IMS Health Inc., a provider of market data to drugmakers, persuaded a federal appeals court to throw out Vermont’s law barring the use of information about doctors’ drug-prescribing habits in sales campaigns without their consent.

The law to bar companies such as IMS Health from selling data gathered on physicians’ prescribing habits to companies seeking to market their drugs, violated constitutional free- speech protections, the appeals court in Manhattan ruled today.

Because the law seeks to “influence the prescribing conduct of doctors by restricting the speech of others — namely data miners and pharmaceutical manufacturers — it does not directly advance the state’s interests in protecting public health and reducing health-care costs,” the court ruled.

“We’re disappointed with the outcome of the appeal and are considering our options,” state Assistant Attorney General Bridget Asay said in a telephone interview.

Vermont lawmakers passed the law in 2007 to limit drug companies’ marketing campaigns as part of a push to reduce health-care costs. The law banned the use of prescriber data for marketing efforts unless doctors consented.

The U.S. Supreme Court last year upheld a similar data- mining law enacted by New Hampshire officials, finding that regulated conduct and not speech. That put it outside the reach of constitutional protections, the court said. Read the rest of this entry »

DES MOINES, Iowa — A citizens group is circulating petitions hoping to collect 200,000 signatures urging Iowa lawmakers to pass a tough Arizona-style Immigration law in Iowa.

The Des Moines Register reports that the Minuteman Patriots have sent petitions to 81 counties in the state hoping to reach its goal before the Legislature begins in January.

The group’s national director, Craig Halverson, of Griswold, says illegal immigrants take jobs away from American citizens and receive services paid for by taxpayer dollars.

Critics say the Arizona law encourages racial profiling. A federal judge blocked sections of the law in July, including provisions calling for police to check a person’s Immigration status while enforcing other laws.

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MINEOLA, N.Y. — A man convicted of stabbing his mother-in-law to death and attacking his wife has been sentenced to 50 years to life in prison.

A judge issued the sentence against Harpal Hira, 45, on Tuesday. He had been convicted in February for the Aug. 2, 2008 attack.

Hira had been barred by an order of protection from seeing his wife but was allowed to attend a party for their twin sons at their home in Syosset on Long Island.

Authorities said Hira and his wife, Ritika, argued and Hira grabbed a butcher knife and attacked the two women. His mother-in-law was killed, and his wife suffered several stab wounds.

He has also pleaded guilty to a murder-for-hire plot on his sister-in-law.

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Public perception of the health reform law’s ability to increase insurance access and curb healthcare costs is divided, a newly released survey found, though more adults said they consider the law favorable.

Nearly six out of 10 (59%) said the law would have a positive impact on access to affordable insurance for those without, according to a survey by the Deloitte Center for Health Solutions. Twenty percent said the law’s impact on access to affordable insurance would be negative. The late September and early October telephone survey, conducted by the Harris Poll, included nationally representative sample of roughly 1,000 adults.

Respondents were also more likely to say the law would have a positive impact on reducing insurance, hospital, physician and pharmaceutical drug costs. Forty-five percent of respondents said the law would lead to a reduction in drug costs, and an equal percentage said the same of insurance costs. Nearly as many (43%) said the law would favorably impact reducing hospital and physician costs.

Meanwhile, one in four said the law would have a negative impact on reducing drug costs; 30% said the same of insurance costs; and 29% said the law would have a negative impact on hospital and doctor costs.

Forty-one percent said the law would positively impact economic recovery; one in four said the law would have a negative impact on economic recovery.

Young adults considered the reform law to be far more favorable for the economy than older adults. Eight out of 10 of adults ages 18 to 24 said the law would have a positive impact on economic recovery compared with 30% of those ages 55 to 64 and 34% of those at least 64 years old.

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BOSTON — A federal appeals court has upheld a New Hampshire law that requires schools to authorize a time each day for students to voluntarily recite the Pledge of Allegiance, finding that the oath’s reference to God does not violate students’ constitutional rights.

A three-judge panel of the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston on Friday affirmed a ruling by a federal judge who found that students can use the phrase “under God” when reciting the pledge.

A lawsuit was filed by parents and The Freedom From Religion Foundation against the Hanover School District and the Dresden School District, located in New Hampshire and Vermont.

The appeals court found that the primary effect of the law is “not the advancement of religion, but the advancement of patriotism.”

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Members of the National Socialist Movement clashed with counter-protesters Saturday afternoon during their march in support of Arizona’s controversial immigration law.

About two dozen neo-Nazis were confronted by more than a hundred people who opposed the group as they approached the Sandra Day O’Connor Federal Court Building in Phoenix, Arizona.

The neo-Nazis were marching to protest US District Judge Susan Bolton’s ruling that blocked key provisions of the anti-illegal immigration bill SB 1070.

Bolton’s ruling blocked sections of the bill that allowed police to arrest and detain suspected illegal immigrants without a warrant and required non-citizens to carry federal immigration documents.

During the march, police in riot gear intervened with tear gas and pepper spray when angry counter-protesters surrounded the neo-Nazi group and attempted to block their march to the federal courthouse. Read the rest of this entry »

NEW YORK, Nov 11 (Reuters Legal) – The government’s case against a former in-house lawyer at GlaxoSmithKline Plc could turn on the advice she received from an outside law firm — and raises tricky attorney-client privilege questions.

The lawyer, Lauren Stevens, was indicted Tuesday on four counts of making false statements, one count of obstruction of justice and one count of falsifying and concealing documents related to Glaxo’s promotion of an anti-depressant drug for unapproved uses, such as weight loss.

According to the indictment, filed in federal court in Greenbelt, Maryland, Stevens knew that Glaxo had sponsored programs to promote the drug for unapproved use. The government alleged that Stevens, a now-retired Glaxo vice president and associate general counsel, concealed information from the Food and Drug Administration about physicians’ promotions of Glaxo’s drug and sent letters to the FDA falsely saying Glaxo didn’t encourage off-label promotion.

Stevens claims to have been guided by the advice of outside lawyers, according to a statement issued by her lawyers on Tuesday. “Everything she did in this case,” the statement said, “was consistent with ethical lawyering and the advice provided her by a nationally prominent law firm retained by her employer specifically because of its experience in working with the FDA.” Reuters Legal could not immediately identify the unnamed law firm.

The statement was released by Stevens’ lawyers Brien O’Connor and Colleen Conry of Ropes & Gray. Stevens is also represented by Reid Weingarten and William Hassler of Steptoe & Johnson in Washington. O’Connor and Weingarten did not return calls seeking comment.

An advice-of-counsel defense can raise a number of sensitive attorney-client privilege issues. To vigorously assert the theory that she relied on the advice of outside lawyers regarding her correspondence with the FDA, Stevens will have to present evidence of that legal advice. Because the client of the outside law firm was the company, it’s up to Glaxo, not Stevens, to decide if it wants to waive privilege. Read the rest of this entry »

A majority of Supreme Court justices may be bothered by an immigration law that treats American fathers differently than American mothers. But it seemed unlikely after an hour-long oral argument Wednesday that a majority of justices thought they could do anything about it.

The court was considering a challenge to a federal statute that makes it easier for unmarried mothers than unmarried fathers to convey American citizenship to children born outside the country.

Ruben Flores-Villar, who was born in Mexico but raised by his father in San Diego, says he is a victim of the double standard. Fighting criminal charges, Flores-Villar, now 36, was denied citizenship and deported because his father did not meet the law’s requirements.

But conservative justices told Flores-Villar’s lawyer, Steven F. Hubachek, that granting citizenship to someone born outside the United States is a power that belongs to Congress, not the court.

“Do you have any other case where a court has conferred citizenship on someone who, under the statutes as written, does not have it?” asked Justice Antonin Scalia.

“The court has not said that yet, but it can in this case,” Hubachek replied.

“Never done,” Scalia answered.

Justice Anthony M. Kennedy said Hubachek was asking for a remedy that “involves this court in a highly intrusive exercise of the congressional power.”

Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. joined them.

He asked the government’s lawyer defending the law that “if the court were to determine that this does violate the Equal Protection Clause, and the court were also to determine that this is not a case that should be the first one in history in which it grants naturalization, what do you think the court ought to do?” Read the rest of this entry »

A New York State anti-terrorism law was misapplied to a 2007 gang shooting in the Bronx, an appeals court said in a ruling that could shorten a convicted killer’s prison time.

The ruling does not overturn the conviction of Edgar Morales, who killed a 10-year-old girl who was a bystander, but does lessen its severity. Mr. Morales, now serving 40 years to life in prison, will be re-sentenced and will no longer be eligible for a life term.

The decision could also limit similar uses of the 2001 anti-terrorism law.

Mr. Morales’s case “falls within the category of ordinary street crime, not terrorism,” a panel of State Supreme Court Appellate Division judges wrote in the ruling, issued on Tuesday.

Mr. Morales was pleased that the court had found his case did not fit under the anti-terrorism law, said one of his lawyers, Catherine M. Amirfar.

“He felt vindicated because it was such a blow to him, and his family, to be labeled a terrorist,” she said Wednesday.

The Bronx district attorney’s office said it was reviewing the ruling.

Mr. Morales’s case was apparently the first, according to the appeals court, brought under a part of the anti-terrorism law that says some crimes can be considered terrorism if they’re intended to “intimidate or coerce a civilian population.”

The measure was passed days after the Sept. 11 attacks.

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U.S. District Judge Vicki Miles-LaGrange has scheduled a hearing for 10 a.m. today on a lawsuit about the state question banning the use of Sharia law in Oklahoma courts.

Muneer Awad, executive director of the Oklahoma chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), filed a lawsuit Thursday challenging the constitutionality of the voter-approved measure.

About 70 percent of voters approved State Question 755 on Tuesday. The measure prohibits Oklahoma courts from considering international law or Sharia law when making decisions.

Awad is asking the judge for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction barring the Oklahoma State Election Board from certifying the amendment. He said the measure is unconstitutional and “demonizes” Islam and Muslims.

The state question was authored by Rep. Rex Duncan, R-Sand Springs, and Sen. Anthony Sykes, R-Moore. Sykes said Thursday he was saddened that Awad filed a lawsuit intended to thwart the will of Oklahoma voters.

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