Health Care / Medicine

Non-Sequiturs: 10.14.10

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Obamacare

* A federal judge allows state challenges to Obamacare go forward. Whatever, wake me up in 15 years when we have to have the single-payer debate again. [Wall Street Journal]

* The purpose of teaching lawyers how to act isn’t to help them become better liars. [End Scene, Exit Right]. [Underdog]

* “It’s okay in Italy” is not a viable defense to sexual harassment. [Courthouse News Service via @kashhill]

* British billionaire Alki David will pay Obama streaker’s rent for a year, and his sister’s hospital bills, but not the full $1 million. [ABC News]

* CVS is getting smacked so hard, you’d think it was a supporting character on Breaking Bad. [CNN Money]

* A bunch of big name law professors, including several members of the Volokh Conspiracy, signed a letter endorsing the legalization of pot in California. [WSJ Law Blog]

* Musical chairs: congrats to Lat’s former Wachtell colleague, Scott Black, who has left the SEC and joined Hudson Bay Capital Management as general counsel and chief compliance officer. [Dow Jones]

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Morning Docket: 10.08.10

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HLS grad turned 9/11 memorial vandal Brian Schroeder.

* Sh*t just got real. Real canceled. [New York Daily News]

* Some activist judge in Michigan refused to strike down Obamacare. [Los Angeles Times]

* Aaah, burqa burqa burqa. [CNN]

* Guys at Elie’s law school burned 9/11 memorials all the time, it was no big deal. Until prosecutors got tough. [New York Post]

* If buying soda with food stamps is outlawed, only outlaws with food stamps will have soda. Wait…what? [New York Times]

* More than 100 lawyers have applied to lead the way against BP and their big oily hole. Big names like David Boies, Mike Espy, and Derriel McCorvey, who “noted that he was an all-Southeastern Conference defensive back at Louisiana State University.” [Associated Press]

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The Sexting District Attorney: Ken Kratz to Resign as DA, But He’ll Always Be ‘The Prize’

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Guess we won’t have Kenneth Kratz to kick around anymore. Kratz, aka the Sexting District Attorney, will soon step down as DA of Calumet County, Wisconsin. According to his attorney, Kratz’s resignation will take place before October 8, the date set for his removal hearing. The news was reported on Tuesday by the Associated Press.

Losing his post as chief prosecutor will definitely cramp Kratz’s dating style. He’ll forfeit his high-profile job and its $105,000 salary. He’ll no longer be able to hit on women victims seeking help from his office by sending them text messages that read “Are you the kind of girl that likes secret contact with an older married elected DA?” and “I’m the atty. I have the $350,000 house. I have the 6-figure career. You may be the tall, young, hot nymph, but I am the prize!”

And no more romantic dates at the medical examiner’s, either.

On a more serious note, one aspect of Kratz’s conduct in particular merits special condemnation….

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Biglaw Blind Item: Who Has Herpes?

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Actually, we’re not sure that it’s herpes; that’s just a guess, based on context clues. But apparently some prominent, white-shoe law firm has been hit by an outbreak of a sexually-transmitted disease.

Check out this Biglaw blind item….

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Lawsuit of the Day: You Mad? Circumcised Baby Edition

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Gone baby gone.

Protip: Don’t look up the Wikipedia entry for foreskin. Don’t do it even if you have to write a post about a baby who was given a circumcision against his parents’ wishes. Vera Delgado, the baby’s mother, had left the hospital to shower and get a change of clothes. Just long enough for Nurse Ratched and the gang to do the do. Delgado’s lawyer, Spencer Aronfeld, summed up the understandable reaction:

“It was horrific, quite frankly,” said Aronfeld. “The parents were very explicit they did not want him circumcised, and [the hospital] had asked the parents repeatedly.”

Since announcing Delgado would sue, Aronfeld said he has received countless supportive e-mail messages and seen social network postings from so-called “intactivists” who oppose circumcision.

“People who are passionate about not circumcising their children are sending me Facebook messages, like, “I love you. You are my hero!”

So the mother is suing the hospital. Of course (not of course), we all remember from law school (from Google) that Benjamin Cardozo wrote the seminal opinion in which an unwanted surgical procedure was legally classified as battery. And that’s exactly what the mother is suing the hospital for. All fine and well. Somebody messed up, and “Oops!” isn’t going to cut it.

But it’s not the dollar amount of $1 million that jumps out from the story….

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Former MoFo Partner Accused of Major Fraud

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You know how violent felons treat pedophiles particularly bad in the prison system? I wonder if fraudsters reserve special scorn for people who use their disabled children as part of the scam? A former partner at Morrison & Foerster may soon find out. He’s been arrested for defrauding the state of California out of hundreds of thousands of dollars by way of scam utilizing his autistic kid. The San Francisco Chronicle reports:

A former partner at a well-known law firm and his marketing consultant wife were arrested Wednesday on felony charges of bilking the San Francisco school district and private insurers out of about $400,000 via fraudulent bills for treatment of their autistic son, officials say.

The San Francisco couple, Jonathan S. Dickstein and Barclay J. Lynn, both 43, surrendered Wednesday and are expected to appear in court this morning for arraignment on 30 counts of fraud, theft and conspiracy, authorities say.

We can and will blame the alleged perpetrators of this fraud. But where was the government oversight?

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Virginia Lawsuit Against Health Care Reform Allowed to Continue

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Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli can take his legal attack on the health reform legislation one step further. Today Judge Henry Hudson (E.D. Va.) denied a Health and Human Services motion to dismiss — which means we’re headed for discovery. The WSJ Law Blog reports:

The ruling represents a setback that will force the Obama administration to mount a lengthy legal defense of the law. The suit, filed by Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, alleges that the law’s requirement that its residents have health insurance violates the Commerce Clause of the Constitution…

In his opinion, Judge Hudson ruled: “The guiding precedent [on the Commerce Clause] is informative but inconclusive.”

At times like these, it’s important to remember that the Democrats have 255 votes in the House and 59 votes in the Senate, but only four votes on the Supreme Court…

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Morning Docket: 07.28.10

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Warren Jeffs

* A team of federal investigators called the “BP Squad” is starting up a criminal investigation into BP and its pals, Transocean and Halliburton. [Washington Post]

* The four justices of the Utah Supreme Court have reversed the rape convictions of polygamist leader Warren Jeffs. No word yet on their response to his marriage proposal. [How Appealing]

* The Sacramento firm of McDonough Holland & Allen is closing up shop by Labor Day, and its 80 or so attorneys are looking for new homes. [Am Law Daily]

* We can now return to not knowing or caring about Levinson Axelrod. [ABA Journal]

* Obama to Senate: plug the damn hole — in the ranks of the federal judiciary. [The BLT: The Blog of Legal Times]

* Texas is simultaneously fighting and following the new health care law — the Supremacy Clause is a real bi**h sometimes. [New York Times]

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Pls Hndle Thx: Eyes Are the Window to Flex Spending Accounts

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Ed. note: Have a question for next week? Send it in to advice@abovethelaw.com.

Dear ATL,

I work in Manhattan and it’s time for me to get a new prescription for my glasses. Some of my friends are saying that I should trade in the glasses for contacts, to make me look young (I’m on the wrong side of 30). But others contend that glasses give me a distinguished look which will help my career. Still others suggest Lasik — though I’m not wild about shooting laser beams into my eyeballs.

What should I do? I’ve been delaying going to the optometrist for weeks while I ponder my options.

Four Eyes

The optician isn’t a needle exchange… you don’t have to surrender your old, dirty glasses in order to procure a clean set of contacts. This is America, you can have both, especially if you have a Flex Spending account.  The real question is whether you should roll up to work in glasses or contacts. Lasik only makes sense if you like paying money for permanent broken blood vessels and blurry night vision.

Gender plays a large role in the answer…

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NYU Law and Cornell on Suicide Watch?

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How big of a problem is suicide on law school campuses? Recently, a suicide tragedy affected the UNC Law community. In December, a student at Michigan Law took his own life. And there have been sad and high-profile suicides in Biglaw too.

It’s impossible to assess the precise role the recession may have played in these recent tragedies. It’s a little too easy to blame everything on a shaky economy and uncertain job prospects. The thoughts that flash through the head of a person about to take his or her own life are deeply complicated .

The old platitudes — e.g., “if you are feeling overwhelmed, get help” — seem meaningless in the face of actual death.

It appears that some law school and university communities are taking more aggressive steps towards suicide prevention. At NYU and Cornell, officials are trying to limit access to potential suicide points on campus.

Are these steps necessary? More to the point, will these steps be effective?

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