Legal Report Resources September 2016
Concealed Carry. There is no Second Amendment protection for carrying a concealed weapon in public, a federal appeals court ruled. The ruling stems from a case brought by plaintiffs living in San Diego and Yolo counties in California who sought to carry concealed firearms in public for self-defense. However, they were denied licenses to carry because they did not satisfy the good cause requirements in their counties.
Encryption. The UK House of Commons passed a bill that limits the use of encryption and gives spy agencies the ability to engage in bulk surveillance. The Investigatory Powers Bill allows the government to require technology companies to undo data encryption they’ve put into place, but only when it is technically feasible and not “unduly expensive” to do so.
Disclosure. A New York appeals court ordered reversed a previous court order, shielding documents about the New York City Police Department’s use of unmarked x-ray vans to detect explosives from Freedom of Information Law requests.
Overtime. President Barack Obama issued an executive order that makes 4.2 million more U.S. employees eligible for overtime compensation. Under the order, most salaried workers earning up to $47,476 a year must be paid time-and-a-half overtime pay when they work more than 40 hours during a week.
Sexual assault. The U.S. Senate passed a bill that clarifies what basic services sexual violence victims are entitled to receive. The bill (S. 2566) ensures that victims have a right to—and are not charged for—a medical forensic examination, are able to access the results to forensic tests on their rape kit, and that their rape kit is preserved for the entire statute of limitations in their state.
Terrorism. Hungary enacted a constitutional amendment that allows the government to limit social media and the public’s right to assemble in a terrorist emergency. The amendment, the sixth to Hungary’s Basic Law adopted in 2012, allows parliament to declare a state of emergency for a maximum of 15 days in the event of a terrorist threat or attack.
Data Security. Illinois passed amendments to its Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA) that expand the definition of personal data and set new data breach notification requirements. The amendments go into effect on January 1, 2017.
Speedy trials. Once a defendant is convicted or pleads guilty to a crime, he or she no longer has a right to a “speedy and public trial” under the Sixth Amendment, according to the U.S. Supreme Court. “We hold that the guarantee protects the accused from arrest or indictment through trial, but does not apply once a defendant has been found guilty at trial or has pleaded guilty to criminal charges,” wrote Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg for the Court.
Negligence. Two victims of a 2015 shooting at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs filed a lawsuit against the healthcare provider, claiming it should have done more to prevent the “foreseeable” incident. The suit is in response to the November 27, 2015, shooting where alleged shooter, 58-year-old Robert Dear, entered the clinic and opened fire, killing three people and injuring nine others.
Hacking. Ardit Ferizi, 20, of Kosovo, pleaded guilty to stealing the personal information of more than 1,000 U.S. servicemen and federal employees and sending it to ISIS. Ferizi hacked the servers of a U.S. company in the summer of 2015, which held personally identifiable information on tens of thousands of customers. He then shared that data with ISIS’s former lead hacker—Junaid Hussain—“with the understanding that they would incite terrorist attacks against those individuals.”
