Legal Research

Selections from National Law Journal Daily Headlines March 2, 2009

By David Badertscher, PLL

Source: NLJ.COM, March 2, 2009.

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Hot recusal case debated
"More than 50 years ago, the nation's high court acknowledged in a decision the difficulty of defining with precision what kind of an interest in a case a judge might have that would require him or her to step aside because due process demands it. This week, the justices will hear arguments involving judicial recusal precedents, some nearly a century old, in the modern context of campaign contributions in judicial elections."

Advertiser tracking of Web surfing brings suits
"Behavioral advertising has triggered an intense legal controversy that has law firms scrambling to stay on top of a burgeoning practice. Attorneys say it is raising privacy, litigation and regulation fears among consumer advocates, the electronic commerce and advertising industries and legislators. Law firms are busy helping companies come up with a transparent way of letting consumers know that their online activities are being tracked and possibly shared."

WASHINGTON  |  Immigration judges urge reform
"A group of immigration judges called for the U.S. attorney general to appoint one of their own as the next chief immigration judge, to reform what has been a problem-plagued and overburdened agency for years. "We have been totally resource-starved and things have been very slow in coming," said Judge Dana Leigh Marks of San Francisco, who is president of the National Association of Immigration Judges. "

10TH CIRCUIT  |  Parking lot gun law is upheld
"A federal appellate panel recently upheld an Oklahoma law that requires employers to permit employees to keep guns locked in their vehicles at work. The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected a district court's ruling that the state law is pre-empted by OSHA's "general duty" clause. The Oklahoma Self-Defense Act, enacted in 2004, was the first parking lot firearm law of its kind. But at least 10 states have since passed laws prohibiting employers from barring the locked storage of guns in workers' vehicles."

Full post as published by New York Supreme Court Criminal Term Library on March 02, 2009 (boomark / email).