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News Roundup
Weekly Briefs: Woman claims fetus is a passenger; Recording police is protected, appeals court says
Woman says unborn baby counts for carpool lane
A Plano, Texas, woman contends she shouldn’t be ticketed for driving in the carpool lane because she is pregnant and her unborn baby counts as a passenger. The woman, Brandy Bottone, has a July 20 court date. She was ticketed after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. According to the New York Times, “The incident raised a host of complicated legal and philosophical questions about what defines a person and how shifting definitions might soon filter out into other aspects of policy.” (NPR, the New York Times)
Filming police protected by First Amendment, 10th Circuit rules
A police officer is not entitled to qualified immunity for interfering with a YouTube journalist and blogger who was filming a DUI stop, according to the Denver-based 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The court’s July 11 opinion said there is a First Amendment right to film police performing their duties in public, and it was clearly established based on rulings by six other federal circuit courts. The citizen journalist, Abade Irizarry, had claimed a police officer obstructed his filming, shined a flashlight into his camera, and then drove a police cruiser at him a fellow journalist. (The Associated Press, the Denver Post, the opinion)
Even managers are protected from retaliation, appeals court says
A federal appeals court has ruled that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act protects even managerial employees from retaliation by their employers for opposing discrimination. The Atlanta-based 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled for Marie Patterson, a senior HR manager with Georgia Pacific. There is no “manager exception” in Title VII that protects the company, the appeals court said in a July 5 opinion. (Law.com, Reuters, the opinion)
Womble to merge with San Francisco-based firm
Womble Bond Dickinson is merging with San Francisco-based Cooper, White & Cooper. Following the merger on Sept. 1, Womble will have more than 50 lawyers across four markets in California. (Law.com, Womble press release)
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