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At the beginning of 2022, the federal No Surprises Act (NSA) went into effect. The new law protects patients across the nation from certain unexpected medical bills, ones which arise mainly from emergency room visits when a patient receives care from a provider who is out of their insurance network. In the past, if a patient got emergency care or was treated by an out-of-network provider, their insurance would a cover significantly smaller portion than if the care had been in-network....

After Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg missed oral arguments recently, the White House reportedly began looking for her replacement. It’s no secret that President Trump wants to add another conservative Justice to the High Court. But according to sources, the White House has quietly told political allies to prepare for Ginsburg’s death or departure. Ginsburg, meanwhile, has been working at home since cancer surgery last month. She is expected to recover fully....

In recent years, the practice of prosecuting teenagers like adults has been coming under increasing scrutiny. What many people don’t realize is that while every state has a maximum age for juvenile court jurisdiction (usually 18), two-thirds of states don’t have a minimum age of jurisdiction. That means that it’s legal in 28 states to prosecute children as young as 5 in juvenile court. Florida is one of those states without a minimum age for juvenile jurisdiction, which can lead to elementary school children being arrested for alleged misdemeanor crimes....

Customer service workers at car dealerships aren’t exempt from the FLSA’s overtime protections, the Ninth Circuit ruled on Tuesday. The court’s unanimous holding revived a lawsuit seeking unpaid overtime brought by four “service advisers” at a Mercedes Benz dealership in California. The Fair Labor Standards Act establishes minimum pay and overtime requirements, but exempts many workers, such as managers and commissioned sales employees. The Ninth Circuit’s ruling that dealership customer service workers don’t fall under one of the Act’s exceptions stands in opposition to holdings by the Fourth and Fifth Circuits, creating a new FLSA circuit split....

US v. Street, 08-6242, concerned a challenge to the district court’s affirmance of the magistrate judge’s denial of defendant’s motion to suppress in a prosecution for conspiring to possess and distribute methamphetamine and related crimes. In affirming the conviction, the court held that the police did not violate the Fourth Amendment during the search and arrest of defendant, that no error occurred in the district court’s substitution of an alternate juror in the midst of deliberations, and that a reasonable jury could conclude that defendant carried a firearm to facilitate the drug sale....

Could the act of requiring your employees to disclose the medications they take violate the Americans with Disabilities Act? That question came up in a recent Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals case reviewing settlement talks between a company and the EEOC. At the core of the case was the issue of whether a company had gone too far when it terminated an employee for failing to disclose that he was on medications that potentially affected his ability to work....

Oh, capitalism. Sometimes the law says one thing in name but means another — as is the case with many anti-panhandling laws. These statutes make panhandling exceedingly difficult, often in the name of pedestrian and motorist “safety,” but what they’re really penalizing is the crime of being poor and asking for help. Recently in Indiana, a federal judge issued an injunction blocking a law about to go into effect that would have banned the practice of asking for money within 50 feet of certain public locations, including restaurants, banks, ATMs, businesses, and more....

In US v. Ayala, No. 09-2123, the court of appeals affirmed defendant’s sentence for possession of stolen firearms and being a domestic abuser in possession of firearms, holding that 1) the firearm possession offense was a different type of crime from the theft offense; 2) defendant did not show that the sentencing court clearly erred in finding that he possessed between three and five firearms; and 3) the court considered the parties’ arguments and had a reasoned basis for its sentence....

Charles Kinison, Jr. is an alleged pedophile. We say “alleged” because he is innocent until proven guilty. That being said, if the facts contained in this opinion are true, it’s only a matter of time. Kinison allegedly collected and viewed images and videos of child porn. He told his girlfriend, via text message, that he wanted the two of them to join a group that adopted children for the purposes of sexual abuse....

Atkins is resurfacing in the Supreme Court, just not in the case that many were pulling for. In a pair of certiorari grants in this morning’s orders list, the Supreme Court took a case about Florida’s controversial and rigid standard for proving mental retardation in capital cases, and another case where a circuit split has developed over mortgage fraud restitution. Of the two, the capital case will likely garner far more attention (as it should) and could affect all future Atkins claims of retardation as an exemption from execution....

In a tort action alleging the environmental contamination of Plaintiffs’ property, summary judgment for Defendants on statute of limitations grounds is reversed where there was an issue of material fact as to whether Plaintiffs knew or reasonably should have known before the date at issue that their property had suffered a remediable injury as a result of Defendants’ actions. Read Harry Stephens Farms, Inc. v. Wormald Americas, Inc., No. 07-3547....

In debtors’ bankruptcy proceedings for defaulting on their loan, ruling upholding the bankruptcy court’s grant of summary judgment to the creditors and its denial of debtors’ motion to amend is affirmed where: 1) the Rooker-Feldman doctrine precluded the bankruptcy court’s jurisdiction over debtors’ rescission claim because that claim was inextricably intertwined with a Court of Common Pleas’ foreclosure judgment; 2) there was an adequate basis for summary judgment on the Truth in Lending Act damages claim, specifically, that debtors failed to create a genuine issue of material fact as to whether they had prior title insurance in connection with the loan; and 3) the bankruptcy court did not abuse its discretion in denying debtor’s motion to amend as it was untimely....

The wheels of justice may turn slowly, but changing bias in the courtroom may take quite a few more turns of the big wheel. Studies say that attitudes about bias in the legal system have not really changed in more than half a century. Across most of America, minorities don’t think they can get a fair result in court. Bias seems to be, for lack of a better word, “implicit” in the judicial system....

Not much to see here folks. In 1983, in Marsh v. Chambers, the U.S. Supreme Court held that the Nebraska Legislature’s invocations from a paid Presbyterian minister were part of a long history of prayer in the legislature, and thus did not violate the Establishment Clause. Justice Anthony Kennedy, in today’s opinion in Town of Greece v. Galloway, reaffirmed that holding, and reiterated much of that history, including the occasional sectarian language employed in Nebraska, as well as in prayers delivered in Congress (from a still federally paid chaplain) during our founders’ time....

To Facebook, Noah Duguid is like those annoying automated text messages. He sued the company for sending him the unsolicited messages, but a judge threw out his case. Duguid appealed, however, and now he’s back again. The U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals says he has a case. If it goes forward as a class action, Facebook may never hear the end of it. Unwanted Text Messages In his 2015 lawsuit, Duguid says he didn’t have a Facebook account but the company kept sending him texts....

Whether you’re into zombies, monsters or superheroes, the news coming out of the Second Circuit reads more like updates from Comic Con than a Court of Appeals. In just a matter of days, the Second Circuit decided a case against B-Movie impresario Troma, and suspended trial deadlines pending a settlement in a Marvel case. Back in 2009, Troma authorized Lance Robbins to negotiate with a German company to license the rights to two Troma films: “Citizen Toxie, Toxic Avenger Part IV” and “Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead” (Troma only holds distributions rights to the latter)....

If you are close to someone who has recently been pregnant, you may have heard of noninvasive prenatal tests (NIPTs). These are a type of screening that use DNA from the fetus in a sample of a mother’s blood to determine the baby’s gender and if the baby is at risk for chromosomal abnormalities. One laboratory providing this type of test claims that it provides “accurate, reliable results” and can help parents “create a confident plan....

In a murder prosecution, dismissal of a habeas petition as untimely is affirmed where: 1) the Nevada Supreme Court’s order dismissing petitioner’s appeal as untimely did not constitute “the conclusion of direct review” pursuant to 28 U.S.C. section 2244(d)(1)(A); and 2) even with the benefit of statutory tolling pursuant to Section 2244(d)(2), petitioner’s petition was untimely by 192 days. Read Randle v. Crawford, No. 08-15657 Appellate Information Argued and Submitted March 9, 2009...

In Whittington v. Indianapolis Motor Speedway Found., Inc., No. 08-3352, the Seventh Circuit faced a challenge to the district court’s judgment in favor defendant in plaintiff’s action for tortious conversion and replevin of a 1979 Racing Porche automobile, which is on display at the Foundation’s Hall of Fame Museum, claiming that he loaned the car rather than gifted it to the Foundation. However, in affirming the district court’s decision, the court held that plaintiff failed to prove that he had a property right in the car....

If you hoped that the Second Circuit would help return your family’s Bolshevik-seized masterpiece from a major museum this year, you’re probably out of luck. This week, the New York-based appellate court ruled that the act of state doctrine precludes such righting of wrongs from the Soviet past. Pierre Konowaloff appealed from a district court judgment, dismissing his action against the Metropolitan Museum of Art for its acquisition, possession, display, and retention of a Cézanne painting known as “Madame Cézanne in the Conservatory” or “Portrait of Madame Cézanne....