Senior U.S. District Judge Thomas N. O’Neill Jr. has handed down a significant ruling in Donovan v. Idant Laboratories that a sperm bank may be sued for product liability. The product defect in this case would be a genetic defect in the sperm itself.
For years, there has been growing discomfort over the loss of American lives and treasure in Afghanistan while the government moves increasingly toward a Taliban-like legal system that rejects most of the rights that we consider fundamental for all humanity. Those concerns have been magnified this week with a new Afghan law that makes it legal for men to rape their wives. Under the law, a woman “is bound to preen for her husband as and when he desires.”
Continue reading “Afghanistan Legalizes Rape and Obligates Women “To Preen” for Their Husbands”
It the ultimate example of hubris, former Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska is claiming vindication in the decision of the Justice Department to drop the case against him. In the meantime, the Alaska GOP is calling for Sen. Mark Begich to step down.
Continue reading “Ted Stevens Claims Vindication While Palin and the GOP Call For Begich to Step Down”
Impeached former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, 52, has been indicted Thursday on 19 felony counts by a federal grand jury for racketeering, conspiracy and wire fraud. The indictment accuses Blagojevich of a “scheme to deprive the people of Illinois of honest government.”
Even for those of us who practice in the criminal law area, some crimes simply leave us stunned. In Ellensburg, Washington, Robert Daniel Webb, 42, brought his 9-year-old daughter as he robbed a convenience store with a handgun. The girl is shown in the video below watching her father commit the armed robbery at 2:45 am.
Ward Churchill, the controversial former professor at the University of Colorado at Boulder, has won an important verdict in court. A jury found that he had been wrongly terminated by the university after his public repudiation for referring to the victims of the September 11, 2001, attacks as “little Eichmanns.”
Continue reading “Ward Churchill Wins Major Verdict of Wrongful Termination”
The Air Force has completed a bizarre case involving a former senior judge advocate general to practiced for more than 20 years without disclosing that he had been disbarred from practice. Col. Michael D. Murphy was convicted on three counts of conduct unbecoming an officer and gentleman, one count of failing to obey a lawful order, and three counts of larceny. However, because the White House Military Office refused to release basic discovery material, he will not spend a day in jail and will simply leave the Air Force.
The Washington Post has revealed that an internal review has found that the D.C. Voting legislation is indeed flagrantly unconstitutional. However, Attorney General Eric Holder overruled the view of career lawyers and declared that the law is constitutional — thereby avoiding an embarrassing confrontation with Democrats. I waited to post this story because it could so easily be confused with an April Fool’s spoof yesterday. Holder’s actions, once again, show that political pressure and influence remains a problem at Justice. Rather than follow the dictates of the Constitution, Holder “corrected” the legal analysis by simply declaring the opposite conclusion to conform with political needs. Sounds like a prior attorney general.
Continue reading “Justice Department Finds D.C. Vote Bill Unconstitutional — Holder Reverses Conclusion and Declares Bill Constitutional”
We have yet another teacher facing punishment over her private life. We have previously seen teachers in the United States disciplined over appearing in provocative pictures after hours. In this case, Natasha Gray is not an elementary teacher but a physical education teacher at Manor Community College in Cambridge, England.
Continue reading “Model Teacher: English Teacher Faces Possible Discipline Over Modeling Career”
Dallas Police Officer Robert Powell, who delayed NFL player Ryan Moats from seeing his dying mother-in-law, has resigned from the Dallas Police Department. It was likely that Powell would face termination or severe punishment over the incident recorded on his dashcam.
Continue reading “Dallas Officer Resigns in Controversy Over Blocking NFL Player Ryan Moats From Seeing Dying Mother-in-Law”
The Obama assault on English sensibilities continued yesterday with another bizarre gift of an IPod to the Queen — leaving many in that country wondering if the Obamas are trying to be insulting. If you have been following this impressive and growing litany of social faux pas, the Obamas shocked both Americans and English citizens with remarkably cheap and thoughtless gifts to the family of Prime Minister Brown on his recent visit. Then the White House distributed hundreds of briefings on England for the current trip that read like England for Anglophobes. Previously, the Obamas refused to accept an offer of a famous bust of Winston Churchill from the English government (which extended the loan of the piece after the Bush Administration).
Continue reading “We Are Not Amused: The First Family Gives IPod to Queen”
Police in Allendale, South Carolina have taken the extraordinary action of exhuming the body of Minister James Hines to see if he was buried with his legs attached. A former employee of Cave Funeral Services claimed that the funeral home cut off the legs of the 6-foot, 5-inch man to fit into a coffin despite telling his widow that they had a perfect fit.
The effort to gain a presidential pardon for Jack Johnson took a major step this week with the support of Sen. John McCain R., Az). The conviction of Johnson for a 1913 Mann Act violation was a disgrace and it is time for the wrong to be righted.
Dunkin’ Donuts has prevailed after a four-day trial with a former franchise owner, Walid Elkhatib. Elkhatib has had a long-running fight with the chain over his refusal to sell products containing pork. No one, it seems, messes with the doughnut people.
Continue reading “Islamic Owner Gives Up Franchise with Dunkin’ Donuts Over Long-Standing Fight Involving Pork Products”
In a major decision, Attorney General Eric Holder has announced that he has found that the Justice Department has acted improperly in barring any criminal investigation of well-documented war crimes committed by the Bush Administration in the torture program. To punish the failure of the Department to act in a timely fashion, he has announced that no criminal charges will be pursued regarding torture to teach prosecutors a lesson that “justice delayed is justice denied.”
Continue reading “Attorney General Eric Holder Announces Justice Department Will Not Investigate War Crimes Due to Prosecutorial Misconduct”