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Public school students generally have the same First Amendment rights to freedom of speech as everyone else when they’re at school and during school activities. But the U.S. Supreme Court has carved out some exceptions when it comes to protecting student speech because of the need to provide a safe and orderly school environment. Typically, student speech, including student expression, is protected as long as it doesn’t cause a disruption at school or interfere with the rights of others....

Just when you thought it was over. Last week we posted that new New York City Mayor de Blasio dropped the stop and frisk appeal, as he had promised in his mayoral campaign. If you thought that would be the end of the saga surrounding the former New York City Mayor Bloomberg’s administration’s stop and frisk policy, then you thought wrong. Last Friday, five police association’s filed two memoranda of law in opposition to the City’s motion for remand with the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, reports The Associated Press....

Last week, the University of Iowa asked the U.S. Supreme Court to block a second trial in the case of Teresa Wagner, a part-time writing instructor at the University of Iowa College of Law who claimed she was denied a full-time position because of her conservative politics. In July, the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals said that Wagner was entitled to a second trial after the trial judge made a procedural misstep....

Earlier this month, the Wisconsin Supreme Court held that a sheriff’s deputy knocking on a car window, by itself, was not a sufficient show of authority to lead the driver to believe that he was being detained. As a result, the encounter was consensual because the driver could have driven away at any time. Background At around 1 a.m. on Christmas Day 2011, Grant County Sheriff’s Deputy Matthew Small noticed a car pull into a closed park and stop in the parking lot....

If Maxcy Filer had taken Mississippi’s bar exam instead of California’s, he probably never would have become a lawyer. California was hard enough for Filer, who took the test 48 times before he passed. It was a record that will never be beaten, especially in Mississippi. That’s because the Mississippi Supreme Court has come up with a new rule: if you fail the bar exam three times, you have to go back to law school....

District court’s denial of plaintiffs’ request for attorney’s fees and of their motions to propound requests for admissions and conduct further discovery is affirmed where: 1) applying the OPEN Government Act to award attorneys’ fees and costs in this case would result in an impermissible retroactive application of the statute, as they were not available under the circuit’s law at the time the NLRB settled the Freedom of Information Act suit; 2) reversing the district court’s denial of plaintiff’s request for admissions and further discovery could provide no additional relief....

As you age, the roles reverse, and you become responsible for your parents. Just as they cared for you when you were vulnerable, now you too must fend for them, especially if they are sick. You understand this as a moral imperative, but you can’t help wondering if there is a limit to this directive. Does it extend to paying parental debts when they cannot cover their costs? Does it apply to nursing home rent, long-term care, and medical bills?...

In an action for payment on a labor and materials payment bond issued by defendants in connection with a construction project, judgment for plaintiff is affirmed in part where the district court did not err in finding that the action was timely under the terms of the bond. However, the judgment is reversed in part where the district court improperly set off from the damages award the contractor’s full cost to complete that portion of the contracted work that had not been completed by plaintiff....

In an employment discrimination action brought under the Americans with Disabilities Act, district court’s grant of summary judgment for defendant is affirmed where: 1) plaintiff’s ADA claim fails, as defendant had a legitimate nondiscriminatory reason for firing plaintiff, defendant did not have an obligation to accommodate plaintiff’s threats even if they were somehow related to a disability, and plaintiff did not present sufficient evidence that the defendants fired him because he engaged in protected activities; 2) plaintiff’s First Amendment retaliation claim fails, as defendant presented undisputed evidence that it fired plaintiff because he threatened to kill his co-workers; 3) plaintiff’s supplemental state law claim for common law certiorari fails, as plaintiff bore the burden of proof, and failed to present sufficient evidence; and 4) plaintiff’s due process claim fails, as he had more than sufficient notice and an opportunity to be heard on the grounds on which the final Hearing Officer affirmed his termination....

A convicted rapist will get a hearing to see if his case was improperly transferred due to bias, a state appeals court said. Tito Rivera was sentenced to 80 to 160 years in prison for robbing five men and raping a woman in 2008. But in Rivera v. Sci, the U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals said he deserves another hearing. The appeals panel said a trial judge erred by not allowing Rivera to present evidence of bias....

District court’s order staying defendant’s execution, based on preexisting litigation related to challenges to Ohio’s method of execution including challenges stemming from the State’s use of a three-drug protocol and its difficulty accessing usable veins in prior executions, is vacated as any challenge to Ohio’s three-drug execution protocol is now moot because such procedure will not be utilized on defendant, and no basis exists for continuing the stay previously in effect....

Losing an appeal stinks. Losing an appeal, and enduring Sixth Circuit criticism for your bad arguments, sucks. In an opinion released Thursday, Sixth Circuit Judge Jeffrey Sutton wrote, “Joaquin Tasis and several comrades devised a sophisticated scheme to bill Medicare for fictitious drug therapies, bilking taxpayers out of millions of dollars in the process. When the authorities got wind of the scheme, they prosecuted Tasis and his coconspirators … The Medicare scheme was elaborate and complex, but Tasis’ arguments on appeal are not....

Nothing can keep a lawyer up at night like the fear of missing a deadline or failing to file a required document. Not only do such errors do a disservice to the client, they can make the attorney look like a fool. In a scathing public reprimand, the Second Circuit has suspended attorney Andres Aranda for extensive misconduct. Aranda was suspended for eighteen months for failing to file papers, briefs or respond to court orders, leading to numerous defaults in appeals in the Second Circuit....

Are you looking for a legal job in Colorado? The Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals is hiring! The job was posted on June 10, 2011, and is open until filled. Here’s the great news: There may be more than one position, according to the job listing on the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals website. The position is for a Staff Attorney and is a temporary job, with a starting salary of $59,057-$70,231....

In a real estate contract case involving a restrictive covenant preventing the sale of any non-BP petroleum products on the property, district court’s grant of defendant-BP’s motion for summary judgment is affirmed where: 1) district court did not err in considering the real estate contract and the Petroleum Restriction together as the Petroleum restriction is part of the real estate contract to be read as a whole; 2) district court did not err in enforcing the covenant as it continued to benefit BP and the changed circumstances in BP’s plans did not defeat the purpose of the restriction; and 3) the premise that successors are not bound because the restrictions do not run with the land is rejected....

“Wait, does that mean they’re crying or laughing?” “Why did he send me an alligator?” “What does the eggplant mean?” I’m referring to emojis, of course. You love to hate them, but you know you use them too. We mostly think of emojis as harmless fun or a shortcut for all that dang typing on a smartphone screen. But it’s also important to remember that an emoji’s meaning is in the eye of the receiver....

Helton v. Southland Racing Corp., No. 09-1674, concerned an action for employment discrimination and retaliation based on plaintiff’s race. The court of appeals affirmed summary judgment for defendant, holding that 1) the alleged verbal harassment creating a hostile work environment in this case was neither frequent nor severe; and 2) because plaintiff claimed only the materially adverse action of a constructive discharge as a basis for her retaliation claim, and because the court had held that she failed to offer sufficient evidence of a constructive discharge, she did not demonstrate a materially adverse action against her....

A Missouri appeals court recently affirmed that GEICO must pay out a $5.2 million arbitration award to a woman who contracted the human papillomavirus (HPV) while having sex in a car insured by the gecko. “M.O.” submitted a claim to GEICO in 2021, arguing that a guy she’d been hooking up with in late 2017 (“M.B.”) negligently infected her with HPV when they had unprotected sex in his car. She offered to settle for $1 million....

Denial of Murder Habeas Petition Reversed In Harrington v. Richter, No. 09-587, a murder prosecution, the Ninth Circuit’s reversal of the denial of petitioner’s habeas petition is reversed where: 1) 28 U.S.C. section 2254(d) applied to petitioner’s petition, even though the state court’s order was unaccompanied by an opinion explaining the court’s reasoning; and 2) the Ninth Circuit erred in holding that, because petitioner’s attorney had not consulted forensic blood experts or introduced expert evidence, the State Supreme Court could not reasonably have concluded counsel provided adequate representation....

In US v. Robinson, No. 08-6023, the Seventh Circuit faced a challenge to the district court’s grant of pro se defendant’s motion to reduce his sentence under 18 U.S.C. section 3582(c)(2) for crack cocaine and firearm related offenses, claiming that the district court had authority to further reduce his sentence. However, because pursuant to section 3582(c)(2), a district court is not authorized to reduce a defendant’s sentence below the amended Guidelines range, the court affirmed defendant’s sentence....