AG sues over federal health care overhaul

Military family’s funeral protest case heard

By Kimberly Atkins
Published: October 7, 2010
Tags: Constitutional, U.S. Supreme Court

In a case involving a controversial Topeka, Kan., church whose members travel the country to protest at the funerals of fallen soldiers, the justices of the U.S. Supreme Court struggled to draw the line between protected speech and tortious activity. The case, Snyder v. Phelps, appealed from a September 2009 decision by the 4th U.S. [...]

Trucker takes the Fifth in wrongful death case

By Deborah Elkins
Published: September 9, 2010
Tags: Constitutional, Federal Courts, Judge James P. Jones, Judge Pamela Meade Sargent, Wrongful Death

A long-haul truck driver sued for wrongful death after a collision on Interstate 81 can invoke his Fifth Amendment privilege and refuse to answer questions in the personal injury action, an Abingdon federal court says. The accident happened on a snowy evening in February. Defendant Ezzell Furgerson, driving an 18-wheel tractor-trailer north on I-81 in [...]

Healthcare challenge advances in federal court

By The Associated Press
Published: August 9, 2010
Tags: Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, Constitutional, Federal Courts, Health Care Bill, Judge Henry E. Hudson

(AP) An Oct. 18 hearing before U.S. District Judge Henry E. Hudson will be the next major proceeding in Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli’s challenge to a key element of the Obama administration’s health care reform package. A spokesman for Cuccinelli said the office expects to file a motion for summary judgment that would give [...]

Constitutional – Federal Health Care Challenge – Commerce Clause – Taxing Power

By Deborah Elkins
Published: August 2, 2010
Tags: Constitutional, Judge Henry E. Hudson, U.S. District Court - Eastern District

A Richmond U.S. District Court refuses to dismiss the Commonwealth of Virginia’s challenge to § 1501 of the Patient Protection & Affordable Care Act, a provision that requires individuals to either obtain a minimum level of health insurance coverage or pay a penalty for failure to do so; the complaint states a cause of action, [...]

Constitutional – First Amendment – SSN Publication – Va. Land Records

By Deborah Elkins
Published: July 27, 2010
Tags: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Constitutional, Judge Allyson K. Duncan

Virginia may not enforce a statute that prohibits communication of an individual’s Social Security Number to the general public against an advocate for privacy in online records who republished SSNs of public officials to dramatize her message about a lack of security in Virginia’s online land records; the 4th Circuit affirms judgment for the privacy [...]

Constitutional – First Amendment – Airport Newspaper Racks

By dmc-admin
Published: July 14, 2010
Tags: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Constitutional

In this case upholding summary judgment for plaintiff newspaper publishers that a public airport’s total ban on newspaper racks inside its terminals violates the First Amendment, the 4th Circuit denies rehearing en banc. Concurrence Wilkinson, J., concurring in the denial of rehearing en banc: I was pleased to join Judge Duncan’s fine opinion for the [...]

Virginia won’t join brief over funeral protest

By The Associated Press
Published: June 3, 2010
Tags: Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, Constitutional, U.S. Supreme Court

Virginia was one of just two states that refused to join a friend-of-the-court brief Tuesday supporting the father of a Marine whose funeral drew anti-gay protesters carrying inflammatory signs. Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli’s spokesman said concerns about freedom of expression prompted the decision to stay out of Albert Snyder’s legal battle against the fundamentalist Westboro [...]

Free-speech group flags First Amendment violations

By The Associated Press
Published: April 13, 2010
Tags: Constitutional

(AP) Banning the sale of wine because of a nude, bike-riding nymph on the label of the bottle. Confining campus protests to a “free-speech patio.” Keeping street performers off the Las Vegas Strip. Those were some of the actions that the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression cited Tuesday in awarding its [...]

Constitutional – First Amendment – Alcohol Ads – College Newspapers

By Deborah Elkins
Published: April 12, 2010
Tags: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Constitutional, Judge Dennis W. Shedd

A regulation of the Virginia Alcoholic Beverage Control Board that restricts alcohol ads in college newspapers is not facially unconstitutional, and the 4th Circuit reverses the district court’s contrary decision and remands the case for further proceedings. Both parties agree that to determine whether a regulatory burden on commercial speech violates the First Amendment, we [...]