While the federal government is planning a significant expansion of benefits for same-sex spouses, federal laws bar the Department of Veteran Affairs and the Social Security Administration from extending some benefits, the Wall Street Journal reports. Benefits will mostly only extend to spouses that live in states that recognize their marriages.
The Ninth Circuit heard oral arguments last week on a case of first impression: does California's procedure for consolidating mass torts violate the federal Class Action Fairness Act? While two drug companies argued federal law requires mass torts be tried in federal court, the Ninth Circuit panel appeared reluctant to accept that view, The National Law Journal's Amanda Bronstad reports. The plaintiffs sought to coordinate the cases in California state court for all purposes, which violates CAFA's requirement that mass actions involving 100 or more people be consolidated in federal court except for pretrial purposes.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled this week that software based on an abstract idea isn't eligible for patent protection, Politico reports. The decision in Alice Corporation Pty. Ltd. v. CLS Bank International did not end the patentability of all software nor provide a clearer test for when software can be patented, Politico further reports.
Kentucky is the latest state to consider legislation to prohibit the warrantless use of drones by law enforcement, the Kentucky Enquirer reports. A Northern Kentucky legislator is reintroducing a bill to bar law enforcement agencies from using drones to gather evidence without warrants. Fourteen states have passed laws limiting the use of drones, the Enquirer reports.
Meanwhile, there are three drone bills pending in Pennsylvania, including two bills to bar drone interference with hunting and fishing.
Only 352 of 15,000 New York City residents seeking aid to fix homes wrecked by Superstorm Sandy have received federal assistance so far, Wall Street Journal said. The aid has been "slowed by a combination of federal rules invoked to prevent fraud and misspending after Hurricane Katrina, local rules, and certain missteps by local officials and contractors," WSJ reports. Aid also has been very slow on the New Jersey Shore.
The U.S. Supreme Court will not take up Argentina's appeal over a judgment requiring it to pay investors in its defaulted bonds, Agence France-Presse reports. The investors refused to participate in the restructuring of the debt on which Argentina defaulted in 2001.
One issue was whether Argentina has to turn over information about its government assets held in the United States, and the Supreme Court ruled that the U.S. Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act does not protect foreign countries from the discovery of their assets, AFP reports.
The U.S. Supreme Court has granted certiorari in a criminal case involving the free speech rights of a criminal defendant who used threatening language in the form of rap lyrics on Facebook, the Associated Press reports. (I covered the trial of Anthony Elonis when I worked for the Legal Intelligencer, Pennsylvania's legal newspaper.)
Federal prosecutors successfully got the district judge to apply an objective standard for the jurors to decide if Elonis' posts were threatening, but Elonis' counsel argued that a subjective standard should have been applied, AP reports.
The U.S. Supreme Court has said that "true threats" are not protected speech, AP also reports.
The Seventh Circuit has overturned a "landmark order requiring the government to show defense lawyers foreign-intelligence-related surveillance on how a terrorism investigation developed," Politico's Josh Gerstein reports. Judge Richard Posner reasoned that "'the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act is an attempt to strike a balance between the interest in full openness of legal proceedings and the interest in national security, which requires a degree of secrecy concerning the government’s efforts to protect the nation,'" according to Politico's report.
The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that two conservative groups have standing to challenge an Ohio law that penalizes false statements made about political candidates, Reuters' Lawrence Hurley reports. The challenge can be pursued even though the Ohio Elections Commission has not said whether it would seek to penalize Susan B. Anthony List and another group. Here is coverage I did for the Supreme Court Review podcast of the oral arguments in the case: http://supremecourtreview.com/default/podcast/view/id/76
Two separate reports are showing the privacy issues raised by the growing use of drones.
The Hartford Courant's Kelly Glista reports about how a beachgoer called the police because a teenager was flying his drone at the public park. He wasn't breaking any laws, but the incident raised the question of what expectation of privacy people have in a public place: "The right to personal privacy is both profoundly valued and highly debated in the U.S., but the advancement of technology has blurred the line between what is public and what is private, from cellphone records to emails and information posted to social media. In Connecticut and around the country, drone technology is quickly becoming the next arena for that debate." Lawyers told the Courant that drone operators are like photographers: Photographing strangers in a public place is legal until the activity becomes harassing or a nuisance.
Matt Riedl, writing for the Wichita Eagle, out of Kansas, reports "interest in personal drones – which can cost as little as $1,000 to set up – has been rising exponentially. Consequently, local drone enthusiasts say the FAA is going to have to update its policies in the coming years to accommodate what they believe is a revolutionary and profitable technology." Lawyer Patrick Hughes told the Eagle that using a drone to do something you can normally do isn't going to change the law, but privacy issues could arise depending upon how drones are being used. The parameters for privacy and drone usage will likely develop out of FAA regulations or federal legislation, Hughes said.
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