Four trans­plant patients in Chicago have contracted HIV from the organ donor. It is alleged to be the first case of such trans­mission in the U.S. in 13 years. Initial tests on the donor for HIV, hepatitis and other condi­tions came back negative, most likely because the donor had acquired the infec­tions in the last three weeks before death. Personal details about the donor were not released [to the recip­ients or their doctors] by medical official [sic] officials, who cited privacy laws. Emphasis added. The screening process has, granted, been (appar­ently) successful in preventing tissue trans­plant trans­mission of HIV for 13 years. [ . . . ]

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I am happy to announce that the unplanned, unan­nounced hiatus on which I have been for the past week or so is finally over! Excitement! Unfortunately, the planned, announced hiatus on which I am now going has only just begun. Unfortunate! The last few weeks of the semester are at hand, and will be followed inevitably and diabol­i­cally by the extremely unpleasant exam week. I’m sure there are fives, maybe even tens of you out there who have missed me this past week, and, alas, you shall all just have to go on missing me for a while longer. Woe! I shall see [ . . . ]

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The jury awarded $2.9M, purportedly finding liability on all four counts. (Remember, they were defamation [which did not stem from the funeral protests them­selves], invasion of privacy: intrusion on seclusion, invasion of privacy: public disclosure of private facts, and inten­tional infliction of emotional distress.) I still think the invasion of privacy suits should have failed because if we’re going to have public property, the Constitution controls the contra­diction. I do not think the behavior of the WBC protesters was suffi­ciently extreme or outra­geous to warrant a finding of liability for inten­tional infliction of emotional distress. And I find the defamation claim unin­ter­esting, meaning that [ . . . ]

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