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In a 42 U.S.C. section 1983 action alleging that plaintiffs were wrongfully detained in jail for periods of time ranging from twenty-six to twenty-nine hours after the court had authorized their releases, summary judgment for defendant is affirmed where: 1) the district court was not foreclosed on a prior remand from reviewing defendant’s proffered evidence concerning deliberate indifference and ruling on the motion for summary judgment on its merits; and 2) given the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department’s many affirmative efforts to remedy the problem, the evidence in the record did not support a finding of a policy of deliberate indifference....

Something smells funny at MTV. Perhaps that is because MTV is being sued by Smelly Old Man. According to the Daily Telegraph, an episode aired in August in which a man now only known as smelly old man (real name: Martin Ellyn), became an unwanted celebrity. So now he is suing for it. The encounter went something like this … while filming an episode of MTV’s “Rob Dyrdek’s Fantasy Factory” Rob and his friend were trying to locate an unpleasant smell....

A failed marriage proposal from William Rehnquist to Sandra Day O’Connor in 1952 is making headlines as no one knew about it until very recently. In a recently announced biography (set to publish next year) about Justice O’Connor, titled First, the details of the pre-High Court relationship are discussed, among many other details of Justice O’Connor’s life. However, the 1952 letter from Rehnquist to O’Connor proposing marriage was not known about until the author of the recent biography started digging through O’Connor’s personal and archived papers....

Their latest opinion wasn’t long on reasoning, so the Supreme Court may have only extended the controversy surrounding Donald Trump’s border wall expansion, rather than quieting it. Overturning a district court’s injunction, the Court last Friday night ruled “the plaintiffs have no cause of action,” and stayed the injunction. The Justices were again split along ideological lines, with Ginsburg, Sotomayor, and Kagan voting against the stay, and Justice Breyer concurring with the removal of the injunction regarding contracts and funding, but disagreeing with the move to allow construction to begin....

Summer is officially here! This means it’s time to clean out the swimming pool, dust off the swimming suits, and dive in! However, the pleasures of swimming pools are balanced with a host of dangers that could mean a lot of liability for swimming pool owners and injuries for visitors. So, here is a round-up of our best swimming pool articles to help you prepare for swimming season: Owners’ Liabilities Is Your Swimming Pool an Attractive Nuisance?...

Few businesses operate without taking on some form of debt. The problems that can arise with taking on debt can often be avoided by making sure that payments to creditors are made on time. When a business fails to pay on time, a creditor can seek to enforce a debt. However, when a business can’t pay a debt being enforced, business owners often wonder what options they have to get rid of the debt....

A funeral home in Michigan is learning one legal truth on appeal, or as the undertaker might colloquially say, postmortem: Transgender employees are protected from discrimination under Title VII. Fortunately, no employees were murdered in the making of this appeal, but, according to a three judge panel of the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, one was certainly discriminated against. Aimee Stephens sued her former employer, RG and GR Harris Funeral Homes, for firing her after she started to transition from male to female....

Two of four national wireless carriers are cleared to merge after U.S. District Court Judge Victor Marrerro determined that the merger does not violate the Clayton Act. The Department of Justice and the FCC approved the merger in July of 2019, but states’ attorneys general argued that the merger would raise prices and substantially lessen competition among wireless carriers. The two companies, meanwhile, argued that Sprint did not have a viable path forward as its own entity and that the merger would help T-Mobile and a new entrant, DISH network, implement their own 5G networks....

Conviction of defendant for being a felon in possession of a firearm and sentence to a statutorily mandated 15-year prison term based on three prior convictions is affirmed where: 1) the guns at issue were properly admitted at trial and an affidavit contained enough independent corroboration to support probable cause to search defendant’s home; and 2) Wisconsin’s vehicular-fleeing offense qualifies as a violent felony under the ACCA. Read US v. Dismuke, No....

The bulk of the Tenth Circuit’s docket is dedicated to reviewing Terry searches and evidence suppression. There are lots of drug appeals in the Denver-based court. Soon, however, the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals will get to tangentially rule on the Denver Broncos starting lineup. Denver Broncos linebacker D.J. Williams is currently appealing the dismissal of his lawsuit over a six-game suspension without pay for a failed drug test, reports The Denver Post....

Luxury buildings are never just apartments. They’re homes, or condominiums, or exclusive living opportunities. But, depending on how courts interpret an insurance contract, a chichi residential building like 40 Mercer can be an “apartment.” WXIV/Broadway Grand Realty, LLC, a building owner and developer, began construction at 40 Mercer Street in 2005, using Pavarini McGovern, LLC as general contractor. Pavarini subcontracted the welding to Ment. Pavarini later discovered damage to the penthouse windows, allegedly caused by welding sparks, and sued Ment in state court....

By now, we know that states and local governments can’t unduly burden an individual’s right to own a gun. That hasn’t stopped governments from coming up with other ways to enact meaningful gun regulations, though. In addition to making bullets more expensive, cities and states have enacted laws limiting the sizes of magazines. In Sunnyvale, California, the city prohibits anyone from owning magazines that hold more than 10 rounds. The Ninth Circuit today agreed with the district court that a preliminary injunction staying enforcement of the ordinance wasn’t warranted....

Sometimes, there is no correct answer, even when there is a right answer. A panel of the Ninth Circuit reversed a man’s Three Strikes sentence, using a plurality discussion in a Supreme Court case to go against that same case’s majority opinion. In doing so, the Ninth Circuit gave the common-sense right answer, that a man shouldn’t get a life sentence for relying upon a judge and prosecutor’s incorrect assertions, and later, appeals courts’ incorrect rulings, but seemingly went against controlling Supreme Court precedent....

A Burnsville man convicted of pimping a teenage girl in the Twin Cities is getting a second chance at presenting his case in court. The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals found that the jury instructions given at Arthur Chappell’s original trial for sex trafficking were so flawed that it warranted throwing out his original verdict. “Considering the magnitude of this plain and prejudicial error, we conclude that failing to correct the error would seriously affect the fairness, integrity, or public reputation of judicial proceedings,” the Eighth Circuit wrote....

If you are a lawyer reading this, you are aware of stress in your profession. School debt, long hours, high pressure, and less-than-soul-uplifting work can all negatively affect a lawyer’s mental health. Sprinkle in a bit of alcohol, recreational, or “performance enhancing” drugs, and it’s a volatile mix that can quickly lead to addiction or burnout. But what is one overlooked source of stress? Our clients. When You Have Challenging Clients Every lawyer encounters those problematic clients....

Legal assistant Paul Whinnery led a double life, and both lost in court. Whinnery was working for a large law firm when travel restrictions became a problem. Whinnery couldn’t travel as a condition of probation from his past life as Dr. Paul Schlieve, who was a mathematics professor. The sentencing judge had restricted Schlieve because he was also cooking meth in those days. It’s a law: you can’t teach math and cook meth at the same time....

We get nervous when we encounter an obviously-impaired driver on the road. On a few occasions, we’ve even called the police to report impaired driving. But we never considered the possibility of impaired flying until we read this Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals opinion. If you’re already scared of air travel, you might be better off skipping this one. Aaron Jason Cope was convicted of one count of operating a common carrier – a commercial airplane – under the influence of alcohol....

La Quinta Corp. v. Heartland Properties LLC, No. 08-6368, concerned a challenge to the district court’s judgment in favor of plaintiff in an action for breach of a hotel franchise agreement and federal trademark infringement. In affriming the district court’s judgment, the court held that there was no abuse of discretion in denying defendant’s belated discovery motion, and in the award of treble damages given the abundant evidence that defendant willfully infringed upon plaintiff’s trademarks....

Former police officer Derek Chauvin currently stands trial facing second-degree unintentional murder, second-degree manslaughter, and third-degree murder charges for George Floyd’s death. Floyd’s death last May sparked protests with thousands calling for change in the nation’s criminal justice system. The jury selection process for this trial was finalized after eleven days of questioning by the prosecution and defense attorneys. The jury process was highly scrutinized due to the high publicity associated with the trial....

Breach of Contract Action In Diesel Props. S.r.l. v. Greystone Bus. Cred. II LLC, No. 09-3899, an action for breach of contract, unjust enrichment, and account stated, the court affirmed in part the dismissal of plaintiff’s claims and partial judgment for defendant where plaintiff failed to prove the causation element of its claim against defendant for breach of the agreement’s notice provisions. However, the court reversed in part where plaintiff had a contractual right to receive the order book at issue at the relevant time, and that right was superior to defendant’s security interest....