- Renewed attention to Amirault case contributed to Coakley’s political nosedive [e.g., Jacob Weisberg of Slate via Kaus, earlier] First time a Massachusetts prosecutor has paid a political price over that episode?
- Many, many Democratic elected officials call for rethinking/renegotiating Obamacare rather than trying to force it through [e.g. Barney Frank] Blue Mass blogger: talk radio fueled ire at Coakley, let’s have FCC shut it down [Graham]
- “Big Brother and the Salt Shaker” [NY Times “Room for Debate”, Food Liability Law, earlier on NYC initiative and more] NYU’s Marion Nestle “loves” being called a nanny statist, so we’ll just go right on calling her that [Crispy on the Outside]
- Terror suspects win right to seek compensation from UK government over restrictions on their activities [Canadian Press]
- “Men Without Hats. Meaning no hard hats. Meaning The Safety Dance never met OSHA requirements. No wonder it was shut down.” [Tim Siedell a/k/a Bad Banana]
- Italian judge orders father to go on paying $550/month living allowance to his student daughter, who is 32 [Guardian/SMH, earlier on laws mandating support of adult children]
- Two informants vie for potential bonanza of whistleblower status against Johnson & Johnson [Frankel, AmLaw Litigation Daily]
- “Polling Firm Says John Edwards Is Its Most Unpopular Person Ever” [Lowering the Bar]
Posts Tagged ‘terrorism’
Report: after lawyering up, UndieBomber zipped his mouth
“‘He was singing like a canary, then we charged him in civilian proceedings, he got a lawyer and shut up,’ [former Senator] Slade Gorton, a member of the 9/11 Commission that investigated the Sept 2001 terror attacks on the US, told The Sunday Telegraph” of 23-year-old Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, charged in the Christmas Day attempted bombing of an airliner over Detroit.
TSA aims subpoena at bloggers, seizes laptop
TSA can take decisive action after all, when bloggers as opposed to terrorists are the targets: “Two East Coast travel bloggers who posted a sensitive airport security memo on their Internet sites have been subpoenaed by federal officials trying to find out who sent them the document. One of the writers, Steve Frischling, also had his laptop seized by agents looking for evidence of his source for the Transportation Security Administration directive.” [Alison Grant, Cleveland Plain Dealer; Elliott.org; BoingBoing (Frischling got laptop back)(& welcome Coyote readers)]
More: Via Instapundit, a contrarian view from Christopher Fotos at Aviation Week, and coverage from Wired “Threat Level”. Update: TSA backs off [AP/Law.com, BoingBoing]
December 29 roundup
- “Trial lawyer group hails Senate health care bill as ‘stunning victory'” [Point of Law]
- Christopher Hitchens on our leaders’ absurd reaction to the attempted plane bombing [Slate] More: Stewart Baker on the security challenges [first, second]; Mark Steyn [first, second]
- Lots of coverage for Ted Frank’s Center for Class Action Fairness and its objection in a Yahoo! settlement [Zywicki/Volokh, Stier/Mass Tort Lit, CCAF, Turkewitz; Drum] And the Center has also filed objections in an AOL settlement of claims arising from advertising copy placed in the footers of emails;
- Sad: “Texas Man Freed by DNA Sues Over ‘Excessive’ Attorney Fees” [AP/Law.com]
- Litigious creationists: promoters of “intelligent design” back in court yet again [L.A. Times via WSJ Law Blog]
- “One Possible Class-Action Defense Strategy: Disappear and Live in a Tent” [Lowering the Bar]
- “Softballer can’t slide, wants money” [Elie Mystal, Above the Law; Queens, N.Y.]
- Litigators advised to use social media to snoop on players in their cases [Trial Lawyer Tips]
Snow globe menace averted
The Transportation Security Administration is vigilant against those who would imperil national security by trying to carry the desktop amusements through airport checkpoints. [Boing Boing, Lowering the Bar]
Flying imams settlement
It “carries costs for air safety,” declares the headline of a USA Today editorial: “Payouts could chill crews from acting on reasonable suspicions.” Earlier here.
“Revenge of the ‘Shoe Bomber’”
“I am at war with America,” says convicted shoe bomber Richard Reid, whose inmate litigation has been enjoying more success than one might expect. Reid has argued that his freedom of religion requires prison officials to permit him access to “group prayers” with co-believers; other jihadists are also housed at the federal prison in Florence, Colorado. Now federal prison authorities are considering moving him to a different facility [Debra Burlingame, Wall Street Journal]
Everything in proportion (U.K. law enforcement edition)
The Guardian: “Thousands of people are being stopped and searched by the police under counter-terrorism powers simply to provide a racial balance in official statistics, the government’s official anti-terror law watchdog has revealed.” (via Jesse Walker, Reason “Hit and Run”). More: Patrick at Popehat.
March 15 roundup
- “Intellectual Easter egg hunt”: great Michael Kinsley column on Wyeth v. Levine and FDA drug preemption [Washington Post]
- Negligent for the Port Authority to let itself get bombed: “Jury Awards $5.46M to 1993 WTC Bomb Victim” [WINS, earlier]
- “How following hospital quality measures can kill patients” [KevinMD]
- Owner of Vancouver Sun suing over someone’s parody of the paper (though at least it drops the printer as a defendant) [Blog of Walker]
- Court dismisses some counts in Billy Wolfe bullying suit against Fayetteville, Ark. schools [NW Arkansas Times, court records, earlier here and here]
- Law bloggers were on this weeks ago, now Tenaha, Tex. cops’ use of forfeiture against motorists is developing into national story [Chicago Tribune, earlier here and here]
- Can hostile blog posts about a plaintiff’s case be the basis for venue change? [IBLS]
- Calls 911 because McDonald’s has run out of chicken nuggets [Lowering the Bar]
Costly defense of U.K. terror trial
“Lawyers who defended the men prosecuted for a plot to kill thousands of innocent people using massive fertilizer bombs were paid £7.16m in legal aid, it emerged last night. The 2007 trial was one of the biggest in British legal history and followed raids by the Metropolitan Police across London and the Home Counties. The judge described five of the men convicted for their part in the foiled terror attack as ruthless and devious misfits who had betrayed their country of birth.” Two other defendants won acquittal. [The Independent]