How Appealing



Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Second Circuit invalidates Vermont statute banning the sale, transmission, or use of prescriber-identifiable data for marketing or promoting a prescription drug unless the prescriber consents: The majority on a divided three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit strikes down the Vermont law as an impermissible restriction on commercial speech in a ruling issued today.

Circuit Judge Debra Ann Livingston issued a dissenting opinion in which she states that “the majority not only reaches the wrong result in this case, but creates Circuit precedent likely to have pernicious broader effects in a complex and evolving area of First Amendment law.”

Although the Second Circuit is reluctant to grant rehearing en banc, it is noteworthy that the majority on this three-judge panel consists of a senior status Second Circuit judge and a federal district judge sitting by designation.

Update: In early coverage, The Wall Street Journal has a news update headlined “Appeals Court Strikes Down Vermont Law Restricting Prescription Data.”

And The Associated Press reports that “Vt. law on drug data mining ruled unconstitutional.”

Posted at 11:00 AM by Howard Bashman



“Judge extends ban on Oklahoma Sharia law amendment; Ban on a Sharia law amendment to the Oklahoma Constitution will stay in place for a week while U.S. District Judge Vicki Miles-LaGrange studies the issues”: This article appears today in The Oklahoman.

And The Tulsa World reports today that “Judge leaves SQ 755 ban intact for now.”

Posted at 8:10 AM by Howard Bashman



“California ruling backs police use of DNA from discarded cigarette”: In today’s edition of The Sacramento Bee, Denny Walsh has an article that begins, “In the first case of its kind in California, a state appellate court in Sacramento ruled Monday that a suspect in a criminal investigation has no expectation of privacy in a discarded item, and a DNA test of the item is not an unconstitutional search.”

You can access yesterday’s ruling of California’s Court of Appeal for the Third Appellate District at this link.

Posted at 8:04 AM by Howard Bashman



“Michigan Supreme Court censures ex-justice for secretly recording court deliberations”: Dawson Bell has this article today in The Detroit Free Press. The newspaper also contains an editorial entitled “Secret recordings merit censure for ex-Justice Weaver.”

And The Detroit News reports today that “Michigan Supreme Court censures former Justice Weaver; Former justice publicly rebuked for secret recording of colleague using a racial slur.”

You can view the censure letter, in which five justices have joined and one justice has expressly refused to join, by clicking here.

Posted at 7:58 AM by Howard Bashman