Legal Commentary

California Teacher Reportedly Finds Flag Picture Offensive

Posted on May 14, 2010
Just a week after students were told to take off their tee-shirts showing the American flag as offensive on Cinco de Mayo, a California middle student was told that her drawing of an American flag with the words God Bless America was offensive. Seventh grade art teacher Peggy Saunders reportedly praised a picture of President [...

Video: Columbia Professor Faints on Glenn Beck Show

Posted on May 14, 2010
This video from April shows Professor David Buckner fainting on the Glenn Beck Show. What is notable is how no one but Beck comes to the man’s aid. David Buckner is a Columbia University professor who appeared on the show to discuss why American companies were going bankrupt.

Houston Teacher Fired After Release of Beating Video

Posted on May 14, 2010
Houston teacher Sheri Davis has attained a degree of infamy after the release of a videotape showing her beating a 13-year-old student in front of her classroom. She has been terminated from employment. Davis, 40, taught at the Jamie’s House Charter School...

Autistic Child Charged With Terrorism Over School Drawing

Posted on May 14, 2010
Shane Finn, 14, is an autistic eighth grader with the mental capacity of a third grader. He did something not unknown to kids around the world. He drew a stick figure of himself shooting his teacher. He is now an accused terrorist in Georgia. The childish drawing included the helpful labels “me” for the figure [...

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Byrne, Baby, Byrne: Alabama GOP Candidate is Attacked on Believing in Evolution and Suggesting That Some Parts of the Bible May Not Be Literally True

Posted on May 13, 2010
It appears that in Alabama, belief in evolution is now a disqualifying factor for candidates for public office. Alabama gubernatorial candidate Bradley Byrne is being attacked in the ad below for once saying that evolution “best explains the origin of life...

English Police Force Man to Remove Poster Calling Cameron a ?Wanker?

Posted on May 13, 2010
We have another story out of England raising questions about increasing limitations on free speech. In this case, David Hoffman, 63, placed a poster in his window that showed David Cameron and the word “wanker.” He was handcuffed by police on election day and forced to remove offensive campaign literature from his home...

Knocked Down To Planetary Private: Jupiter Mysteriously Loses A Stripe

Posted on May 13, 2010
Jupiter appears to have had something of an unexpected face lift. After the planet moved behind the Sun for three months, it emerged without one of its signature red stripes — leaving scientists searching for an explanation. In military ranks, this would indicate a drop from planetary corporal to private...

Beach Sign: Walk Do Not Run On The Water

Posted on May 13, 2010
Once I saw this sign on Reddit, I was not sure if it was meant to ask people to remain on the surface of the water or to beware of Jesuses. This sign presumably originated with the lifeguards at Sea of Galilee. It is missing the advice however . . . “Take courage! It is [...

LawDragon Selects The Top 500 Lawyers in America

Posted on May 13, 2010
LawDragon has released the results of its increasingly popular survey of the top lawyers in America. The Top 500 Lawyers includes many familiar names from Carter Phillips to Gerry Spence to Antonin Scalia. I was fortunate to again make the list and appreciate everyone who stuffed the ballot boxes...

Kagan?s Palin Moment: White House Does Away With Journalists For Kagan?s First Interview as a Nominee

Posted on May 12, 2010
The White House appears to have found the solution to Sarah Palin’s problem with pesky press and embarrassing interviews. The White House posted Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan’s first “interview” on its website and decided it would be better without an actual journalist...

Supreme Monopoly: Kagan?s Nomination Confirms The Lack of Education Diversity on The Court

Posted on May 12, 2010
Below is today’s column (one of two columns today on the Supreme Court) addressing the troubling exclusion of schools other than Harvard and Yale on the Supreme Court — a type of academic cartel that is damaging to both that institution and our educational and legal systems generally...

Rolling Papers: Texas Man Arrested After Police Find Pot Wrapped In Legal Papers From Prior Drug Arrest

Posted on May 12, 2010
Matthew Ray Creel, 21, has a curious legal file. Police in Santa Fe found marijuana stuffed inside papers in his car — his deferred adjudication order for possession of marijuana from March. Creel was pulled over in his 1991 Ford Mustang around 11:00 p...

Meet Dave Hartsock

Posted on May 12, 2010
I found this CBS story to be truly amazing. Dave Hartsock is a skydiving instructor who jumped in tandem with Shirley Dygert of Teague, Texas. When their first chute failed to open and the second chute became tangled, Hartsock positioned himself under Dygert to break her fall...

Thieves Steal Cross That Was The Subject of Recent Supreme Court Ruling

Posted on May 12, 2010
Only a month after the Supreme Court ruled that a 7-foot-tall metal cross could remain as the Mojave Desert War Memorial, it has been stolen. The 75-year-old war memorial disappeared overnight from the National Park Service site. Someone cut the metal bolts holding the metal-pipe cross to the top of the memorial’s Sunrise Rock on [...

The Confirmation Process: No Way To Select The Judicial MVP

Posted on May 12, 2010
Below is today’s USA Today column on the confirmation process. This is one of two columns today (the other column ran in the L.A. Times) on the Kagan nomination. President Obama’s nomination of Solicitor General Elena Kagan for the Supreme Court formally starts one of our most flawed constitutional traditions: the Senate confirmation hearings...

Specter Twice Thanks His Fellow Republicans At Major Democratic Dinner

Posted on May 12, 2010
Sen. Arlen Specter (D-Pa.) has been struggling to convince Democrats that he is now one of them after switching parties with the shifting polls in his state. He did not help himself at a major dinner this week by twice thanking the Allegheny County Republicans...

Happy Night Shift Workers Day

Posted on May 12, 2010
While many of us have been busy pulling out our Night Shift Workers Day decorations from the attic, some may not be aware of the holiday. Congress has also designated this Receptionist Day. The question of the day is the following: if you have a receptionist who works nights, should you bring two bouquets of [...

Palsy or Abuse? Disabled Lawyer Accused of Slapping Judge

Posted on May 12, 2010
A disabled lawyer, Hippocrate Mertsaris, 35, has been criminally charged with sexual abuse and harassment for allegedly slapping a Taxi and Limousine Commission judge on the rear end. His lawyer insists that his client had an involuntary movement due to his cerebral palsy...

Captured Pirates Presumably Dead After Russians Release Them 300 Miles From Shore Without Navigation Equipment

Posted on May 11, 2010
The Russian government was reportedly unhappy with international legal obligations in their trial of pirates captured off of Somalia — particularly with the possible demand of the pirates to stay in Moscow. Their solution? They let the pirates go ...

Indian Fatwa Issued Against Women Working With Men and Hair Dye

Posted on May 11, 2010
India’s economic boom has resulted in not just tremendous growth in the country but tremendous advances for women. Now, however, Muslim clerics have issued a fatwa to bar women from working or mixing with men in the workplace. The clerics also took time to condemn hair dye as unIslamic...

Samsung Sues Columnist Over Lampoon

Posted on May 11, 2010
We have been following the lawsuit (now dropped) against a writer in England by he British Chiropractic Association (BCA) for his criticism of their profession. Now, Samsung is suing a columnist for making from of its executives, who have been involved in a series of criminal cases and controversies...

D.A. Clears Police Officer Who Killed Innocent Man Wearing Same Color Shirt As Robbery Suspect

Posted on May 11, 2010
The District Attorney has cleared Chino police Cpl. Claudia Lisner in killing an innocent man, Daniel Balandran, 23, because he was wearing the same colored shirt as a suspect in a pizzeria robbery. Balandran walked out of a McDonald’s and was wearing the same color shirt as the suspect...

Itchy Trigger Finger or Simple Suicide? Russian Officer Reportedly Shoots Himself In The Head By Scratching Nose With Loaded Gun

Posted on May 11, 2010
Russian investigators have concluded that a 23-year-old police officer killed himself when he scratched his nose . . . with a loaded gun. The officer was found under his desk with a fatal head wound. The police appear eager to rule out suicide. However, I am a bit perplexed how forensic experts could conclude the [...

Obama To Nominate Elena Kagan

Posted on May 10, 2010
President Barack Obama said he wanted to honor the legacy of Associate Justice John Paul Stevens with his nominee. If so, he has chosen to honor it in the breach with a nominee who is likely to dismantle a significant part of Stevens’ legacy. As with Justice Sonia Sotomayor, President Obama has decided to nominate [...

All A Twitter: Chavez Hires 200 People To Tweet For Him

Posted on May 10, 2010
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has hired 200 people to help him tweet as part of his account “chavezcandanga,” which has more than 237,000 followers. He has much to tweet about as inflation has now reached 30 percent in the country, which Chavez blames on the “bourgeoisie...

Iran Hangs Five ?Enemies of God?

Posted on May 10, 2010
Iran hanged on Sunday five militants convicted of bombing government offices and a gas pipeline. What is fascinating is that such militants, including a woman Shirin Alamhouli, are defined by the medieval Iranian system as “enemies of God.” In addition to Alamhouli, the other hanged “enemies of God” were Farzad Kamangar, Ali Heidarian, Farhad Vakili [...

In Praise of Mothers of All Kind

Posted on May 09, 2010
This is why Mother’s Day should not just be confined to humans. This picture shows mothers come in all types of species and sizes but share some amazing common qualities. Happy Mother’s Day!

HAPPY MOTHER?S DAY

Posted on May 09, 2010
<Happy Mother’s Day to all! We have always prided ourselves on having the best mothers at this blog. While we have respect for those other mothers, our mothers are demonstrably a cut above your average run-of-the-mill mother. I am off to prepare breakfast in bed for Leslie, but I wanted to wish everyone a great [...

Pennsylvania Board: Don?t Forget To Drink on Mother?s Day

Posted on May 09, 2010
The Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board wants you to think not just about Mama today but getting Mama toasted. The board is airing radio ads promoting the virtues of alcohol consumption on Mother’s Day — not exactly what those Mothers at MADD had in mind...

Happy Mother?s Day From Glenn Beck

Posted on May 09, 2010
Glenn Beck had some warm words not only for his advertisers but mothers everywhere this week. When Beck broke off from this radio show to plug his sponsor — Teddy Bear Co. — he not only panned the company’s Mother’s Day products but Mother’s Day in general...

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