Baptist Minister (and former second vice president of the Souther Baptist Convention) Wiley Drake reportedly said that he is offering an “imprecatory prayer” for the death of President Obama.
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A police officer assigned to a Penn Hills, Pennsylvania high school tasered a student who allegeldy refused to end his conversation on a cell phone and then pushed away the officer’s arm.
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And then there were six. The New Hampshire legislature has voted to recognize same-sex marriage joining five other states with such recognition in a continuing and encouraging trend among the states. Gov. John Lynch signed the bill soon after it was passed by the legislature. The question now is whether religious conservatives will try to stop states from determining their own matrimonial laws by passing a federal constitutional amendment.
Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes famously observed that “the life of the law has not been logic, but experience.” One adherent to this principle appears to be Paul Baldwin, 48, who was arrested for the 153rd time and told a New Hampshire judge “I don’t need a lawyer – I’ve been in this court more than you have.”
Continue reading “A Life in the Law: New Hampshire Man Arrested for 153rd Time Asserts His Self-Taught Legal Training”
Former New Jersey municipal judge Richard Sasso has been permanently banned from the bench by the Supreme Court Advisory Committee on Judicial Conduct. Among the violations found by the committee was Sasso’s abuse of both lawyers and litigants; his presiding over cases while under the influence of alcohol and Vicodin, and improper public conduct including an unpleasant scene at a strip club called Torpedo’s Go-Go Club.
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Constable Richard McCain insists that a grandmother deserved to be tasered in a recent roadside incident to protect himself from a violent attack. The suspect was Kathryn Winkfein, a 72-year-old grandmother, who had refused to sign a traffic ticket. Deputy Chris Bieze tasered Winkfein after she allegedly became belligerent.
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The Obama Administration succeeded yesterday in getting three dozen public interest lawsuits dismissed against telecommunication companies. President Obama voted for the bill that gave the companies immunity and sought to prevent a court from declaring the warrantless surveillance program illegal. U.S. District Court Judge Vaughn Walker also ordered investigations in Maine, New Jersey, Connecticut, Vermont and Missouri to be halted. However, he retained the issue of whether to sanction the Justice Department for its conduct in the case.
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The reclusive author J.D. Salinger (a personal favorite) was seen this week — at least in court papers. Salinger broke from his self-imposed seclusion to file an interesting lawsuit to block a novel based on Holden Caulfield, the hero from “The Catcher in the Rye.” The book, entitled “60 Years Later: Coming Through the Rye,” is written by an author calling himself J.D. California and published by a Swedish company. It features Caulfield as an old man. The defendants include Swedish publisher Nicotext; its offshoot, Windupbird Publishing Ltd.; and California-based SCB Distributors as defendants.
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Police in Hemet, California are dealing with a bizarre criminal case after a Marine recruiter was charged with pimping a 14-year-old girl with potential recruits. Staff Sgt. Bryan Damone Cunningham was allegedly caught in a car with two such prospective recruits and police are investigating whether he used the girl as part of his recruitment efforts.
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The bar lost a great advocate on Friday with the death of Susan Jordan, 67, who died in a plane crash in Utah. Jordan pioneered the battered women’s syndrome defense and represented controversial clients ranging from the Symbionese Liberation Army to the Black Panthers.
The United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit has handed down a decision that could play a role in the Sotomayor confirmation process. In National Rifle Association v. Chicago, the Seventh Circuit upheld a Chicago ordinance banning handguns and automatic weapons within city limits. In so doing, it held that the individual right to bear arms is not a fundamental right applicable to the states. It is precisely the hypothetical that some of us discussed in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision in District of Columbia v. Heller, which recognized an individual right to bear arms in the Second Amendment. It also supports the view of Judge Sonia Sotomayor, who has been criticized for two opinions (including one after the Heller decision) that rejected the right to bear arms as a fundamental right. Sotomayor received indirect support from two unlikely sources: conservative icons Frank Easterbrook and Richard Posner.
Veteran Miami-Dade prosecutor David Ranck, 51, has been charged with battery after allegedly assaulting a pizza delivery woman. He has been suspended by his office. Only the week before a Broward County prosecutor was arrested for assaulting a police officer.
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Former Connecticut lawyer Elizabeth Zembko, 48, achieved notoriety a few years ago when she was convicted of stealing half a million dollars from her former law firm and elderly clients to pay for shopping sprees. It appears that the shopping bug is not quite out of her system. After serving 15 months, she was re-arrested for shoplifting and burglary in two different incidents.
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With hearings scheduled for House Judiciary Committee Task Force on Impeachment, U.S. District Judge Samuel B. Kent has decided to turn in this resignation to President Barack Obama. His lawyer Dick DeGuerin says that the hearings are now unnecessary and Judge Kent will not participate. However, his resignation will reportedly only be effective June 1, 2010.”
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Former Vice President Dick Cheney said Monday that he supports same-sex unions and believes that the question should be left to the states — as opposed to a federal prohibition or constitutional amendment. Cheney, who has a lesbian daughter, insisted “I think, you know, freedom means freedom for everyone. I think people ought to be free to enter into any kind of union they wish, any kind of arrangement they wish.”