Looking Up

  • Law

  • Senior U.S. District Judge ruled that a man gets his money back that was wrongfully seized by the government and reminds the government of its duty of candor. [RJ]
  • At least a couple of things have gone right for North Las Vegas lately. [RJ; Las Vegas Sun]
  • The U.S. Supreme Court issued an opinion in King v. Burwell upholding subsidies for the Affordable Care Act. You can find the opinion and in-depth coverage at SCOTUSblog.
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Anonymous
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Anonymous
June 25, 2015 3:12 pm

King is an intellectually dishonest opinion.

Anonymous
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Anonymous
June 25, 2015 3:42 pm
Reply to  Anonymous

You are.

Anonymous
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Anonymous
June 25, 2015 4:03 pm
Reply to  Anonymous

8:12 clearly voted for Obama.

Anonymous
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Anonymous
June 25, 2015 4:11 pm
Reply to  Anonymous

8:12 Here. Independent with an originalist bent. I expect more than result oriented decisions from the highest court in the land. Stare decisis is worthless if the the result is preordained based on whether the justices like/dislike the law being questioned. Save application of law based on personality to the minor leagues, not the SCOTUS.

Anonymous
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Anonymous
June 25, 2015 4:43 pm
Reply to  Anonymous

King is intellectually dishonest? You mean like Bush v. Gore? The only difference is that King preserved health coverage for millions of people while B v. G gave us eight years of Dubya. I'll take the former.

Anonymous
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Anonymous
June 25, 2015 4:45 pm
Reply to  Anonymous

I love it. People can't admit that they are Republicans anymore because Republican leadership in Washington is so backward. Now they are all "independent." The decision in King was not results oriented. The petitioners were asking that a law be interpreted in the exact opposite manner than how it was written and passed (4 words do not overcome the hundreds of other pages of text). Congress does not hide elephants in mouse holes. Furthermore, even if the Court didn't decide based on the reasoning in the opinion, it would have reached the same result because the law would not give appropriate notice to the states that refraining from maintaining a state exchange would result in denying the citizens of that state subsidies. The only people who should be disappointed in the ruling are those who wanted to see insurance marketplaces struggle.

Anonymous
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Anonymous
June 25, 2015 4:56 pm
Reply to  Anonymous

Oh, 9:45, I do hate the insurance industry! Until you wrote the last line, I didn't care about the outcome at all! You have ruined my day.

Anonymous
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Anonymous
June 25, 2015 4:20 pm

This is how Scalia's dissent ends:

But this Court’s two decisions on the Act will surely be remembered through the years. The somersaults of statutory interpretation they have performed (“penalty” means tax, “further [Medicaid] payments to the State” means only incremental Medicaid payments to the State, “established by the State”means not established by the State) will be cited by litigants endlessly, to the confusion of honest jurisprudence.And the cases will publish forever the discouraging truth that the Supreme Court of the United States favors some laws over others, and is prepared to do whatever it takesto uphold and assist its favorites.

He has a bit of a point, but in the big picture, an opposite result in King wouldn't have helped anyone except those trying to undermine Obama. Do the states that didn't set up exchanges really want to answer to their voters that are losing insurance subsidies? And compare this map: (http://obamacarefacts.com/obamacare-lawsuit/) with this map: (http://elections.nytimes.com/2012/results/president) (indicating high correlation between being a red state and not setting up a state exchange).

Anonymous
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Anonymous
June 25, 2015 4:43 pm
Reply to  Anonymous

After Bush v. Gore, Scalia should shut the hell us about the Supreme Court doing "whatever to takes to uphold and assist its favorites."

Anonymous
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Anonymous
June 25, 2015 4:45 pm
Reply to  Anonymous

I'm not sure if it's always been this way, but I think every member of the current U.S. Supreme Court could be justifiably accused of this.

Anonymous
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Anonymous
June 25, 2015 4:46 pm
Reply to  Anonymous

Yeah, Scalia should shut his pie hole considering he signed onto Bush v. Gore — an opinion which was "limited to the present circumstances"! Talk about outcome-determinative analysis! He has no cred complaining about it now.

Anonymous
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Anonymous
June 25, 2015 5:19 pm
Reply to  Anonymous

At 9:20. Everyone else is right about the dire consequences on the insurance marketplace, but that does not and should not matter to the legal analysis. Judges are not legislators. If the legislature screws up a law, it is their own fault and THEY must fix it or face the consequences. The Court is not supposed to step in as the "shadow legislature" to rewrite it.

The problem recognized by Scalia is that King guts the foundational axiom of Plain Meaning. The SCOTUS has just caused years of headache for every lower court. The SCOTUS will have to spend years trying to reestablish Plain Meaning, and drawing distinctions from King. Simply put, its bad case law.

Anonymous
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Anonymous
June 25, 2015 5:52 pm
Reply to  Anonymous

So, basically, the 16 states that accepted at face value that they needed to spend the money to create their own exchange so that their citizens can get tax credits were sold a false bill of goods. Seriously. The Act intended to use the credits to convince the states into creating the exchanges, so that the "cost" of the ACA could be underreported. That didn't happen. But the fact that it didn't happen does not magically change the clear and unambiguous language into ambiguous language, subject to results-oriented analysis. It's piss-poor case law. SCOTUS has utterly forgotten that one of its primary roles is to provide guidance to lower courts. They haven't provided clear guidance in who knows how long.

Anonymous
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Anonymous
June 25, 2015 9:58 pm
Reply to  Anonymous

Scalia can't get out of his own way with his histrionic dissents. They usually state something like "today the majority wrongly holds XYZ, which essentially means [end of days], and [parade of horribles]". In fact, the majority has rarely gone as far as Scalia suggests, but his dissents allow enterprising attorneys to go into court and say, "this case stands for XYZ, and even Scalia agrees with me." In that sense I think Scalia places himself above his causes.

Anonymous
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Anonymous
June 26, 2015 3:23 am
Reply to  Anonymous

Wow. Just wow.

Anonymous
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Anonymous
June 25, 2015 4:57 pm

Bush v. Gore was a 7-2 decision on the constitutional question. It was only 5-4 on the appropriate remedy in that particular case.

Anonymous
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Anonymous
June 25, 2015 5:07 pm
Reply to  Anonymous

Hey, lets not ruin a good story.

Anonymous
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Anonymous
June 25, 2015 8:44 pm

That is some filing in the Gordon Silver matter – I guess that BK is the next step?

Anonymous
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Anonymous
June 25, 2015 9:31 pm
Reply to  Anonymous

That's what it looks like. And what is going on in the LSC bankruptcy? Any progress there? We should have a permanent top of the page topic solely dealing with LSC and GS updates.

Anonymous
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Anonymous
June 25, 2015 10:06 pm
Reply to  Anonymous

Can anyone post the filings?

Anonymous
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Anonymous
June 26, 2015 1:34 am
Reply to  Anonymous

Now I see G&S's problem – according to the filing, they have $9,325,212.31 in A/R as of the close of 2014.
Here is the filing – Motion for Prejudgment Writ of Attachment on an Order Shortening Time. 252 pages long. http://bit.ly/1GMa2Kj

Anonymous
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Anonymous
June 25, 2015 8:47 pm

No discussion of Superlawyers Mountain States list? Or are we tired of the subject?

Anonymous
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Anonymous
June 25, 2015 11:04 pm
Reply to  Anonymous

You have to pay to get on that list

Anonymous
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Anonymous
June 26, 2015 4:26 pm
Reply to  Anonymous

I've been on that list for eight years, and I've never paid. You have to pay for that stupid Top 40 Under 40.

Anonymous
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Anonymous
June 25, 2015 8:55 pm
Anonymous
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Anonymous
June 25, 2015 9:44 pm
Reply to  Anonymous

bluetooth guy?

Anonymous
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Anonymous
June 26, 2015 1:43 am
Reply to  Anonymous

His website bio reminds of this guy – http://goo.gl/nUlGhU

Anonymous
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Anonymous
June 25, 2015 11:02 pm

One in the samr