SCOTUS to Hear Mississippi Abortion Rights Case - House Passes George Floyd Justice in Policing Act - What Does Your Fitbit Say about Your Claimed Injury?

• Pages: 9-9
• Date: 01 July 2021
• Author: Hon. Oran F. Whiting (Ret.)
• Subject Matter: Civil Law

Published in Litigation News Volume 46, Number 4, Summer 20 21. © 2021 by the American Bar A ssociation. Repro duced with permissi on. All rights reser ved. This informati on or any portion the reof may not be copie d or disseminated in any

form or by any means or sto red in an electronic da tabase or retrieval sy stem without the ex press writt en consent of the Amer ican Bar Associatio n.

SCOTUS to Hear Mississippi Abortion Rights Case

House Passes George Floyd Justice in Policing Act

What Does Your Fitbit Say about Your Claimed Injury?

U.S. SUP REME COUR T

Abortion

In a move potentially ae cting Roe

v. Wade, S COTUS will hearD obbs

v. Jackson Women’s Health O rgani-

zation, in which the orga nization,

Mississippi’s sole licensed abortion

provider, successfully challenged the

constitutionality of Mississ ippi’s 2018

law barring abor tions after the 15th

week of pregnancy.

The Court will a ddress (1) whether

all pre-viability prohibitions on elec-

tive abortions are unconstitutional;

(2) whether the valid ity of a pre-via-

bility law protecti ng women’s health,

the dignity of unb orn children, and

the integrity of the m edical profes-

sion and society should be analyzed

underPlanne d Parenthood v. Casey’s

“undue burden” standard orWhole

Woman’s Health v. Hellerste dt’s bal-

ancing of benef‌its and burdens; and

(3) whether abortion providers have

third-part y standing to invalidate a

law protecting wome n’s health from

the risks presen ted by late-term

abortions. Dobbs v. Jackson Wome n’s

Health Organizatio n, No.19-139 2.

DEPARTMENT O F JUSTICE

Civil Rights

As a result of Geor ge Floyd’s mur-

der, the Departm ent of Justice and

the U.S. Attor ney’s Oce for the

District of Min nesota will jointly inves-

tigate and assess th e pattern and

practice of the use fo rce by the City

of Minneapolis and the Minneapolis

Police Department’s ocers. The

entities’ investigation w ill compre-

hensively review policies, training,

supervision, and accountability, and

attempt to assess wh ether the police

department engages in discrimina-

tory policing.

Second Amendment

The Justice De partment is hoping to

help close a regul atory loophole asso-

ciated with “ghost gu ns,” unserialized

privately made f‌ire arms, by proposing

updates to the def‌in itions of f‌irearm,

frame, and receiver. These f‌irearms,

often assemb led from kits sold without

background checks, are easily acquir-

able by those who may not l egally be

entitled to f‌irearm ownership.

U.S. HOU SE OF

REPRESENTATIVES

Civil Rights

The George Floyd J ustice in Policing

Act of 2021 addre sses a broad range

of policing prac tices and law enforce-

ment accounta bility. The act, passed

by the House on Marc h 3, 2021,

imposes accou ntability for law enforce-

ment miscondu ct, restricts the use of

certain policing practices, enhances

transparency and data collection, and

establishes best practices and train-

ing requireme nts. It also directs the

Departme nt of Justice to create uni-

form accreditatio n standards for law

enforcement agencies. H.R. 1280.

Banking/Cannabis

Depository in stitutions would no longer

be penalized by fede ral banking regu-

lators for providing b anking services to

legitimate cannabis-related businesses

under the Secure and Fair Enforcement

Banking Act of 2 021. Passed by the

House on April 1 9, 2021, the act pro-

hibits the termin ation or reduction of

institutions’ deposit insurance solely

because the in stitution provides f‌inan-

cial services to a l egitimate cannabis-

related business. Federal banking

agencies may ne ither request nor

order a depositor y institution to termi-

nate a customer acco unt unless (1) the

agency has a val id reason for doing so,

and (2) that reason is n ot based solely

on reputation ris k. Importantly, pro-

ceeds from trans actions involving legit-

AND MORE . . . BY HO N. ORAN F. WHITI NG (RET.), LITIGATION NEWS ASSOCIATE EDITOR

imate cannabis-related businesses

would not be consid ered unlawful.

H.R. 1996.

EASTERN DISTRICT OF

MI SS OUR I

Discover y/Produ cts

Liability

A federal judg e recently ruled a plain-

ti suing an arti f‌icial hip maker for

injuries cau sed by an allegedly defec-

tive hip implant mus t produce his

Fitbit data. The cl aimant admitted to

being a freque nt wearer of the device,

the data from which t he defendant

sought to refute the cla imant’s injury

claim of pain and la ck of mobility. The

district cour t judge felt the informa-

tion relevant to the inju ry claim and

that irrelevant information could be

redacted. Th ough the parties decried

the dearth of pre cedent, requests for

Fitbit records have bee n denied by

New York courts, tho ugh Texas courts

have permitted the in troduction of

evidence derived f rom such technol-

ogy. B artis v. Biomet, Inc., No. 13-c v-

00 65 7.

EXECUTIVE

Hate Crimes

The president si gned the COVID-19

Hate Crimes Act into law o n May 20,

2021. The De partment of Justice must

now assist the exped ited review of

hate crimes, help law enforcement

agencies establish online hate crime

reporting processes, expand educa-

tion campaign s, and, in conjunction

with the Depart ment of Health and

Human Ser vices, raise awareness of

hate crimes durin g the COVID-19 pan-

demic. S. 93 7.

AMERICA N BAR ASSOCIATION SUMMER 2 021 • VOL. 46 NO. 4 | 9

KEEPING WATCH EMERGING DEVELOPMENTS FOR LITIGATORS