Legal Commentary

Texan Criminally Charged For Using Bad Word In Front of Teenager

Posted on April 21, 2009
Texas authorities continue their criminal crackdown on potty mouths. The latest criminal is Joseph Loflin, 48, who was charged with using the word “shit” in front of a 13-year-old girl in Texas City, Texas. Loflin used the word to describe cat droppings left in his garden...

Lockdown High: Zero-Tolerance Policies and Authoritarian Learning

Posted on April 21, 2009
Here is today’s column in USA Today concerning the argument today before the United States Supreme Court in the case of April Redding. In Manassas, Va., a 9-year-old student was suspended for giving a friend a Certs breath mint under a policy that not only bans any drugs but also anything that looks like a drug...

KBR Memos Reveal Knowledge of Dangerous Conditions Before Sending Drivers Into Fire Fight

Posted on April 21, 2009
The lawsuit against KBR by the families of civilian drivers killed in an ambush in Iraq in 2004 have been strengthened by internal memos showing that KBR officials knew of the insurgent activity and high level of danger before sending them into harm’s way...

Feinstein Accused of Self-Dealing in $25 Billion Legislation for FDIC

Posted on April 21, 2009
Sen. Diane Feinstein (D., Ca.) is embroiled in an expanding controversy over her introduction of legislation to give $25 billion to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp that awarded a highly generous contract to her husband. Feinstein is notably not on any committee with jurisdiction in this area and this legislation was unusual for her...

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Video: Police Officer Shown on Drunken Video Joking About Murder and Tasering Suspect ? Later Assigned to His Own Investigation

Posted on April 20, 2009
Erie Police Chief Steve Franklin has a remarkably distorted view of good police work. After Erie Police officer James Cousins II, 40, in Pennsylvania was shown on a video joking about a murder and tasering someone in an unrelated case, Franklin said it was entirely appropriate to assign Cousins to participate in his own [...

Chicago Attorney Convicted of Smuggling Contraband into Prison

Posted on April 20, 2009
Chicago attorney Nathan Billmaier, 35, was convicted of smuggling drugs and paraphernalia in legal briefs and materials to a client, Donald Jordan, in prison. He is the second attorney in Chicago to be nailed for smuggling in contraband. Billmaier was convicted of six such incidents...

Simple Truth Revealed On Tombstone

Posted on April 20, 2009
You really can’t say it better than this. There is still hope that Obama will get rid of Bill Clinton’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy that sacrificed principle for politics. The policy has resulted in many patriotic and proud Americans from being discharged — even as the military lowered its standards to allow [...

Mother Shot By Firing Squad After Children Refuse to Ask for Pardon

Posted on April 20, 2009
Aisha al-Hamzi, 40, was executed by firing squad in Yemen for the murder of her husband. She insisted that she killed her husband after he molested their oldest daughter, who is now 14. Notably, she would have been spared if any of her seven children asked for a pardon...

Supreme Court to Rule on Free Speech Claim Over Animal Cruelty Films

Posted on April 20, 2009
The Supreme Court today accepted U.S. v. Stevens, which will decide whether Robert Stevens of Pittsville, Virginia can be prosecuted for selling videos of pit bull fights. The case could decided the broader question of animal snuff films, crush films, and other disturbing images being sold on the Internet...

Oscar Special: Father of Slumdog Millionaire Child Actress Accused of Trying to Sell Daughter

Posted on April 20, 2009
A British tabloid is reporting that it conducted an undercover sting and confirmed that the father of Rubina Ali (one of the child star’s from the movie Slumdog Millionaire) is trying to sell the girl for £200,000. News of the World says that it got an employee to pose as a fake sheik and Rafiq [...

On Point Debate With Professor Robert Turner

Posted on April 20, 2009
I just completed the discussion below on NPR’s On Point with Professor Robert Turner of the University of Virginia. It shows the flood of different rationales being put forward from every quarter to excuse not investigating war crimes. My favorite point is when Professor Turner argues that investigating people who tortured detainee would be like investigating [...

Two Leading Lawyers Face Shoplifting Allegations in Two Separate Cases

Posted on April 20, 2009
This week involved not one but two leading lawyers nailed for shoplifting. In Wichita, Troy Ellis the former chief counsel at Invista was forced to resign after filmed allegedly stealing food from the company cafeteria. In the meantime, in Utah, former prosecutor Gary Guymon (left) was arrested for stealing a necklace from [...

Divine Slip and Fall: Court Rejects Fallen Wire of Jewish Eruv as Dangerous Condition

Posted on April 19, 2009
There is an interesting slip and fall case out of New York. Peggy Egar alleged that injured on March 31, 2003 at 12:00 P.M., when she tripped and fell down at the ramp of the Hospital’s teaching center located at 327 Beach 19th Street, Far Rockaway, New York...

Synchronized Sleeping ? The New Olympic Sport

Posted on April 19, 2009
Finally, an Olympic event in which I could compete. Synchronized sleeping is a sport that the United States should aggressively pursue. American couch potatoes can clearly sleep away the competition if we are only given a chance. The permanent dip in my living room couch is a testament to my rigorous training program and [...

United Nations Official Strongly Suggests That Obama Is In Violation International Law in Refusing to Investigate War Crimes

Posted on April 19, 2009
U.N. special rapporteur Manfred Nowak has gone public with a stinging indictment of President Barack Obama’s failure to investigate and prosecute officials for the American torture program, a clear war crime under existing treaties. Obama is in open violation of international law due to his failure to uphold the clear legal and moral obligations [...

Memo: Bush Administration Tortured Khalid Sheikh Mohammed 183 Times

Posted on April 19, 2009
One of the more shocking revelation from the May 30, 2005 Bradbury memo, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was waterboarded 183 times in March 2003. Abu Zubaydah was waterboarded 83 times in August 2002. Unless I am missing something, that would mean that that KSM was tortured roughly six times a day...

Headmaster at Religious School Admits Rape of Students ? Prior Complaints of Teacher and Students Ignored by Police and Board

Posted on April 19, 2009
There are major question being raised about the failure of state authorities and police to respond to complaints by students at the St. Andrew’s Christian school. Sarah Johnson and Bec Gavan say that, not only were their complaints about St. Andrew’s Christian School headmaster Frank Bailey, but they were later expelled from the associated [...

Sikh Teenager Cleared in School Assault With Kirpan and Long Pin

Posted on April 19, 2009
A Quebec judge has handed down a curious ruling is dismissing a 13-year-old Sikh boy who was charged with brandishing his ceremonial dagger or Kirpan and a large pin in school. Youth court judge Gilles Ouellet ruled that, while there was evidence to convict the boy, “If the three boys had the same nationality, [...

Yankee Fan Sues After Being Tossed Out of Stadium for Going to the Bathroom During the Singing of God Bless America

Posted on April 18, 2009
Bradford Campeau-Laurion is suing over his being ejected from Yankee Stadium for getting up to go to the bathroom during the singing of God Bless America. He is claiming political and religious discrimination. After his ejection, Campeau-Laurion, 30, insisted that he was unaware of the policy, which has been the source of ongoing [...

The King Family Demands $800,000 to Use MLK?s Image and Words on National Monument

Posted on April 18, 2009
The family of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. has long been criticized for treating King’s legacy as a private cash machine. The family members have been routinely seen in court fighting over money and suing others to give them a cut of any use of his name or likeness...

Man Urinates on Woman During Flights ? Receives Only Three Weeks in Jail

Posted on April 18, 2009
Jerome Kenneth Kingzio, 28, received a remarkably light sentence for a truly disgusting crime of assault. On a Continental flight from Los Angeles to Honolulu, a 66-year-old woman was watching an in-flight movie when Kingzio stood up in the seat behind her and urinated on her...

Second Autopsy Finds Ian Tomlinson Died Of Internal Bleeding, Not a Heart Attack ? Attacking Officer is Now Under Investigation for Manslaughter

Posted on April 18, 2009
The English police have beens struggling to explain a video by an American businessman showing a police officer attacking 47-year-old newspaper vendor, Ian Tomlinson, after denying that they had no contact with him. Now, a second autopsy has shown that Tomlinson did not die from a heart attack but internal bleeding...

American Journalist Roxana Saberi Given Eight Year Sentence in Iran

Posted on April 18, 2009
An American journalist Roxana Saberi, 31, has been convicted of spying and sentenced to eight years in prison after a closed door trial. Saberi was arrested late January and accused of working without press credentials. It was later kicked up to spying and the trial closed to witnesses...

Dominos Workers Criminally Charged After YouTube Prank Video

Posted on April 18, 2009
There is a novel criminal case just filed against two Domino’s Pizza worker who filmed a prank in the restaurant?s kitchen and put it on the Internet with over a million hits on YouTube alone. Now, prosecutors have hit them with felony charges for delivery prohibited foods...

Father of His Church and Country: Paraguay President Sued in Paternity Action

Posted on April 17, 2009
The President of Paraguay Fernando Lugo is facing an interesting paternity lawsuit. It is bad enough when your country’s president is charged with fathering a child with a then 16 year old girl. It is even worse if you were the Catholic Bishop Fernando Lugo at the time...

Textbook Lawsuit: Law Professors Sue West Publishing

Posted on April 17, 2009
Coming soon to torts and contracts text books: two law professors have sued West Publishing for releasing a supplement to their text book that wrongly listed them as authors. Professors David Rudovsky of the University of Pennsylvania and Leonard Sosnov of Widener Law School say that the supplement was a poor job and [...

Model Teacher: High School Coach Fired for Posing for Playboy

Posted on April 17, 2009
We have another teacher fired for her private lifestyle and activities. Carlie Beck was fired from her job as cheerleading coach at Casa Roble High School in the San Juan Unified School District after she posed nude for Playboy under the name Carlie Christine...

New Torture Memos Reveal Details of America?s Torture Program

Posted on April 17, 2009
The newly released torture memos reveal the comprehensive and premeditated character of America’s torture program. It also highlights the shameful role of now Judge Jay Bybee, who distorts the current law in the area to justify a clear war crime...

You Deserve a Break Today: Elderly Couple Trapped in Car By Falling Golden Arches

Posted on April 17, 2009
For those lawyers seeking to establish that fast food is a dangerous product, they may have the perfect clients in Russell and Carolyn Janke, who had the Golden Arches literally land on them. The giant sign blew off its base on the Navajo Nation reservation and crushed their Chevy Trailblazer...

Republic of Texas: Governor Raises the Prospect of Secession From the Union

Posted on April 16, 2009
Facing a tough challenge in his primary for reelection, Texas Gov. Rick Perry has taken up a curious new campaign slogan: Secession. In the audio tape below, Perry threatened that Texas reserved the right to secede from the Union in when it became a state in 1845...

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