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Eight Justices will decide the fate of affirmative action during the 2012 term. Eight Justices will determine whether America has progressed enough in the last nine years to abandon race-based preferences in higher education. Kind of surreal, right? In 2003, the Supreme Court ruled in Grutter v. Bollinger that schools could consider race as a “plus factor” in admissions decisions. The University of Texas at Austin used Grutter to allow for race-based admissions to supplement a statewide, race-neutral policy that had already created diverse campuses....

Y’all are nasty. Just kidding. But you do like nasty blog topics. (We all do.) Need proof? Here are the 10 most popular blog posts from FindLaw’s U.S. Second Circuit blog for the past year. The docket includes incest, sprayed feces, oral suction during circumcision, plus a litany of other topics that I have no interest in because, well, I’m nasty too. Here’s the big list: 10. So You Want to Start an Appellate Practice in the 2nd Circuit?...

In an action under the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Rehabilitation Act regarding defendants’ alleged failure to accommodate plaintiff’s disabilities when she was visiting her incarcerated spouse, dismissal of the complaint is reversed where: 1) plaintiff alleged that she was discriminatorily denied a reasonable accommodation for her disability in violation of her rights under the two acts, and thus had Article III standing; and 2) the district court failed to address whether plaintiff had sufficiently alleged that defendants administered the inmate visitor program in a discriminatory fashion, despite this issue being at the core of her complaint....

Many business people dream big and see possibilities where others do not. That’s how they got into business to begin with. So it’s natural for you to want to expand and to have grand visions of your business abroad. But in between vision and execution, there are many steps, and that applies to starting a business at home. So when you want to take that idea out into the greater world, it means much more work....

The $100 million lawsuit filed by the estate of Michael Jackson against HBO over the “Leaving Neverland” documentary is heating up. The estate claims that HBO is in violation of a 1992 contract prohibiting saying disparaging things about Michael Jackson, specifically his 1992 concert tour. HBO denies that it breached the contract at all. In short, in “Leaving Neverland,” it is alleged that Jackson sexually abused young boys during that 1992 concert tour....

In plaintiff’s 42 U.S.C. section 1983 case against a county including the county sheriff, county jail employees, and a psychiatrist provided by the county jail, arising from the death of plaintiff’s brother while detained in jail, district court’s entry of summary judgment in favor of all of the defendants is affirmed in part, reversed and remanded in part where: 1) district court correctly concluded that the County’s policy of requiring a corrections officer to be present during psychiatric examinations at the jail did not violate plaintiff’s brother’s constitutional right to adequate mental health treatment; 2) summary judgment as to the medical malpractice claim against the treating psychiatrist is reversed and remanded where plaintiff’s complaint and brief in opposition to the motion for summary judgment make clear that she also alleges malpractice by the doctor in discontinuing her brother’s medication; and 3) because only state law claims now remain in the case, the district court should determine whether the requirements for diversity jurisdiction are satisfied....

In a product liability action against a tobacco company, the dismissal of the action on preemption grounds is reversed where the district court erroneously allowed defendants to achieve diversity jurisdiction by its incorrect finding that plaintiffs’ state law claims were preempted and constituted fraudulent joinder. Read Hunter v. Philip Morris USA, No. 07-35916 Appellate Information Argued and Submitted August 4, 2008 Submission Vacated and Deferred October 29, 2008 Resubmitted August 27, 2009...

The sweet siren song of infomercial infamy is too tempting for Kevin Trudeau. After several multi-million dollar sanctions and bans from the infomercial airwaves, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals found last month that a district court had properly fined Trudeau $37.6 million for taking to the airwaves to promote The Weight Loss Cure “They” Don’t Want You to Know About, with infomercials that the courts say included misrepresentations. In upholding the fine, the Seventh Circuit noted that Trudeau had aired infomercials in violation court orders 32,000 times....

Petition for review of an order finding petitioner removable is denied where: 1) the BIA’s conclusion that petitioner had been convicted of a crime of moral turpitude in denying his petition for withholding of removal was proper as his conviction for selling fraudulent Social Security and alien registration cards to those who knew they were false documents was a crime that involves inherently deceptive conduct; and 2) there was no merit in remaining challenges....

Lee’s Summit North High School suspended twin brothers Sean and Steven Wilson for 180 days after a website they created to discuss, satirize, and “vent” about events at the school went semi-viral and disrupted school. The school was peeved because the blog contained several racist and sexist comments, including sexist remarks about named female students, Ed Week reports. The Wilson brothers reportedly created the posts, though a separate racist comment was allegedly posted by a third student....

El-Tabech v. Clarke, No. 09-1554, involved an action by a Muslim inmate alleging that prison officials were violating his religious rights under the First Amendment and the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act. The court reversed two contempt orders regarding defendants’ compliance with the district court’s judgment, holding that 1) Congress did not reflect in 42 U.S.C. section 1988 a “clear and manifest” intent to entirely preempt statutes such as Neb....

If you sponsor an immigrant spouse for permanent residency and later divorce, you could be on the line for spousal support, regardless of whether your former spouse attempts to find work, according to a recent Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals ruling. Timothy Mund, an American, married Wenfang Liu in China. Two years later the couple decided to move to the United States. The Immigration and Nationality Act forbids admission of any alien who “is likely at any time to become a public charge,” so Mund had to sign an I-864 affidavit agreeing to support Liu at 125 percent of the poverty level — approximately $13,500 a year — even if they divorced....

District court order dismissing plaintiff’s action against state prosecutors claiming violation of equal protection based on prosecutor’s decision to issue a nolle prosequi and forego prosecution of minor’s biological father for felony sexual assault is affirmed where plaintiffs lacked standing to bring the claim as they did not suffer injury in fact. Read Parkhurst v. Tabor, No. 08-2610 Appellate InformationAppeal from the United States District Court for the Western District of Arkansas....

Zaleski v. Burns, No. 09-2366, involved an action seeking an order that plaintiff’s allegations–that there was a conspiracy to deny criminal defendants their constitutional rights–be presented to a grand jury. The court of appeals affirmed the dismissal of the complaint, holding that 1) plaintiff did not allege that he ever requested that the Southern District U.S. Attorney’s Office present his information to a grand jury, and thus he lacked standing to assert his claims; and 2) plaintiff failed to request any relief likely to redress the injury he asserted....

Perhaps it was the message evangelical ministers were preaching that got them into trouble. After all, there’s something wrong about telling people “the end is coming” just as they board a train. But Don Karns and Robert Parker were not going to stop preaching just because they didn’t have a permit to be on the train platform. That was the real problem, according to the New Jersey Transit Authority. But after beating criminal charges against them, the preachers sent the state agency another message in Karns v....

This week, we’re attempting to satisfy your hunger for Supreme Court news with recaps of the highs and lows of the week. First up, the first decision out of First Street for the 2011 term, Greene v. Fisher. In a unanimous opinion written by Justice Scalia, the Supreme Court upheld petitioner Eric Greene’s conviction, deciding that “clearly established federal law,” for purposes of the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act, is limited to the Supreme Court’s decisions “as of the time of the relevant state-court adjudication on the merits....

Defendant’s ten-year mandatory-minimum sentence for possession with intent to distribute over fifty grams of cocaine base is affirmed, where the sentence did not amount to cruel and unusual punishment, because the case did not present an extreme disparity between the sentence imposed and the crime committed. Read US v. Jones, No. 08-1352 Appellate Information Submitted: April 21, 2009 Decided and Filed: July 7, 2009 Judges Opinion by Judge Moore Counsel...

Conviction for interstate transportation of child pornography is affirmed where: 1) the use of peer-to-peer software for distribution of pornography qualifies for a five-level increase in the offense level under the provisions of U.S.S.G. sec. 2G2.2(b)(3)(B); and 2) the sentence imposed was not substantively unreasonable as the district court considered the 18 U.S.C. sec. 3553(a) factors and adequately explained the chosen sentence. Read US v. Moore, No. 09-1199 Appellate InformationAppeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Iowa....

Law & Order, Boston Legal, How to Get Away with Murder, Suits, The Good Wife, Ally McBeal - the list of legal dramas that have grabbed the attention of millions of viewers is nearly endless. For attorneys, it always seems our relationship with these shows is one of either love, hate, or both. How many times has someone recommended a T.V. show because you’re an attorney? Does anyone else’s chosen profession have that profound an impact on the shows they watch?...

The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals ruled this week that two public schools cannot continue to hold graduation ceremonies in a local church. If you work for a school that planned to hand out diplomas to your 2013 graduations in a church, it’s time to think about your backup plan. The Seventh Circuit issued an en banc ruling on Monday, holding that the Elmbrook School District’s church-based commencement ceremonies resulted in government endorsement of religion and coercion of students in violation of the Establishment Clause, reports Education Week....