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Legal News

It's (Barely) Legal

A regular compilation about the law and legal news from Glen Ashman, who has been a municipal judge since 1988 and a lawyer since 1980
By Glen Ashman

Post Frequency: 3.2/day

Last Entry: March 24, 2011 at 11:49:36

N. Carolina Spies on its Citizens

Posted on April 20, 2010
Amazon files lawsuit to block N.Carolina's data request (Reuters) - Online retailer Amazon.com has filed a lawsuit in a federal court to block the North Carolina state government's demand it disclose all transaction details, including names and addresses, involving state residents, court documents show...

Dead man elected mayor

Posted on April 19, 2010
Dead man elected mayor of Tennessee town AFP ? Thu Apr 15, 10:50 am ET CHICAGO (AFP) - A dead man was elected mayor of a small Tennessee town eager to oust a woman who'd been appointed to the job after the previous mayor died, local media reports...

Dividing the family photos

Posted on April 13, 2010
Divorcing Couple Hits Snag Over Splitting 7,000 Family PhotosNew York Law JournalWhen M.R. and E.R. decided to call it quits after more than 20 years of marriage, they had no trouble agreeing on how to split the marital home or how to handle custody of their children...

Justice Stevens to resign

Posted on April 09, 2010
It's Official: Justice Stevens Announces Retirement National Law Journal In a letter dated today, Justice John Paul Stevens informed President Barack Obama of his intent to retire at the end of the current term after 34 years on the Court. ================================= Most media outlets say the three leading candidates to replace Stevens are Solicitor General Elena Kagan, 49, and federal appellate Judges Merrick Garland, 57, in Washington and Diane Wood, 59, in Chicago...

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Judge:Sword attack on spouse isn't cruel

Posted on April 08, 2010
Sword Attack Claim Does Not Cut It; 'Abandonment' Wins DivorceNew York Law JournalA man's claim that he was nearly impaled with a samurai sword by his wife during an argument was not enough to win a divorce, a New York state judge has ruled. Shlomo Kupperman, an avid collector of swords, contended that Irene Kupperman, after years of affairs and physically abusing him, wielded the sword in an attack that would have killed him but for his daughter's intervention...

Judge & DA have affair in capital case

Posted on March 31, 2010
Texas Court: It's ok for Judge and DA to have an affair in a Death penalty case Opinion piece by Mark White (former Texas Governor) - National Law Journal March 29, 2010 I'm a longtime supporter of the death penalty, but what's happening in Charles Hood's case in Texas isn't right...

Man breaks back into jail

Posted on March 24, 2010
Former inmate gets 15 years for breaking into jail AP ? Tue Mar 23, 3:29 pm ET VIERA, Fla. ? A Florida man has been sentenced to 15 years in prison for violating his probation by trying to break into the Brevard County jail...Authorities say Jiles tried to climb a 12-foot fence at the Brevard County Detention Center in August...

Uncle Sam spies on you online

Posted on March 17, 2010
Undercover Feds on Social Networking Sites Raise Questions Wired News The next time someone tries to ?friend? you on Facebook, it may turn out to be an undercover fed looking to examine your private messages and photos, or surveil your friends and family...

Stevens considers retiring

Posted on March 16, 2010
Stevens considers retiring from Supreme Court AP ? Mon Mar 15, 9:27 pm ET WASHINGTON ? Justice John Paul Stevens, at 89 the Supreme Court's oldest member, says he will decide in the next month or so whether this term will be his last. Stevens tells The New Yorker magazine that he definitely will retire in the next three years...

Database can crack missing person cases

Posted on March 09, 2010
Database can crack missing person cases ? if used AP ? Sun Mar 7, 2:55 pm ET MINNEAPOLIS - A new online database promises to crack some of the nation's 100,000 missing persons cases and provide answers to desperate families, but only a fraction of law enforcement agencies are using it...

The other disaster in Haiti

Posted on March 07, 2010
Haiti earthquake opens window on dismal prisons AP ? Sat Mar 6, 5:16 pm ET PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - The skinny teenager appears nervous, and with reason: He is waiting for a tap on the shoulder that could send him back to the dismal prison where he spent four years without being charged or seeing a judge...

For jurors, no texting or tweeting

Posted on March 06, 2010
Courts finally catching up to texting jurors AP SAN FRANCISCO ? Enough with the tweets, the blogs, the Internet searches. That's the message being communicated by courts across the country as jurors using their portable electronic devices continue to cause mistrials, overturned convictions and chaotic delays in court proceedings...

Talk show hosts wanted judges murdered

Posted on February 26, 2010
7th Circuit judges may testify in retrial over Web threats National Law Journal Federal prosecutors are beefing up their case against Web radio talk show host Harold "Hal" Turner, charged with encouraging listeners to murder three federal appellate judges...

80-year-old burglar gets 3 years in jail

Posted on February 25, 2010
80-year-old burglar gets 3 years in Calif. prison AP TORRANCE, Calif. ? An 80-year-old woman with a criminal record stretching back to 1955 has been sentenced to three years in state prison for ransacking and stealing cash from a Southern California medical office...

Texas court sued for slow justice

Posted on February 23, 2010
Parties in Case Pending More Than 4 Years Sue Texas High Court Justices Over DelayTexas LawyerAlleging that the delay in their case has deprived them of their constitutional rights to due process, plaintiffs in a class action suit pending more than four years at the Texas Supreme Court have sued each of the court's nine justices...

Sup.Ct. Upholds Standard Miranda Warning

Posted on February 23, 2010
Supreme Court OKs Florida Miranda rights warnings AP ? WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court on Tuesday approved Florida's version of the well-known Miranda rights warning, despite complaints that it wasn't clear a suspect could have a lawyer present during questioning...

Silent justice

Posted on February 22, 2010
Does Justice Thomas' Silence Thwart Advocacy?The National Law JournalThe last time Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas asked a question during oral argument was four years ago today. His reticence is often shrugged off as a harmless personal preference that is either unimportant or oddly admirable, but it may be time to take his silence more seriously...

Uncle Sam Wants to Spy on Your Phone

Posted on February 16, 2010
Justice Dept. wants phone locales without warrant AP ? Fri Feb 12, 4:04 pm ET PHILADELPHIA - Should the government be allowed to track a person's movements based on cell phone records, without evidence of criminal wrongdoing? A showdown on the issue unfolded Friday in a federal appeals court in Philadelphia, as the Justice Department battled electronic-privacy groups...

Lawyers Rip Off Desperate Homeowners

Posted on February 14, 2010
Lawyer misconduct rises with foreclosure record AP ? Sat Feb 13, 3:56 pm ET SAN FRANCISCO (AP) ? Warren Jacobs... unwittingly became one of the many thousands of homeowners authorities allege have been taken in by unscrupulous or incompetent loan modification attorneys who rushed into a burgeoning legal niche: helping financially struggling homeowners re-negotiate their mortgages...

Guess who argues the best?

Posted on February 09, 2010
Congrats to my Alma Mater! PRESS RELEASE February 9, 2010 For Immediate Release Contact David N. Hefner Office of Communications and Marketing Walter F. George School of Law Mercer University 478.301.5000 hefner_dn@law.mercer.edu www...

Is Kennedy on your side?

Posted on January 23, 2010
5-4 split is the rule in high court's big cases AP ? Sat Jan 23, 10:37 am ET WASHINGTON - It comes down to this at the Supreme Court: If you've got Justice Anthony Kennedy on your side, you can pretty much do what you want. Without him, you're the author of an angry dissent...

Obama Scorecard

Posted on January 19, 2010
Rule Reversal National Law Journal Candidate Barack Obama promised to patch up the regulatory state. Twelve months into his presidency, he's lived up to his promise at some agencies and not made much progress at others. A look at the enforcers of environmental, securities, food and drug, employment, antitrust and telecom rules...

Bending Truth Can Break Legal Career

Posted on January 08, 2010
Bending Truth Can Break Legal CareerThe Connecticut Law TribuneJanuary 08, 2010 ...Consider the case of Mark Villeneuve, a Connecticut-licensed lawyer who lives in Augusta, Maine. His professional standing is under attack because Connecticut grievance officials believe he lied multiple times when he e-mailed his resume and application for a staff attorney position to the state Workers' Compensation Commission...

Ex-Bush Atty. Charged w/Attempted Murder

Posted on January 07, 2010
Former Bush Lawyer Charged With Attempted Murder National Law Journal The Associated Press is reporting today that a onetime top official in both Bush presidencies is accused of trying to kill his wife at their Connecticut home. The lawyer, John Michael Farren, was once considered a rising Republican star in Washington...

Fill 'er up

Posted on January 04, 2010
Bad moves thwart Washington truck heist AP ? Tue Dec 29, 10:31 pm ET RENTON, Wash. - Truck theft diary: ? Take silver 1985 Chevy truck from City Transfer yard in Sumner, Wash., early Monday morning. Helpfully fill it with unleaded gasoline. Fail to notice it requires diesel.

Yes, Virginia, There is a Santa Claus

Posted on December 24, 2009
This is the annual Christmas message I have posted in each of my forums since 1996. Yes, Virginia, There is a Santa Claus [Francis P. Church's editorial, "Yes Virginia, There is a Santa Claus" was an immediate sensation, and became one of the most famous editorials ever written...

Merry Christmas - Here's Your Divorce

Posted on December 20, 2009
Happy Christmas honey - here's a divorce voucher Reuters ? Thu Dec 17, 3:11 pm ET LONDON (Reuters) - Stuck for Christmas gift ideas? Is your marriage or a friend's going through a rocky patch? How about a divorce voucher? In an unusual take on the season of giving, a London law firm is offering Christmas gift vouchers for divorce advice...

98 yr old murders 100 yr old roommate

Posted on December 12, 2009
Mass. woman, 98, accused of killing roommate, 100 AP ? Fri Dec 11, 7:19 pm ET NEW BEDFORD, Mass. - A 98-year-old woman was indicted Friday on a second-degree murder charge that alleges she strangled her 100-year-old nursing home roommate after making the victim's life "a living hell" because she thought the woman was "taking over the room...

Judges,lawyers must unfriend on Facebook

Posted on December 11, 2009
Judges, lawyers must 'unfriend' on Facebook ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) ? Florida's judges and lawyers should no longer "friend" each other on Facebook, the popular social networking site, according to a ruling from the state's Judicial Ethics Advisory Committee...

Makeup hides neoNazi's swastika in court

Posted on December 09, 2009
Makeup hides neoNazi's swastika in court Reuters ? Tue Dec 8, 2:03 pm ET ST. PETERSBURG, Florida (Reuters) - A neo-Nazi gang member went on trial for murder on Monday with his swastika and other tattoos covered by makeup on the order of a Florida judge who thought they could prejudice jurors...

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