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.”
Kenneth Kahn, a well-known Los Angeles criminal defense attorney and amateur stand-up comedian, was died in a fall while climbing the mountain above Machu Picchu. He was 66.
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There is an interesting case of judicial ethics out of North Carolina where District Court Judge B. Carlton Terry Jr. was given a public reprimand for becoming “friends” on Facebook with the attorney for the defendant, Charles A. Shieck, in a child custody disputes. Terry was also reprimanded for not just posting statements about the case but googling the plaintiff in the case (and referencing what he had found).
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Dartmouth Students David Rufful and Josh Riddle have become the conservative versions of Snoop Doog and Willie D. “The Young Con Anthem” chas hit over 115,000 views. Known as Stiltz & Serious C, the students espouses conservative values for hard-right homeys. The video contains such serious ganstra wall street rap as “I don’t speak lies but I spit the facts/28% the new capital gains tax/Porkulus bill lacks a few stats/The more money we spend, the more mine is worth Jack.”
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It’s official: Not only is pringles a food product, but it is a potato food product. That is the ruling of
Britain’s Supreme Court of Judicature which ruled with Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs and against Procter & Gamble U.K.. Just in case you thought this was small potatoes, the ruling means that Proctor & Gamble owes $160 million in taxes.
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There has been a long controversy over “legacy” admissions and the politically well connected applicants in law schools. The University of Illinois law school has been entangled in this controversy with the release of an embarrassing email exchange between former Dean Heidi Hurd, Chancellor Richard Herman, and Illinois State Sen. Chris Lauzen on a student Hurd believed was unworthy of admission — but then accepted.
A Kansas man, Scott Roeder, has been arrested for the murder of Dr. George Tiller (left), 67, who was shot while serving as an usher at his Wichita church Sunday morning. Tiller was one of the few U.S. doctors performing late-term abortions in the country and had previously survived a 1993 shooting outside of his clinic when he was shot in both arms. I discussed this case on this segment of Rachel Maddow Show.
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