News & Blog

Fact or Fiction: A Federal Judge Approved the U.S.’ First Supervised Injection Site
This is a fact! In a surprise ruling, federal judge Gerald McHugh, sitting in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, ruled in October 2019 that a nonprofit organization’s plan to allow people to bring in their own drugs (both legal and illegal) and use them in a facility staffed with medical personnel to help reduce fatal overdoses does not violate the Controlled Substances Act. The Judge...
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Fact or Fiction: In Some States You Can Sue Your Cheating Spouse’s Lover for Money Damages
This is fact! In August a North Carolina state judge decided that Greg Jernigan must pay Robert Kevin Howard $750,000 in damages for sleeping with Howard’s ex-wife. Howard and his now-ex-wife were married for 12 years, and had two children together, before Howard’s friend Jernigan came into their lives. North Carolina and several other states still have laws, called “homewrecker” or “heart balm” laws, that...
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Google’s Big Win in Europe: “Right to be forgotten” Only Applies in European Union Countries
The “right to be forgotten” came into law through a 2014 legal ruling by the European Court of Justice, and required search engines to delete links to embarrassing or out-of-date information, when requested by the individuals concerned. The 2014 ruling came about after a Spanish man failed to secure the deletion of an embarrassing auction notice of his repossessed home dating from 1998 on a...
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California’s Big New Rent Control Law
Did you know that half of all California renters — more than 3 million households — spend more than 30% of their income on rent, meeting the federal government’s definition of “rent-burdened?” The newly passed law, AB1482, makes rent control the law of the land throughout California. Previously, rent control was only enacted in individual counties or cities. The new law does not override existing...
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How Trump’s New Rule Could Bar Immigrants Who Receive Public Benefits
Is the Trump administration undermining the famous poem inscribed on the Statue of Liberty? Last month the Trump administration revealed a new “public charge” rule that could deny green cards and visa applications to millions of applicants.The new rule takes effect after October 15 and could affect even legal immigrants who receive food stamps and other public benefits. What is the New ‘Public Charge’ Rule?...
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Are the Amazon Rainforest Fires Linked to a Lawsuit Against Large Oil Corporation?
At least 2,500 fires have ravaged the Amazon rainforest with experts warning that a third of the Amazon rainforest’s ecosystem could be irreversibly decimated. Experts warn that the loss of such massive areas of the Amazon rainforest could result in the eradication of species and unleash large amounts of stored carbon. As Brazil’s president has recently sent the nation’s armed forces to help tackle the...
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Why It’s (Legally) Impossible for Donald Trump to “Buy” Greenland
Hilarity has erupted after media outlets reported President Donald Trump’s queried aides about “buying” Greenland. According to CNN citing two sources, Trump asked the White House counsel’s office to look into the legality of purchasing the 836,000-square-mile island from the Kingdom of Denmark. Denmark is a very special country with incredible people, but based on Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen’s comments, that she would have no...
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Jeffrey Epstein Wasn’t the Only One: Other Famous Prison Suicides
The apparent suicide of Jeffrey Epstein, a financier and convicted sex offender being prosecuted for everything from human trafficking to child molestation, soaked up headlines on August 10. Although there have been numerous conspiracy theories surrounding his death, Epstein’s reported suicide in prison was hardly original. Many high-profile criminal defendants have committed suicide in jails and prisons across the United States. Let’s review some of...
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Lawsuits Against Hotel Chains Target Hated Resort Fees
Have you ever been lured by a hotel’s advertised price online and booked it, only to be surprised by a hefty “resort fee” at check-in or worse, at check-out? What about a “resort fee” for a pool that was closed in the winter or for spotty wi-fi? Often consumers are “exhausted” at the end of the online searching and booking process and more readily give...
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Fact or Fiction: Under Federal Law Workers Are Protected When They Discuss their Wages
This is true! Does your employer require or dissuade you and your co-workers from discussing your wages? In 2010, nearly half of all workers nationally reported that they were either contractually forbidden or strongly discouraged from discussing their pay with their colleagues, according to results from a 2010 Institute for Women’s Policy Research/Rockefeller Survey of Economic Security. Many argue that pay secrecy policies serve to...
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