US Legal News Round Up for Saturday, 10 February 2018 News
US Legal News Round Up for Saturday, 10 February 2018

Here’s the domestic legal news we covered this week:

Dozens of attorneys with the Legal Aid Society and Bronx Defenders [official websites] on Thursday held a protest [Tweet] outside of the Bronx Criminal Court after one of their clients were arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents outside of the state courthouse.
[more]

Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine [official website] filed a lawsuit [complaint, PDF] in the Washington County Common Pleas Court [official website] against DuPont [corporate website] alleging that the company intentionally released perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) into the Ohio River.

The discharges are accused of occurring from the company’s Washington Works facility near Parkersburg, West Virginia.

[more]
Google is being sued in a class action lawsuit [text, PDF] filed Tuesday over alleged defects in the new Pixel smartphone.
[more]

The House passed two measures in sexual misconduct procedure and rules Tuesday in a unanimous roll call, including a bill [text, PDF] that addresses changes to how complaints are addressed on Capitol Hill, and a resolution [text, PDF] that changes House rules specifically.

The first measure is a bill amending the Congressional Accountability Act of 1995 [text, PDF], which still needs to go to the Senate.

[more]
The US Supreme Court on Tuesday stayed [order, PDF] an order to redraw certain North Carolina congressional districts.
[more]
Three transgender individuals on Tuesday sued [complaint] Alabama over its driver’s license policy requiring transgender people to show proof of sex reassignment surgery in order to change the gender indicator their on driver’s licenses.
[more]

[JURIST] Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall [official website] on Tuesday sued [complaint PDF] Purdue Pharma, the maker of OxyCotin, alleging its practices have fueled the opioid epidemic.

Alabama’s complaint asserts [press release] that Purdue “violated Alabama’s Deceptive Trade Practices Act in the marketing and sale of opioid drugs and, in so doing, jeopardized the public health, welfare, and safety of Alabama residents.” The State seeks both monetary damages and injunctive relief.

“The opioid epidemic has devastated Alabama families, leaving a trail of addiction and death winding though every community of this state,” said Marshall.

[more]
Secretary of Defense James Mattis [official website] on Monday fired two Guantánamo Bay officials responsible for overseeing the trials of accused war criminals including the planners of the 9/11 attack.
[more]
The Ohio Supreme Court [official website] on Tuesday upheld [opinion, PDF] the state’s order to close Capital Care, Toledo’s last abortion clinic.
[more]
Virginia’s Senate approved legislation on Monday allowing doctors to prescribe oils containing mostly non-psychoactive cannabis extracts, making Virginia part of the majority of states to approve medical marijuana.
[more]

New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy [official website] signed an executive order [text, PDF] on Monday requiring that all future state contracts for internet services will only be given to internet service providers (ISPs) that follow net neutrality principles.

The order is in response to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) repeal [JURIST Report] of net neutrality principles.

[more]
California Governor Jerry Brown [official website] on Monday signed new workplace conduct legislation [AB 403, PDF] into law to protect whistleblowers who disclose workplace harassment or abuse in the capitol.
[more]

[JURIST] Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito on Monday denied [docket] a request to stay [text, PDF] a Pennsylvania Supreme Court order to redraw the 2011 congressional map.

If granted, the stay would have blocked the Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s ruling [opinion, PDF] that the Congressional Redistricting Act of 2011 violated the state constitution.

[more]

An accused computer hacker won his appeal [judgment, PDF] on Monday in the UK High Court of Justice [official website], stopping his extradition to the US.

Lauri Love, a British student, was indicted on charges [JURIST report] of hacking into US government websites in 2013, along with other unnamed co-conspirators, stealing huge amounts of data.

[more]
THIS DAY @ LAW

US Supreme Court decided Dartmouth College case

On February 2, 1819, the US Supreme Court decided Dartmouth College v. Woodward, ruling that the charter of a college was a contract that a state could not alter arbitrarily.

New Amsterdam incorporated

On February 2, 1653, the City of New Amsterdam was incorporated by the Dutch Republic. After the British conquest, the city was renamed New York after the Duke of York.

Breviary of Alaric put into effect by Visigoth king

King Alaric II of the Visigoths put the Breviary of Alaric, a collection of Roman laws, into effect on February 2, 506. The breviary contains constitutions and laws of the newly fallen Roman Empire, including the Theodosian code, and parts of the Gregorian and Hermogenian Codes. The Breviary of Alaric predated the Byzantine Empire's Code of Justinian by 23 years.  Read an entry on the Breviary of Alaric from the Encyclopaedia Brittanica.