Recent legal happenings, and upcoming cases to watch.
Its been a while in production but the new Woodring Law Firm website and Legal Conservative Blog are live! Now it is just a matter of having time to write on good topics.
Several important cases up this fall bear notice, and will be more commented upon later. The first is the Hillary movie case (Citizens United v. FEC, 08-205), up for a special oral argument before the U.S Supreme Court. It is a hugely important case dealing with the underlying constitutionality of the McCain-Feingold Campaign Finance Act. It may be the vehicle the Court uses to strike down under the First Amendment restrictions on corporate contribution limits. For further discussion from a conservative perspective is what the reach of the First Amendment is to be, since it was not even applied against the states until 1931, and initially was held not to protect corporations at all. Link for discussion of OA
Another interesting case to watch is the beach renourishment case from Florida (Stop the Beach Renourishment v. Florida Department of Environmental Protection)that U.S. Supreme Court is reviewing this fall term on takings grounds. More information on the issues in this case to follow. A good discussion of this case is found here.
Locally, it has been interesting to watch the NCAA litigation over public records issues. There are some significant issues to be resolved in this case as to the preemptive effect of federal statutory and constitutional law on Florida public records requirements, and even some interesting contractual issues so more discussion to follow as this case is briefed – deadline for briefing is the 21st.
Still to come is a look back at some FL Supreme Court cases of this past year, including the judicial appointment case, and the Strand decision. I think it is ripe to discuss Stare Decisis in the context of Strand.