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No one ever said that a jail cell should be comfortable, but Richard Budd claims in a civil rights lawsuit that pretrial detention conditions in the Edgar County, Illinois Jail were downright unlivable. Budd alleges that he was subject to unconstitutional conditions of confinement as an Edgar County pretrial detainee, and that the sheriff was deliberately indifferent to his medical needs. After a video conference to screen Budd’s complaint, the district court dismissed his action for failure to state a claim....

In an action for breach of contract and fraudulent misrepresentation, district court’s dismissal on forum non conveniens grounds is reversed where: 1) the court lacked the power of dismissal under 28 U.S.C. sec. 1404(a) as there is an alternative federal forum in Nebraska and thus this is not a situation in which the common-law doctrine of forum non conveniens has continuing application in federal court; and 2) even if transfer under 28 U....

Treesh v. Bagley, 07-3524, concerned a challenge to the district court’s denial of defendant’s petition for habeas relief for his capital murder conviction. In affirming the denial, the court held that it was not unreasonable for the Ohio Supreme Court to conclude that defendant knowingly and intelligently waived his Miranda rights, and that defendant has forfeited the issue of voluntariness as he has not developed a legal argument regarding the issue....

Last month, we brought you the tale of attempted sodomizer and legal pioneer William MacDonald. Old MacDonald, at age 47, requested oral sex from a 17-year-old girl, then accused her of rape after she denied his advances. He was convicted under Virginia’s “Crimes Against Nature” anti-sodomy statute. To recap, that statute reads: It also wasn’t his first conviction under the statute. He had four prior known acts (with a 16-and 17-year-old) resulting in two convictions and two failed attempts at facial challenges to the statute in light of the Supreme Court’s holding in Lawrence....

Attorney Elbert S. Hendrickson opened a blacksmith shop in the Town of Oyster Bay at a time when immigrants came to America trying to make a living any way they could. One hundred fifty years later, lawmakers want to stop day laborers from making a living on the same Long Island streets. They enacted an ordinance that banned mostly immigrants from soliciting drivers for work as they drove through the suburban neighborhood....

In a putative consolidated class action against H&R Block, Inc. (Block), and individual corporate officers and directors of Block involving allegations of securities fraud claims under section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and SEC Rule 10b-5, dismissal of the action is affirmed in part and reversed in part where: 1) district court did not err in dismissing plaintiff’s claims against the individual defendants with respect to the false statements as plaintiff has not raised a strong inference that the defendants made any of the statements with the requisite scienter; 2) district court did not err in dismissing the consolidated complaint as plaintiff failed to plead scienter adequately with respect to Block or the individual defendants; 3) because the control-person claims under section 20(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 are predicated on some underlying primary violation, plaintiff also failed to state a claim under section 20(a); and 4) while district court’s consolidation of the nine securities and derivative actions against Block under Federal Rules of Civil Procedure 42(a) was not an abuse of discretion, it was error to appoint plaintiff as the sole lead plaintiff to prosecute a single consolidated complaint, and thus, district court’s order designating plaintiff as the lead plaintiff for the derivative claims brought by other parties is reversed and the separate complaints filed by those plaintiffs are reinstated on remand....

Since the dawn of text messaging, lawyers have been asking whether or not they should send text messages back and forth with clients. But a recent tip seems to be paying off, literally, for those attorneys that meet with quite a few clients, and potential clients, per day or per week, and it involves sending those clients text messages. Fortunately, the tip doesn’t require you to exchange endless text messages about the merits (or lack thereof) of a client’s case....

Once, twice, three times unanimous. In a highly uncontroversial lot of opinions, the Supreme Court tackled a long list of tasks: limiting abstract software patents, clarifying that a public employee can’t be fired over compelled testimony, and providing a reasonable means to challenge the motive behind the tax man’s subpoenas. We know – it’s not exactly the big, bad cases you were hoping for, but like all special snowflakes, these opinions will have an impact in the real world....

Manuel Lozano and Diana Alvarez met in London, and the following year had a child together. The couple had the characteristic “he said/she said” version of their relationship; Alvarez characterized the time with instances of rape and violence, while Lozano characterized their time together as having “normal couple problems.” When their child was 3, she began exhibiting signs of distress, with her school nursery manager noting that she was “very withdrawn” and that “the home ’environment obviously had a negative effect’ on her....

In an action under the the National Labor Relations Act seeking an injunction to reinstate employees whom defendant-newspaper discharged for union activity directed at pressuring the newspaper’s owner and publisher to refrain from exercising editorial control over news reporting, denial of a temporary injunction is affirmed where intervening to support the employees’ effort to limit the control of the owner over its news pages necessarily posed some risk to that owner’s First Amendment rights....

E-cigarettes and vape pens have been under fire for a while now. One reason for the concern are the injuries users have suffered due to exploding devices. Another reason for the concern is the questionable marketing strategies of these companies, which many believe target teenagers. In fact, the North Carolina Attorney has sued Juul for targeting youth. Not the First and Probably Not the Last Lawsuit This new lawsuit isn’t the first for Juul, and many other lawsuits also claim that the products are marketed and designed to be attractive to teens....

No employer is safe from a discrimination lawsuit. Not even those employers who are expected to uphold the law. Recently, we learned from a Ninth Circuit case that the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission isn’t above a disability discrimination claim. This week, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that individual employees in the Illinois Attorney General’s office can’t assert qualified immunity to avoid an age discrimination lawsuit. Levin sued under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA), Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, and everyone’s favorite civil rights standby, 42 U....

Petition for Review of Removal Order In Puc-Ruiz v. Holder, No. 09-1296, a petition for review of a Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) decision dismissing petitioner’s appeal from an Immigration Judge’s (IJ) order removing him from the United States to Mexico, the court denied the petition where 1) there was no evidence in the record that the St. Charles police employed an unreasonable show or use of force in arresting and detaining petitioner; and 2) the BIA did not err in affirming the IJ’s determination that petitioner’s statements to an agent regarding his alienage and lack of lawful status in the U....

Where do we draw the line between fair use transformation in art and derivative images that constitute copyright infringement? In 2009, the dominant fair use question involved Shephard Fairey’s appropriation of an Associated Press image for his Barack Obama “Hope” design. Fairey conceded that “Hope” was based on an April 2006 AP photograph by Mannie Garcia. The AP sued Fairey, claiming that he didn’t have permission to use the photograph, and that he must offer a photo credit and compensation....

Near the end of the new majority’s term, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled property owners may go directly to federal court with claims that state or local government deprived them of property rights. The 5-4 decision also overruled a 1985 precedent that held property owners had to pursue their claims in state courts first. It marked the second time in two months that the Supreme Court has overruled its own decisions....

The Supreme Court announced Monday morning that it will review a Second Circuit Court of Appeals decision regarding whether, pursuant to Michigan v. Summers, police officers may detain an individual incident to the execution of a search warrant when the individual has left the immediate vicinity of the premises before the warrant is executed. The Second Circuit previously ruled that the detention incident to the search warrant was legal. In 2005, Suffolk County Police Department (SCPD) obtained a search warrant for the “basement apartment of 103 Lake Drive” in Wyandanch, N....

Since it is SCOTUS week, we’ll be covering various cases from the circuits that were granted cert. Coming out of Cline v. Oklahoma Coalition for Reproductive Justice is the key abortion-related question of regarding an Oklahoma law pertaining to abortion-inducing drugs. This already on SCOTUS’ docket, but is pending a response from the Supreme Court of Oklahoma, according to The New York Times. What has occurred with Cline, and what is the issue, though?...

Mark Leyse takes prerecorded phone calls seriously. In 2005, Leyse filed a class-action lawsuit against Clear Channel after a Clear Channel radio station called Leyse’s home phone number and delivered a prerecorded message: Hi, this is Al “Bernie” Bernstein from 106.7 Lite FM. In case your favorite station went away, I want to take just a minute to remind you about the best variety of yesterday and today at 106.7. Motown, classic 70s from James Taylor, Elton, and Carole King; it’s all here…...

Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson’s suit challenging Obamacare’s changes to congressional health plans was dismissed by the Seventh Circuit for lack of standing on Tuesday. Johnson and his legislative counsel had sued after the Affordable Care Act resulted in changes to their healthcare options, including federal subsidies for their health care plans. Johnson, however, had purchased his own private healthcare instead of participating in the federal program. The two couldn’t show an injury, needed to provide standing to sue, a unanimous Seventh Circuit ruled....

A Missouri judge appointed a special prosecutor on Monday to take over the investigation of the alleged rape of Daisy Coleman in the town of Maryville, a case that attracted national attention after it was publicized by The Kansas City Star and computer hacking group Anonymous. For many who have followed the case closely, this latest move has been a long time coming. The case revolves around Daisy Coleman, who claims she was raped at age 14 by Matthew Barnett, a popular 17-year-old football player, while others filmed them with an iPhone, reports St....