Here’s the domestic legal news we covered this week:
[JURIST] Hawaii
Governor David Ige [official profile] signed
HB 2739 [text, PDF] on Thursday, also known as the Our Choice, Our Care Act.
The Suffolk County Superior Court in Massachusetts released a
decision [text, PDF] Wednesday, denying Equifax a motion to dismiss and allowing the commonwealth to move forward in its lawsuit against Equifax for its
data breach [NYT report].
Equifax sought to dismiss the claims against them under Rule 12(b)(6) [rule text] of the Massachusetts Rules of Civil Procedure for failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted.
Massachusetts alleged that Equifax did not take the proper steps to guard personal information and did not promptly inform consumers about the data breach or take appropriate steps to remedy that breach.
Lambda Legal [advocacy website] announced on Wednesday that Puerto Rico will modify current policies to allow transgender people to change their gender on identification cards following a
federal court order [text, PDF].
A Pennsylvania appellate judge on Monday
distinguished [opinion, PDF] the natural gas extraction practice known as hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” from conventional drilling property rights and held that fracking is not subject to the same “rules of capture.”
In a suit brought against Marcellus Shale gas producer Southwestern Energy [corporate website] alleging trespass and conversion for producing gas under the plaintiffs’ land, Senior Judge John Musmanno of the Superior Court of Pennsylvania [official website] explained that Pennsylvania courts have yet to determine whether the processes unique to fracking prevent its application to the same law of capture as traditional methods of drilling.
Traditionally, the rules of capture assume that oil and gas originate in subsurface reservoirs or pools, and can therefore migrate freely within the reservoir and across property lines.
The
American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) [advocacy website] filed a
lawsuit [complaint] in the
Superior Court of California – Orange County Wednesday seeking declaratory and injunctive relief against the
Orange County District Attorney (OCDA) and
Orange County Sheriff (OCSD) [official websites] for operating secret jailhouse informant programs allegedly in violation of the US Constitution, California Constitution and California state laws.
The ACLU alleges that the “OCDA does not disclose anything about the Informant Program to the criminal defendants or their defense attorneys” despite the fact that the US Constitution requires prosecutors to provide material evidence to defendants.
In the first sentencing in the investigation by
Special Counsel Robert Muller [official website] into Russian meddling, 33-year-old Dutch attorney Alex van der Zwaan was sentenced Tuesday to 30 days in prison and a $200,000 fine, followed by two months of supervised release.
Van der Zwaan pleaded guilty [text, PDF] in February after being indicted [order, PDF] on charges of lying [JURIST report] to special counsel prosecutors and the FBI regarding his communications with former Trump advisor Rick Gates in August 2016.
The US Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a
lawsuit [complaint, PDF] against the state of California Monday seeking an injunction against a
state law [materials, text] that prohibits the sale of federal land.
The US
Department of Justice (DOJ) [official website] on Monday filed a
motion [text, PDF] seeking permission to engage in settlement negotiations with defendants in the multi-district opioid case.
The US
Supreme Court [official website]
ruled [opinion, PDF] Monday that service advisors at car dealerships are excluded from federal overtime pay requirements.
The US Supreme Court on Monday
declined [order list, PDF] to hear an appeal in a dispute to determine whether a pole can be turned into a cross on public land in Michigan.
The US
Supreme Court [official website] on Monday
reversed a lower court
denial [orders, PDF] of qualified immunity in a civil rights suit involving a shooting by a
University of Arizona Police [official website] officer.
Hughes, who was shot four times in May 2010, sued Officer Andrew Kisela under 42 USC §1983 [text, PDF] alleging Kisela used excessive force in violation of the Fourth Amendment.
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