Next week is the calm before the storm. April 28 is the day that Court watchers are waiting for – the day when the Court hears oral two hours of oral arguments in the four consolidated same-sex marriage cases from the Sixth Circuit. In the meantime, you’ll have to content yourself with some criminal statutes and … California raisins? “Wait a minute,” you might say, “Didn’t the Court already hear this case?...
rReceiver’s distribution plan of insufficient funds to repay investors, following the SEC’s enforcement action against an investment firm Sec. & Exch. Comm’n v. Wealth Mgmt. LLC, 09-4090, concerned a challenge to the district court’s approval of a receiver’s proposal to distribute diminished assets to investors on a pro rata basis and imposing a cutoff date after which any redemption distributions would be offset against the investor’s total distribution, in the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) enforcement action against a Wisconsin-based investment firm and its principals alleging a host of securities law violations arising from the failure of the firm’s six unregistered investment vehicles - similar to hedge funds - for investing in unconventional and illiquid assets....
Thomas M Cooley Law School has one helluva a bit of a public relations problem. The school has dealt with the inflated “independent law school rankings” (which placed Cooley second only to Harvard), subpoenas to silence Cooley critics, and the class action fraud suit that recent Cooley alum filed last year. But Cooley isn’t just battling students and bloggers; it’s also been fighting its former faculty in the federal court....
The Third Circuit Court of Appeals once again considered the Hazleton immigration law this week. Chief Judge Theodore A. McKee, Judge Thomas I. Vanaskie and Senior Judge Richard L. Nygaard heard oral arguments on Wednesday, reports the Times Leader. Hazelton adopted the Illegal Immigration Relief Act (IIRA) in 2006. The ordinance allowed the city to revoke business licenses for those companies that employed illegal immigrants, and fine landlords that knowingly rented to illegal immigrants....
The American Bar Association has decided to withdraw accreditation from Thomas Jefferson School of Law. That’s what happens when a law school does not live up to the ABA’s educational standards. The law school intends to appeal the decision, but the death march has already begun. It’s hard to spin a happy ending out of a sad story, but Thomas Jefferson has been fighting the odds for years. The good news is that school administrators have a strategy to beat them....
The first preliminary injunction against Aereo was granted by the Utah District Court, but a motion to stay proceedings was granted until SCOTUS hears the case in April. This is a big win for broadcasters, who were originally denied the preliminary injunction in the Second and Massachusetts District Court. So why did the Utah district court grant the preliminary injunction? If you recall, broadcasters in Utah sought a preliminary injunction against Aereo for alleged copyright infringement issues....
The tools to move e-discovery in house have been around for years. Only recently, however, has a narrow majority of in-house departments spent the time and money necessary to develop a dedicated e-discovery team, according to a recent survey by Exterro. According to the survey, in 2019 51% of in-house legal departments have either IT staff or legal personnel that performs e-discovery. Most companies use internal e-discovery teams for information retention and processing....
For millions of Americans, mobile homes provide an affordable form of residential ownership. But now a combination of threatening forces has placed many of them in highly precarious positions. About 7% of American households are mobile homes – or manufactured homes, as they are more accurately called – and many of them exist together in “parks" where their owners rent the land. So they are homeowners and renters at the same time, an unusual category, and that’s where much of the problem lies....
On Friday, a panel of the Seventh Circuit heard oral arguments in Frank v. Walker, a challenge to Wisconsin’s voter ID law (listen to an MP3 here). It’s Not That Burdensome Wisconsin’s assistant attorney general, Clay Kawski, argued that the burden the law places on voters is either hypothetical or not that big of a deal. More than 90 percent of registered voters have a photo ID, he said. Kawski also characterized “anecdotes” of people being unable to get photo IDs as outlier examples....
Wondering where to get excitement now that you’ve finished watching Tiger King?The Honorable Judge Robin Rosenbaum, who sits on the 11th Circuit, has heard your pleas for something to take away from the monotony of social distancing. In a recent decision, Judge Rosenbaum tells a rollicking tale of sunken treasure ships, a stolen gold bar worth more than its weight in gold, and even throws in a reference to The Goonies....
We here at FindLaw always like to remind our readers how important it is to read the fine print. If you’re buying, selling, or downloading anything, you must understand the terms and conditions of whoever you’re dealing with. What Is the Difference Between Arbitration and a Lawsuit? Arbitration is a form of alternative dispute resolution instead of a lawsuit in court. In the arbitration process, the parties meet with an impartial third-party judge....
Attorneys are relieved when the court orders the losing party to pay their fees because it usually means that they will be paid. But what happens when the judgment awarding fees is vacated - not overturned - on appeal? The Second Circuit Court of Appeals recently upheld an attorneys’ fees award from judgment that was later vacated because the judgment “had brought a judicially-sanctioned, material alteration of the parties’ legal relationship that had not been reversed on the merits....
Railroad Arbitration Board Order Affirmed In Burlington Northern & Santa Fe Rwy. Co. v. Pub. Serv. Co. of Okla., No. 09-5133, an appeal from the district court’s order confirming an arbitration board’s decision regarding a rail pricing dispute, the court affirmed where the district court did not err in confirming an arbitration board’s decision despite appellant railroad’s claims that the board misconstrued the parties’ agreement and exceeded its authority by deciding a non-arbitrable issue....
PJ v. Wagner, No. 08-4197, concerned a civil rights action claiming that various state officials wrongfully attempted to force a child to undergo medical treatment (chemotherapy). The court of appeals affirmed summary judgment for defendants in part, holding that: 1) a lower federal court would necessarily have to review and reject certain state-court judgments in order for plaintiffs to succeed on their malicious prosecution claims; 2) defendant-prosecutor’s representations in a state court proceeding were intimately associated with the judicial process and her role as an advocate for the state; 3) plaintiffs’ right to direct their son’s medical care in this case–if any right indeed exists in such circumstances–was not clearly established at the time they alleged the right was violated; and 4) plaintiffs failed to show that any defendant imposed an undue burden on their relationship with the child and therefore failed to show a violation of their associational rights....
Marijuana-related businesses who go belly up shouldn’t expect any relief from federal bankruptcy courts, a bankruptcy appellate panel in the Tenth Circuit announced late August. Marijuana businesses, even if they’re allowed by state laws in Colorado, are still viewed as illegal in the federal government’s eyes and can’t get relief from the federal bankruptcy system, the panel ruled. The marijuana industry has boomed in Colorado since the state legalized recreational weed in 2013....
In McClesky v. Astrue, No. 09-2723, the Seventh Circuit faced a challenge to the district court’s affirmance of the Social Security Administration’s denial of petitioner’s claim, for what the petitioner claims to be total disability caused by fibromyalgia and thoracic outlet syndrome (compression of blood vessels or nerves in the region between the collarbone and the highest rib). In reversing the denial of petitioner’s claim, the court reversed and remanded the matter in light of the inadequate analysis of credibility by the administrative law judge and her erroneous assumption that a job as a telemarketer would be consistent with claimant’s limitations....
The Second Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld the dismissal of the E*Trade customer class action case alleging the company broke state laws when it steered customer business to its partners that paid it the most, rather than what was in the best interest of their customers. Though the allegations are rather troubling, it’s somewhat comforting to know that E*Trade reformed their practices years ago, after this controversy initially broke and FINRA investigated....
Some lawyers just don’t get it. They think that their JD entitles them to sue anytime, anywhere, anyone. Well, the Tenth Circuit literally laid down the law and has barred an ex-lawyer from filing any more pro se actions to the Tenth Circuit. You could say Bret D. Landrith’s troubles started in 2001 when he graduated from law school. The following year he was admitted to the Kansas bar, and in 2005, not even five years later, he managed to get himself disbarred....
Last year, the Supreme Court ruled that the Colorado Civil Rights Commission was impermissibly hostile to a baker’s religious beliefs when it found him in violation of the state’s anti-discrimination laws for refusing to bake a wedding cake for a same-sex couple. What the Court did not say was that wedding vendors and other business owners have a right to refuse service to LGBT customers. But, perhaps because the Court remained silent on the issue, that’s what the U....
Ahmaud Arbery was a victim of a hate crime, a federal jury found on Tuesday, February 22, 2022 – just shy of two years after Arbery was killed while jogging through Satilla Shores, Georgia. Last month, the defendants were found guilty of murder and other charges in state court and sentenced to life in prison. A new jury has concluded that the three defendants who pursued, cornered, and killed Arbery with a shotgun were motivated by racial animus....
