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Keeping bar isn’t an easy job, and it’s definitely one filled with risks. Apart from clients skipping out on tabs and not tipping, bartenders also have to worry about legal liability related to over-serving patrons who then go out and commit crimes or injure others. In most states, there are laws, known as dram shop laws, which impose criminal penalties and/or civil liability when a bartender continues to serve a patron who is already drunk if that patron leaves and causes injuries to others, at least partly, because they were drunk....

In an action claiming that plaintiff’s employer and a union discriminated against him by settling his union grievance via an agreement that branded him a racist, dismissal of the complaint is affirmed where there was nothing improper about the union negotiating an agreement whereby plaintiff admitted that he should not have used inappropriate language in exchange for a warning to be stricken from his record. Read Courie v. Alcoa Wheel & Forged Prods....

It was no joke to Louis Vuitton, who sued the makers of canvas hand bags that show cartoon images of Louis Vuitton bags. Louis Vuitton apparently took umbrage that My Other Bag, Inc., was mocking the high-fashion company, which makes $2,000 hand bags. The company sued for trademark and copyright infringement, but a trial judge dismissed the case. Doubly offended, the company appealed. The Second Circuit Court of Appeal, in a carefully worded opinion so as not to add insult to… Well, basically they said there was no injury....

US v. Ciesiolka, 09-2787, concerned a challenge to a conviction of defendant for knowingly attempting to persuade, induce, entice and coerce a minor to engage in sexual activity under 18 U.S.C. section 2422(b). In reversing the conviction and remanding for a new trial, the court held that the crime with which defendant was charged required the government to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant believed that the woman was under 18 and the district court improperly relieved the government of his burden by providing the jury with an ostrich instruction....

According to the University of Michigan’s National Registry of Exonerations, over 600 convictions have been overturned based on DNA evidence. Considering the stakes of a death penalty case, you would think that DNA testing, if available, would be standard practice. It’s not. So what if a prosecutor doesn’t want to submit evidence to testing? Do death penalty defendants have a right to force law enforcement to conduct DNA testing? Testing … Testing … Testing … According to the Supreme Court, they do not....

In plaintiff’s suit against the Department of Energy (DOE) and its Acting Deputy Secretary claiming that the revocation of his security clearance and his subsequent termination was based on his political speech and because he is a Muslim, in violation of the U.S. Constitution and the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), dismissal of his claims is affirmed where: 1) the district court erred in dismissing plaintiff’s First Amendment claim for lack of jurisdiction but it nevertheless is affirmed for failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted because the legal framework applicable to that claim would demand from the DOE an explanation of its decision to revoke his clearance, plus allow a factfinder to weigh the DOE’s arguments in support of that decision, and prior case law forbids both; 2) plaintiff’s equal protection claim under the Fifth Amendment fails for a similar reason; and 3) plaintiff’s claims of due process violations and violations of the APA were properly dismissed for failure to state a claim as plaintiff’s security clearance was revoked in accordance with Executive Order 12968 and DOE regulations....

In an action alleging that defendant-insurer breached its insurance agreement in bad faith by refusing to defend plaintiff in an arbitration, summary judgment for defendant is affirmed where defendant properly refused to defend plaintiff because the allegations in the arbitration did not state a claim potentially within the scope of the policy’s coverage. Read Ganim v. Columbia Cas. Co., No. 08-3945 Appellate Information Argued: June 9, 2009 Decided and Filed: July 23, 2009...

Federal Trade Commission regulations on children’s television programming and advertisements that run during those shows have yet to be applied to internet-based kids’ entertainment. This means that children watching young influencers, aka “kidfluencers,” are consuming content with less advertisement oversight. Public health officials fear that it may make them obese. You Are What You Eat A study published by the journal Pediatrics says that 90% of the food in content featuring kidfluencers is unhealthy....

The gay juror ruling in Smithkline won’t be appealed by AbbVie, an Abbott Laboratories spinoff involved in the case. A representative for the pharmaceutical company explained Monday that it would not appeal the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court, leaving the Ninth Circuit’s ruling intact, reports Reuters. So, how will Smithkline impact the Ninth Circuit now? AbbVie is still set for a new trial with GlaxoSmithKline over claims that it was intentionally overpricing critical HIV-treatment drugs....

Part of the reason we gravitate to shows like “Dexter” and “CSI” is the problem-solving element – we want to figure out whodunnit, hopefully before the show does. We also love these shows because they show off all the fancy technology and science behind crime solving – it’s like Sherlock Holmes came alive in the 21st century. But did Holmes ever get it wrong? We are often so wowed by the “CSI effect” we fail to question if the science behind the gotcha evidence is sound....

The High Court recently upheld the lower federal appellate court decision holding that the Lanham Act’s prohibition on immoral and scandalous trademarks is unconstitutional. In short, the decision explains that the rule consists of viewpoint discrimination because what is immoral and scandalous requires an evaluation of the content of the trademark. Despite the majority opinion ruling in favor of the clothing brand FUCT, it seems that several of the justices do not believe such trademarks should be allowed registration....

Macey v. Carolina Cas. Ins. Co., No. 08-6067, involved an action against an insurance policy for coverage of an underlying suit against corporate directors for breach of fiduciary duty. The court of appeals reversed summary judgment for defendants, on the ground that the directors and officers insurance policy at issue was ambiguous under Virginia law. Torraco v. Port Auth., No. 08-1768, concerned a challenge to the actions taken by defendant-police officers when plaintiffs attempted to transport unloaded firearms in checked baggage through various New York airports....

When abortion-rights activists released the home addresses of six U.S. Supreme Court justices for targeted protesting over Mother’s Day weekend, they may have been inspired by a sense of “turnabout is fair play.” It’s called “doxing,” the malicious online public posting of private personal information about individuals or organizations. It has long been a common tool used by anti-abortion activists. Many people were upset by the leak in the case Dobbs v....

In a dormant Commerce Clause action by recyclers challenging a local ordinance banning a particular method of waste disposal, summary judgment for plaintiffs is reversed in part with instructions to dismiss where the recyclers’ injury was not even marginally related to the interests the Commerce Clause seeks to safeguard. The ruling is vacated and remanded in part where the circuit court’s dismissal of the federal constitutional claim might materially alter the district court’s decision to exercise supplemental jurisdiction over plaintiffs’ preemption claim....

Not every case can be a habeas corpus petition or a fascinating discussion on the requirements of Iqbal and Twombly. This opinion, unless you are enchanted with obscure environmental laws and administrative procedures, or live in Port MacKenzie, Alaska, is probably not worth reading verbatim. You can thank us later for the highlights. The Alaska Railroad Corporation (AARC) wanted to construct 35 miles of rail to Port MacKenzie for the purposes of economic development and improving access beyond roads....

A New Jersey ex-couple’s fight for their dog might be a game-changer for state pet custody law. Like a cars, books, and lawnmowers, animals are currently treated as property under the law. So, when the door closed on the engagement of a New Jersey couple in 2006, their vie for possession of their pet pug, Dexter, was viewed by the deciding court as a straightforward assignment of possession. The pug was pegged to go to former fiancé Eric Dare and his former-blushing counterpart, Doreen Houseman, awarded $1500–the cost of the animal....

A recent lawsuit filed by a visually impaired man against the website Pokemon Center is a small reminder of just how inaccessible the modern world can be, even with all the modern technology available. After all, the ADA was passed before the Dotcom boom, and has been the law of the land for nearly three decades. The Pokemon Center website lawsuit illustrates just how easy it is for a website, even one run by a large and sophisticated company, to be out of compliance with the ADA, leaving disabled customers unable to use the website....

Will Samsung be able to blow up Apple’s $399 million patent infringement award against it, or will its legal arguments spontaneously combust in front of the Supreme Court? The company, which is currently struggling to keep its Galaxy Note 7 phones from literally exploding, came before the Court yesterday to challenge the massive infringement award meted out after Samsung was found to have copied design features from the Apple iPhone in its own Galaxy line of smartphones....

The U.S. Supreme Court decision on the securities class action against Halliburton might be a few weeks old, but it’s still pretty fresh on the news circuit. That’s likely because it involves a famous company, notorious for its ties with former U.S. Vice-President Dick Cheney. The dark side of this case came at the Fifth Circuit level, when the Court of Appeals upheld a ruling from the district court, saying that the plaintiffs had not satisfied the requirements to bring a securities class action against Halliburton, under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure Rule 23....

A black death row inmate has been saved from execution this morning, after the Supreme Court ruled that prosecutors violated the Constitution when striking all potential African American jurors from his trial. Timothy Foster had been convicted of capital murder in Georgia in 1987. He later discovered evidence showing that prosecutors exercised their peremptory strikes almost entirely because of race. Under Batson v. Kentucky, that evidence was enough to undo his conviction, the Supreme Court ruled 7-1 today....