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Federal Judiciary

Supreme Dicta

An eccentric look at law, politics, and the Supreme Court.

Post Frequency: 0.9/day

Last Entry: June 26, 2009 at 14:23:00

Deep in the heart of Texas

Posted on June 26, 2009
By this time next week, I will be a Texas resident. I will be in Austin, not San Antonio, but still this is fantastic.Grateful hat-tip to Above the Law.

Posted on June 24, 2009
Plus a shout out to Lowell "The Hammer" Stanley...I remember him from late nights watching TV in college.Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Why am I getting into academia?

Posted on June 16, 2009
...when I have to overcome obstacles like this:A new poll for Fox News is a good indication of how members of the one of the nation's most important institutions operate largely out of the public's consciousness. Asked "Which one of the current U.S. Supreme Court justices do you most admire or agree with?", half of the respondents had no idea...

Judge Sotomayor might be the luckiest person alive

Posted on June 15, 2009
...not just being tapped to sit on the highest court in the land. She's lucky on other counts too. Check out this Chicago Tribue story:Last Nov. 23 she hit a jackpot in a Florida casino, collecting $8,283 in winnings while gambling with her mother.Sotomayor listed her winnings in a recently released disclosure form outlining her 2008 finances...

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I <3 Courtoons

Posted on June 12, 2009
Another epic courtoon!

One Tough Klutz

Posted on June 09, 2009
As you may have heard by now, Judge Sonia Sotomayor is in a cast and on crutches after breaking her ankle:Sotomayor was rushing through the hallways at LaGuardia to catch her flight when she injured her foot. He said she boarded her plane despite the injury and traveled to the Old Executive Office Building next to the White House before determining that she needed treatment...

Concering Umpires and Objectivity

Posted on June 08, 2009
Senate Republicans believe a good Supreme Court justice should behave as if he were a baseball umpire, an analogy first employed by Chief Justice Roberts during his 2005 confirmation hearings. Judge Sotomayor, in the opinion of some Republicans, runs afoul of this principle in her comments that her ethnicity and gender, in some instances, shape her view of the law...

The case for judicial pay raises

Posted on June 05, 2009
Chief Justice Roberts has advocated for a judicial pay raise since he ascended to the high court in 2005. He has been unsuccessful thus far, but here is a new argument he can make in his case to Congress.Federal judges deserve a pay raise because they occasionally have to something as inane as this:[W]hile the challenged packaging contains the word "berries" it does so only in conjunction with the descriptive term "crunch...

Who says justices can't have any fun?

Posted on June 04, 2009
I just finished reading a fantastically juicy book of Supreme Court gossip, called The Secret Lives of the Supreme Court. It's intellectually worthless, but nonetheless, quite entertaining.One of the things I learned reading this book is that only one justice has a credit on IMDB (for something other than playing themselves in a documentary)...

GOP gender hypocrisy

Posted on June 02, 2009
Sorry, but I'm just on a cartoon kick this week. (HT to Slate)

Another legal cartoon blog!

Posted on June 01, 2009
Freackin' awesome! Check out Legal Toast. Visit that site like Chicagoans vote, early and often.

Why you shouldn't piss off the IRS...

Posted on May 29, 2009
This has to be the most interesting IRS sting operation in its history: a hidden camera set up in a freight elevator, charges filed that could carry 10 years in the slammer, and thousands of dollars of damage inflicted.What do you think the charge is: tax evasion, racketeering? No way (if it were it wouldn't be on this blog)! Thanks to the good folks over at the Smoking Gun:A Michigan man was actually named yesterday in a U...

Ambulance Chaser Hall of Fame

Posted on May 28, 2009
Major kudos to Esquire magazine for compiling a list (including videos) of the worst personal injury television ads of all time.My personal two favorites are these. Enjoy!

Yankees hold kangaroo court

Posted on May 27, 2009
From mlb.com:For two months, Xavier Nady dutifully collected scraps of paper in a shoebox tucked near the back of his locker -- clubhouse infractions reported by his teammates, waiting for the day when the Yankees would call those offenses to trial.The tone of the hour-plus session -- which also involved clubhouse workers, video coordinators and other support staff -- was light-hearted...

Grand re-re-opening!

Posted on May 26, 2009
I know I haven't posted much recently. I'm trying to get back in the habit, but unlike most other bloggers, I have a life independent of this URL. Thanks for your patience.I don't care much for the NBA, but this was too awesome not to post. Cheers! Courtesy of the good folks at Courtoons.

Of Courts and Crucifix

Posted on April 14, 2009
It's over with, folks. We finally have the last pieces of evidence - a dishwasher, the movie Private Ryan, and speeches by Douglas MacArthur. And, the predicate has been laid for us in a very revealing interview given by the justice himself. It turns out that Clarence Thomas did it with a flag and a crucifix in the den...

I want you like Lawrence v. Texas

Posted on April 02, 2009
I am a bit conflicted. On the one hand, this music video is hilarious. On the other hand, as a W&M alum, I am required to look down upon UVA. Oh well..., enjoy!

Lawrence v. Texas Has No Effect in Georgia

Posted on April 02, 2009
Welcome to Our First Installment of . . . .DID YOU KNOW?!!!Did you know that Lawrence v. Texas (2003) changed absolutely nothing in Georgia? That is so because, in 1998, the Supreme Court of the State of Georgia struck down OCGA � 16-6-2(a), a statute crimnalizing all acts of sodomy, as an unconstitutional violation of privacy protections afforded under Georgia's constitution?Ironically, this was the very same act that the Supreme Court of the United States held constitutional in Bowers v...

Shortest opinion ever

Posted on April 01, 2009
J.H. GILLIS, Judge. The appellant has attempted to distinguish the factual situation in this case from that in Renfroe v. Higgins Rack Coating and Manufacturing Co., Inc. (1969), 17 Mich.App. 259, 169 N.W.2d 326. He didn't. We couldn't. Affirmed...

Quote of the day

Posted on March 27, 2009
"This is the 'crack' bill, and I think any respectable citizen would be against crack."- Tennessee Rep. Joe Town (D, Memphis)No this is not a drug bill. It's a droopy drawers bill, the retarded bill that just won't die. In case you don't know this bill allows cops to write tickets if they can observe your underwear because your pants are being worn too low...

Retarded state legislation: March Madness Edition

Posted on March 18, 2009
Here's a gem from the Kansas state Senate:Kansas Senate tries to keep KU from any more killer B?sTOPEKA | If the Kansas Senate has its way, the Kansas men?s basketball team will never suffer another postseason loss to a team that begins with the letter ?B...

Retarded state legislation: West Virginia edition

Posted on March 13, 2009
H. B. 2918 (By Delegate Eldridge) [Introduced March 3, 2009; referred to the Committee on the Judiciary.]Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia: That the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, be amended by adding thereto a new article, designated �47-25-1, to read as follows:ARTICLE 25...

Retarded state legislator: Florida edition

Posted on March 12, 2009
The Florida Legislature (which might be more accurately called Open-Mic Night at the Improv) is debating a bill to make bestiality a crime. Fifteen other states besides Florida do not have laws against this practice, but that isn't the funny part.The bill was amended to "target only those who derived or helped others derive 'sexual gratification' from an animal...

Another funny case name

Posted on March 11, 2009
Funny case names has long been an obsession of Supreme Dicta. We have another member of this fabled fraternity:U.S. v. Eighteenth Century Peruvian Oil on Canvas Painting 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 10704The Washington Post describes the case name as "unusual...

In case you missed it...

Posted on March 09, 2009
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Our constitutional landscape: Inflatable rat has more free speech rights than a religion

Posted on February 26, 2009
No doubt, many of my atheist readers will think that this is the way things should be, but I think this is absurd. Let's dive in, shall we?Earlier this month, the New Jersey Supreme Court ruled a ten-foot blow-up rat is a form of free expression entitled to constitutional protection...

Worst Motion Ever!

Posted on February 20, 2009
Many thanks to Rodney Chedister for passing this bizarre case along to me:The case Washington v. Alaimo, 943 F. Supp 1395 (1996) was filed in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Georgia. It was disposed of on the ?merits? (if you can call them that) based on orders which limit pro se plaintiff?s access to the courts to ?protect their jurisdiction from conduct which impairs their ability to carry out Article III functions...

Worst brief ever!

Posted on February 04, 2009
Another fantastic story out of Wisconsin, but unfortunately not from Sheboygan (sorry Seth).A jazz musician who filed a legal brief in a child custody dispute with rap lyrics won his appeal and will get out of paying nearly $4,000 in fees.Gregory Royal, a trombone player, represented himself and spent three days writing his legal brief in rap form...

And now for something completely different

Posted on February 02, 2009
This post is mostly for Mary...mostly.Here's your newspaper headline 'o the day: Sign hacker broadcasts zombie warnings.Someone reprogrammed two city construction road signs near the University of Texas early Monday morning in an attempt to warn Austin of an imminent zombie attack...

Retarded state legislation: Connecticut and Mississippi Double Edition

Posted on January 27, 2009
Here's a church/state double whammy for you today! Let's start with Connecticut, where it's as cold as a witch's...trial. What did you think I was going to say?In the Connecticut State Senate, Democrat Paul Doyle has proposed legislation every year recognizing the "victims of the witch trials of colonial Connecticut...

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