Matthew Santoni

Pa. Paper Asks 3rd Circ. To Stay Healthcare Restoration - Law360 The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette urged the Third Circuit to pause its obligation to restore workers' union healthcare plan while it challenges a recent ruling that its shift to a company plan violated fede...

The 3rd Circuit ordered the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette to restore newsroom employees' healthcare to the union-backed plan they had in 2020, but the publisher wants to pause that order while it seeks reconsideration of a ruling it had bargained in bad faith (via @law360.bsky.social's Braden Campbell:

Pa. Justices Suspect 'Skill Games' Are Gambling Devices - Law360 In a case poised to determine the legality of the Pennsylvania Skill games proliferating in gas stations and storefronts, at least four justices on the state Supreme Court seemed ready on Thursday to ...

At least four justices on the PA Supreme Court seemed inclined yesterday to think that "Pennsylvania Skill" machines were gambling or enabled gambling, given that the skill part of the game could be skipped but the chance part could not (or not without skipping play altogether):

Split Pa. Justices Say Prosecutors Not Bound By Wiretap Law - Law360 Prosecutors like those at the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office can't be sued for using secret recordings obtained in violation of Pennsylvania's wiretap act, a split state Supreme Court ruled W...

A 4-3 PA Supreme Court ruled that prosecutors have "high public official immunity" from claims brought under the state Wiretap Act, as opposed to the "sovereign immunity" the law explicitly waives: www.law360.com/pennsylvania...

Pennsylvania Justices Order Resentencing For Arsonist - Law360 A Pittsburgh man sentenced to up to 52 years in prison for killing two men and igniting the house containing their bodies when police entered shouldn't have faced multiple arson counts, Pennsylvania's...

A Pittsburgh man who killed two people then set a house on fire as cops approached should have been sentenced for arson once, not for each of the police he endangered, the PA Supreme Court ruled (via @law360.bsky.social's Elizabeth Daley): www.law360.com/pennsylvania...

Young, conservative-leaning men are looking for discipline, early Christian traditions and mysticism? We need to bring back stylites.

Pa. Budget Ends State's Bid To Join Cap-And-Trade Compact - Law360 Pennsylvania legislators have announced that their long-awaited 2025 budget included provisions ending the state's bid to join a multistate carbon cap-and-trade compact, mooting years of litigation ov...

Pennsylvania's $50.1B budget was secured in part by promising to withdraw PA from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, and last week the DEP dropped an appeal pending in the state Supreme Court that was trying to keep PA in the multi-state CO2 cap & trade program: www.law360.com/articles/241...

Judge Tosses Nonprofit's Pittsburgh Inclusionary Zoning Suit - Law360 A Pennsylvania federal judge has sided with Pittsburgh against a nonprofit real estate trade association's suit challenging the constitutionality of the city's inclusionary zoning ordinances, ruling t...

A group of Pittsburgh developers had their lawsuit over the city's "inclusionary zoning" requirements tossed, w/ a federal judge ruling they lacked standing/were unripe because no one had tried seeking exceptions, @law360.bsky.social's Isaac Monterose reports: www.law360.com/pennsylvania...

3rd Circ. Rules Post-Gazette Bargained In Bad Faith - Law360 The Third Circuit on Monday affirmed that the publisher of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette had been bargaining with its unions in bad faith and should not have unilaterally imposed a new contract on newsr...

The Third Circuit ruled in favor of @pghguild.com and said the Post-Gazette bargained in bad faith by offering contracts that took away key reasons for being in the union. The union is declaring victory after 3 years on strike, as the court ordered the paper to roll back changes it made in 2020.

Pa. Dem Justices Survive GOP Retention-Denial Campaign - Law360 Three Democratic Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justices will remain on the bench after surviving a Republican-led campaign to oust them via a retention vote, according to preliminary election results Tue...

Pennsylvania Democrats swept all the statewide judicial seats tonight, including all three Supreme Court retention races after an unprecedented GOP effort to upend the court's 5-2 D majority. All the retention races ran better than 60-40 in favor: www.law360.com/articles/240...

How many lawyers and journalists can hear this in Chief Justice Debra Todd's voice?

Justice Kevin Dougherty led the opinions applying federal precedent to a town's restrictions on private shooting ranges, broke with his colleagues on whether they had the right case to address abortion rights, and said counties had to notify voters if their mail-in ballots are rejected:

Justice David Wecht wrote the opinions striking down Pittsburgh's 'jock tax' as unequal, joined Justice Donohue in supporting a constitutional right to abortion (part of the state's strong protection of privacy), and found that gerrymandered electoral maps violate free expression & free association:

My colleagues & I rounded up notable decisions led by each of the judges up for retention. Justice Christine Donohue took a former justice to task for hobbling the Penn State abuse case, upheld limits on how PA's natural resources can be sold, & said the state constitution protects abortion rights:

Pennsylvanians have probably seen ads or signs about retaining 3 state Supreme Court justices, all Democrats whose seats are being targeted by Republican groups. But lawyers told @law360.bsky.social's James Boyle the 10-year retention system was meant to reduce the effect of politics on the court:

A large gray cat embracing a man’s arm while sleeping on a desk. His paws, which have white toes, are wrapped over and under the arm. He has neither cares nor thoughts; a Holy Fool.

Calvin’s love waits for no deadline.

Pa. Justices Say Child Arbitration Invalid Despite Parents' OK - Law360 The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled Thursday that parents signing waivers at attractions like trampoline parks cannot bind their children or spouses to arbitration, in twin injury suits seeking to ho...

In Pennsylvania, that’s not always the case now! (We explained the code of conduct was more like a set of rules he had to follow, and if he didn’t, then the legal contract his parents had signed lets the school kick him out.)

www.law360.com/articles/239...

Lawyer + journalist parents here: When ours was asked by his teacher to sign a student code of conduct, he pointedly questioned if the students could really form a binding legal contract because they were minors.

Attys Want Sanctions For Ex-Admin Of $600M Derailment Deal - Law360 The attorneys representing a class of residents in and around East Palestine, Ohio, have asked a federal court to let them move ahead with seeking penalties against the former administrator of Norfolk Southern's $600 million derailment settlement.

The attorneys representing a class of residents in and around East Palestine, Ohio, have asked a federal court to let them move ahead with seeking penalties against the former administrator of Norfolk Southern's $600 million derailment settlement.

Pa. Justices Say Child Arbitration Invalid Despite Parents' OK - Law360 The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled Thursday that parents signing waivers at attractions like trampoline parks cannot bind their children or spouses to arbitration, in twin injury suits seeking to ho...

Last but not least, @ypeterkang.bsky.social wrote about the PA Supreme Court holding that a parent signing a waiver can't bind a spouse -- or their kid -- to arbitration, a big deal for attractions like trampoline parks, laser tag, ropes courses, etc.

Pa. Justices Say Gov't Must Show Proof Of 'High-Crime Areas' - Law360 The Pennsylvania Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that police detention of a person based in part on their presence in a "high-crime area" must be supported by proof that the area is actually high in c...

Law360's new criminal practice wire and @brandonous.bsky.social had the story on the Pennsylvania justices rejecting a strict test for when an area is considered "high crime" and the bar for stops and searches is lower:

Pa. Justices Allow Utilities To Deny Rivals' Billing For Add-Ons - Law360 Electricity distributors in Pennsylvania can apply add-ons to their customers' bills for things like smart thermostats, line insurance and tree trimming while denying the same "on-bill billing" servic...

A power distribution company can use its billing system to charge customers for optional extras like line insurance or smart thermostats, but Pennsylvania law requiring equal access to billing for 3rd-party power generator cos. doesn't extend to their own add-ons, the state justices ruled:

Pa. Justices Reject 'Key Witness' Test In Forum Swap - Law360 The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled Thursday that litigants shouldn't have to prove that out-of-town witnesses are "key" to their case to get a suit moved to a more convenient forum for them, unwindi...

After a 2020 multi-vehicle pileup on the PA Turnpike, the defense didn't have to preemptively prove that all the witnesses in Westmoreland County were "key" to their case in order to get a court to move lawsuits there from Philadelphia for convenience, the state Supreme Court said:

Pa. High Court Backs Two-Lab Rule For Medical Pot Products - Law360 The Pennsylvania Supreme Court on Thursday upheld a state rule requiring medical marijuana businesses to test their products at two separate laboratories, finding that the state law's emphasis on publ...

Pennsylvania's Justices also affirmed the state's regulation requiring medical marijuana products go through two independent labs for safety testing, reasoning the law's emphasis on safety lets the state set a higher bar than just "one or more" tests (via @samreisman.bsky.social):

Yesterday was a big one for the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, which released a BUNCH of opinions. Luckily, my @law360.bsky.social colleagues & I were all over it. The biggest news for Pittsburgh was a ruling that said its 3% income tax for nonresident athletes & performers was unfair under PA law:

Atty-Trustee Conflicts Doom Scaife Estate's $26M Tax Refund - Law360 A Strassburger McKenna Gutnick & Gefsky attorney was also acting as Mellon heir Richard Scaife's lawyer, trustee and media executive when he signed releases that kept Scaife's spending of his inhe...

Richard Scaife's friend, attorney, trustee & media exec Yale Gutnick had conflicts of interest when Scaife signed agreements indemnifying him for OKing payments from a Mellon family trust, so Scaife's estate couldn't seek tax credit for a $200M settlement w/ his family over the drained account:

Pittsburgh! I’ll be discussing my work next Monday, Sept. 29th at the Mt. Lebanon library at 7pm— signing to follow.

Please spread the word, and I really hope to see you there!

US Steel Wants Federal Court To Take Clairton Blast Suits - Law360 U.S. Steel claims that litigation by workers injured in an explosion at its Clairton Coke Works facility last month should be handled by a federal court, because federal investigators are overseeing t...

Two Clairton Coke Works employees filed the 1st steps for lawsuits days after the Aug. 11 explosion that killed 2 & hurt 10; now U.S. Steel has moved their cases to federal court, arguing that federal investigators are overseeing the evidence the lawsuits want to see: www.law360.com/pennsylvania...

3rd Circ. Says Tossing Undated Mail Votes Is Unconstitutional - Law360 The Third Circuit ruled Tuesday that Pennsylvania discarding mail-in ballots with missing or incorrect dates violates voters' constitutional rights, reasoning that preventing the loss of votes outweig...

The Third Circuit upheld a ruling that Pennsylvania's rule for tossing undated/misdated mail-in ballots is unconstitutional, finding that the state's claimed reasons for doing so - efficiency, fraud prevention, solemnity - aren't real or aren't enough to justify nixing thousands of votes:

BREAKING for @law360.bsky.social: A federal judge has ruled that former Trump attorney Alina Habba does not have the legal authority to be the Acting US Attorney for New Jersey, and hasn't since July 1: www.law360.com/articles/237...

His lawsuit over Lawrence Hall is one of many I am following for Law360 - it's gone quiet for a little while though.