- Early reactions to Supreme Court’s blockbuster Citizens United ruling striking down ban on independent election advocacy [Point of Law, more, yet more]
- Vision Media Television Group continues its legal push against online critics, Section 230 or no [Consumer Law & Policy, earlier]
- Big FBI sting operation could leave firearms business “wounded”, some say [Point of Law]
- Runaway’s suit against McKeesport, Pa. school district dismissed on statute of limitations grounds [AP/Law.com]
- “Sandra Day O’Connor Backs Campaign to End Judicial Elections” [Schwartz, NY Times, my two cents]
- “Sheriff Joe’s Enabler” [Radley Balko on Maricopa County D.A. Andrew Peyton Thomas; earlier here, here, etc.]
- Why some D.C. lawyers make so much money year in, year out [Hill & Lat, Washingtonian, quotes Ted; Ribstein and more]
- “Hampshire woman jailed for false rape claim” [BBC]
- P.S. At this point, politically, Dems almost have to pass something labeled health care reform whether or not the resulting legislation makes any sense [my comment in National Journal blogger's poll, more]
Tagged as:
campaign regulation,
free speech,
guns,
judicial elections,
online speech,
Phoenix,
Sandra Day O'Connor
- Already-infamous Coakley-for-Senate rape-ad mailer: did they really line up all those photo permissions? [Lopez, NRO] Earlier on photo-permissions legal exposures here, here, here, here, here, here, here, etc.
- “Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Peyton Thomas: Blame the Libertarians!” [Balko, earlier]
- Georgetown lawprof Robin West takes such a rude tone with homeschoolers, it’s enough to make you wonder who brought her up [Common Room, Izzy Lyman/Big Journalism, "The Harms of Homeschooling" (PDF)] Parents charged with child endangerment for homeschooling their kids without submitting lesson plans [Albany Times-Union]
- Videogames and the ADA: “Sony Launches Defense to Gamer’s Equal Access Suit” [OnPoint News, earlier]
- Regulations may spell end for independent New England fishermen [AP/MSNBC, earlier]
- Veteran California pol Willie Brown criticizes civil service entrenchment [Kaus] Government employment has its privileges [Stuart Greenhut, Reason]
- New Jersey appeals court reverses $260K award over student’s fatal window fall at Fairleigh Dickinson U. [Star-Ledger]
- Georgia federal judge orders plaintiff to pay $268K costs of discovery for stretching patent claims [Fulton County Daily Report]
Tagged as:
art and artists,
civil service,
colleges and universities,
disabled rights,
discovery,
loser pays,
Massachusetts,
patent litigation,
Phoenix,
schools,
videogames,
web accessibility
- Pa. cash-for-kids judge allegedly came up with number of months for length of sentence based on how many birds could be seen out his office window [Legal Ethics Forum, with notes on ornithomancy or bird divination through history]; “The Pa. Judicial Scandal: A Closer Look at the Victims” [WSJ Law Blog on Philadelphia Inquirer report]; feds charge third county judge with fraud [Legal Intelligencer, more]; state high court overturns convictions of 6,500 kids who appeared before Ciavarella and Conahan [Greenfield]; judge orders new trial in Ciavarella’s eyebrow-raising $3.5 million defamation verdict against Citizens’ Voice newspaper in Wilkes-Barre; some web resources on scandal [Sullum, scroll to end]
- Says drinking was part of her job: “Stripper’s DUI Case Survives Club’s Latest Attack” [OnPoint News, earlier]
- Hundreds of lawyers rally to protest Sheriff Arpaio, DA Thomas [Coyote, Greenfield, ABA Journal, Mark Bennett interview with Phoenix attorney Jim Belanger, earlier here, here, and here]. In deposition, Arpaio says he hasn’t read book he co-authored in 2008 on immigration [Balko, Coyote] And as I mentioned a while back, Maricopa D.A. Andrew Thomas turns out to be the very same person as the Andrew Peyton Thomas toward whom I was uncharitable in this Reason piece quite a while back.
- Ted Roberts, of the famous sex-extortion case, begins serving five-year term [AP/Dallas News, KENS]
- New Hampshire lawsuit over leak of documents to mortgage gadfly site raises First Amendment issues [Volokh, earlier here and here]
- Did someone say paid witness? Judge tosses decade-old animal rights case vs. Ringling circus [Orlando Sentinel, Zincavage] Bonus: Ron Coleman, Likelihood of Confusion, on PETA and Michelle Obama;
- How’d foreclosure tax get into Connecticut budget when both parties claimed to oppose it? [Ct. News Junkie]
- Best-legal-blog picks of Ryan Perlin, who writes “Generation J.D.” for the Maryland Daily Record, include one that’s “humorous though sometimes disheartening”, while La Roxy at Daily Asker salutes a certain website as “Lurid, i.e. satisfying”. Thanks!
Tagged as:
accolades,
animal rights,
Luzerne County judicial scandal,
newspapers,
online speech,
Phoenix,
Roberts sextortion,
strippers and exotic dancers
- “CBO Stands By Its Report: Tort Reform Would Save Billions” [ShopFloor; our weekend post on what actually wound up in Reid bill]
- “Indianapolis Tacks on Steep Fines for Challenging Traffic Tickets” [Balko]
- “Fugitive Located Inside Homeland Security Dept. Office” [Lowering the Bar]
- Assumption of risk? New York courts field legal complaints over mosh dance injuries [Hochfelder]
- Company claiming patent on Ajax web technique is suing lots of defendants [W3C, ImVivo via @petewarden]
- Why Arizona voters still back Sheriff Joe [Conor Friedersdorf/Daily Dish, von Spakovsky/NRO (deploring "persecution" of Arpaio), Greenfield]
- “Are Breast Implants and Donated Organs Marital Assets?” [Carton, Legal Blog Watch]
- “Disbarment Looms for First Attorney Convicted Under N.J. Anti-Runner Law” [NJLJ]
Tagged as:
assumption of risk,
chasing clients,
Indiana,
medical malpractice,
patent quality,
Phoenix,
tort reform,
traffic laws
Making the rounds of the legal and libertarian blogs: Legal Ethics Forum, Scott Greenfield, Coyote, Orin Kerr/Volokh, from original reporting by Nick R. Martin/Heat City. Radley Balko at Reason:
I don’t know Arizona law, so perhaps a Hit & Run reader with some experience there can help out. Could it possibly be legal for a law enforcement official to meander up to the defense table, begin reading the defense team’s files, then take documents from said files without notifying the attorney? That sounds absurd on its face, even for Maricopa County.
Tagged as:
Arizona,
Phoenix,
police
Tagged as:
Australia,
Brazil,
fraud,
Kentucky fen-phen settlement fraud,
libel slander and defamation,
McDonald's,
Nevada,
Ninth Circuit,
patent law,
Phoenix,
police,
third party liability for crime
