Election & Politics Law › Civil Remedies › Constitutional Law

Disabled Americans for Firearms Rights, LLC et al v. Dannel P. Malloy, Governor

Complaint for Declaratory Judgment and Injunctive Relief

Scott Ennis of New London, CT and his group Disabled Americans for Firearms Rights, have filed the first legal challenge against CT's newly enacted gun law. This action for declaratory judgment and injunctive relief asks...more

Update on CA case challenging Mr. Cordray’s appointment

We have been following the case filed this past summer by the CFPB in a California federal court against an attorney and his law firm that offered mortgage assistance relief services to consumers. In CFPB v. Chance Edward...more

Does The Victims Of Corporate Fraud Compensation Fund Deny Due Process?

In notorious defiance of the California Constitution, the legislature in 2002 established the Victims of Corporate Fraud Compensation Fund. See Victims of Corporate Fraud. The purpose of the fund is to provide ”restitution to...more

Court Provides SLAPP Relief - But Not Enough

In 2010, Ontario's Anti-SLAPP Advisory Panel released released its Report to the Attorney-General. (A "SLAPP" is a "Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation" - a lawsuit intended to silence criticism by employing a...more

You Should Know - October 2012

2012 Voter’ s Guide to State Judicial Elections - Flood of Money, Negative Ads Threaten Right to Fair Trial Three darkly silhouetted “murderers” describe their gruesome crimes, and then tell viewers that “Judge Thomas...more

Eighth Circuit Questions Minnesota Reporting Requirements for Independent Expenditures

In a split decision, the full Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a Minnesota District Court’s denial of a motion for a preliminary injunction, noting that the appellants, Minnesota business entities, are likely to...more

Proposed Bill Would Provide Immunity for New Jersey Rescue Squads

Proposed Bill Would Provide Immunity for New Jersey Rescue Squads by CJ Griffin on August 28, 2012 A bill introduced in the New Jersey Senate would overrule a recent court ruling regarding the liability of New Jersey...more

The Enduring Myth of Medical Malpractice Reform

Sometimes it seems like the drive to control the amount of damages awarded for medical malpractice is on some kind of political message loop. Often called “tort reform,” it frequently is fodder in election campaigns, and is...more

Access to Abortion Services Blocked or Limited by State Laws

A federal judge has indefinitely extended his injunction of a new Mississippi law that requires abortion clinic physicians to be board-certified OB-GYNs and to have patient-admitting privileges at nearby hospitals. The law...more

You Should Know - July 2012

In This Issue: - Power Kept in Check - 5 Myths that Trick Americans - Conservative Opposes Tort Reform Excerpt from: Protect Your Seventh Amendment Rights - Our Constitutional Liberties Are Threatened by...more

Voting is Not a Technicality—It's a Fundamental Right

Originally Published in the Daily Business Review. Voting is a fundamental right and groups that seek to promote the exercise of that right deserve their day in court. The judge gave them their day in court and correctly...more

Poyner Spruill Litigators Win Preliminary Injunction Fight

?Members of Poyner Spruill’s Litigation Section, former North Carolina Supreme Court Justice Bob Orr and attorney Drew Erteschik, have secured a preliminary injunction for the North Carolina Association of Educators and its...more

Some Proponents of Obamacare Have Been Selling Constitutional Snake Oil

In a letter to the editor of The Wall Street Journal (April 26, 2012, at A14), Charles E. Rounds, Jr. refutes the suggestion made by Prof. Alan S. Blinder of Princeton University in an April 20, 2012 op-ed in the same paper...more

Court of Appeals Strikes Down Communications Act Ban on Political and Issue Advertising on Noncommercial Broadcasting Stations -...

The Communications Act's ban on noncommercial broadcast stations running political and issue advertising was struck down as unconstitutional by the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. While the Court upheld the...more

Supreme Court Hears Oral Arguments on Health Care Reform: Will the Affordable Care Act Survive?

After three days of oral arguments last week, the fate of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) now lies in the hands of the nine Supreme Court justices. What, if any, provisions of the sweeping health care...more

Three States’ Supreme Courts Take on Malpractice Caps

The medical professionals who let a Florida mother bleed to death after giving birth, as well as those whose negligence led to disabling brain injuries in a Missouri boy, could learn that their errors will cost them much more...more

Proposed Constitutional Amendment on Eminent Domain: Cons and Pros

The proposed eminent domain constitutional amendment is pending at the 2012 Virginia General Assembly.  See 2012′s bills on the amendment, HJ 3 and SJ 3.  If these...more

Arkansas Supreme Court Strikes Down “Tort Reform” Law

The Arkansas Supreme Court put the state’s legislature in its place with its decision in a recent medical malpractice case. On Jan 19, the state’s highest court struck down provisions of the controversial 2003 Civil Justice...more

Perry v. Perez

Brief Of Amicus Curiae CATO Institute In Support Of Neither Party

The decennial redrawing of electoral districts consistently produces extensive litigation. The most notable cases this cycle come, as they often have, from Texas. A number of activist groups challenged the Texas legislature's...more

Legal Alert: Supreme Court Sets Dates for Arguments on Health Care Law Challenges

The U.S. Supreme Court has announced the dates for oral argument in the lawsuits challenging the validity of the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). The Court will hear five and one-half hours of oral...more

An Update on the 2011 Florida Community Planning Act: Constitutional Attack Settlement Reached, Amendment Proposed

In 2011, shortly after the landmark legislation was signed into law by Governor Rick Scott, a lawsuit was filed by the Town of Yankeetown, Florida, challenging the Florida Community Planning Act as being unconstitutional for...more

Medical Malpractice in Illinois - Caps Gone but Debate Continues

In the nearly two years since the Illinois state Supreme Court struck down caps on noneconomic damages in medical malpractice suits, there's been no explosion in medical malpractice suits, payouts nor any evidence that they...more

Tort Reform: Fighting Back for Consumers

This is part three of a three-part series. Part one and part two appeared previously this week. When Ronald Sanders’ wife died of brain damage in a hospital in 2005, he sued neurologist Iftekhar Ahmed. The doctor had...more

Six Years of Separation: Life After Kelo

It has been just over six years since the United States Supreme Court issued its landmark takings ruling in Kelo v. City of New London. The court's widely publicized and mostly criticized ruling found that the City of New...more

Private Attorney General Doctrine Authorizes Attorney Fees in a Political Dispute

In Wilson v. San Luis Obispo County Democratic Central Committee, 2011 DJDAR 2416 (2011), the California Court of Appeal for the Second District decided an interesting fee case arising from a political dispute. The...more