Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli announced this morning that he will file a Petition for Certiorari Before Judgment today requesting that the U.S. Supreme Court review the Commonwealth v. Sebelius decision without waiting for a ruling from the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.
I have received a significant number of emails after my earlier stated views on the national health care legislation were raised in the hearings this week before the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary. Unfortunately, I am plowed under this week in litigation, but I wanted to offer a brief response to Harvard Law Professor and former Reagan Solicitor General Charles Fried who disagreed with my views on the danger to federalism.
Continue reading “Health Care and Federalism: A Response to Professor Charles Fried”
Dan Snyder is reportedly planning a defamation action against Washington’s City Paper for a scathing story about his controversial time as owner of the Washington Redskins. The case could prove an interesting battle over first amendment rights and defamation law.
Continue reading “Redskins Owner Threatens Newspaper With Libel Suit After Unflattering Article”
We previously discussed the outrageous conduct of Jennifer Petkov, 33, who taunted a terminally ill 7-year-old girl in Michigan. Now Petkov has been sent packing by a court as part of a plea agreement for an assault and battery of a neighbor.
Continue reading “Petkov Takes Plea and Neighbors Granted Reprieve”
Here is my column in USA Today (which was posted yesterday but will run in print on Monday) on the charge that Judge Vinson is an activist after his striking down of the entire health care plan. While I did not view the opinion as particularly strong in its substantive analysis and did not like the rhetoric flourishes (as discussed with Lawrence O’Donnell this week), I find the charge of activism to be a bit forced over the issue of severability.
Continue reading “The Ford Pinto Act: Is The White House Claim of “Activism” Fair?”
Minot State University professor emeritus Eric Clausen has filed his second federal complaint alleging that he was retaliated against by the National Geographic Society after he complained that the contest discriminated against girls because virtually no girls have won the national title.
Zach Wahls, 19, is a University of Iowa student who gave a remarkable presentation at a public forum on House Joint Resolution 6 in the Iowa House of Representatives concerning same-sex marriage. Wahls has two mothers and came to tell legislators about his parents and his life.
Continue reading “Zach Wahls Has Two Mommies and A Lot To Say”
Barion Blake is being sought by police to answer for something found in his trunk after a fender bender: a body. Police charge that Blake store a BMW from an owner, stabbed him, and stuffed him in the trunk. Akeem Ajimotokan was saved when an accident put Blake to foot and New York police noticed blood on the trunk.
Continue reading “Victim Found in Trunk of Stolen Car After Fender Bender”
Spotsylvania High School student Andrew Mikel II, 14, is the latest kid to be swept up in the zero tolerance/zero logic campaign against toy guns in school. (For earlier stories, click here and here and here). Mikel was expelled and criminally charged after he used a pen casing (the tube of preference for spitballers) to spit plastic pellets at other students at lunch. He was charged with use of a “weapon” in school. The Spotsylvania Knights may carry a lance
Continue reading “High School Student is Expelled and Criminally Charged For Spitballing”
Stacey Champion, 39, is not exactly a puppy person. Champion has been charged with animal cruelty after postal employees found a puppy in a box she was sending to a relative. Her defense: she paid extra for two-day priority mail.
Continue reading “Puppy Parcel: Minneapolis Woman Tries To Mail Puppy”
Sometimes I really miss Chicago. While other cities have mayoral debates over taxes and teachers, Chicago’s debate at the Trinity United Church of Christ recently turned on whether one candidate is a crackhead. The video below shows an exchange between Mayoral candidate Carol Moseley Braun and Patricia Van Pelt-Watkins where Watkins accuses Braun of disappearing for the last few years while Braun accuses her of being in a narcotic haze.
Continue reading “Chicago Candidates Debate Whether One is a Crack Head or The Other is a Carpetbagger”
We have yet another case of an excessive retirement package for a public employee — and politicians insisting that they are not responsible because they never really read the contract’s details.
Continue reading “School Official Given Over $1 Million in a Retirement Package”
We have been following a series of paternity cases (here and here and here and here) where courts have rejected claims of lack of consent or knowledge by a parent in forcing child support payments. I just ran over a case that, while now a bit dated, is remarkable. The case involves a Chicago doctor who was forced to pay child support after his girlfriend, without his knowledge, saved sperm from oral sex and arranged to be impregnated with it. The case came to public attention after an appellate court ruled that Dr. Richard O. Phillips could sue Dr. Sharon Irons for emotional distress in the case.
It appears that Benihana Restaurant has found a new way to maintain a happy customer base: it is suing those who say they do not like their food. In Kuwait, Mark Makhoul wrote a balanced but critical review of the new Benihana restaurant in Kuwait on his blog http://www.248am.comKUWAIT CITY. Benihana proceeded to sue him in a clear abuse of the legal process . . . not to mention good taste.
Continue reading “Bad Taste: Benihana Sues Blogger Over Bad Review”
Dallas police Senior Corporal Theadora Ross, 26, is accused (with another woman Malva Delley) of collecting $250,000 in rewards for bogus tips to the Crime Stoppers program. Police allege that Ross would award the money to Delley for bogus tips and they would split the cash.
Continue reading “Dallas Police Officer Charged With Stealing $250,000 From Crime Stoppers Program”