In his fiscal year 2022 budget proposal unveiled this week, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo includes an excise tax on what could be legalized recreational marijuana. New York is looking to join neighboring New Jersey, where voters approved a ballot measure to legalize recreational marijuana last November. Gov. Cuomo expects the tax revenue to eventually […]
Kannon Shanmugam argues for BP and other fossil fuel companies (Art Lien) In a speech at Harvard Law School in 2015, Justice Elena Kagan told the audience that “we’re all textualists now” – that is, that any effort to interpret a statute begins (and often ends) with the language of the statute. That principle may […]
Posted Wed, January 20th, 2021 9:48 am by Danielle D’Onfro On Thursday, the Supreme Court’s opinion in City of Chicago v. Fulton clarified that creditors do not violate the Bankruptcy Code’s automatic stay if they passively retain a debtor’s property after the debtor files for bankruptcy protection. The automatic stay is the provision of the […]
The Supreme Court heard oral argument on Tuesday morning in a dispute arising from the Federal Communications Commission’s attempts to deregulate local media ownership. After nearly an hour and a half of debate, the justices seemed inclined to uphold the FCC’s efforts – even if not on the ground that big broadcasters would prefer. FCC […]
Since June 1, 2020, Massachusetts has banned the sale of flavored tobacco products, including menthol cigarettes. When signing the ban into law, Gov. Charlie Baker (R) argued that the ban, which is the broadest in the country, was enacted to limit youth uptake of nicotine products. While youth uptake is a very real concern which deserves the […]
Property taxes represent a major source of revenue for states and the largest source of tax revenue for localities. In fiscal year 2018, the most recent data available, property taxes were such a significant source of local revenue that they accounted for 71.7 percent of local tax collections nationwide and 31.1 percent of total U.S. […]
On Tuesday the Supreme Court will hear oral argument in the latest chapter of a long-running battle between the Federal Communications Commission and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit over the FCC’s efforts to deregulate media ownership. Although the case is a technical one, the court’s eventual ruling could affect who owns […]
The Supreme Court on Friday allowed the federal government to execute Dustin Higgs, reversing lower-court orders that had put the execution on hold and drawing strongly worded dissents from two justices. Higgs’ execution was the third federal execution this week, and it concludes a push by the Trump administration to carry out death sentences before […]
In releasing details of his coronavirus relief plan Thursday evening, President-elect Joe Biden envisions a two-part response to the pandemic and economic crisis. The first aspect builds on previous rounds of relief enacted in 2020, and would provide larger payments to individuals, expanded relief for households and small businesses, funding for vaccine distribution, and aid […]
Posted Fri, January 15th, 2021 1:41 pm by Andrew Hamm This week we highlight cert petitions that ask the Supreme Court to consider, among other things, whether Facebook plug-ins violate the Wiretap Act and whether the Second Amendment protects an individual’s right to possess firearms outside the home or after a conviction for a nonviolent […]