Cultivated Compendium

The Innocence Project of New Orleans is challenging a charge from the New Orleans Police Department to inspect public records, The Louisiana Record reported. The argument in their complaint? "The IPNO cites the Louisiana Constitution, which says that 'no person shall be denied the right to…examine public documents, except in cases established by law' and claims that the fee the NOPD wishes to charge is not legal as it is not a fee for copying, and a requester must be allowed to inspect records for free," The Record also reported.

 U.S. military action in Afghanistan will be over next year. "Blocked by Congress from releasing or transferring many of the remaining 164 detainees and able to try only a small number of them, administration officials are examining whether the withdrawal of U.S. troops at the end of 2014 could open the door for some to challenge the legal authority of the United States to continue to imprison them," The Washington Post reports. At issue is whether the authority to detain prisoners as belligerents and enemy combatants expires if the "hot war" is over.

Last year, a federal judge upheld Nevada's state constitutional ban on same-sex marriage because Nevada has "a 'legitimate state interest' in maintaining the traditional institution of marriage. The question 'is not the wisdom of providing for or recognizing same-sex marriage as a matter of policy,' he wrote. Instead, [U.S. District Judge Robert] Jones said it was a constitutional question about Nevada’s right not to recognize marriages from other states 'if those laws do not conform to Nevada’s one-man-one-woman civil marriage institution,'" the Associated Press reported. On Friday, the ruling was appealed to the Ninth Circuit. Nevada bans same-sex matrimony but authorizes domestic partnerships.

The district court decision was made before the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the federal Defense of Marriage Act.

An Ohio federal judge who ruled valid same-sex marriages entered into in other states must be recognized on Ohio death certificates is facing calls for his impeachment. Ohio bans same-sex marriage. Judge Timothy Seymour "Black’s friends and colleagues defend him as a highly intelligent, thoughtful judge who closely examines every case before delivering rulings free of personal bias," the Associated Press reported.

Pennsylvania Chief Justice Ronald D. Castille will only be able to serve one more year if retained by Pennsylvania voters next month. Castille, a Republican, argued continuity on the high court will benefit Pennsylvania during a “'critical period as it recovers from the loss of one justice to a criminal prosecution and with another justice currently the subject of a federal criminal investigation,”' Castille said in prepared remarks provided to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. Joan Orie Melvin is the justice who was removed and Justice Seamus P. McCaffery is the justice who allegedly is under investigation.

Justice Max Baer, a Democrat, also is up for retention and could only serve four more years.

Five Democratic senators have introduced legislation to better define who as American Indians are eligible under Obamacare to not face IRS tax penalties for not carrying coverage. Prince William Sound's Cordova Times' also reported the legislation would rectify "the several definitions of 'Indian'  which led to conflicting interpretations of eligibility for benefits and requirements for coverage."

JPMorgan has struck a tentative $13 billion deal to resolve civil claims related to various alleged financial wrongdoings, including paying for homeowner mortgage relief, Bloomberg reports. U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder refuses to release the investment bank for any criminal liability. "The settlement would amount to more than half of JPMorgan’s record $21.3 billion profit last year, or 1.5 times what the firm’s corporate and investment bank set aside to pay employees during this year’s first nine months," Bloomberg also reports.

Bloomberg's data shows America's six largest banks have spent $100 billion in legal costs since the 2008 financial crisis.

The Ohio Supreme Court chief justice doesn't pick opinion writers. Instead, it's marbles.

The Times Reporter, out of Philadelphia, Ohio, reports on a talk given by a new justice on the Ohio Supreme Court: "When the seven justices of the Supreme Court meet, [Justice Judith L. French] said they listen to oral arguments from both sides. Then they go into a small conference room with seats personally assigned in order of their seniority on the court. Beginning with the chief justice, each of the justices takes their turn giving their thoughts and opinions — without interruption, she explained. That can produce what she called “robust” debate. The justices then vote regarding the case, and one of the justices is chosen to write a majority opinion about the decision.

On the United States Supreme Court, the opinion writer is chosen by the chief justice, she said.

'In Ohio we have marbles,' she said, adding that each justice has a number on a marble that is selected. Anyone can write a concurring or dissenting opinion."

There has been an increasing push by plaintiffs attorneys to pursue theories of liability against medical journals and medical publishers for harm allegedly caused to their clients from drugs they ingested. The National Law Journal reports that the First Circuit has rejected "a Massachusetts consumer protection case against two doctors, a medical journal and its publisher over an allegedly flawed article cited by defendants in birth-injury medical malpractice cases." The author of the opinion said "'the plaintiffs' theory of the case is imaginative but unpersuasive,"' The National Law Journal also reports.

The court did not reach the issue of the First Amendment in the case.
 

Oregon's constitution bans same-sex marriage, but the Oregon Department of Justice has opined that same-sex marriages from other states must be recognized by Oregon governmental officials, The Portland Business Journal reports. The DOJ said that withholding benefits from same-sex spouses who legally wed out-of-state would violate equal protection principles and would be consistent with the policy of recognizing "valid out-of-state marriages that could not be performed in Oregon, including common-law unions," the publication also reports. Just like other states, lawsuits have been filed to challenge Oregon's ban on same-sex marriage.