On September 20th the Indiana Court of Appeals will hear oral arguments in the case of Lise Garneau v. Charles E. Bush, Jr., M.D. in the Wynne Courtroom of the Indiana University School of Law – Indianapolis. The hearing is scheduled to be before Hon. Paul D. Mathias, Hon. Terry A. Crone, and Hon. Michael P. Barnes, immediately followed by a reception with members of the local judiciary. The cocktail reception is open to judicial officers and law student members of the Indianapolis Bar Association. You may register here on the IBA’s website.

The Miami-Herald carries an Associated Press article headlined, “White, Dubois counties latest to seek switch to Central time.” Johnson County, however, will remain on eastern time. The Johnson County Daily Journal has an article headlined, “It’s official: County will be in Eastern time zone” and the Indy Channel has a report titled, “County’s Leaders Overwhelmingly Support Eastern Time.” The Elkhart Truth carries an editorial titled, “Elkhartans are being sold a bill of goods on Eastern time.” Meanwhile WNDU of South Bend reports, “Deadline to change time zone approaches.” This week is the deadline for counties to request time zone changes.

The Connecticut Supreme Court ruled Monday that an illegal immigrant, suffering from severe pain and diagnosed with acute leukemia, was entitled to Medicaid because he suffered from an emergency medical condition. The court overturned a lower court decision upholding the denial of Medicaid benefits to the illegal immigrant by finding that “the hearing officer’s determination that the Plaintiff did not suffer from an emergency medical condition is the result of an improperly narrow application of the law.” The Connecticut Department of Social Services determined that the immigrant did not suffer from an emergency medical condition that would make him eligible for benefits because he would not have died immediately without treatment. The Supreme Court disagreed, saying an emergency medical condition must require immediate medical treatment without which the patient would be in jeopardy of serious physical harm. The attorney for the illegal immigrant said the decision will set precedent as federal law requires hospitals to treat illegal immigrants, but states will not always provide reimbursement. A spokesman for the Department of Social Services said the ruling “may only affect Medicaid cases that fall under similar fact patterns.” AP has more.

The Indiana Court of Appeals has posted its opinion in Thomas Magee v. Connie Garry-Magee, a property dispute arising from a decree of marriage dissolution. Meanwhile the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals has posted five new opinions:

• Abdullahi, Halima v. City of Madison (civil)
• USA v. Havens, Patricia A (criminal)
• Marquez, Raymond v. Mineta, Norman (civil)
• USA v. Caldwell, Martin (criminal)
• City of Chicago v. TREA (civil)

The US Senate Judiciary Committee will begin its confirmation hearings Monday for John Roberts, nominated by President Bush to serve as the 17th Chief Justice of the United States in the wake of the death of Chief Justice William Rehnquist. The hearings will mark the first US Supreme Court confirmation hearing in 11 years since former President Bill Clinton’s successful nomination of Justice Stephen Breyer in 1994. If the nomination is successful, Roberts will begin work when the Court’s new term commences on October 3. Committee chairman Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA) has said that Roberts should be prepared for questions on several hot topics, including his views on the precedential effects of Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that legalized abortion. Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT), the panel’s highest ranking Democrat, has joined calls for increased scrutiny of the nomination, noting that the hearing “is the only opportunity for the American people to examine what kind of justice John Roberts will dispense if promoted to the Supreme Court.” Reuters has more. Monday’s hearing begins at 12 Noon ET; the Judiciary Committee offers a live webcast on its website.

Thomas Kemp of Kemplog reports on Delaware County’s response to concentrated animal feeding operations, or CAFOs. The post was prompted by a Muncie Star-Press article yesterday titled, “Delaware County lacks CAFO regulation.”

Robert Novak reports that President Bush “met secretly” with Judge Priscilla Owen last week. Novak also mentions Edith Jones (5th Circuit), Karen Williams (4th Circuit), and Michigan Supreme Court Justice Maura Corrigan as conservative women who may be under consideration to fill Justice O’Connor seat. Novak attributes the report about Judge Owen to “White House sources;” it isn’t clear whether these additional names came from the White House or not.

As Novak notes, Judge Jones is relatively old for the nomination at 56. Novak says that Edith Clement, reportedly the runner-up to John Roberts in the last go-round, didn’t impress President Bush in her interview with him and is now out of the picture.

“Judge sees small percentage of juveniles over and over,” reports Bette Nunn of the Martinsville Reporter-Times.

Superior Court II Judge Christopher Burnham believes that there is a misconception about Morgan County having a big juvenile crime problem.

“We don’t have a huge juvenile problem,” he said. “If we compare the number of juvenile delinquency cases filed locally with the population of children under 18, there is a very small percentage that get into trouble. But within that percentage, the ones we deal with generate more work as many are repeat offenders.”

Various reports around the internet suggest that Thomas, the Library of Congress’ legislative information website, will undergo some changes and include new features, including the following:

• Improved visual appearance.
• Headers, footers and other links for easy navigation.
• A left-side menu for quick access to main content sections.
• Ability to browse legislation by sponsor.
• Links to Senate hearings for nominations.
• Links to legislative resources and learning activities.
• A new help section.
• Links to the full text of treaties.

The changes are supposed to begin appearing this month.

The Indianapolis Star carries an article today titled, “Many letting feds know thoughts on time zones.” Yesterday the Journal Gazette carried a related article headlined, “Time-zone battle heats up on Web.”

Hoosiers are weighing in on the great time-zone debate via a federal Web site that posts dozens of letters and correspondence sent from people and businesses from around the state.

The majority lean toward the Eastern time zone – including virtually all of the business posts – but others are still pushing the Central time zone.

The comments can be found at this website hosted by the Department of Transportation.