The King v. Burwell Sham

It is June folks!  That means the U.S. Supreme Court will soon issue decisions in some of the most consequential, and controversial, cases of the term.  I’m especially antsy as I await the decision in King v. Burwell, about which I have written before.  This otherwise run-of-the-mill statutory construction case has the potential to destroy the Affordable Care Act by depriving millions of people who purchase insurance through Healthcare.gov–the federally operated exchange–of access to the same subsidies available to people who purchase insurance through state-operated exchanges.

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Cato Institute To Hold Conference On Kelo Case; Horton To Speak.

On Thursday, June 11, the Cato Institute, a conservative think tank, will hold a conference on the legacy of the United States Supreme Court’s now ten year old, famous (infamous? notorious?) decision in Kelo v. City of New London, described by some as the “most controversial modern property rights decision” in the history of the court.  Wes Horton, who represented the city, will speak, as will Scott Bullock of the Institute for Justice, which represented the petitioner.  Other distinguished panelists will also present their thoughts on the decision.

Looks like a great conference. Go Wes!

A More Diverse State Judiciary

Mark Pazniokas, over at The CT Mirror, has this interesting article today on Governor Malloy’s successful efforts to increase the diversity of the state judiciary.  Paz writes, “Thirty percent of the 47 judges Malloy has nominated to the Superior Court since taking office in 2011 have been minorities, twice the percentage of those named by his immediate predecessors, Rell and Rowland. . . .  Of his 47 nominees for the trial bench, Malloy has picked 14 minorities: two Asians, nine African-Americans and three Hispanics. Nineteen, or 40 percent, have been women, who now comprise 35 percent of the trial bench.”

Klau To Share Society of Professional Journalists’ 2015 Helen M. Loy Award

I am deeply honored to share this prestigious open government award with four fantastic journalists, editors and publishers at the Connecticut Law Tribune: Tom Scheffey, Paul Sussman, Jeff Forte and Isaac Avilucea.  One could not ask for better clients or a better cause worth fighting for.

UPDATE: A friend suggested I link to a song I wrote a few years back about freedom of information.  It’s worth a chuckle or two, especially late at night, after a few drinks. . . .

Second Circuit Strikes Down NSA Bulk Telephony Metadata Collection Program

Ruthann Robson has this excellent post on the Constitutional Law Prof Blog on yesterday’s very important decision by the Second Circuit, which held that the NSA lacks the statutory authority under section 215 of the PATRIOT Act to collect millions and millions of call records from commercial providers, like Verizon.  Edward Snowden revealed the existence of this program.