Legal Commentary

Don?t Ask, Don?t Tell?DON?T Pay!: On Dan Choi, Gays, and the Military

Posted on February 05, 2011
Submitted by Elaine Magliaro, Guest Blogger Since the implementation of the U. S. Military?s Don?t Ask, Don?t Tell policy in 1993, more than 14,000 gay and lesbian soldiers have been discharged from service. According to the GAO, of those discharged, more than 750 were mission-critical service members and more than 320 had skills in Arabic, [...

EMTALA

Posted on February 05, 2011
-Submitted by David Drumm (Nal), Guest Blogger EMTALA is an acronym for Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act passed in 1986 and signed into law by then-President Ronald Reagan. It requires hospitals and ambulance services to provide care to anyone needing emergency healthcare treatment regardless of citizenship, legal status or ability to pay...

Court: Judge Allowed To Speak Publicly Against Federal Law and ?Institutionalized Racism?

Posted on February 04, 2011
Ninth Circuit Chief Judge Alex Kozinski (left) has written an order (below) absolving a magistrate judge (believed to be Magistrate Judge Edward Chen) of ethical charges after he spoke out publicly against “institutionalized racism” and the criminalization of immigration laws...

Bangladeshi Girl, 14, Dies After Flogging By Sharia Court

Posted on February 04, 2011
A Muslim cleric has been arrested in the latest atrocity from Sharia courts. Hena Begum, 14, died after being lashed 80 times publicly for adultery. Her family insisted that she had been raped by her cousin. It took her six days to die. The village cleric and elders also demanded that her father pay a [...

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Court: Astrology is a Science

Posted on February 04, 2011
The Bombay High Court has declared astrology to be a science, so that guy who does your horoscope is really a scientist when he writes “today you will face challenges that could offer great rewards or penalties.” The Bombay High Court ruled in a case brought by an NGO challenging ‘fake’ astrologers, tantriks, practitioners of [...

Alabama Judge Pulls Gun On Violent Defendant

Posted on February 04, 2011
Alabama Municipal Judge Carlton Teel is packing more than legal principles under his robe. When a defendant Brian (Bryant) Keith Ford reacted badly to a sentence and started swinging his crutches at the judge, Teel whipped out a gun and then a deputy shot Ford in the side...

Petkov Takes Plea and Neighbors Granted Reprieve

Posted on February 03, 2011
We previously discussed the outrageous conduct of Jennifer Petkov, 33, who taunted a terminally ill 7-year-old girl in Michigan. Now Petkov has been sent packing by a court as part of a plea agreement for an assault and battery of a neighbor. Petkov pleaded guilty to trying to run over a neighbor with her car...

The Ford Pinto Act: Is The White House Claim of ?Activism? Fair?

Posted on February 03, 2011
Here is my column in USA Today (which was posted yesterday but will run in print on Monday) on the charge that Judge Vinson is an activist after his striking down of the entire health care plan. While I did not view the opinion as particularly strong in its substantive analysis and did not like [...

Cuccinelli To Seek Expedited Review By Supreme Court on Health Care ? Bypassing The Fourth Circuit

Posted on February 03, 2011
Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli announced this morning that he will file a Petition for Certiorari Before Judgment today requesting that the U.S. Supreme Court review the Commonwealth v. Sebelius decision without waiting for a ruling from the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit...

Health Care and Federalism: A Response to Charles Fried

Posted on February 03, 2011
I have received a significant number of emails after my earlier stated views on the national health care legislation were raised in the hearings this week before the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary. Unfortunately, I am plowed under this week in litigation, but I wanted to offer a brief response to Harvard Law [...

Redskins Owner Threatens Newspaper With Libel Suit After Unflattering Article

Posted on February 03, 2011
Dan Snyder is reportedly planning a defamation action against Washington’s City Paper for a scathing story about his controversial time as owner of the Washington Redskins. The case could prove an interesting battle over first amendment rights and defamation law...

High School Student is Expelled and Criminally Charged For Spitballing

Posted on February 02, 2011
Spotsylvania High School student Andrew Mikel II, 14, is the latest kid to be swept up in the zero tolerance/zero logic campaign against toy guns in school. (For earlier stories, click here and here and here). Mikel was expelled and criminally charged after he used a pen casing (the tube of preference for spitballers) to [...

Puppy Parcel: Minneapolis Woman Tries To Mail Puppy

Posted on February 02, 2011
Stacey Champion, 39, is not exactly a puppy person. Champion has been charged with animal cruelty after postal employees found a puppy in a box she was sending to a relative. Her defense: she paid extra for two-day priority mail. When the box fell off a counter, the mail staff heard the poodle-mixed pup panting [...

Chicago Candidates Debate Whether One is a Crack Head or The Other is a Carpetbagger

Posted on February 02, 2011
Sometimes I really miss Chicago. While other cities have mayoral debates over taxes and teachers, Chicago’s debate at the Trinity United Church of Christ recently turned on whether one candidate is a crackhead. The video below shows an exchange between Mayoral candidate Carol Moseley Braun and Patricia Van Pelt-Watkins where Watkins accuses Braun of disappearing [...

Where Do You Find Gender Discrimination? Professor Says It Is The National Geographic Bee

Posted on February 02, 2011
Minot State University professor emeritus Eric Clausen has filed his second federal complaint alleging that he was retaliated against by the National Geographic Society after he complained that the contest discriminated against girls because virtually no girls have won the national title...

Zach Wahls Has Two Mommies and A Lot To Say

Posted on February 02, 2011
Zach Wahls, 19, is a University of Iowa student who gave a remarkable presentation at a public forum on House Joint Resolution 6 in the Iowa House of Representatives concerning same-sex marriage. Wahls has two mothers and came to tell legislators about his parents and his life...

Victim Found in Trunk of Stolen Car After Fender Bender

Posted on February 02, 2011
Barion Blake is being sought by police to answer for something found in his trunk after a fender bender: a body. Police charge that Blake store a BMW from an owner, stabbed him, and stuffed him in the trunk. Akeem Ajimotokan was saved when an accident put Blake to foot and New York police noticed [...

Bad Taste: Benihana Sues Blogger Over Bad Review

Posted on February 01, 2011
It appears that Benihana Restaurant has found a new way to maintain a happy customer base: it is suing those who say they do not like their food. In Kuwait, Mark Makhoul wrote a balanced but critical review of the new Benihana restaurant in Kuwait on his blog www...

Dallas Police Officer Charged With Stealing $250,000 From Crime Stoppers Program

Posted on February 01, 2011
Dallas police Senior Corporal Theadora Ross, 26, is accused (with another woman Malva Delley) of collecting $250,000 in rewards for bogus tips to the Crime Stoppers program. Police allege that Ross would award the money to Delley for bogus tips and they would split the cash...

Police Officer Accused of Triggering Manhunt With False Shooting Claim

Posted on February 01, 2011
Los Angeles School Police Officer Jeff Stenroos is the focus of an investigation for allegedly making up a report of being shot and triggering a massive manhunt for the culprit. Police now believe that a bullet mark on Stenroos’ protective vest was caused by an accidental discharge by the officer, who then made up the [...

Canadian Company Kills 100 Sled Dogs Due To Dip in Business

Posted on February 01, 2011
Officials are investigating a Canadian man’s claim of post-traumatic stress disorder after he was awarded compensation for stress from his job with Outdoor Adventures Whistler near Vancouver. The man says that he was ordered to kill 100 healthy sled dogs by his employer due to the dip in business after the Olympics...

School Official Given Over $1 Million in a Retirement Package

Posted on February 01, 2011
We have yet another case of an excessive retirement package for a public employee — and politicians insisting that they are not responsible because they never really read the contract’s details. Wayne Township Schools Superintendent Terry Thompson received an over than $1 million retirement package in 2007, but the full value only came to public [...

Illinois Court Rules Man Can Sue Over Deceptive Use of Sperm By Girlfriend To Impregnate Herself

Posted on February 01, 2011
We have been following a series of paternity cases (here and here and here and here) where courts have rejected claims of lack of consent or knowledge by a parent in forcing child support payments. I just ran over a case that, while now a bit dated, is remarkable...

Spam Kills: Just Ask The ?Black Widow?

Posted on January 31, 2011
Russian officials are now saying that the suicide bomber called the Black Widow who died on New Year’s Eve was the result of an unexpected text message that set off her bomb too early. It may be the first case of death by spam ever recorded. The woman is believed to be is part of [...

Florida Woman Allegedly Lacks Funds For Hit So Contracts For Boyfriend To Be Cripplied

Posted on January 31, 2011
Stephanie Jean Came, 21, is accused of not only being ruthless but decidedly cheap. Came allegedly wanted to kill her boyfriend but didn’t have the scratch for hit, so she arranged for a guy to cripple her boyfriend instead for $500 — preferable from the neck down...

Swift or Loon? California Mayor Moves To Broadcast Recorded Bird Sounds on Sidewalks

Posted on January 31, 2011
Who needs real birds when you can simply pipe them in? Lancaster (CA) mayor R. Rex Parris has announced his desire to have bird sounds played on loudspeakers around the city to make people happier. Parris insists that studies show that bird sounds make people happier — even recorded bird sounds...

Representative: Darwin Be Damned, I?m No Monkey

Posted on January 31, 2011
Rep. Jack Kingston (R-GA) joined the ranks of leading Republicans condemning evolution last week.   On Bill Maher’s show, Kingston was asked directly if he believed in evolution and announced “I believe I came from God not from a monkey so the answer is no...

Federal Court in Florida Strikes Down Health Care Law As Unconstitutional

Posted on January 31, 2011
United States District Court Judge Roger Vinson has reportedly struck down the entirety of the Obama Health Care law (The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act) as unconstitutional. I am waiting for the opinion. However, the Florida challenge was broader than the recent Virginia challenge — that led to the striking down of the individual [...

Live Free (Elsewhere): New Hampshire Moves To Strip Voter Rolls of College Students

Posted on January 31, 2011
New Hampshire Rep. Gregory Sorg (R- Grafton County) is being accused of trying to prune the voter rolls of presumed liberal voters by barring college students from voting. His “Voters Attending Institutions of Learning” would tell students to vote back home...

Stood Up

Posted on January 30, 2011
-Submitted by David Drumm (Nal), Guest Blogger Stood Up In memory of the recent passing of his brother David, we present Ricky Nelson in glorious STEREO!

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