Legal Commentary

New Television Classic: Fey as Palin Clip

Posted on September 15, 2008
I just watched this clip of Tina Fey playing Sarah Palin. The likeness is so uncanny that it is now clear that Saturday Night Live (SNL) must have been behind her selection. This imitation is so hilarious, it could force SNL fans to vote Republican this November...

First Permit Then Powwow: Santa Rosa Faces Challenge on Permit Rule for Ceremony on Private Land

Posted on September 15, 2008
The American Civil Liberties Union has an interesting challenge on behalf of the Echota Cherokee Indian Tribe: contesting the need for a permit for a Powwow from Santa Rosa County for a ceremony on private land. The county has insisted that a powwow is a permitted activity because food is sold and attracted over 2,000 people...

Resumed Postings

Posted on September 15, 2008
For a couple of days, I have not posted material due to the death of an uncle in California. I am back now and will resume posting entries from our ongoing selection of the profound and the profoundly bizarre.

Student Suspended for Broken Pencil Sharpener

Posted on September 12, 2008
Hilton Head Island International Baccalaureate Elementary School officials have supplied yet another example of blind mindless application of policies. They has suspended a student for having a broken pencil sharpener. The boy — a fourth-grader had no criminal intent and merely brought a broke sharpener to school...

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Crossing the Line Between Crime and Comedy: Italian Accused of Telling Joke About the Pope

Posted on September 12, 2008
Italian comedienne Sabina Guzzanti is facing a criminal charge for a bad joke. In Italy, it is a crime to insult the Pope or “offending the honour of the sacred and inviolable person” . Guzzanti is accused of crossing the line between comedy and crime in saying that Pope Benedict XVI would go [...

Good News, Bad News: Scottish Man Gives Away All of His Wealth After a False Diagnosis of Terminal Cancer

Posted on September 11, 2008
Now, this makes for an interesting torts case. Andy Lees, 72, was toward that he was dying with little time left by St. Johns’s Hospital. The Scottish man proceeded to give away all that he owned to friends and relatives — except for money spent on the funeral...

Perils on the Playground: Cases in Arizona and Portsmouth of Pedophiles Posing as Children Alarm Authorities

Posted on September 11, 2008
Just when you thought you had heard everything to worry about as a parent, Neil Havens Rodreick II comes along (pictured on the left). The 30-year-old sex offender was able to pose as a 12-year-old boy in Arizona schools for two years. He has been criminally charged...

High Kicking to Freedom: American Dancer Told to Dance in Airport by Israeli Security

Posted on September 11, 2008
The arrival of the famous Alvin Ailey dance troupe in Jerusalem has resulted in a growing controversy over the treatment of a black dancer with a Muslim name. Abdur-Rahim Jackson was told twice to dance before security personnel before he was eventually released...

American Airlines Loses Corpse

Posted on September 10, 2008
Tort law has long treated the mishandling of a corpse harshly due to the obvious emotional distress caused by such negligence. When Miguel Olaya’s wife of 26 years died of cancer, he probably thought the worst was over. That is before he gave her body to American Airlines to ship to Ecuador...

Court Overturns James Ford Seale?s Conviction for 1964 Murders

Posted on September 10, 2008
Prosecutors were heralded recently for their prosecution of James Ford Seale for the kidnapping of two black teenagers in Mississippi in 1964 that led to the deaths of Charles Eddie Moore and Henry Hezekiah Dee. The former klansman was tried over 40 years after the crime, but a panel of the United States Court of [...

Ordering Thai to Go: Thailand?s Prime Minister Thrown Out of Office Over Cooking Show

Posted on September 09, 2008
Thailand’s prime minister Samak Sundaravej was found guilty of violating the countries constitution and forced to resign along with his Cabinet on Tuesday. His offense? He hosted a cooking show. It appears to take a bit more in this country and Speaker Nancy Pelosi is expected to defend Samak that his [...

Scientology Faces New Fraud Charges In France

Posted on September 09, 2008
With countries like Germany seeking to ban Scientology from their countries as a dangerous cult or criminal organization, the controversial church is facing new fraud charges in France. A French judge has ordered a trial on fraud allegations from a former member who charged that the church scammed her out of 20,000 euros...

Russians Move Against South Park; Kenny in Hiding

Posted on September 08, 2008
Russia seems intent on making itself and its leaders into cartoon caricatures of late. Thus, it should be no surprise that the Russians are actually fighting cartoon characters in court. Russian prosecutors have filed an action against the South Park series after “experts” concluded that it “bore signs of extremist activity...

Joy Returns to Yeshiva, But Some are Not Joyful

Posted on September 08, 2008
Literature Professor Joy Ladin wants to put the she back into Yeshiva. Formerly known as Jay Ladin, 47, has returned to the school as a woman and was put on leave after an outcry from religious conservatives at the school. She has now been reinstated over the objections of some of the faculty...

Shock Video: Van Filmed as it Runs Over Bicylcist

Posted on September 08, 2008
Police in Washington Park, Illinois are searching for a driver and passenger who ran down a bicyclist at a gas station, as shown on the video below. Anthony Jackson has not just a criminal complaint to bring but an obvious tort case for assault, battery, and negligence...

Endorsed by God: Religious Right Defies IRS on Church Endorsements

Posted on September 08, 2008
Dozens of conservative pastors are defying the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) ban on ministers using their pulpits to endorse political candidates. Organized by the Alliance Defense Fund, the ministers are effectively daring the IRS to take away their tax-exempt status...

Honor Killing: Parents Kill Girl Who Sought Annulment After She was Forced to Marry 45-Year-Old Man ? at Age 9

Posted on September 08, 2008
Saira Nusrat Bibi has become the latest victim in the barbaric cycle of arranged marriages and honor killings in Pakistan and other Middle Eastern countries. Forced into a marriage at age nine to a 45-year-old man, she had taken the extraordinary step to fighting for an annulment...

Dentist Arrested for Dumping Needles and Medical Waste Off Jersey Shore

Posted on September 08, 2008
New Jersey officials have been struggling to find the source of medical waste that has been washing up on its shores — closing various beaches. They now have the culprit: Dr. Thomas McFarland, who has reportedly confessed to the crimes. McFarland, 59, took his motorboat out into the water to dump a bag full of [...

Inclement Crimes: Utah Cracks Down on People Capturing Rainwater

Posted on September 07, 2008
Rebecca Nelson thought that she was helping the environment when she captured rainwater in a barrel and use it on her garden. Car dealer Mark Miller thought he was “greening” his facility with a cistern to use to wash vehicles. They were both violating the law in Utah where it is against the [...

Swaziland Is For Lovers: Protests Over Consumption of Expanding Royal Family

Posted on September 07, 2008
Swaziland may be one of the poorest countries on Earth, but that did not stop its King Mswati III from throwing a massive birthday party for himself or send his various wives on a shopping blasts to Europe on private planes. Despite his control of the country’s finances, the King enjoys about $30 [...

Nevada Judge Halverson Allegedly Attacked by Husband with Frying Pan

Posted on September 07, 2008
The ongoing sage of suspended Nevada District Judge Elizabeth Halverson just got stranger. On Thursday night, her husband Edward Halverson, 49, was arrested and charged with attempted murder and battery her with a frying pan. He has a long criminal record...

Faith-Based Murder: Jordanian Activists Document False Honor Killing Claims

Posted on September 06, 2008
Jordanian human rights advocates are fighting to raise awareness of not just the roughly two dozen honor killings in that country each year, but the fact that some of these killings are being falsely portrayed as motivated by religious values. Indeed, Jordan’s first female coroner, Israa Tawalbeh, has identified one 18-year-old girl named Maha [...

The Bird Rock Bandits v. The ?Flying Hawaiian?: Four High School Friends Sentenced in Killing of Professor Surfer Emery Kauanui

Posted on September 06, 2008
In a controversial decision, California Superior Court Judge John S. Einhorn sentenced four friends involved in the death of professional surfer Emery Kauanui to relatively short sentences of between 90 and 349 days. All pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter...

Walter Reed Middle School Becomes Political Backdrop and National Talking Point

Posted on September 06, 2008
John McCain’s campaign is getting a lot of flak over showing a picture of Walter Reed Middle School, located in Los Angeles rather than Washington’s Walter Reed Medical Center. Of course, it was a lot better than Senator Sen. Lindsey Graham speaking about how successful the Administration has been with a backdrop of row after [...

Why Do You Think They Call it the High Jump? Russian Athlete Disqualified After Competing High on Vodka and Red Bull

Posted on September 06, 2008
In the video below, Ivan Ukhov, a Russian high jumper, took a more literal meaning to the high jump when he alleged competed while drunk on vodka and Red Bull. Ukkov is shown ultimately missing the jump and then passing out under the bar. He apparently had more skill in finding a different [...

Canadian Jet Ski Attack Foiled: U.S. Jails Canadian Drowning Victim and Rescuer

Posted on September 05, 2008
It appears that all of those billions of dollars for Homeland Security has paid off. The Administration has nailed two Canadians on our shores and protected the nation from the Maple Leaf hoard. Jason Haist took a rather novel way to sneak into the country: he almost drowned himself...

Death Becomes Her: Texas Judge Accused of Affair with Prosecutor in Capital Punishinment Case

Posted on September 05, 2008
This is what Texas Gov. Rick Perry seems to view a close call. He has said that he is still mulling over whether the stay an execution of Charles Dean Hood for 30 days after it was disclosed the his judge, former District Judge Verla Sue Holland, and his prosecutor, former Collin County District [...

Getting Fatwa at Parties: Birthday Parties Declared as UnIslamic by Leading Saudi Cleric

Posted on September 05, 2008
Leading Saudi cleric, Sheik Abdul-Aziz Al Sheik has denounced birthday parties as unIslamic and an invasion from the West. People who hold such practices now risk being accusing of doing something Haram, or forbidden. Fatwas have been issued denouncing everything from birthdays to Mother’s Day...

No Leg to Stand On: Prosecutors Refuse to Give Back Prosthetic Leg of Shooting Victim

Posted on September 05, 2008
There is a showdown brewing in Box Butte County, Nebraska. On one side are prosecutors has a standing case against a defendant and on the other is Val McCabe who just wants to stand. Val, and his brilliantly named wife Muffy Buckles, are suing the county for his leg back despite the prosecutors [...

Palin the Neck: Noonan Heard Off-Mike Saying Sarah Palin Not Most Qualified and Declaring ?It?s Over?

Posted on September 04, 2008
I have long said that, when I die, I want to come back as a political rather than a legal commentator. Political commentators seem to be able to say the most predictable facts so long as they follow a scripted Democratic versus Republican persona. However, this week Mike Murphy, an former McCain aide, [...

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