“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.
Courts
Posted inCourts
Tracking cookies doesn’t violate wiretap law, SJC rules
The 1960s-era Wiretap Act prohibits covertly intercepting communications, but the majority of Supreme Judicial Court justices concluded Thursday that use of popular AdTech tools that monitored a Revere resident’s browsing on the New England Baptist Hospital and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center websites doesn’t fall under that definition.
Posted inHousing
Lawmakers say they meant for MBTA Communities law to have teeth
“What I found interesting was what the case was not about,” zoning expert and consultant Amy Dain said on The Codcast. “The justices and the lawyers in the courtroom were not debating whether there’s a housing crisis. “
Posted inCourts
Post-Bruen decision, everyone has to be a gun-law historian
The decision has opened almost all aspects of the state’s gun safety law regime to challenge and sent lawyers scrambling for history books. As recent Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court decisions have shown, if a policy is not tied to a founding-era law or practice – a so-called historical analogue – it likely will not survive judicial scrutiny.
Posted inHousing
SJC raises questions about MBTA Communities Act penalties
There seemed to be a mixed reception to the arguments on Monday, with some justices inclined to parse legal minutiae that could support a narrow ruling on technical grounds. Others appeared compelled by a broader public policy argument that could allow wide latitude for the state to enforce laws designed to address the crippling housing shortage.
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 inOpinion
AG’s settlement with Uber and Lyft leaves big worker protection issues unresolved
Uber and Lyft got what they most wanted – no admission that their drivers are employees. The attorney general’s office got what they felt they needed – the rideshare companies’ commitment to withdraw a ballot question that would have codified drivers’ status as independent contractors. But the settlement left the larger issue of the role of misclassification in the gig economy unresolved.
Posted inCourts
SJC greenlights electric substation in E. Boston
The Conservation Law Foundation and the Chelsea-based advocacy group Greenroots had argued that the state’s Energy Facilities Siting Board approved the East Boston substation location – across the street from a school — without adequately considering “the equitable distribution of energy and environmental benefits and environmental burdens.”
Posted inOpinion
JD Vance has become a laugh line to some, but his stance on divorce is seriously dangerous
Vance’s long list of what women should not be allowed to control keeps getting longer: their bodies, their reproductive rights, who they marry, whether they have children (or cats) and now, whether they can divorce.
Posted inCourts
In case of $70,000 Tiffany ring, SJC judges fully engaged
Justices at the state’s highest court appear open to doing away with the traditional approach to answering a very niche question: should it matter whose fault it is when an engagement goes sour, even with a $70,000 diamond ring on the line?