Judge Overturns Health-Care Reform

Time for the Supreme Court to weigh in: A federal judge in Florida struck down President Obama’s health-care reform law, saying it is unconstitutional. Twenty-six states sued to overturn the law, and U.S. District Judge Roger Vinson accepted their argument without trial. They argued that the government cannot force individuals to buy health insurance by 2014 or face penalties. In his decision, Vinson wrote, "It would be a radical departure from existing case law to hold that Congress can regulate inactivity under the Commerce Clause.” This ruling evens the score among lower courts' decisions, with two judges upholding the controversial law and two striking at least part of it down.

Read it at Associated Press

Posted at 3:26 PM, Jan 31, 2011

Source: http://www.thedailybeast.com/cheat-sheet/item/judge-overturns-health-care-reform/objection/?cid=cs:headline2

Pitchford trying to pitchFORK

I agree with Michael, this case should be thrown out. Talk about a nut job. Pitchford is clearlty not a reasonable person in this case, and the case he filed against Osama Bin Laden. What a joke. Thanks for the good laugh Pitchford.

WikiLeaks Slapped With $150 Million Emotional Distress Lawsuit From Florida Resident

From the The Huffington Post
Posted: 01/14/11 05:15 PM

Article:

Julian Assange can add yet another lawsuit to his seemingly ever-growing list of legal concerns, although this one seems considerably less threatening than most.

As Newser is reporting, Florida resident David Pitchford alleges that he's been suffering from serious depression, higher hypertension and extreme anxiety since WikiLeaks began the release of 250,000 confidential U.S. documents in late November.

Hoping to receive $150 million in damages, Pitchford's typo-laden, handwritten documents say he's "in constant fear of being stricken by another heart attack or stroke" as he now believes the world is "on the brink of Nucliar WAR."

According to Switched, Pitchford previously filed suit against Osama Bin Laden, but that case never got off the ground.

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/14/wikileaks-lawsuit-emotional-distress_n_809214.html

Student input: This case will most likely be thrown out. This is because Julian Asange did not release this WikiLeaks information with the sole intent to cause any damages to Pitchford. If Asange had released this information only to Pitchford knowing that he has extreme anxiety with the intent to give him a heart attack or stroke then Pitchford may have a case. Otherwise, this case appears that Pitchford is just suing to try to make a quick buck (150 million quick bucks that is). Also, the fact that Pitchford has attempted this in the past with Osama Bin Laden shows he's looking for a good case to create a huge settlement lawsuit. If I were a judge I would dismiss this case immediately.

E-Harmony.com lawsuits- Separate but Equal?

The online dating business E-harmony has been accused of treating Gays unfairly. In 2005 a man filed suit against E-harmony claimed he was denied access because he was gay. He says there was no option for "man seeking man" or "woman seeking woman" . The courts decision stated that the company's policy was in violation of state discrimination laws.

What was interesting to me is that instead of modifying the existing problem, E-harmony created a separate site for gay's to use. In 2007 Someone sued E-harmony again on the basis that the company's way of dealing with this constitutes an unacceptable "separate but equal" policy. E-harmony is most likely facing damage charges for those who were unable to join there site.

I found this case very interesting and relevant to all of us future Business leaders. As we begin owning or managing our own businesses, it is important for us to consider the importance of separating any strict biases or views we may have from the workplace. It is not our place as business leaders to discriminate who receives our services. We often consider discrimination as race based, but today discrimination can commonly found in businesses relating to gender, sexual orientation, religion, and even social class. E-harmony did not consider the constitutional importance of discrimination in our nations laws and civil rights doctrines, and now has to pay.

Read more:http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2009/04/eharmony03.html#ixzz1AlqqooDthttp://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2009/04/eharmony03.html

Girl Falls into Manhole While Texting

http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2009/07/girl-falls-into-manhole-while-texting-parents-sue/

As I was reading through this after class, I wonder, could you attribute some of the damages to the girl? Considering that she wasn't looking ahead as she was walking like we normally do? What about texting while driving? Would you sue the city of san diego if you damaged your car in a pothole if you drove into it while texting?

Donald Duck groping lawsuit??

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40899647/ns/us_news-life/

The title of this article caught my eye because, obviously, it's a bit outrageous to see while scrolling news articles and at first glance I didn't think it would have any relevance to our class. However after reading I was really surprised by what I found. Especially the claims and the history behind even this one case, I had no idea Disney had this problem at their parks.

I found it interesting that this article ended up having so much relevance to the topics we have been discussing in class. It is an example of a big corporation being sued and it includes an assault (as a tort we just covered)-as well as a past battery at Disney.
There is even a dispute over where the case should be tried/who should really be sued for the incident:
"In court papers, the defense argued that Magolon sued the wrong Disney corporate entity and asked the judge to dismiss the suit or move it to Florida, where the encounter took place. But U.S. District Judge John R. Padova refused, saying Magolon can proceed in Pennsylvania...Disney also has greater resources to try the case in Pennsylvania than Magolon does to try it in Florida, he said."

And as a question to pose: Post-traumatic stress from this incident "in the form of nightmares, digestive problems and other permanent injuries." - What do you think? Is this the emotional equivalent to what a reasonable person's response would be? Or do you think she's trying to exploit Disney for some extra cash?

Is ObamaCare Constitutional

Please review the following article:

http://www.dcbar.org/for_lawyers/resources/publications/washington_lawyer/january_2011/obamacare.cfm