It remains still unclear if the behavior of a Harvard morgue manager who allegedly ran a multi-state human remains scheme – “ghoulish” in the words of a Supreme Judicial Court justice considering the case – means that the Ivy League school is also on the hook.
Supreme Judicial Court
Posted inPolitics
Political Notebook: An ad campaign’s cutting room floor
History, as the aphorism goes, is written by the winners. So are the tourism ads celebrating the victories 250 years later.
Posted inCourts
SJC: $70,000 engagement ring must be returned to giver if wedding called off
“We now join the modern trend adopted by the majority of jurisdictions that have considered the issue and retire the concept of fault in this context; where, as here, the planned wedding does not ensue and the engagement is ended, the engagement ring must be returned to the donor regardless of fault,” Justice Dalila Wendlandt wrote for a unanimous court.
Posted inHousing
20 groups weigh in on MBTA Communities Act case
The key issue in the case is whether Campbell can compel compliance when the MBTA Communities Act statute itself is silent on her enforcement power and specifically mentions the loss of grant funds as the penalty for noncompliance.
Posted inCourts
SJC rules Mass. switchblade ban unconstitutional
Second Amendment protections are “not limited to firearms,” Justice Serge Georges wrote for a unanimous court. “Like handguns, a person can carry a switchblade for offensive or defensive purposes in case of confrontation.”
Posted inCourts
SJC to decide who gets $70,000 ring after engagement called off
The question before the high court, according to a request for amicus briefs, is whether Massachusetts courts should continue applying a “fault-based approach” in determining whether an engagement ring must be returned to the giver after a broken engagement. If not, the court asks, what’s the better rule?
Posted inCourts
Is collecting your data the modern wiretap?
Could using AdTech software to monitor a public website visitor’s online actions amount to an illegal wiretap in Massachusetts?
Posted inCourts
Arguments in 7-Eleven franchise case ‘almost incomprehensible’
A case that has ping-ponged between state and federal courts considering whether 7-Eleven franchisees are independent contractors or employees under Massachusetts law left the SJC openly befuddled.
Posted inCourts
Full SJC to hear Milton rezoning case
Justice Serge Georges Jr. said the case against Milton, which centers around how to enforce the MBTA Communities Act, “raises novel questions of law which are of public importance and which are time sensitive and likely to recur.”
Posted inCourts
When is a spouse not a spouse under Medicaid rules?
After five years of back and forth on the issue, including three formal hearings, MassHealth denied Tingos coverage, even after he passed away in 2020. The state agency said Tingos’s wife was not “genuinely uncooperative.”