Yesterday, federal district Judge Norman Moon of the Western District of Virginia upheld the Obamacare individual mandate against a constitutional challenged filed by Liberty University and several private plaintiffs. For the most part, Judge Moon’s reasoning closely follows that of Michigan district Judge George Caram Steeh in the recent Thomas More Law Center decision. Both […]
Archive | 2010
Reckless Driving for “Failing to Stop, When Approaching From Any Direction, A School Bus Which Is Stopped”
Virginia Code § 46.2-859, Passing A Stopped School Bus, states, with the key section in bold: A person is guilty of reckless driving who fails to stop, when approaching from any direction, any school bus which is stopped on any highway, private road or school driveway for the purpose of taking on or discharging children. […]
Memoirist’s Claim to Be Holocaust Survivor = Fraud on the Court, Justifying Setting Aside Breach of Contract Verdict in Memoirist’s Favor
From last week’s Mt. Ivy Press v. Defonseca (Mass. Ct. App.), quite a story of a writer’s fraud and its legal effects: At all material times during the prior trial and appeal, Defonseca held out her story as a true and authentic account of her childhood in Europe during World War II. Broadly sketched, she […]
Civil Unions in Illinois
Today the state legislature passed a civil unions bill (full text here), granting same- and opposite-sex partners all of the legal rights, obligations, and privileges of spouses under state law. The vote was 32-24 in the state senate today, following approval in the state house yesterday. The governor will sign the bill. There are a […]
Don’t Just Ignore the Arguments Against You
From American Bank v. City of Menasha (7th Cir. Nov. 29) (Posner, J.), discussed in the post below: American Bank was a named plaintiff in the class action suit, and less than two weeks after the suit was filed it submitted a request to the City, pursuant to Wisconsin’s Public Records Law, Wis. Stat. §§ […]
Stay of Discovery Doesn’t Block Public Records Requests
American Bank v. City of Menasha (7th Cir. Nov. 29) (Posner, J.), holds that a federal stay of discovery under the Securities Litigation Uniform Standards Act doesn’t block public records requests under state public records statutes. This strikes me as sound, for the reasons the court gave: The legal term “discovery” generally refers to fact […]
Extradition, Espionage Prosecutions, etc., for Assange Discussed at Opinio Juris
Kevin Jon Heller, Roger Alford, Julian Ku, and Peter Spiro – who represent a wide range of political and legal views – offer up analyses of legal questions surrounding Wikileaks and Assange over at the international law blog Opinio Juris. The posts at OJ are thoughtful and legally informed, and the comments are well worth […]
Copyright Enforcement Tail Wags Internet Dog, Cont’d; or, What the Hell Ever Happened to Due Process?
Some of you may recall that a month ago or so, I posted a comment here about a bill making its way through the Senate, the Combating Online Infringements and Counterfeits Act (“COICA”), that would allow US courts to “seize” domain names belonging to US or foreign websites simply upon a charge, by the Attorney […]
Senate Slip Up Could Doom Food Safety Bill
The Hill reports that the Senate’s failure to follow constitutionally prescribed procedures could doom the food safety bill. The bill includes fee provisions that constitute taxes and the Constitution requires that all tax bills originate in the House of Representatives, and it looks unlikely that House Dems will let the slip pass. Based on […]
Good Explanations of the Eurozone Crisis
The Wall Street Journal and New York Times each have good, comprehensible explanations of the eurozone sovereign debt crisis on the front pages today. (The Journal has a particularly useful graphic that breaks out each country.)
Szymuszkiewicz Update
Back on September 10, I had a long post criticizing some dicta in a wiretapping opinion by Judge Easterbrook: The Perils of Interpreting Statutes With Multiple Remedial Schemes: A Comment on the Dicta in United States v. Szymuszkiewicz. Apparently DOJ wasn’t very happy with the language, either, as I understand the government filed a motion […]
Adoption of Children and Religious Matching
A commenter on the Adoption of Muslim Children thread, apparently reacting to the AP article statement that “State child welfare agencies that permanently remove Muslim children from troubled homes usually can’t find Muslim families to adopt them because of the restrictions in Islamic law,” asks: Could someone please clarify which U.S. law identifies an orphaned […]
My One Paragraph Assessment of Dodd-Frank
While I wait for David Skeel and William Cowan’s new book on the Dodd-Frank financial reform bill to appear next month (The New Financial Deal), I have tried to make my own assessment of what the bill means in the aggregate. In order to do this, I have read the bill in its entirety twice. The […]
Soccer Perfection:
As Sam put it here, “If you are a soccer fan–but especially if you aren’t–do yourself a favor and watch the Barcelona-Madrid game from Monday afternoon” (still available for replay viewing on ESPN3.com). Paul Gardner over at Soccer America has a good description of the game, too — but just watch the game if you […]
Practicing Lawyers vs. Legal Academics
Bridget Crawford wonders why practicing lawyers don’t much like legal academics. Professor Bainbridge offers an explanation. Rick Garnett responds with some qualifications. UPDATE: More at Legal Ethics Forum.