[JURIST] A plethora of state laws set to take effect after Friday, New Year's Day, seek to regulate everything from social policy to highway safety. Texting while driving will become illegal [AP report] in Illinois, Oregon, and New Hampshire, which will join nearly twenty other prohibiting states and the federal government [JURIST report]. Georgia will begin administering stiffer fines [AP report] for so called "super speeders." Starting Saturday, North Carolina will no longer allow smoking [JURIST news archive] in bars and restaurants, joining the nearly thirty other states with similar bans in place. Illinois will extend an exemption [State Journal-Register report] on their indoor smoking ban to American Indians during religious practices. Oregon will no longer allow cigarettes to be dispensed [AP report] in vending machines in places where minors are allowed. Additionally, Oregon employers will be not be allowed to prevent employees from wearing religious clothing on the job or taking time off for religious observances.

New Hampshire will become the fifth state to legalize same-sex marriage [JURIST news archive] after passing legislation [JURIST report] to that effect earlier this year. In Wisconsin, same and opposite sex unwed couples will be allowed to receive state health insurance benefits. In California, same-sex spouses will be eligible [San Diego Union-Tribune report] for the same benefits available to opposite sex couples so long as they are married in a state recognizing same-sex marriage. Additionally, California will become the first state to ban the use of artificial transfats in restaurants, and will give celebrities greater legal remedy against paparazzi.

[JURIST] Thirteen state attorneys general, all Republicans, demanded in a letter [text, PDF] sent Wednesday to the Speaker of the US House of Representatives and the Senate Majority Leader that a controversial provision in the health care reform bill [text, PDF] approved [JURIST news report] in the Senate [official website] last week should be struck because it unfairly benefits the state of Nebraska. In the letter, written by South Carolina Attorney General Henry MacMaster [official website], the group said they would legally challenge the provision if it were not removed, citing reports of the deal struck by Nebraska senator Ben Nelson (D-NE) [official website; statement] in exchange for his vote. The attorneys general argued that the provision is unconstitutional and "antithetical to the legitimate federal interests in the bill" that "the states share with the federal government the cost of providing such care to their citizens" because it exempts Nebraska from such shared cost. They also asserted that

[t]he fundamental unfairness of H.R. 3590 may also give rise to claims under the due process, equal protection, privileges and immunities clauses and other provisions of the Constitution... Since the only basis for the Nebraska preference is arbitrary and unrelated to the substance of the legislation, it is unlikely that the difference would survive even minimal scrutiny.