Posts

The Sunshine State is notorious for its Sunshine Laws, which guarantee that “all state, county, and municipal records are open for personal inspection and copying by any person.” That – along with the siren song of easy money coupled with malarial, blazing heat – is one reason you read so many astounding “Florida man” stories. But balancing those laws with privacy interests can be challenging, as the recent case of New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft has shown....

On Monday, August 19th, New Jersey became the second state in the Union to ban gay conversion therapy for minors. And a mere three days later, on August, 22, New Jersey became the second state in the Union to have the law challenged by Liberty Counsel, reports The Star Ledger. The new law, AA3371 prevents NJ licensed social workers, therapists and psychologists from practicing gay conversion therapy on children under the age of 18....

Remember Burnham v. Superior Court? That’s the one where a defendant was personally served in California while traveling there on business. The U.S. Supreme Court upheld personal service due to transient presence in the forum state (“tag jurisdiction”) as legitimate on its own, without requiring any of the “sufficient minimum contacts” nonsense of International Shoe. Here’s a law school hypothetical for you: What if an officer of a foreign corporation is personally served in the forum state?...

The opioid crisis has left states – from law enforcement and emergency responders to social services and even governors – scrambling for solutions. Some have expanded drug addiction treatment options and the availability of overdose reversal drugs, Narcan or Naloxone. Others have filed civil lawsuits against opioid manufacturers and drug distributors. And some are targeting illicit dealers with tougher and tougher penalties. One of those, North Carolina, recently passed a bill that allows prosecutors to charge dealers with second-degree murder if the sale results in an overdose death....

In an unusual January 7 special session, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments on a U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) regulation forcing employers of more than 100 people to require either COVID-19 vaccination or mask-and-testing requirements for their employees. This is commonly referred to as the “vaccine mandate.” That mandate went into effect on January 4 and affects nearly 84 million workers. The Court is deciding whether to postpone the mandate while lower courts more fully consider if the mandate is legal....

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed Washington’s open primaries this week, allowing the state to proceed with its policy of advancing the top two vote-getters in a primary to the general election, regardless of their party affiliations, reports the Los Angeles Times. Washington’s Republican, Democratic and Libertarian parties challenged the open primaries on the grounds that the elections limited their constitutional right of association by taking away their authority to choose their candidates....

In a case alleging violation of the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment against private entities under 42 U.S.C. section 1983, dismissal of the case for failure to state a claim is affirmed in part and vacated and remanded in part to allow the plaintiff to conduct discovery for the true identity of the defendants. Section 1983 may impose liability on a private entity when he/she is a physician employed by the state to provide medical services to state prison inmates, and the physician’s conduct in providing medical services is fairly attributable to the state....

In an action claiming unlawful discharge of pesticides into U.S. waters, denial of plaintiff’s application for attorney’s fees is reversed where plaintiff was a prevailing party because the settlement agreement at issue effected a material alteration in the legal relationship between the parties. Read St. John’s Organic Farm v. Gem Cty. Mosquito Abatement Dist., No. 07-35797 Appellate Information Argued and Submitted March 10, 2009 Filed July 16, 2009 Judges Opinion by Judge Fletcher...

So if a lawyer decides to tell the jury his client is guilty – and the the jury returns a death sentence – does the malpractice carrier pay to execute the lawyer? It’s a bad joke, but what else can you say when a lawyer makes such a grave decision? Unfortunately for Robert McCoy, he is still on death row after his conviction for a triple murder. Meanwhile, the U.S. Supreme Court considers the sobering question: When a defendant in a capital case says “not guilty,” can his attorney say “guilty?...

The Supreme Court just made it a little easier to bring a malicious prosecution claim under the Fourth Amendment. Thompson v. Clark arose when the father of a newborn was arrested and criminally charged for events stemming from his child’s diaper rash. The father, Larry Thompson, claimed the state charged him even though prosecutors had no reason to think he committed a crime. In a 6-3 decision, the justices decided in favor of the father....

On May 13, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued surprising new guidance: People who are fully vaccinated against the coronavirus may drop mask-wearing in most situations, including indoors. Only 2 ½ weeks earlier, the CDC said that it was OK for fully vaccinated people to remove masks outdoors but not in crowded spaces. But with the announcement on May 13, CDC’s director, Dr. Rochelle Walinsky, said the agency had re-evaluated its position....

A lawsuit was filed against Toyota in Texas on Friday seeking class-action status on behalf of car owners who have experienced acceleration problems, allegedly due to defects in the Japanese car manufacturer’s Electronic Throttle Control System with Intelligence (‘ETCS-i’) and Electronic Throttle Control System ‘ETCS’). Plaintiffs Albert Pena and Sylvia Pena maintain that the 2008 Toyota Avalon they purchased as a new car has ETCS-i and ETCS defects that, in two separate incidents, caused a crash, and unexpected accelration when the car should have slowed down....

Conviction and sentence for firearms possession is affirmed where: 1) the district court did not err in denying defendant’s motion to suppress evidence as the police had probably cause to enter the apartment; and 2) defendant’s above guidelines sentence was not an abuse of discretion, as it was not unreasonable for the court to conclude that defendant is a menace and an above-Guidelines sentence was needed to deter further criminal activity....

In a consolidated appeals involving five defendants convicted for participating in a long-running conspiracy to distribute illegal drugs, district court’s judgment is affirmed for the most part and remanded in part where: 1) a defendant sentenced to 292 months’ imprisonment is entitled to a remand for resentencing in light of Kimbrough v. US, 128 S.Ct. 558 (2007), as the district court abused its discretion in treating the disparity between crack cocaine and powder cocaine as mandatory and the government could not show that the error was harmless; and 2) convictions and sentences of remaining defendants are affirmed....

The Supreme Court has been quiet since May 4, when it issued a fairly prosaic opinion in Bullard v. Blue Hills Bank, concluding that an order denying a proposed bankruptcy repayment plan isn’t a final, appealable order. Monday, the Court will be in session, but it won’t be entertaining oral arguments. Instead, it will probably announce new opinions and new cert. grants (or denials) for cases to be heard next term....

Law enforcement commonly uses drug detection dogs in the United States to alert police officers to the presence of illegal drugs and other contraband. But dogs can also be used by police departments to administer force during arrests. Although trained dogs are generally considered a “less lethal force” method like tasers, each year attacks by police dogs result in serious injuries or deaths. Considering how serious a K-9 attack can potentially be, when is the police use of a dog for force allowed?...

By now, the risks facing doctors, nurses, and other health care workers in the battle against the coronavirus are plain to see. Unfortunately, many of those health care workers are bringing COVID-19 home to their families. Some have found a way to reduce the risks to their loved ones while still maintaining a sense of closeness by parking their RVs at home and living out of them. This allows children to visit their health care worker parent from an appropriate distance....

In our continuing series of previews of the biggest cases coming up in the Supreme Court’s 2013 Term, today we’ll quickly address a pair of disputes that contain all of the hallmarks of landmark cases: controversy, ideological divides, and quite possibly, a battle with stare decisis. So while we’re waiting for the nine justices and their legion of clerks to sort through the approximately 2,000 certiorari petitions that backlogged over the summer, we’ll have to make due with these cases, which have already been granted cert, and which could result in some of the term’s earliest decisions....

“Minnesota has the highest per capita population of civilly committed sex offenders in the nation.” This is mentioned as little more than a footnote in the Eighth Circuit decision, upholding the state’s sex offender program against claims of unconstitutionality. But that one sentence almost tells the whole story. In 1994, the state enacted the Minnesota Sex Offender Program. It provides specialized sex offender assessment, diagnosis, care, treatment, supervision, and other services to civilly committed sex offenders....

It’s not often that a circuit court addresses a question of first impression in its circuit, getting the opportunity to weigh in on a circuit split, but last week, that is what happened in the Seventh Circuit. Further deepening the divide among the circuits, the Seventh held that Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act does not apply to public employment discrimination-based claims. Linda Brumfield was a Chicago police officer for about eleven years, from 1999 to 2010....