Blog

July 30, 2013 In Blog

The facts of life

By Victoria Ni, Senior Attorney Sometime during early childhood, I’m sure you picked up these facts of life: Only women can bear children, and only women can produce breastmilk. It’s human biology. There are no exceptions. But for courts, nothing — not even human biology…

July 16, 2013 In Blog

Solitary confinement: What the Shawshank Redemption doesn’t teach us

By Adrian Alvarez, Goldberg-Robb Attorney “He is a man buried alive; to be dug out in the slow round of years,” Charles Dickens wrote in 1842 after visiting prisoners living for years in solitary confinement at a penitentiary outside Philadelphia. Back then, solitary confinement was…

July 9, 2013 In Blog

State DOMAs: The next frontier of litigation after the Supreme Court’s DOMA ruling

By Adele Kimmel, Managing Attorney The Supreme Court’s historic ruling striking down a portion of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) as unconstitutional is being hailed by advocates and supporters of gay rights as a milestone in our country’s march toward equal treatment for all…

June 26, 2013 In Blog

The Supreme Court’s majority: Undermining the rule of law with legal fictions

By Arthur Bryant, Executive Director The U.S. Supreme Court is supposed to stand for — and symbolize — the rule of law in America. This term, however, the Court’s majority has undermined the rule of law. And it has repeatedly used legal fictions to do…

June 24, 2013 In Blog

Bartlett: A nonsensical result required by neither law nor policy

By Claire Prestel, Staff Attorney I know everyone is eager for the Supreme Court’s rulings on gay marriage and voting rights. But don’t let the Court’s alarming ruling today on generic drugs get lost in the shuffle: By a 5-4 vote, reflecting the typical right/left…

June 20, 2013 In Blog

Worst Supreme Court arbitration decision ever

By Paul Bland, Senior Attorney So, today, in American Express v. Italian Colors, the U.S. Supreme Court said that a take-it-or-leave-it arbitration clause could be used to prevent small businesses from actually pursuing their claims for abuse of monopoly power under the antitrust laws. Essentially,…

June 19, 2013 In Blog

Pittsburgh citizens protest UPMC’s use of 14th Amendment to sue city

By Claire Prestel, Staff Attorney The outrage is building against the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center’s unsavory claim that its civil rights are being violated by the City of Pittsburgh’s challenge to its tax-exempt status. A few weeks ago, I blogged about Pittsburgh’s lawsuit against…

June 18, 2013 In Blog

DNA collection not as intrusive as car search, says Justice Stevens at ACS

By Leah Nicholls, Kazan-Budd Attorney Earlier this month, the Supreme Court upheld a Maryland law providing that, as part of the police booking procedure, DNA samples should be taken from arrestees and run through a state database whether or not the arrestee was arrested for…

June 12, 2013 In Blog

EPA delays again on CAFOs: The continuing lack of regulation over one of America’s most dangerous industries

By Jessica Culpepper, Food Safety & Health Attorney Advocates looked for the long-awaited release of a National Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation Rule this week — to no avail. As part of a settlement agreement in Fowler v. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, a case filed against…

June 7, 2013 In Blog

Global warming: The good news and the bad

By Richard Webster, Power-Cotchett Attorney As I keep up with the news on global warming, I find myself alternately pessimistic and hopeful. Most of the world is behaving like addicts. We prefer to pretend either that we don’t have a problem or that we don’t…