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Pursuing romance with a friend’s ex-wife might put a strain on the best relationship, but Ryan Anderson doesn’t seem to see things that way. After his buddy Jason Pollard got a divorce he was interested in pursuing a relationship with his BFF’s ex. Pollard wasn’t nearly as accommodating as Anderson might have liked though and he cut off communication with his former friend, according to the decision in the Tenth Circuit case of Anderson v....

It’s hard not to notice that a lot of businesses are struggling these days. The highly infectious omicron variant of the coronavirus is sending a lot of workers home, leading to reduced hours, gaps in store shelves, canceled flights, and understaffed hospitals. We’ve written previously about numerous issues facing businesses, workers, and their customers. But with cases at an all-time high, we are charting new ground (again). With businesses facing a staff-up-or-close crisis, some bosses might think it necessary to take a “don’t-ask, don’t-tell” posture when it comes to employee health and staying open....

The Ninth Circuit Judicial Conference wrapped up Thursday at the Hyatt Regency Maui Resort & Spa in Maui, Hawaii. Before we close the book on the conference that left a two-year hangover, we have a few final thoughts on the Ninth Circuit’s conference planning and benefits. Two weeks before the conference, Ninth Circuit Chief Judge Alex Kozinski sent a letter to Senators Charles Grassley and Jeff Sessions — the most prominent critics of the Maui conference — explaining that the controversial conference location was set two years ago, before organizers realized that the economy would still be in the tank....

A suspect may be innocent until proven guilty, but any suspect arrested for a serious crime in California can be swabbed for a DNA sample. Today, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a provision of California’s DNA and Forensic Identification Data Base and Data Bank Act (DNA Act), which requires law enforcement officers to collect DNA samples from all adults arrested for felonies. California law enforcers have identified more than 10,000 offenders by using their DNA, reports The Wall Street Journal....

They are called Single Resident Occupancy (SRO) buildings. Many of them have the word “hotel” plastered on the front of the building, yet nearly all of them are occupied by the City of San Francisco’s most needy: low-income working poor and older and disabled residents. And despite their long-term occupancy, and the city’s prior orders to provide individual mailboxes to each of these units, the United States Post Office is refusing to do anything more than deliver building-by-building, as it classifies these buildings as temporary accommodations....

US v. Rodriguez-Gomez, No. 08-3173, concerned a challenge to the district court’s imposition of an enhanced sentence of 100 months’ imprisonment upon a defendant convicted of illegal re-entry. In affirming the sentence, the court held that the district court did not commit plain error in concluding that defendant’s prior conviction for aggravated battery was a crime of violence. In US v. Boyd, No. 09-1425, the court faced a challenge to the district court’s imposition of a sentence of 334 months’ imprisonment upon a defendant for his drug and firearm related conviction....

There are very stringent standards when it comes to municipal liability. Unfortunately for Plaintiff Amanda Bailey, a former detainee at the Pittsburg County jail, this is all she learned when attempting to sue Sheriff Kerns. In the end, a summary judgment was granted for Kerns, and all Bailey was left with was one arm. Bailey was arrested and brought to the jail on a Sunday night, and a series of events including a deteriorating condition of her right arm, which was in a splint....

While the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals continues pondering ACLU v. Alvarez , a case challenging the Illinois eavesdropping statute, Illinois is considering new legislation that would give police even more power to record suspects without their consent. Under the Illinois eavesdropping statute, a person cannot record a conversation unless he has “the consent of all of the parties to such conversation or electronic communication.” Last week, the Illinois House of Representatives passed a bill to amend the eavesdropping law to permit undercover cops to make audio recordings of suspected drug dealers without a judge’s approval, reports the Chicago Tribune....

Update: it turns out the stay was much ado about nothing. The stay was lifted Wednesday afternoon. More on the order, and the two sides’ arguments, can be found at FindLaw’s Courtside. Justice Sonia Sotomayor has just issued a stay blocking same-sex marriages in Kansas, right around the time a district court’s ruling striking down the state’s ban on gay marriages was about to take effect. The order is a surprise, considering that since the Court declined to take on gay marriage earlier this term, it has refused to issue stays in numerous other same-sex marriage appeals....

Adam v. Stonebridge Life Ins. Co., No. 09-3014, involved an action against a life insurer alleging breach of contract and bad faith after defendant rescinded an insurance policy and denied plaintiff’s claim for benefits. The court of appeals affirmed summary judgment for defendants on the grounds that 1) regardless of whether the contract explicitly stated that preexisting conditions will be considered, as a matter of the plain language of the contract, law and logic, plaintiff’s false answer to a question was material; 2) defendant justifiably relied upon plaintiff’s assertion that he had not been treated for a mental health issue within five years of his application for life insurance; and 3) a material misrepresentation on the insurance application was a reasonable basis for denial....

The Tenth Circuit decided two employment cases today, one involving a First Amendment retaliation claim by a public employee, and the other concerning a claim of termination in breach of an employment contract. In Wallace v. Microsoft Corp., No. 09-3187, plaintiff claimed that defendant wrongfully terminated him in violation of an employment contract allegedly created by e-mails between plaintiff and his supervisor. The district court granted summary judgment to defendant....

Students, as the Supreme Court has said, do not “shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate.” Still, schools can limit student speech to prevent significant disturbances. But how far do a school’s powers to control speech extend beyond the schoolhouse gate? One Pennsylvania high school student tested those limits after posting “fck school, fck softball, fck cheer, fck everything” on Snapchat while posing outside the local Cocoa Hut....

More than 11 years after the September 11 attacks, victims and survivors are still trying to find a way to hold those affiliated with the guilty parties accountable. On Tuesday, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals issued a trio of opinions detailing the deficiencies in some of those claims. The district court granted judgment in favor of 76 defendants on various grounds, including lack of personal jurisdiction, failure to state a claim, and immunity pursuant to the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA)....

When it comes to managing a trust for the benefit of you or your loved ones, removing a trustee is sometimes the only way to deal with problems that may arise. This can be especially important when trusts are used to provide for relatives and dependents both in life and after death. With the assets held in trust being so crucial, here are five common reasons to remove a trustee from a trust:...

Leaving only one last avenue for recourse to Gage County, the federal Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals has denied an en banc rehearing on the county’s failed appeal of the $28 million judgment in the Beatrice Six civil case. The Beatrice Six case is one of the biggest DNA, wrongful conviction exonerations in history. That’s because the DNA evidence of a murder that took place decades ago was used to free six individuals that were wrongfully convicted....

The mass shooting at a Nashville Waffle House last year was a tragedy, made all the more tragic by 911 operators sending to the local police to the wrong Waffle House the morning of the attack. A new lawsuit claims that one of the victims, Akilah DaSilva, may have survived had he received medical attention sooner – he died from massive blood loss at Vanderbilt Medical Center. And now, the Director of Nashville’s Emergency Communications Center, Michele Donegan, is leaving her position, although the city contends it has nothing to do with the Waffle House mix-up....

Petition for Review of Alaskan Pollutant Discharge System Denied In Akiak Native Comm. v. EPA, No. 08-74872, a petition for review of the approval by the EPA of the State of Alaska’s application to assume responsibility for administration of portions of the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System, pursuant to section 402(b) of the Clean Water Act, the court denied the petition where 1) since Alaska law enabled the State to sue permit violators, there was no reason to conclude that Alaska lacks adequate enforcement remedies; and 2) the EPA did not directly manage public lands and was not a federal land management agency....

Congress’s approval ratings are at historical lows. The presidential elections have left little to be desired. When it comes to the federal government, Americans find little they can be happy with. Except the Supreme Court. The judiciary is now the most popular branch of government, with the Supreme Court viewed favorably by 60 percent of Americans, according to a survey by the Pew Research Center. The Court beat out President Obama, who has a 50 percent approval rating, and absolutely eclipsed Congress’s sad 20 percent approval rating in the governmental popularity contest....

Meta’s Instagram, the attention-seeking social media platform, is getting unwanted attention in the form of lawsuits. Through an attorney at the Social Media Victims Law Center, two families are suing Instagram claiming the social media giant allegedly caused their daughters’ eating disorders. But how can you hold a social media platform liable for harm to its users? Most likely, the attorney is suing under product liability laws. What Is Product Liability?...

Actor Charlie Sheen and wife Brooke Mueller say they want to patch things up. The Associated Press reports that the couple wants to reconcile after Mueller’s domestic violence report to the police on Christmas Day. Mueller told police the actor threatened her life with a knife during an arguement that that started when she said she wanted a divorce. Their lawyers say the pair now wants to work it out. Charlie Sheen’s attorney, Richard Cummins said he is asking a judge to modify a restraining order that prevents the couple from having contact....