Linkmeister

One for three

Public health? Nah, gets in the way of economic redevelopment. So let's just have EPA relax its rules. "According to an internal memorandum issued in mid-August, the agency will no longer prohibit the sale of PCB-contaminated land unless the property is severely poisoned." It's amazing what having no administrator for the agency allows you to do with all those pesky regulations, isn't it?

In another victory for those who think poor people shouldn't have access to health care or a legal remedy if they're mistreated when they do get it, "The Bush administration is relaxing rules that say hospitals have to examine and treat people who require emergency medical care, regardless of their ability to pay."

The new rule, while not a wholesale return to the situation before 1986, scales back regulations that specify when and where hospitals have to provide emergency services. Patients turned away or refused emergency care can still sue, but hospitals will, in many cases, have stronger defenses.

This could have huge implications in all manner of civil and criminal cases.

Issuing an egregiously overbroad subpoena for stored e-mail qualifies as a computer intrusion in violation of anti-hacking laws, a federal appeals court ruled Thursday, deciding a case in which a litigant in a civil matter subpoenaed every single piece of e-mail his courtroom adversary sent or received. (My emphasis).

"Fishing expeditions" may not be legal, if this stands up. If I'm the guy getting subpoenaed, I like this; if I'm the plaintiff or the prosecutor, I probably don't.

Posted by Linkmeister at September 3, 2003 11:04 AM