Here’s the domestic legal news we covered this week:
The US Court of Appeals for the Six Circuit
affirmed [opinion, PDF] the constitutionality of Ohio’s lethal injection method on Thursday, just two weeks prior to a scheduled execution.
The case stemmed from two death row inmates attempting to prevent their pending executions, claiming that Ohio’s midazolam-based, three-drug execution protocol presents a constitutionally unacceptable risk of pain and suffering.
The
Washington Senate [official website] on Wednesday
voted 26-22 [materials] to pass
SB 6212 [PDF], which would require insurance providers that cover maternity care to also cover elective abortions and contraception.
The
California Senate [official website] approved
Senate Bill 227 [materials] Tuesday in an attempt to protect its taxpayers from the recent
tax overhaul [JURIST report] and its cap on individual deductions for state and local taxes.
The new federal tax law limits the individual deduction for state and local taxes to $10,000, which mostly hurts wealthier Californians.
A US presidential order
decreasing [JURIST report] the area of Bears Ears National Monument in Utah is “outrageous” and should be reversed according to a UN rights expert.
Environmental activists
WildEarth Guardians and
Defenders of Wildlife [complaints, PDF] filed lawsuits on Tuesday against the Trump administration alleging the recovery plan for the endangered Mexican wolf is so flawed it would lead to the wolf’s extinction.
The Mexican wolf [text] has been on the endangered list since 1976 after increased hunting of the species lead almost to its extinction.
The Secretaries of State from
Alabama,
Arizona,
Arkansas,
Kansas,
Missouri and
South Carolina [official websites] filed a
motion [text, PDF] on Monday urging the US Supreme Court to block the Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s recent
order [JURIST report] striking down the Congressional Redistricting Act of 2011 as violating the state constitution.
The US
Senate voted
51-46 [roll call] on Monday, stopping the advancement of a bill banning abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy.
The House approved [JURIST Report] the bill in October in a 237-189 vote.
The bill [materials], entitled the Pain Capable Unborn Child Act, was sponsored by South Carolina Republican Senator Lindsey Graham [official website].
The
US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit [official website] denied review of a Board of Immigrant Appeals (BIA) case on Monday, reasoning that alien minors do not have a constitutional right to court-appointed counsel.
The
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) [official website]
announced [press release] Friday that it will maintain restrictions on the proposed Pebble Limited Partnership mining project in Alaska’s Bristol Bay region, reversing its prior decision.
A federal judge ruled Friday that a
class action lawsuit [opinion, PDF] may proceed against Applebee’s for its mandatory minimum tip policy.
US District Judge Paul Oetken of US District Court for the Southern District of New York [official website] ruled that the restaurant needs to disclose the mandatory policy to customers upfront.
Oetken opined that while “tipping is a well-accepting social norm [it] does not defeat plaintiffs’ claims.
New York and Minnesota filed a
lawsuit [complaint, PDF] on Friday in the
US District Court for the Southern District of New York [official website] to block the Trump administration from cutting off federal funding to state programs that provide health care to low-income people.
In December the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) [official website] informed both states that, due to Congress not appropriating funds, about 25 percent of federal funding would be cut from New York’s plan and Minnesota would be cut completely.
Both states allege that HHS is cutting federal funding without “adequate justification and in disregard of lawful procedure”, which is legally required to be provided under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) [text, PDF].
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