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Connecticut Tag

The Connecticut Supreme Court has ruled that the victims and their families of the Sandy Hook school shooting in 2012 could sue the manufacturer of the gun used under Connecticut law, notwithstanding that the shooter Adam Lanza didn't purchase the gun (he stole it from his mother) and manufacturers are broadly protected by The Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA).

A nightmarish scene unfolded at New Haven Green this week, a park located near Yale University. Throughout the course of the day on Thursday, emergency officials responded to dozens of cases of drug overdoses. A synthetic form of marijuana is believed to be the cause. The actual number of people afflicted has varied among sources.

Legal Insurrection readers will recall the California legislature's attempt to create a special government fund as a "charity" for taxpayer donations to mitigate the loss of state and local tax (SALT) deductions in the recently passed GOP tax plans. The politicians must have realized the approach was full of fail, so now leaders of several blue states are planning a lawsuit to block the entire overhaul package. California may join in.

When President Trump signed the tax bill into law, Democrats, particularly in blue states with high state income taxes, wailed.  The Nation declared the new tax law "a deliberate attack on blue states," and New York governor Andrew Cuomo called it an "attack only on blue states" and "economic civil war." Among the attacks they perceive is the new law's $10,000 maximum for all state and local deductions.  Oddly, the left is howling because this is, as Vox points out, "effectively raising taxes on wealthy people." Setting aside the fact that taxing the rich has been the leftist mantra for decades and became particularly shrill during the Obama administration, blue states are now actively looking for ways to get around this and other measures in the new tax law.

Civil forfeiture remains a controversial issue in America since it's "a process by which the government can take and sell your property without ever convicting, or even charging, you with a crime." The procedures are civil, which means defendants do not receive the same protections given to criminal defendants. Connecticut has put an end to this procedure when the legislature passed a law that bans civil forfeiture without a criminal conviction.

Connecticut governor Dannel Malloy (D) is facing a situation that may make him reconsider his position on taxing the wealthy.  Aetna insurance company, based in Hartford since 1853, is looking for a new state to call home, a state that is more business-friendly in terms of taxation. Having lost GE to Boston last year due to the massive tax load piled on businesses, Malloy is desperate to keep Aetna in Connecticut, but it may be too little, too late. The Wall Street Journal reports:

Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy did the unthinkable for a Democrat: He admitted taxing the rich does not work. The state has witnessed "two high-end tax hikes in the past six years." So the wealthy in Connecticut have done what any sane person would choose to do: LEAVE. Now the state faces a $2.2 billion deficit as income state revenue continues to collapse. WTNH reported:
It’s happening because the state of Connecticut depends too much on its wealthy residents, and wealthy residents are leaving, and the ones that are staying are making less, or are not taking their profits from the stock market until they see what happens in Washington.

In 2012, the families of the Sandy Hook victims sued Remington Arms for selling a perfectly legal weapon in a perfectly legal way.  The lawsuit argued that the sale of the a weapon that has "no reasonable civilian purpose" made Remington responsible for wrongful death.  On Friday, a Connecticut judge dismissed the Sandy Hook families' suit against Remington Arms. Reuters reports:
A Connecticut judge on Friday dismissed a lawsuit filed by the families of some of the 26 young children and adults killed at the Sandy Hook Elementary school in 2012, saying the maker of the rifle used in the attack had "broad immunity" under federal law. The lawsuit, filed in December 2014 and seeking unspecified financial damages, said the AR-15 military-syle assault weapon used in the attack in Newtown, Connecticut, should never have been sold to the gunman's mother, Nancy Lanza, because it had no reasonable civilian purpose.

Advocacy group Student Matters filed a federal lawsuit in Connecticut to make education a constitutional right due to the state's restriction on magnet, charter schools, and school choice programs. It alleges the state's limited school choice for parents force "thousands of low-income and minority students to attend low-performing schools." The group insists now is the time for the federal courts to recognize education as a fundamental right:
“The fundamental principles of equality in our country demand that every child have a chance to get an education, to learn and to have that platform to succeed,” said Theodore J. Boutrous Jr., an attorney for the plaintiffs.
The Washington Post reported:
An advocacy group best known for using the courts to challenge California’s teacher tenure laws has now taken its legal strategy to Connecticut, where it has sued state officials over “anti-opportunity” laws that restrict the growth of magnet and charter schools and that limit inner-city students’ ability to transfer to more affluent suburban school districts.