New Jersey
Court rules against Pfizer in religious discrimination lawsuit
TRENTON, N.J. (AP) - A woman who said she was fired by a major pharmaceutical company because of her religious beliefs won a court victory last week when a state appeals panel ruled that she didn't agree in an online form to waive her rights to sue.
Amy Skuse said she was fired in 2017 because she refused to receive a yellow fever vaccine. She said the vaccine goes against her religious beliefs as a Buddhist because it contains animal-derived ingredients.
Skuse worked as a flight attendant at Pfizer's airport facility in West Trenton.
The ruling issued Wednesday focused on Pfizer's online materials emailed to employees that described the company's policy requiring them to submit to arbitration and waive their right to a jury trial.
At the end of the presentation, employees were asked to click a box to acknowledge receipt of the policy. The materials also stated that employees who didn't click the box but continued to work for the company for at least 60 more days would be considered bound by the policy.
A lower-court judge had dismissed Skuse's suit, but the appeals court on Wednesday called the company's methods "inadequate" and reversed the decision.
"An employer must do more than 'teach' employees about the company's binding arbitration policy," the panel wrote. "The employer must also obtain its employees' explicit, affirmative, and unmistakable assent to the arbitration policy, in order to secure their voluntary waiver of their rights under the law."
The appeals court also characterized Pfizer's 60-day provision as an attempt to bypass requirements established by legal precedent.
In a statement, Pfizer said it is considering appealing the case to the state Supreme Court.
"We do not agree with the court's decision and do not believe it is supported by the facts or the applicable law," Pfizer said.
Texas
Court rules state can bar Planned Parenthood from Medicaid
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) - A federal appeals court panel on Thursday lifted a lower-court ban that prohibited Texas from eliminating Planned Parenthood from the state's Medicaid program.
The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans issued the ruling that removes the preliminary injunction U.S. District Judge Sam Sparks of Austin imposed on the state of Texas in February 2017.
The three appeals judges agreed that Sparks didn't follow proper standard in deciding to impose the ban sought by five Planned Parenthood affiliates and seven individuals.
The appeals court returned the case to Sparks to determine if the state has cause to end Planned Parenthood's Medicaid participation under the program's rules or if its actions were "arbitrary and capricious."
Texas health officials had accused Planned Parenthood officials of making a misrepresentation to investigators following the release of secretly recorded and heavily edited videos by an anti-abortion group in 2015. An inspector general said the video appeared to show Planned Parenthood had changed how abortions were performed so better specimens could be preserved for medical research.
Planned Parenthood sued to preserve Medicaid coverage for cancer screenings, birth control access and other non-abortion-related health services for nearly 11,000 low-income women at 30 clinics statewide. Sparks ruled that Texas officials had provided no evidence of wrongdoing and that the videos that launched Republican efforts across the U.S. to defund the nation's largest abortion provider were insufficient as evidence.
Investigations by 13 states into those videos have concluded without criminal charges, and Planned Parenthood officials have denied any wrongdoing.
The appeals court ruled, however, that Sparks should give greater weight to state findings on whether Planned Parenthood clinic staff members are "qualified" under Medicaid's medical and ethical standards.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton hailed the ruling.
"Planned Parenthood's reprehensible conduct, captured in undercover videos, proves that it is not a 'qualified' provider under the Medicaid Act, so we are confident we will ultimately prevail," the Republican attorney general said in a statement.
Meanwhile, Planned Parenthood officials pledged to keep fighting the state's ouster effort.
"We're in court to protect our patients' right to choose their healthcare, rather than let politicians decide where Texans can go for healthcare," said Ken Lambrecht, president of Planned Parenthood of Greater Texas. "We'll continue to stand up for our patients and their ability to choose their healthcare provider."
New Mexico
State's chief justice defends judges before lawmakers
ALBUQUERUQE, N.M. (AP) - New Mexico's chief justice defended state judges Thursday against criticism they routinely release dangerous suspects awaiting trial, as she called on lawmakers to streamline the state's court system and fund more employee training.
In an address to the Legislature, Justice Judith Nakamura also outlined proposals she said could attract more qualified candidates to the bench.
Her remarks come as the Legislature weighs proposals aimed at streamlining the court system, which has more than 300 judges in nearly 200 courthouses.
Three-fourths of the new cases judges presided over last year stemmed from civil lawsuits, she said.
"If your only source of information about the judiciary came from news reports, you might think that our judges only handle criminal cases and routinely and nonchalantly release dangerous people into the community. Of course this is not true," she said. "I promise you, there is not a single judge, not one, who intends to release a dangerous person into the community."
Some judges have come under scrutiny for decisions to release defendants ahead of trial, as the state's judiciary tries to adhere to new evidence standards for detaining suspects without bail.
Nakamura reminded lawmakers that the judiciary only recently emerged from a decade in which courts often lacked funding to pay jurors and even building rent.
With some stability, she said courts now are seeking to boost training for judges and transparency with a proposal for funding to make some case documents more easily available.
She also called for lawmakers to support extending how long newly appointed judges have to serve on the bench before having to seek election to keep their seats. In New Mexico, judges appointed to fill seats by the governor can face election within months.
"Let's take some small steps in the right direction," she said.
Published: Mon, Jan 21, 2019
