Legal Radar

White House Pushing Forward to Data Privacy Protection

The White House is finally getting caught up with the perception of Americans losing control of their private data.

President Barack Obama recently announced a set of legislative proposals made to safeguard privacy in all sectors as well as tech, energy, and education.

The Student Digital Privacy Act, an education bill, would prevent tech firms from looking into student data and selling it to other parties that utilize it for non-educational reasons as well as taking part in aggressive advertising to children.

Over seventy firms have signed on the proposal which include Microsoft, Apple, and ClassDojo, a tech firm that offers teaching tools.

The White House made a promise in proposing the legislation of the Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights --- a code of corporate conduct released by the Obama administration three years ago. The bill of rights indicate that consumers have the right in managing personal data gathered by companies, and that such security and privacy policies should be simple enough to access and easy to comprehend.

Google Looking to SC on Copyright Case

After the Supreme Court spent months chipping away at patent protection for software, Google Inc., and other tech firms now want limits to be set on how program makers can utilize copyrights to add exclusive rights over software.

Google’s request offers the court a chance to think of the extent on which innovation of software can be replicated without the knowledge of the original developer.

Oracle purchased Java when it bought out Sun Microsystems in 2010 and filed a suit against Google on the very same year, claiming that the search giant’s Android software for handheld devices infringed copyrights on the Java platform.

The legal war divided the both firms. Google and Oracle claim that their position would lead to a major blow of tech innovation. A judge prevented Oracle from pursuing specific copyright claims against the search giant, but the court of appeals in the previous year overturned such ruling and ended up siding with Oracle.

Google’s request of limiting copyrights would alter a legal shield that are essential to software industry growth.

Republicans Split After Suit Made Against Marijuana Law

Oklahoma’s own attorney general is being criticized by state lawmakers from his own party, who said the suit he filed against the legalization of marijuana in Colorado indicated troubling implications for the rights of the state.

Just last month, Nebraska and Oklahoma asked the permission of the Supreme Court to make Colorado’s marijuana law legal --- indicating it’s in violation of the supremacy clause of the Constitution, which makes the federal law as the highest form of law in the country.

A number of Republican state lawmakers in Oklahoma signed a letter petitioning Oklahoma attorney general Scott Pruitt to pull out.

Pruitt, who calls himself as an advocate for the rights of the state, won’t be backing down, saying that GOP lawmakers misunderstood the litigation concept.

Colorado became the first state in the country to allow the sale of recreational marijuana in January, after voters a few years back passed a ballot measure to legalizing the drug for those who are 21 years and beyond.

“Jane Doe” Attorneys File Defamation Suit against Dershowitz

Alan Dershowitz is storming back with a defamation suit against two attorneys who said in a court document that Jeffrey Epstein, a financier from Florida, made sexual arrangements for him with an underage escort.

Bradley Edwards and Paul Cassell, representing the underage individual who said she had a sexual relationship with Dershowitz under the direction of Epstein, filed a defamation suit against Dershowitz at a Florida court.

Dershowitz is looking to dismiss claims that surfaced in the previous week of a court filing made by plaintiffs as part of a suit against the government on a non-prosecution deal made by Epstein. Epstein is an ex-client and a friend of Dershowitz who was found guilty in soliciting underage escorts.

Jane Doe #3, another female looking to take part in the suit, says Epstein demanded her to have sex with Dershowitz in the business tycoon’s private jet, and in his homes in Palm Beach, New York City, and the Caribbean Island.

Grand Jury of Ferguson Wants Lifetime Gag Order on Free Speech

A grand jury member in a case of the police shooting in Ferguson, Mo., filed a lawsuit early this week to tear down a gag rule that protects the secrecy of the widely scrutinized proceedings resulting to charges being dropped against a police officer.

The jury member, going under the moniker “Juror Doe,” indicated in the suit that the grand jury in the Darren Wilson case was carried out in a different manner compared to other cases presented during its terms. It also mentioned the county prosecutor not being transparent in conducting the proceedings.

The executive director of American Civil Liberties Union of Missouri, Jeff Mittman, who also represents the juror, said that such particular facts appear to be unconstitutional in placing a lifetime gag order on the grand jurors.

Mittman also said that the juror won’t pursue commenting on the controversial case since they’ve doing the best they can in respecting the legal process.

Activists Urging Obama to Support Statehood

Washington D.C. activists are urging President Barack Obama to advocate the statehood issue in his upcoming State of the Union address, describing the district’s status to be a “moral cause.”

The founder of Neighbors United for DC Statehood, Josh Burch, kicked off a petition via an outreach website asking Obama to mention the lack of congress voting representation in Washington, D.C. in his State of the Union address to congress.

Such petition came despite renewed national attention of D.C’s lack of political autonomy and voting rights.

While residents of D.C. can vote for municipal offices and in presidential elections, their lone Congress representative is actually a non-voting delegate.

Congress will also have the last say on D.C.’s legal code and financials --- an authority that have been used by parties frequently to reverse laws that have been passed locally.

Obama fully supports D.C. statehood. He even co-sponsored a statehood bill in the Senate and last year, he mentioned of favoring of statehood.