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Court rejects new cases on birth control coverage
Lawyer World News |
2014/04/14 16:57
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The Supreme Court has turned away an early look at a challenge by religiously affiliated not-for-profit groups to the new health care law's provision on birth control coverage.
Lawsuits filed by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington and others are making their way through the courts. The justices on Monday declined to weigh in on them before any federal appeals court has reached a final decision.
The Obama administration has devised a compromise to the law's requirement that contraception be included in health plans' preventive services for women. The compromise attempts to create a buffer for religiously affiliated hospitals, universities and social service groups that oppose birth control. Their insurers or the health plan's outside administrator would pay for birth control coverage and creates a way to reimburse them. |
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Schools decline court-ordered anti-speeding talk
Top Attorney News |
2014/04/14 16:56
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A western Indiana school corporation doesn't want a young woman to speak to its high schools despite it being ordered as part of her probation.
When 20-year-old Kelsey Reid of Carbon was sentenced on two counts of involuntary manslaughter Wednesday in Clay Superior Court in Brazil, her required community service included presentations to Northview and Clay City high school students on the dangers of speeding.
The Brazil Times reports (http://bit.ly/1gqQw6s ) Clay Community Schools Superintendent Kimberly Tucker wrote Akers on Friday to say it wasn't in her students' best interests of to have Reid speak. She says the April 2013 crash that killed two local young people was "too recent in the minds and hearts of many."
Reid doesn't have a published telephone listing and she couldn't be reached for comment. |
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Court: Bloggers have First Amendment protections
Recent Court Cases |
2014/04/14 16:55
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A federal appeals court ruled Friday that bloggers and the public have the same First Amendment protections as journalists when sued for defamation: If the issue is of public concern, plaintiffs have to prove negligence to win damages.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ordered a new trial in a defamation lawsuit brought by an Oregon bankruptcy trustee against a Montana blogger who wrote online that the court-appointed trustee criminally mishandled a bankruptcy case.
The appeals court ruled that the trustee was not a public figure, which could have invoked an even higher standard of showing the writer acted with malice, but the issue was of public concern, so the negligence standard applied.
Gregg Leslie of the Reporters Committee for the Freedom of the Press said the ruling affirms what many have long argued: Standards set by a 1974 U.S. Supreme Court ruling, Gertz v. Robert Welch Inc., apply to everyone, not just journalists.
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Texas school finance case heads back to court
Recent Court Cases |
2014/04/14 16:55
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Nearly a year after determining the system Texas uses to finance public education is unconstitutional, a state judge is set to hear new testimony beginning Tuesday on whether more money and fewer standardized tests have adequately improved the balance for students in rich and poor areas.
During the second round of the state's much-watched school finance trial, Judge John Dietz is weighing whether actions the Texas Legislature took this past summer will alter his February 2013 decision. Testimony is expected to last at least three weeks.
Lawmakers increased funding for schools by $3.4 billion, a rate far lower than the increase Dietz had suggested, while cutting the number of standardized tests students must pass to graduate high school from a nation-leading 15 to five.
The original case was built on the Legislature's 2011 cuts of $5.4 billion in classroom funding. That prompted more than 600 school districts responsible for educating two-thirds of the state's 5 million-plus public school students to sue, claiming the funding reductions violated the Texas Constitution's guarantees to an adequate education.
They also argued that the "Robin Hood" finance system _ where school districts in wealthy areas share their local property-tax revenue with those in poorer parts _ meant funding was distributed unfairly.
Dietz's initial ruling sided with them, but was only made verbally. He has yet to submit a full, written opinion. Arguing on behalf of the state is Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott's office, which is expected to appeal the written decision to the state Supreme Court. |
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Fight over gay marriage moving to federal courts
Attorney Legal Opinions |
2014/04/14 16:54
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The overturning of Virginia’s gay marriage ban places the legal fight over same-sex unions increasingly in the hands of federal appeals courts shaped by President Barack Obama’s two election victories.
It’s no accident that Virginia has become a key testing ground for federal judges’ willingness to embrace same-sex marriage after last year’s strongly worded pro-gay rights ruling by the Supreme Court. Judges appointed by Democratic presidents have a 10-5 edge over Republicans on the Richmond-based 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, formerly among the nation’s most conservative appeals courts.
Nationally, three other federal appeals courts will soon take up the right of same-sex couples to marry, too, in Ohio, Colorado and California. The San Francisco-based 9th circuit is dominated by judges appointed by Democratic presidents. The Denver-based court, home of the 10th circuit, has shifted from a Republican advantage to an even split between the parties, while the 6th circuit, based in Cincinnati, remains relatively unchanged in favor of Republicans during Obama’s tenure.
U.S. District Judge Arenda Wright Allen’s ruling Thursday, that same-sex couples in Virginia have the same constitutional right to marry as heterosexuals, represented the strongest advance in the South for advocates of gay marriage. She put her own ruling on hold while it is being appealed. |
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