California’s Public Records Act survived a near miss last week. The EFF reports that the California legislature passed a bill last week that included a trailer to cut CPRA funding. The trailer bill would have made compliance with the CPRA optional for local governments. Thanks to pressure from activists, the…
Articles Posted in Legal Research
This week’s legal news was dominated by four highly anticipated opinions that came down from the United States Supreme Court on affirmative action, voting rights and marriage equality. That said, our writers also found a few other opinions of note to include in their weekly picks. United States Supreme Court…
The Supreme Court issued an opinion on affirmative action today – Fisher v. University of Texas. To help you better understand the decision, below are some links to commentary on the matter and other helpful resources, including briefs and a transcript of the the Supreme Court oral argument. Commentary…
Assoc. for Molecular Pathology v. Myriad Genetics, Inc., United States Supreme Court (6/13/13) Drugs & Biotech, Patents Myriad obtained patents after discovering the precise location and sequence of the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes, mutations of which can dramatically increase the risk of breast and ovarian cancer. The discovery enabled Myriad…
Maryland v King, United States Supreme Court (6/3/13) Civil Rights, Constitutional Law, Criminal Law After his arrest on first- and second-degree assault charges, King was processed through a Wicomico County, Maryland, facility, where personnel used a cheek swab to take a DNA sample pursuant to the Maryland DNA Collection Act…
California is proposing to charge citizens to access and read court files and other public documents. The Administrative Office of the Courts has proposed that the state charge $10 for every name, file, or information that comes back from a search. Techdirt has the story. Charging for search results –…
President Obama issued an executive order last month calling on the federal government to open access to public documents by making them “open and machine readable.” He called on government information to be “managed as an asset throughout its life cycle to promote interoperability and openness, and, wherever possible and…
Comcast Cable Communications, LLC v. FCC, et al, U.S. D.C. Cir. (5/28/13) Communications Law Tennis Channel, a sports programming network and intervenor in this suit, filed a complaint against Comcast Cable, a multichannel video programming distributor (MVPD), alleging that Comcast violated section 616 of the Communications Act of 1934, 47…
Two opinions came down today from the United States Supreme Court. Read the summaries below and read the full text of the opinions at Justia’s U.S. Supreme Court Center. McQuiggin v. Perkins, United States Supreme Court (5/28/13) Civil Rights, Constitutional Law, Criminal Law Henderson was stabbed to death after leaving…
Metrish v. Lancaster, United States Supreme Court (5/20/13) Civil Rights, Constitutional Law, Criminal Law In 1993, Lancaster, a former police officer with a long history of severe mental-health problems, killed his girlfriend. At his jury trial in Michigan state court, Lancaster asserted a defense of diminished capacity. Under then-prevailing Michigan…