Overlawyered » Fifth Circuit http://overlawyered.com Chronicling the high cost of our legal system Tue, 14 Feb 2012 16:11:47 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 en hourly 1 January 26 roundup http://overlawyered.com/2012/01/january-26-roundup-3/ http://overlawyered.com/2012/01/january-26-roundup-3/#comments Thu, 26 Jan 2012 05:01:35 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=27141
  • Judge Edith Jones rules: 5th Circuit spanks judge who overturned result of anti-traffic-cam vote [The Newspaper, background]
  • “UK Nanny State: Let’s Send Gamers To Rehab” [Nick Sibilla, Reason] “If Poker Is a Public Health Issue, What Isn’t?” [Jacob Sullum]
  • Struggle Resolutely Against Misleaders of the People In Weather Broadcasts Everywhere! [TP; reactions from Tony Hake/Examiner, Geoff Fox, Andrew Revkin, Watts Up With That]
  • Jury awards $178 million in bariatric-surgery case against Jacksonville hospital, sum greater than GDP of several small island nations [Florida Times-Union]
  • Sikh sues Jay Leno over comparison of Romney vacation home to Golden Temple of Amritsar [Daily Mail]
  • Redevelopment without prerequisite “blight” akin to Hittite sack of Babylon [Gideon Kanner]
  • Convinced hospital broke naming promise, jury tells it to pay $1 million to country singer Garth Brooks [AP]
  • “Dean of law bloggers” — why, thank you, sir [Hans Bader, CEI]
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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2012/01/january-26-roundup-3/feed/ 4     “A petty squabble, masquerading as a civil rights matter…” http://overlawyered.com/2011/07/a-petty-squabble-masquerading-as-a-civil-rights-matter/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/07/a-petty-squabble-masquerading-as-a-civil-rights-matter/#comments Fri, 22 Jul 2011 05:47:58 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=23985 People are talking about the Fifth Circuit’s opinion (written by Judge Jerry Smith) in the “disgruntled cheerleader mom” case:

    Reduced to its essentials, this is nothing more than a dispute, fueled by a disgruntled cheerleader mom, over whether her daughter should have made the squad. It is a petty squabble, masquerading as a civil rights matter, that has no place in federal court or any other court. We find no error and affirm.

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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2011/07/a-petty-squabble-masquerading-as-a-civil-rights-matter/feed/ 8     Left assails Fifth Circuit judges based on clients they repped decades ago http://overlawyered.com/2010/08/left-assails-fifth-circuit-judges-based-on-clients-they-repped-decades-ago/ http://overlawyered.com/2010/08/left-assails-fifth-circuit-judges-based-on-clients-they-repped-decades-ago/#comments Mon, 02 Aug 2010 10:43:59 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=18710 Hello? Guantanamo? It’s not as if you’d expect any sort of consistent policy on these matters from the imaginatively named Alliance for Justice. But it’s still strange that they’d open the door to future attacks on their own favored judicial nominees based on clients they represented long before reaching the bench. [Joel Cohen and Katherine Helm/Law.com, NLJ] More: John Steele at Legal Ethics Forum takes a different view, and I comment.

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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2010/08/left-assails-fifth-circuit-judges-based-on-clients-they-repped-decades-ago/feed/ 2     Obama nominates Judge James Graves, Jr. to Fifth Circuit http://overlawyered.com/2010/06/obama-nominates-judge-james-graves-jr-to-fifth-circuit/ http://overlawyered.com/2010/06/obama-nominates-judge-james-graves-jr-to-fifth-circuit/#comments Wed, 16 Jun 2010 14:07:13 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=17834 I can’t say I’ve made a study of Judge Graves’ overall career as a jurist in the Mississippi state courts, but if his record presiding over the notorious O’Keefe v. Loewen trial is at all typical, his wouldn’t exactly be a name high on my list. [AP/Law.com]

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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2010/06/obama-nominates-judge-james-graves-jr-to-fifth-circuit/feed/ 1     June 1 roundup http://overlawyered.com/2010/06/june-1-roundup/ http://overlawyered.com/2010/06/june-1-roundup/#comments Tue, 01 Jun 2010 12:00:00 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=17566
  • Some California attorneys hoping to restart lucrative construction-defect litigation [Frith, Cal Civil Justice]
  • Jury awards Seattle bus passenger $1.3 million for stair mishap [KOMO, Seattle Times]
  • “Louisiana Bill Would Outlaw Insulting an Under-17-Year-Old By E-Mail” [Volokh, earlier] Update: bill watered down before passage, but still bad news for speech;
  • “Attorney Fee Fight Gets Ugly in World Trade Center Litigation” [Turkewitz and more]
  • Preventive detention law shows why we need to confine Congress [Sullum, Greenfield]
  • Mass Fifth Circuit recusals in Comer v. Murphy Oil global warming case [Wood/PoL, Jackson] More: Shapiro, Cato, Wood/ShopFloor (a strategy to provoke recusals?)
  • “By some estimates, circa 40 percent of cases in the Central African court system are witchcraft prosecutions” [Graeme Wood, The Atlantic]
  • Lawyers who sued Facebook over “Beacon” to get $2.3 million in fees, class $0.00 [Balasubramani, SpamNotes]
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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2010/06/june-1-roundup/feed/ 3     “Lawsuits put global warming on more dockets” http://overlawyered.com/2009/12/lawsuits-put-global-warming-on-more-dockets/ http://overlawyered.com/2009/12/lawsuits-put-global-warming-on-more-dockets/#comments Tue, 01 Dec 2009 05:33:39 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=14950 USA Today on the Fifth Circuit’s recent ruling on a Katrina case, Comer v. Murphy Oil. More on the case at Point of Law here, here, and here.

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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2009/12/lawsuits-put-global-warming-on-more-dockets/feed/ 0     Prisoners’ first-amendment rights http://overlawyered.com/2009/06/prisoners-first-amendment-rights/ http://overlawyered.com/2009/06/prisoners-first-amendment-rights/#comments Sat, 13 Jun 2009 16:39:13 +0000 Ted Frank http://overlawyered.com/?p=11729 Protect “a letter to [a] girlfriend [stating] that a prison officer had sex with a cat” but do not protect mailing a prosecutor “a note written on toilet paper” saying “Dear Susan, Please use this to wipe your ass, that argument was a bunch of shit! You[rs] Truly, George Morgan.” (Morgan v. Quarterman (5th Cir. 2009)). W.C., sending us the case, comments, perhaps only semi-facetiously:
    (i) He said “very truly yours.” Maybe he was trying to help her. He was at least sincere.

    (ii) I wouldn’t mind doing a similar stunt to opposing in a case I have currently. I too would do so from a helpful perspective. Is that so wrong?

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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2009/06/prisoners-first-amendment-rights/feed/ 3     Ted Stevens indictment dismissed http://overlawyered.com/2009/04/ted-stevens-indictment-dismissed/ http://overlawyered.com/2009/04/ted-stevens-indictment-dismissed/#comments Thu, 02 Apr 2009 19:53:10 +0000 Ted Frank http://overlawyered.com/?p=10208 And Larry Ribstein reasonably asks: What about Jeff Skilling?

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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2009/04/ted-stevens-indictment-dismissed/feed/ 0     Appellate lawyer chooses his words incautiously http://overlawyered.com/2009/04/appellate-lawyer-chooses-his-words-incautiously/ http://overlawyered.com/2009/04/appellate-lawyer-chooses-his-words-incautiously/#comments Thu, 02 Apr 2009 05:20:13 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=10185 And a Fifth Circuit panel eats him alive.

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