The Tenth Circuit ruled today that Utah's ban on same-sex marriage violates the equal protection clause of the U.S. Constitution, while a federal judge in Indiana rejected that state's ban on same-sex matrimony, USA Today reports. The 10th Circuit ruling is the first appellate ruling in the country, USA Today further reports.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that it is an unconstitutional search and seizure for police officers to search someone's cell phone when arresting them, Volokh Conspiracy's Orin Kerr reports. The court said the searching a cell phone doesn't ensure that officers won't be harmed or that evidence won't be destroyed, which are both reasons that officers are allowed to search arrestees while taking them into custody: "'There are no comparable risks when the search is of digital data. In addition, [United States v.] Robinson regarded any privacy interests retained by an individual after arrest as significantly diminished by the fact of the arrest itself. Cell phones, however, place vast quantities of personal information literally in the hands of individuals. A search of the information on a cell phone bears little resemblance to the type of brief physical search considered in Robinson."
The U.S. Supreme Court, 6-3, has ruled that Aereo's service of streaming free broadcast TV over the Internet violates broadcasters' copyrights, Gigaom reports. U.S. Justice Stephen Breyer, writing for the majority, concluded that Aereo was more like a cable company that needs to pay retransmission fees to carry broadcast TV instead of a DVR service that lets consumer time-shift and space-shift where they watch TV, Gigaom also reports.
According to Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice Seamus P. McCaffery's lawyer, the justice has been cleared by the FBI in an investigation about fees paid to McCaffrey's wife and chief judicial aide, Lise Rapaport, by law firms for case referrals, The Legal Intelligencer's Gina Passarella reports. The revelation came as part of arguments held on whether preliminary objections should be granted in a defamation lawsuit brought by McCaffery and Rapaport against the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Philadelphia Daily News for coverage of the referral-fee issue. The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and the FBI did not confirm or deny the status of the investigation.
The plaintiffs argue that the articles falsely suggest that McCaffery's decisions on the court were tainted by the referral fees, while the defense argue that the press' job is to highlight potentially problematic actions of public officials, The Legal further reports.
A new study shows that safety concerns with electronic health records persist after they are implemented--even though patient safety is part of the reason to go electronic with patient records, Politico reports. The study is based on 344 incidents with Veterans Administration electronic health records.
Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett decided against appealing a federal judge's ruling striking down the ban on same-sex marriage in Pennsylvania. Corbett announced the decision just one day after U.S. District Judge John E. Jones III reached his decision. Gayapolis notes that the appeal period expired last week, so the reality of same-sex marriage has really, really arrived in the Keystone State.
The U.S. Supreme Court has kept alive the main legal theory behind securities fraud class actions: that plaintiffs can rely upon the assumption that stock prices in efficient markets reflect all publicly available information and misstatements about a company's financial situation is a fraud on the market.
But the Supreme Court has increased the ability of defendants to rebut the presumptions that plaintiffs rely upon to allege that they were defrauded by company misstatements, the Legal Times' Tony Mauro reports. Now defendants will be able to rebut, before class certifications, that misstatements impacted stock prices.
According to a report by New York Times' Adam Liptak, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia said from the bench yesterday that the Environmental Protection Agency is "'getting almost everything it wanted'" when the court ruled in favor of the agency's regulation of greenhouse gases. The agency said its regulation of emissions from motor vehicle tailpipes also requires the regulation of emissions from stationary sources like power plants.
The U.S. Supreme Court will wrap up its term a week from today, and there are several major cases left to be decided, USA Today reports. A couple highlights of issues to be decided:
One, what is the scope of the presidential power to make appointments when the Senate is in recess?
Two, can the Environmental Protection Agency change the threshold for greenhouse gas emissions?
Three, can shareholders alleging securities fraud rely on the assumption that stock price reflects all available information instead of having to prove specifically that fraud affected stock prices?
USA Today reports on one of the most hotly anticipated decisions left for this Supreme Court term: does Aereo's streaming service of free broadcast TV violate copyright law? Broadcasters argue that Aereo should have to pay to retransmit the signals. USA Today predicts that whatever the outcome there could be more cord-cutting: a win could lead broadcasters to charge more in fees and higher prices could lead customers to cord-cutting. A win for Aereo would lead to more cord-cutting too because of the ease and cheapness steming from technological choice.
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