Just one day after Zogenix, the maker of the new painkiller Zohydro, filed a federal law suit challenging the Massachusetts ban of the drug, the first hearing was held Tuesday.  

U.S. District Court Judge Rya Zobel, according to the AP, indicated that the drug company may have a point....

In a case involving management of a watershed hundreds of miles east of his state’s border, and that will be decided by a U.S. appeals court in Philadelphia, Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt has taken much more than a passing interest.

He is leading a coalition of states that have filed an amicus brief asking the federal court to reject the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s plan to require states in the Chesapeake Bay region to develop processes to reduce nutrient runoff (nitrogen, phosphorus and sediment).

Last week, a group of economists, through the Economic Policy Institute, released a letter urging the president and congressional leadership to raise the minimum wage. The federal minimum wage is currently $7.25 and hasn't been revised since 2009. The letter states: “July will mark five years since the federal minimum wage was last raised. We urge you to act now and enact a three-step raise of 95 cents a year for three years—which would mean a minimum wage of $10.10 by 2016—and then index it to protect against inflation.”

Federal court abstention may not rank among the highest priorities with those who care about federalism, including of course, CSG, who is in the midst of a Focus on Federalism Initiative.  However, it was Justice Black (and not me) who described the underpinning of Younger abstention as “Our Federalism” in his 1971 majority opinion in Younger v. Harris. 

“Our Federalism” “is a system in which there is sensitivity to the legitimate interests of both State and National Governments, and in which the National Government, anxious though it may be to vindicate and protect federal rights and federal interests, always endeavors to do so in ways that will not unduly interfere with the legitimate activities of the States.”

However, “Our Federalism” wasn’t enough in the Court’s most recent Younger abstention ruling.  Sprint Communications Company v. Jacobs was short, unanimous, and issued early in the Court’s Term.  The State and Local Legal Center (SLLC) filed an amicus brief in this case, which CSG joined. 

When the federal government shut down last October, 850,000 federal workers were furloughed for an unprecedented 6.6 million combined days. Forecasters estimated the shutdown cost the economy between $2 and $6 billion in lost output. To end the shutdown, a deal was struck by federal lawmakers. That deal included a deadline by which legislators had to agree on a plan to fund the government or risk another shutdown in January. That deadline is December 13, just a few days away, and it is unclear if federal lawmakers will be able to meet it.