntled employee was... Continue Reading
October 8th, 2013
Nonprofit Quarterly reports that many American Indian legal practitioners are finding that “'basically any issue headed for the Supreme Court is probably not going to be decided in favor of the tribes.”' Their advice? Avoid going to the U.S. Supreme Court if at all possible. The other strategy is make the cases as strong as possible: the Native American Rights Fund and the National Congress of American Indians have created... Continue Reading
October 8th, 2013
When former Pennsylvania Justice Joan Orie Melvin was sentenced for politicial corruption, the judge fashioned an unusual sentence:
* three years of house arrest;
* orders to send a picture of herself with an apology written on it to every member of the Pennsylvania judiciary;
* orders to send letters of apology to every member of the staff of her sister, a former state senator also convicted of using taxpayer resources on political... Continue Reading
October 8th, 2013
The Hollywood Reporter has this story: the broadcasters who allege Aereo's retransmission over the Internet of their free broadcast TV programmising is "copyright infringement want to find out why Aereo's patent applications state there is no simple way to access TV programming on digital devices." As a result, a judge is "allowing TV broadcasters to spend an hour deposing Aereo CEO Chet Kanojia and CTO Joseph Lipowski... Continue Reading
October 8th, 2013
While the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled FDA approval of medical devices preempts tort lawsuits over medical-device injuries, plaintiff "Arizonan Richard Stengel says federal law regulating medical devices does not trump his claims under state law because Medtronic Inc failed to alert the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to known risks associated with the pain medication pump and catheter that was implanted in his abdomen,... Continue Reading
October 8th, 2013
Genectically modified crops have been adapted to climatic conditions in Africa that can otherwise cause crop failure and then famine, The Washington Post reports. But under Tanzania's "'strict liability' rule, anyone associated with importing, moving, storing or using GM products is liable if someone makes a claim of harm, injury or loss caused by the products. Such a claim could reach beyond personal loss or injury to... Continue Reading
October 7th, 2013
The New York Times' Adam Liptak reports on the U.S. Supreme Court's momentous docket this fall: the "court’s new term, which starts Monday, will feature an extraordinary series of cases on consequential constitutional issues, including campaign contributions, abortion rights, affirmative action, public prayer and presidential power." Continue Reading
Lawyer and Legal Journalist
