Legal Commentary

As the Waters Rise, McCain Keeps Palin?: Running Mate Found Guilty of Ethical Violations But Will Remain on Ticket

Posted on October 11, 2008
A bipartisan investigation has found that Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin abused her power as Alaska’s governor and violated state ethics law. The allegations stem from effort to get Palin’s ex-brother-in-law fired from the state police...

Goin? Campin

Posted on October 10, 2008
I will be overnight in North Carolina with the little livestock, so postings may be delayed this weekend.       

Eight-Year-Old Boy Killed at Baseball Field With Faulty Wiring

Posted on October 10, 2008
A tragedy in Tuscan, Arizona is developing into a difficult torts case. Deshun Glover was killed by electrocution after a baseball game in July. There appears to be a combination of negligent acts leading to the death as companies deny responsibility...

McDonalds Reportedly Agrees to Drop Support for Gay Business Group

Posted on October 10, 2008
McDonald’s was given a fair degree of credit by liberals for its refusal to drop support for the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce (NGLCC) after a boycott by the American Family Association. It appears that got the company nuggets in a knot and AFA now claims that McDonald’s has announced that [...

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Beaten to Death In Club City: Australian Tourist Killed by Staff at Indian Restaurant for ?Arrogant? Attitude

Posted on October 10, 2008
Now, here is a respondeat superior case: a tourist goes to a bar in Goa, India where he is beaten to death by the staff for being rude. This is what the family says happened to Austrialian John Kelly, 65, at the Club City Restaurant. Goa has become a very dangerous place for tourists [...

ABC Investigation: Government Intercepted Private Calls and Personnel Passed Around Tapes for Recreation

Posted on October 09, 2008
In a remarkable investigation, Brian Ross has uncovered extensive abuses within the military surveillance program operated out of Fort Gordon. The investigation includes interviews with two former employees who say that purely private conversations were intercepted between U...

Fifteen-Year-Old Student Charged with Child Pornography in Sending Pictures to Friends ? Of Herself

Posted on October 09, 2008
Now, this is a new one. prosecutors in Newark Licking Valley, Ohio have charged a 15-year-old of sending child pornography to friends at a high school. However, the cell phone pictures are of herself. The illegal use of minor referenced in the charge is herself...

?And the Children on the Bus Go Help, Help, Help: Bus Driver Accused of Parking on Railroad Tracks and Threatening to Kill All of the Children

Posted on October 09, 2008
Fifty-five children in Florida are being questioned about an incident with a public school bus driver, who allegedly stopped their bus on a train track and threatened to leave the children there if they did not start to behave — as a train approached...

No, We Can?t: Missouri Teacher Suspended Over ?Obama Youth? Video

Posted on October 09, 2008
The video of “Obama Youth — Junior Fraternity Regiment” (shown below) has become a favorite of the Internet. The video is the work of a middle school teacher in Kansas City, Mo. and shows kids in military uniforms addressing “President Obama” and chanting his “yes, we can” campaign line...

Politician?s Son Indicted for Hacking into Gov. Palin?s Email Account

Posted on October 08, 2008
David Kernell, 20, of Knoxville, Tenn., the son of state Rep. Mike Kernell, has been indicted for hacking of the e-mail account of Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin. He should have known that only the Administration can hack into accounts and intercept calls on citizens without a warrant...

Guiltless Pleasures: Administration Settles With Developer Who Allegedly Bulldozes Huge Area of Land, Destroys Archealoglical Sites, and Redirects River in Arizona Without An Admission of Guilt

Posted on October 08, 2008
For some environmentalists, there are few people as vile as Scottsdale-based developer George H. Johnson and his associates. Johnson was accused of bulldozing, filling and diverting a 5-mile stretch of the Santa Cruz River and its tributaries. As Joe Biden would say, “let me repeat that” 5 MILES...

Shvitz, Spa, and a Bailout: AIG Officials Treat Themselves to a Resort Celebration After Bailout

Posted on October 08, 2008
Executives at American International Group Inc. (AIG) were obviously raked with guilt after running their business into the ground, ruining the lives of thousands of employees, and requiring taxpayers to assume the debt of their poor decisions. They were who distraught, days after the bailout, that they spent $440,000 on a posh California retreat [...

?College President of the Year? Arrested for DUI

Posted on October 08, 2008
Randolph Flechsig, president of Davenport University in Michigan has pleaded guilty to a DUI and refusing to take a breath test during his arrest. The video below shows the arrest. Davenport was declared the “College President of the Year” in 2003...

Bait and Switch? Georgia Supreme Court Rules that Transgender Candidate Did Not Trick Voters

Posted on October 08, 2008
The Georgia Supreme Court has ruled that a woman who won a Riverdale City Council position in November did not mislead voters because she was born a man. Michelle Bruce did not tell voters that she was once man and the losers in the election cried foul...

Texas Man Left in Emergency Room for 19 Hours ? Eventually Dies of Heart Attack

Posted on October 07, 2008
All one hears from politicians is how our medical system is the best in the world. Yet, Mike Herrera would likely beg to differ — if he was still alive. The 58-year-old man died of cardiac arrest after waiting 19 hours in the emergency room at Parkland Memorial Hospital...

Pledge Problems at Phi Mu:University of New Hampshire Suspends Fraternity

Posted on October 07, 2008
University of New Hampshire officials have suspended Phi Mu Delta after two students were sent to a hospital with alcohol poisoning after a pledge period. Police arrested seven students on alcohol possession. It is a classic example for potential vicarious and personal liability that we have discussed in class...

?We might . . . sped a little time in jail?: Stevens Caught on Tape Discussing Criminal Investigation

Posted on October 07, 2008
Sen. Ted Stevens was caught on tape discussing the possibility of a prison sentence with his former friend and wealthy businessman Bill Allen. Unbeknownst to Stevens, Allen was recording the conversation as an informant with the FBI. Stevens sounds every inch a felon on the tape, advising Allen to “really lay low” and [...

Delay and Conquer: White House Succeeds in Running Out the Clock on Meirs and Bolten Subpoenas

Posted on October 07, 2008
The White House has long been obvious in its effort to run out the clock on the constitutional challenge to the subpoenas for former White House Counsel Harriet Miers and White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten. As a court found, the White House arguments are meritless, but the Administration has been relying on [...

Step Away From the Shoes, Ma?am: Police Officer Tasers Woman for Trying to Put on Her Shoes

Posted on October 07, 2008
In our expanding list of “things you can do to get tasered by police,” we have another outstanding entry to add to getting out of a bath naked and calling for help. Catherine Isebelle Morris, 34, was tasered by Gaston County Police Officer G...

What Price Sobriety? Atheist Prisoner Challenges Mandatory Religious Program

Posted on October 06, 2008
A California prisoner, Barry A. Hazle Jr., 40, is challenging a condition of his release from prison after a year on drug possession: mandatory drug treatment. It is not the drug treatment idea that bothers Hazle, it is the religiosity of the program...

Florida Teacher Fined But Retained After Allegedly Racist Lesson for Middle School Students

Posted on October 06, 2008
A Marianna, Fla. middle-school teacher, Greg Howard, will not be fired after he allegedly explained to his class what supporters of Barach Obama really mean by “Change.” He reportedly wrote the word on the board as an acronym: “C.H...

Making the Naughty List: California Teacher Tells Students that Santa and Easter Bunny Do Not Exist

Posted on October 06, 2008
Officials at the Berkeley Unified School District are investigating an allegation that Jefferson Elementary School teacher Gwen Martin not only told her students that Santa and the Easter Bunny were fakes but told them that God is very real. Under the California Education Code, there is an express mandate that ?nothing in this code shall be [...

Note to Self: Drive Forward After Ticket and Avoid Police Cruiser

Posted on October 06, 2008
In Buffalo Grove, Illinois, a 72-year-old man had just been given a ticket when he made a situation far worse. He floored the car in reverse and rolled over the police car — as captured in this dashcam video. He was convicted of reckless driving and told to take a safe driving course...

Animal Rights Activists Start Campaign to End the Jewish Kapparot Ritual for Yom Kippur

Posted on October 06, 2008
With the approach of Yom Kippur, animal rights advocates and officials in California are launching a campaign to end the ritual of Kapparot, where a fowl is held by the neck and swung around the head of a Jewish person. The sins of the person are then transfered to the fowl (usually a chicken) [...

Those Betty Davis Eyes: Saudi Cleric Calls for a One-Eye Naqib to Prevent Eye Flirting

Posted on October 05, 2008
Sheikh Muhammad al-Habadan in Saudi Arabia is calling for women to wear a niqab, or full veil, that covers all but one eye. Currently, women wear head to toe coverings that show two eyes. However, al-Habadan says women are wearing eye make-up and flirting with their two eyes...

Its Splitsville in Pittsburgh: Episcopal Church Breaks Away Over Homosexuality

Posted on October 05, 2008
The Pittsburgh diocese has broken away this weekend in the latest defection from the Episcopal Church over homosexuality. They decision was not close with 240 in favor of leaving the church and 102 against the proposal. Pittsburgh joins other dioceses that have either broken away or are planning to break away in San Joaquin, Quincy, Ill...

British Court Finds that Muslims Converting to Christianity Qualify for Asylum

Posted on October 05, 2008
In a potentially wide ranging decision a British immigration court has ruled that a Syrian young couple who converted to Christianity from Islam are entitled to asylum due to the likely threats against their lives. Some Muslim clerics insist that any such converts must be killed...

Federal Court Enjoins Limitations on Student Religous Expression

Posted on October 05, 2008
A federal district court judge has issued an interesting decision in Miller v. Penn Manor School District, (ED PA, Sept. 30, 2008). This case originally captured national attention when a high school student, Donald Miller III, was prevented from wearing a T-shirt that said “Special Issue-Resident-Lifetime License, United States Terrorist Hunting Permit…” The Court [...

Delay and Conquer: GOP Politicians Appeal Troopergate Ruling

Posted on October 04, 2008
In a clear effort to simply delay an investigation until after the November election, Alaskan GOP politicians have appealed the recent ruling upholding the investigation of Gov. Sarah Palin. Anchorage Superior Court Judge Peter Michalski dismissed their lawsuit Thursday shortly before the debate...

Addie Meets Fannie: 90-year-Old Woman Shoots Herself as Police Move to Evict Her from Foreclosed Home

Posted on October 04, 2008
As Congress was passing a bailout of $700 billion to rescue companies like Fannie Mae from their own poor decisions, Addie Polk in Akron, Ohio was being evicted after Fannie Mae foreclosed on her home. She was bailed out of her home when medics carried her out after she shot herself...

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