Author: marciarillegmailcom
Health Law Professor at UMKC School of Law; Board of Directors for Justice in Aging
In America, the Fault Always Lies With Individuals
In America, the fault always seems to lie with individuals. We can’t seem to help ourselves.
Is the COVID-19 Vaccine Available Yet?
I discussed the reports of Americans arriving at CVS and Walgreens for a COVID-19 vaccination. I asked my students to send me a picture of any sign warning no COVID-19 vaccine is yet available if they came across one. It took the first student to locate one only three days to send the picture on.
I can’t make up my mind whether this is a hopeful sign concerning take up rate once there is a COVID-19 vaccine or a harbinger of doom over Thanksgiving plans made dependent upon a vaccine-generated immunity.
The Comedy Performance of the Year
Marisa Tomei responds to Rudy Giuliani’s viral ‘My Cousin Vinny’ moment
Ethan Alter·Senior Writer, Yahoo EntertainmentFri, November 20, 2020, 8:54 AM PST·2 min read
Rudy Giuliani’s rambling press conference in which he alleged election fraud and other unfounded conspiracy theories about the results of the 2020 presidential election has already drawn negative reviews across the political spectrum, not to mention makeup artists. Now, his performance has received a thumbs down from an Oscar-winning actress as well.
While jousting with reporters, the former New York City mayor and President Trump’s personal lawyer, made a reference to the 1992 comedy favorite, My Cousin Vinny, starring Joe Pesci and Marisa Tomei. “Did you all watch My Cousin Vinny?” Giuliani said. “It’s one of my favorite law movies because he comes from Brooklyn.”
Giuliani went on to compare one famous scene from that film — where Pesci’s fish-out-of-water lawyer, Vinny Gambini, tests a witness’s eyesight from the stand — to the restrictions he insisted Republican poll watchers faced during vote counts. “These people were further away than [Vinny] was from the witness,” he alleged. “They couldn’t see a thing.”
Hours after the press conference ended, Tomei responded to Giuliani’s wild pop culture pull on Twitter.https://platform.twitter.com/embed/index.html?creatorScreenName=ethanalter&dnt=true&embedId=twitter-widget-0&frame=false&hideCard=false&hideThread=false&id=1329629027699728385&lang=en&origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.yahoo.com%2Fentertainment%2Fmarisa-tomei-rudy-giuliani-viral-my-cousin-vinny-moment-165456181.html&siteScreenName=Yahoo&theme=light&widgetsVersion=ed20a2b%3A1601588405575&width=550px
It’s a joke that’s more than worthy of her hilarious onscreen counterpart, Mona Lisa Vito, Vinny’s fiancée and the movie’s scene stealer-in-chief. Tomei memorably won a Best Supporting Actress for the role, one of the few broadly comic performances to receive a statue. (Although rumors persisted for years that Tomei’s win was a mistake, the fallout over the infamous La La Land vs. Moonlight mix-up at the 2017 Oscars put that myth to rest.) My Cousin Vinny fans applauded her one-Tweet takedown of Giuliani.https://platform.twitter.com/embed/index.html?creatorScreenName=ethanalter&dnt=true&embedId=twitter-widget-1&frame=false&hideCard=false&hideThread=false&id=1329793822642089986&lang=en&origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.yahoo.com%2Fentertainment%2Fmarisa-tomei-rudy-giuliani-viral-my-cousin-vinny-moment-165456181.html&siteScreenName=Yahoo&theme=light&widgetsVersion=ed20a2b%3A1601588405575&width=550pxhttps://platform.twitter.com/embed/index.html?creatorScreenName=ethanalter&dnt=true&embedId=twitter-widget-2&frame=false&hideCard=false&hideThread=false&id=1329630555151937536&lang=en&origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.yahoo.com%2Fentertainment%2Fmarisa-tomei-rudy-giuliani-viral-my-cousin-vinny-moment-165456181.html&siteScreenName=Yahoo&theme=light&widgetsVersion=ed20a2b%3A1601588405575&width=550pxhttps://platform.twitter.com/embed/index.html?creatorScreenName=ethanalter&dnt=true&embedId=twitter-widget-3&frame=false&hideCard=false&hideThread=false&id=1329642077353881601&lang=en&origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.yahoo.com%2Fentertainment%2Fmarisa-tomei-rudy-giuliani-viral-my-cousin-vinny-moment-165456181.html&siteScreenName=Yahoo&theme=light&widgetsVersion=ed20a2b%3A1601588405575&width=550pxhttps://platform.twitter.com/embed/index.html?creatorScreenName=ethanalter&dnt=true&embedId=twitter-widget-4&frame=false&hideCard=false&hideThread=false&id=1329631327046356992&lang=en&origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.yahoo.com%2Fentertainment%2Fmarisa-tomei-rudy-giuliani-viral-my-cousin-vinny-moment-165456181.html&siteScreenName=Yahoo&theme=light&widgetsVersion=ed20a2b%3A1601588405575&width=550px
While the reclusive Pesci hasn’t chimed in about Giuliani invoking Vinny’s name, the movie’s director, Jonathan Lynn, did join Tomei in issuing a response. “Vinny may have been argumentative and belligerent but he was good-hearted and honest,” he told USA Today in a statement. “Rudy, not so much.” And in a separate interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Lynn remarked: “I regard Giuliani’s praise of My Cousin Vinny as generous from the man who is currently giving the Comedy Performance of the Year.”
California v. Texas
Justice Kavanaugh notes that, in 2017, there is nothing in the record indicating Congress intended to terminate the Affordable Care Act’s ban on pre-existing condition exclusions “and all that?”
Of course, he is correct. No one wants to be directly responsible for repealing the ACA’s ban on pre-existing conditions exclusion but a number of individuals involved would like to see someone else do it. Quite the hot potato here.
California v. Texas
Chief Justice Roberts notes that Congress, in zeroing out the tax associated with the individual mandate, may have been hoping the Supreme Court would strike down the entire Affordable Care Act but adds “that’s not our job.”
California v. Texas: Justice Barrett’s Hypotheticals Involving Mask Mandates
So interesting, with so many potential hypothetical Congressional mandates at hand, that you analogize to this one, Justice Barrett.
California v. Texas at the Supreme Court
Chief Justice Roberts reflects whether: “Did we spend all that time arguing about broccoli for nothing?”
Challenge to CDC COVID-19 Eviction Moratorium
Brown v. Azar, 2020 WL 6364310 (N.D. Ga. Oct. 29, 2020)
The CDC issued a temporary eviction moratorium to prevent the further spread of COVID-19. Plaintiffs, landlords seeking to evict tenants, sued and sought a preliminary injunction. The court found the moratorium was within the delegated authority of the CDC Director under the plain language of the statute. The court also rejected plaintiffs’ arguments that the agency’s determination that the order was reasonably necessary was arbitrary and capricious, finding the agency did not need to further consider state and local measures. Finally, the court found the order did not unconstitutionally infringe plaintiffs’ rights to access the courts. Finding no irreparable harm, and harms to the public interest, the court denied the motion for a preliminary injunction.
Missouri State of Mind 