Distinguished fellow blogger Stephen Holzer, at Environmental Legal Blogs has an excellent short analysis of the U.S. Supreme Court Decision in Rapanos v. United States. Check it out here, and check out his blog frequently for similar insightful posts. His concluding comment on the case:

“Nonetheless, for those of us accustomed over the last 40-50 years to seeing the Supreme Court rarely put brakes of any kind on the federal government’s appetite for expansion, today was indeed one for the books.” Continue Reading Stephen Holzer (Environmental Legal Blogs) Analyzes Supreme Court Decision on Clean Water Act

In Hamilton v. Winder, 2006-0994 (La. 6/16/06), 2006 WL 1669429, the Louisiana Supreme Court held that the district court had the power under LSA-C.C.P. art. 1631(A) to “bump” a consistently tardy juror in the middle of trial and replace him with an alternate. Although Article 1769 states that “Alternate jurors…shall replace jurors who…become unable or disqualified to perform their duties,” the Supreme Court held that the trial court did not have to determine that the sluggish juror in question was either “unable” or “disqualified” to perform his duties. Continue Reading District Court Has Power To Replace Chronically-Tardy Juror with Alternate

The 18th Judicial District Court in Louisiana (Iberville, West Baton Rouge and Pointe Coupee Parishes) has requested, and received, an ad hoc judge appointment. Judge Thomas W. Tanner has been appointed by the Louisiana Supreme Court to handle all asbestos cases. Ad hoc judges are used occasionally in asbestos cases and have been appointed for virtually all cases in the 19th Judicial District (East Baton Rouge Parish) and 4th Judicial District Court (Ouachita and Morehouse Parishes). A copy of the order can be accessed here. Download file

The Louisiana House of Representative, House Labor Committee approved SB 700 by a vote of 6-5. SB 700 would set a state-wide minimum wage of $6.15 or $1.00 higher than the existing federal minimum wage. As written, SB 700 has several exceptions. SB 700 now goes to the full House of Representatives for consideration. The full House recently rejected a House bill that would have also raised the state minimum wage.

Here’s an article from today’s Baton Rouge Advocate.

Louisiana’s Title V permit program requires each permit to contain “a schedule of compliance consistent with LAC 33:III.517.E.4.” Under Section 517.E.4, and its federal counterpart 40 C.F.R. 70.6(c), the permit application must contain a “narrative description of how the source will achieve compliance and a compliance schedule” with respect to “any applicable requirements with which the source is not in compliance at the time of permit application submittal.” The schedule proposed must “resemble and be at least as stringent as that contained in any judicial consent decree or administrative order or compliance order to which the source is subject.” Id. Progress reports are required at least every six months. Id. Continue Reading When Is a Compliance Schedule Required In a Title V Permit?

From an article in today’s Insurance Journal, the Louisiana Commissioner of Insurance has issued an advisory letter to the companies with homeowners insurance policies in Louisiana, requesting their cooperation in extending from one to two years the prescriptive period for policyholders with Hurricane Katrina and/or Rita claims, the Louisiana Department of Insurance reported.

The article notes further, “To assist policyholders, the names of insurance companies who agree to extend the prescriptive period will be listed on the Department’s Web site and publicized through a variety of mediums.”

The Louisiana Senate passed SB 700 by a vote of 20-18. SB 700 would set a state-wide minimum wage of $6.15 or $1.00 higher than the existing federal minimum wage. As written, SB 700 has several exceptions. The bill now goes to the House of Representatives for consideration. According to a story in the Baton Rouge daily, The Advocate, if SB 700 passes the House, Louisiana would join eighteen other states that have a minimum wage higher than the federal minimum wage.

Senate Bill 655 has now cleared the House Natural Resources Committee and goes to the full House. It has already passed the Senate. Here is the current text of the act.

Under the current law, La. R.S. 30:2015.1, anyone suing for damages for the “evaluation and remediation of any contamination or pollution that is alleged to impact or threaten usable ground water” has to provide written notice to the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ), who then have the right to intervene in the lawsuit. “Usable ground water” is statutorily defined as Groundwater Classification I or II under DEQ’s RECAP regulations. Continue Reading SB655 – Remediation of Oil and Gas Sites

On April 24, 2006, the Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (the “IG”), Daniel R. Levinson, issued an open letter to health care providers, focusing specifically on physicians and hospital providers. This letter focuses on potential violations of the Stark and anti-kickback statutes in the context of the hospital-physician relationship. The letter states that several hospital providers are discovering, through their compliance programs, improper financial arrangements under the Stark law, which is a strict liability statute. Stark prohibits the referral of Medicare or Medicaid patients to a hospital by any physician who has a “financial relationship” with the hospital. The financial relationship can take the form of either an ownership interest or a compensation arrangement. There are numerous exceptions to the Stark law’s prohibition, but each element of an exception must be met to avoid the strict liability of the Stark law. Continue Reading INSPECTOR GENERAL RELEASES OPEN LETTER

The Louisiana Supreme Court has ruled that interstate airplanes and other interstate transportation equipment will be subject to Louisiana state and local use taxes if a taxable moment outside of use in interstate commerce is found. The Court overruled cases which had previously found that transportation equipment used in interstate commerce would not be subject to use tax unless the equipment was used for intrastate transportation.
In Word of Life Christian Center vs. Mark West, Administrator, Ascension Parish Sales and Use Tax Authority, 04-1484 (La. 4/17/2006), _____ So.2d______, the Louisiana Supreme Court reviewed the taxability of airplanes purchased by the Word of Life Christian Center. Continue Reading INTERSTATE AIRPLANES OTHER TRANSPORTATION EQUIPMENT SUBJECT TO LOUISIANA USE TAX