Posts

Remember Joe Camel? During the 1980s and 1990s, Joe was a cartoon mascot for Camel cigarettes. His smiling likeness appeared in print ads and billboards everywhere. He probably enjoyed as much celebrity as Tony the Tiger or Ronald McDonald. Today, though, we remember Joe not as a cute icon but as a symbol of a nefarious corporate scheme aimed at luring adolescents to become smokers of Camel cigarettes. Camel’s parent company put Joe out to pasture in 1997 after documents surfaced showing that the company enlisted Joe as a central figure in a campaign targeting children as future smokers....

According to a joint investigation by ProPublica and the Los Angeles Times, at least 22 people have died and another 250 have been injured and following a Border Patrol pursuit – in the last four years alone. It seems that an unfortunate side effect of the Trump administration’s current immigration policy (coupled with what the report describes as “the agency’s loose pursuit policies”) has been a drastic increase in Border Patrol chases, and subsequent accidents....

Some homeowners can be really finicky about their property, and to a certain extent, it’s understandable. And if you’ve ever been on Nextdoor or any of the other neighborhood social media apps, you’ve probably seen someone complaining about how their driveway always gets used as place for cars to turn around. And every now and again, one of those upset people who don’t want anyone on their driveway asks about whether it’s legal to install spike strips on their driveway to stop it....

Ever see a bulldozer’s tires? They’re big. You can’t score those at Wal-Mart. In fact, only three companies in the United States make those behemoths: Goodyear, Michelin, and Bridgestone. Why the lack of competition? Making steel-reinforced tires is a major pain, apparently. A Chinese state-owned company wanted to get in on the action. (Some of their fellow countrymen already beat them to it, apparently.) Wyko is an American company that provides parts for tire-manufacturing machines to Goodyear and others....

No parent ever plans on being investigated by Child Protective Services for possible child abuse or neglect. But as shown by the recently reported CPS investigation of Will and Jada Pinkett Smith, you never know when social workers will come knocking on your door. The CPS probe was reportedly launched after an anonymous tip: Apparently, someone didn’t like seeing a photo of 13-year-old Willow Smith in bed with a shirtless 20-year-old actor that was posted on (and quickly removed from) social media....

In 2008, the EPA issued the 2008 national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS) for states to comply with by 2017. Here’s where it takes a turn. In 2016, the EPA updated the Cross State Air Pollution Rule, which contained no deadline for upwind states to eliminate their contributions to downwind states who were not meeting NAAQS. In 2018, it then issued the Close-Out Rule, in which the EPA claimed to conclusively decide the issue in finding that there was no need to set deadlines or obligations for upwind states, since everyone would be in compliance by 2023 anyway....

Even in prison, an employee can be fired from his job, and appeal his dismissal. Jeremy Greene, a Wisconsin prisoner serving time for a murder conviction, worked as a clerk in the prison library. John Doruff, the prison’s director of education, ordered Green’s firing after concluding that Green had highlighted photocopies of judicial opinions and stolen a judicial opinion for personal use while on the job. Greene responded by filing a complaint in the prison grievance system against Doruff, charging that Doruff had had no cause for firing him....

The old joke among CPAs was to call any update to the tax code a “Continued Accountant Employment Act.” After all, the more complex the law, the more need for experts. U.S.-licensed intellectual property attorneys may look at a new trademark rule in a similar fashion. Starting next month, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) will require foreign-domiciled trademark applicants to be represented by an attorney licensed to practice in the United States....

The internet has put many companies in touch with the world. While this creates almost limitless possibilities for the exchange of information and commerce it also means exposure to a similarly bewildering array of regulations. One significant example involves European and American differences regarding the right to privacy and freedom of speech. A 2014 European court decision in the case of Google Spain SL v. Costeja had held that people could request that search engines like Google remove information from searches of their names....

In an action seeking review of the revocation of Plaintiff’s visa, summary judgment for Defendants is affirmed, where the enactment of 8 U.S.C. section 1155 did not alter the Citizenship and Immigration Services’ authority to revoke its previous approval of a visa petition “at any time” for “good and sufficient cause.” Read Herrera v. US Citizenship & Imm. Servs., No. 08-55493 Appellate Information Argued and Submitted May 4, 2009 Filed July 6, 2009...

If all goes well for Brett Kavanaugh, he should be seated on the U.S. Supreme Court by the time it opens for business in October. The Senate Judiciary Committee set September 4 for his confirmation hearing, which should take about four days. The committee has also reviewed about 10,000 pages of judicial opinions from his tenure on the DC Circuit Court of Appeals. With politics kicking in, however, the confirmation battle is heating up....

If you forgot to get your secretary, admin, or other office staff member, a gift for Administrative Professionals Day (yes that is a thing), don’t worry – you always have time thanks to the digital world we live in. Administrative Professionals Day, (used to be Secretaries Day), happens on the Wednesday of the last full week of April. And if you forget, your staff may leave you wondering what happened to the office morale....

The infamous Lucky Brand ‘Get Lucky’ litigation has taken a turn for the even-more complicated, after 17 years of litigation between the fashion brand and its competitor Marcel Fashions. The Second Circuit used the matter as a springboard to discuss the issue of claim preclusion. And unfortunately for Lucky Brand, the appellate court’s significant discussion was anything but a stroke of luck. The litigation between the two companies dates back to 2001 and involves Marcel’s registered trademark of “Get Lucky” and “Lucky....

Pet owners may sue police who shot and killed their dogs during a home search, a federal appeals court said. In Smith v. City of Detroit, the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals said police acted unreasonably when they shot two pit bulls and a Rottweiler. A divided panel reversed a trial judge who said the owners had no right to sue because their dogs were unlicensed. The issue revolves around whether pet owners have a possessory interest in unlicensed animals under the Fourth Amendment....

In a fraudulent conveyance action in Bankruptcy Court, summary judgment for Defendants is affirmed where 11 U.S.C. section 546(e) is not limited to publicly traded securities but also extends to transactions, such as the leveraged buyout at issue, involving privately held securities. Read QSI Holdings, Inc. v. Alford, No. 08-1176 Appellate Information Argued: March 4, 2009 Decided and Filed: July 6, 2009 Judges Opinion by Judge Norris Counsel For Appellants:...

The Antonin Scalia Law School at George Mason University in Arlington, Virginia was officially dedicated yesterday, as a host of Supreme Court justices, academics, and family members gathered together to celebrate the late justice. Justice Scalia was known publicly for his conservatism, and strict textualism and originalism, and his acerbic dissents, but he was also a frequent face at law schools throughout the country. It was appropriate, then, that the dedication featured his colleague, Justice Elana Kagan, a former dean of Harvard Law School herself....

The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals recently revitalized a free speech case out of Ohio centered on a county fairgoer’s right to use coarse language during a police interaction. On July 29, 2016, Michael Wood attended Ohio’s Clark County Fair sporting a shirt that read “Fuck the Police.” According to Wood, a few people commented on it, including a sheriff’s deputy who remarked, “Hey, Wood, I like your shirt.” A few hours later, the county sheriff’s department received a complaint about Wood’s shirt....

When we first read the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals case in which Seattle cops used a Taser on a woman who was seven months pregnant because she wouldn’t sign a speeding ticket, we were shocked that the Ninth Circuit ruled that the cops were entitled to qualified immunity. We expected the plaintiff to appeal Supreme Court petition in the case, but we thought the cops would be happy with the ruling....

Caligula, the notorious Roman emperor, posted the tax laws in fine print and so high that citizens could not read them. “How can citizens comply with what they can’t see?” the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeal said in comparing the short-lived emperor to the commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service. “And how can anyone assess the tax collector’s exercise of power in that setting?” Reversing a tax court decision, the federal appeals court upbraided the IRS commissioner for penalizing taxpayers for their contributions to Roth IRA’s....

The State Bar of Texas is investigating Attorney General Ken Paxton for his role in trying to overturn the election results in four battleground states. According to documents obtained by the Associated Press, Paxton is under investigation for making potentially misleading statements and challenging the election process in bad faith. A Widely Criticized Lawsuit It is relatively rare that a state bar would investigate an attorney for making a legal argument....