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“This case is what happens when you cross an approach to discovery à la Inspector Clouseau with a corporate lawyer caricature found in cartoon caption contests.” -U.S. Magistrate Judge Steven Rau A federal district court magistrate judge in Minnesota was clearly fed up over the discovery “shenanigans” offered by one of the parties to a whistleblower lawsuit over defective defibrillator devices. Judge Steven Rau ruled on October 16 that Boston Scientific must get its “just deserts” for failing to include an ex-employee with information central to the case in earlier discovery requests....

The holidays are upon us! Hanukkah begins this weekend. Christmas trees are popping up around town. Barbara Walters is picking her most fascinating people of the year. It’s truly the most wonderful time of the year … to discuss the Establishment Clause. Each year, the debate begins anew: Which holiday traditions are constitutionally-condoned based on the Supreme Court’s Establishment Clause rulings? Here are three tips to guide you when spiking publicly-owned spaces with holiday cheer....

The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled this week that a Michigan state-run transit authority can refuse to display American Freedom Defense Initiative ads on the sides of city buses, The Wall Street Journal reports. The appellate court lifted a preliminary injunction against a Suburban Mobility Authority for Regional Transportation (SMART) policy prohibiting content “that is political or that subjects any group to scorn,” concluding that AFDI was unlikely to succeed on the merits of its suit....

The Skirmish in Doubtful Canyon, which left 10 Apache dead on May 3, 1864, was the last Indian battle in what would become the history of New Mexico. The Apaches attacked a company of California soldiers there, ending about two hours later when the last Indian fled. But more than 150 years later, the Indian wars are not really over in New Mexico. Another skirmish has broken out between the state and the Pueblo of Pojoaque, which sued the state for interfering with its casinos....

Denial of petitioner’s habeas petition seeking to overturn his Utah conviction for sexual abuse of a child is affirmed where petitioner brought a constitutional challenge to Utah’s statutory sentencing framework whereby a parole board determined the actual time an offender served in prison, but: 1) there is no constitutional right to an individualized sentence; 2) petitioner provided no evidence that he was treated differently from other defendants; and 3) the sentencing framework did not violate the separation of powers principles....

Pressure is mounting in the other Russia case against President Donald Trump. A federal judge has set a hearing over whether Trump’s businesses run afoul of the U.S. Constitution’s emoluments clause. The clause prohibits public officials from accepting any emolument, i.e. money, of any kind from a foreign government. It is not the same matter being investigated by special counsel Robert Mueller, but it involves some of the same concerns. How did the president benefit from his ties to Russia?...

Illegal Reentry Sentence Affirmed In US v. Rendon-Alamo, No. 10-2089, the court affirmed defendant’s sentence for illegal reentry into the U.S. after a previous deportation where 1) in 2003, the Sentencing Commission added a commentary to U.S.S.G. section 2L1.2 defining the term “sentence imposed” to “include[] any term of imprisonment given upon revocation of probation, parole, or supervised release,” and to “include” means “[t]o contain as a member of an aggregate”; and 2) thus, the district court’s sentence was predicated on a correct calculation of the advisory Guidelines range....

In an insurance-coverage dispute involving the interpretation of an “advertising injury” clause in a commercial general liability policy, district court’s judgment is reversed where Iowa law, and not Illinois law, applies in this case as the court was not required to apply the substantive law of the forum state in a diversity case, and the parties had stipulated that Iowa law should control their dispute. Under Iowa law the insurance policy does not require plaintiff to defend defendant in the underlying suit....

Which raises a question: What if it doesn’t work? Suppose you take Plan B and you still get pregnant — can you sue to hold the manufacturer responsible? Actually, depending on where you live, you can. What Is Plan B? Plan B is actually a particular brand of emergency contraception. It comes in a single-dose tablet that you take within 72 hours after having sex (if you take it within 24 hours, it is even more effective)....

When can a cop do a stop? According to the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals last week, there are three types of permissible encounters with an officer. Last week, the Sixth Circuit issued an amendment to an October 2010 decision involving a motion to suppress evidence obtained from an illegal stop. The amendment includes some additional discussion by dissenters on the open container law in a case that involved an illegal stop....

Cortez v. Trans Union, LLC, 08-2465, involved plaintiff’s suit against Trans Union pursuant to the Fair Credit Reporting Act for failing to correct the problems with plaintiff’s credit report or respond satisfactorily to her inquiries, arising from defendant’s production of plaintiff’s credit history report to a car dealer containing a credit history report of another individual with very poor credit history. In affirming the district court’s judgment, the court held that defendant remains responsible for the accuracy in its reports under the FCRA as Congress clearly intended to ensure that credit reporting agencies exercise care when deciding to associate information with a given consumer, and the record clearly supports the jury’s determination that defendant did not exercise sufficient care here....

In a case with internet-wide ramifications, a federal appeals court said a photographer may pursue damages against a company that copied his photo off the internet. The decision seemed like a no-brainer. every lawyer knows that just because something’s on the internet doesn’t mean people can copy it. Then again, people do it all the time. In Brammer v. Violent Hues Productions, however, the defendant claimed he didn’t see a copyright symbol on the photograph, made no money from it, and removed it from his website as soon as he discovered it was copyrighted....

Joseph v. Holder, No. 05-74390, involved a petition for review of the BIA’s decision affirming an immigration judge’s denial of petitioner’s applications for asylum, withholding of removal, and relief under the Convention Against Torture. The court of appeals granted the petition, holding that an Immigration Judge, who presides over the same petitioner’s bond hearing and removal hearing, may not use her notes from the unrecorded bond hearing in reaching her decision in the removal hearing....

Carlos-Blaza v. Holder, No. 07-70632, involved a petition for review of the immigration judge’s order removing petitioner from the U.S. as an aggravated felon pursuant to 8 U.S.C. section 1227(a)(2)(A)(iii). The court of appeals denied the petition on the ground that a bank employee who “knowingly stole, embezzled, and misapplied moneys” in the amount of $65,000 committed a crime that “involves fraud or deceit.” In re: Cutera Sec. Litig., No. 08-17627, involved a fraud-on-the-market suit claiming that Cutera, Inc....

In an appeal from a district court’s order denying plaintiff’s motion to recuse the district judge, the appeal is dismissed where the district court merely engaged in routine judicial commentary and criticism of plaintiff’s counsel, while declining to impose sanctions and making no findings of professional misconduct. Read Keach v. Cty. of Schenectady, No. 09-1296 Appellate Information Argued: January 14, 2010 Decided: January 28, 2010 Judges Opinion by Judge Lynch...

Americans love pranks. Hidden camera tv shows fooling people have been popular since 1960’s “Candid Camera" and even 40 years later with Ashton Kutcher’s Punk’d. Pranks and challenges go viral on social media and across endless YouTube channels. We even acknowledge pranks and hoaxes with two annual events: April Fool’s Day and Halloween/Mischief Night. However, some pranks can get merry pranksters like you into trouble when they harm people or property or turn deadly....

In an action for libel and intentional infliction of emotional distress based on news reports stating that plaintiff, a criminal defendant, was to cooperate with prosecutors, dismissal of the complaint is affirmed where the statement reporting that plaintiff planned to cooperate with authorities was not defamatory as a matter of law. Read Michtavi v. N.Y. Daily News, No. 08-2111 Appellate Information Submitted: October 23, 2009 Decided: November 25, 2009 Judges...

Many pundits speculated that the Mueller report would reveal where the dead bodies were hidden in the Russia investigation. Robert Mueller’s report is a treatise on Russian interference in the 2016 election, but it is not an indictment of President Trump or any one else. Take it or leave it, that is the good news and the bad news. The dead bodies, it turns out, were buried by the special prosecutor....

Social distancing is virtually impossible while incarcerated. That means prisoners with underlying health conditions are at heightened risk from COVID-19. Counties and municipalities have begun to release vulnerable prisoners for this reason. As yet, however, there has been no movement nationally on how to treat low-level offenders and people awaiting sentencing. If nothing changes, up to 100,000 prisoners may die from COVID-19, according to Professor David Mills of Stanford Law School and Emily Galvin-Almanza, the executive director of Partners for Justice....

Asking the court to settle your dispute in a trial by combat is, to coin a legal phrase, really dumb. Unfortunately, this was lost on a Kansas man embroiled in a custody battle who apparently believed that demonstrating a desire for violence with medieval weaponry was the best route for a judge to grant him more time with his children. David Ostrom, whose children live in Iowa, asked an Iowa district court to sanction settling his custody and property tax dispute with “blunted, practice style" katana swords....