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The law can vary from state to state, and the arena of divorce is no different. From residency requirements to mandatory waiting periods, how you get divorced will depend on where you live. And some of those laws can be pretty strange. Here are five of the most unusual state divorce laws, so you know what to look out for. According to Alabama’s Marital and Domestic Code, “After divorce from the bonds of matrimony and within the discretion of the circuit court of the county in which the divorced wife resides and upon application of any interested party, the divorced wife may be enjoined from the use of the given name or initials of the divorced husband....

Jesse Unruh, the legendary former Speaker of the California General Assembly, said, “If you can’t eat their[lobbyists’] food, drink their booze, … take their money and then vote against them, you’ve got no business being [in politics].” Sixth Circuit Judge Jeffrey Sutton counters that federal anti-corruption statutes — one of which prohibits an official from accepting things of value “in return for” official acts — should be a politician’s guide....

Bank of N.Y. v. First Millennium, Inc., No. 09-1628, involved an action asserting competing claims to the proceeds of a failed securitization of credit card debt. The court of appeals affirmed summary judgment for the Bank of New York and against the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), holding that 1) the FDIC adduced no evidence to support its contention that the amount due on the notes at their maturity was an “invested amount” by the notes’ terms, rather than the unpaid principal amount; 2) the FDIC failed to identify any other provision of the transaction documents that supported its contentions that the amount due on the notes was anything other than their entire unpaid principal; 3) issue preclusion did not apply because a prior action did not consider whether the notes at issue were full recourse or limited recourse obligations of the issuer; and 4) since the Bank of New York asserted no claims against the FDIC as receiver for the failed bank, it was not bound by the jurisdictional limitations or other procedural requirements of 12 U....

Do state officials have the right to decline to defend their state’s laws? As we noted before, it is not an easy question. But University of Denver law professor (and rabbi) Kris McDaniel-Miccio, who is a plaintiff in one of the lawsuits challenging her state’s gay marriage ban, disagrees: She penned an open letter to Colorado Attorney General John Suthers arguing that it is his duty to not defend the law....

In defendants’ appeal from the district court’s dismissal of their counterclaim and the district court’s award of quantum meruit compensation subsequent to a bench trial, judgment for plaintiffs is affirmed in part where: 1) defendants’ counterclaims were based on privileged attorney-client communications; and 2) the agreement allegedly breached by plaintiffs did not require that any and all communications with the client regarding costs include both attorneys. However, the order is vacated in part where the district court clearly erred in failing to account for the value of the attorney referral at issue....

In Dique v. New Jersey State Police, No. 05-1159, the Third Circuit dealt with a plaintiff’s Fourteenth Amendment claim for selective-enforcement, arising from his 1990 traffic stop that led to his conviction for drug related offenses which was vacated in 2002 on the ground that colorable issues of racial profiling existed at the time of the arrest. As stated in the decision: “The Court held that “the statute of limitations upon a section 1983 claim seeking damages for a false arrest in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment, where the arrest is followed by criminal proceedings, begins to run at the time the claimant becomes detained pursuant to legal process....

Randall Jackson was incarcerated in Missouri, at the Western Reception, Diagnostic, and Correctional Center (“WRDCC”). To be eligible for early release on parole, he had to complete the Offenders Under Treatment Program (“OUTP”), which dealt with substance abuse. Jackson is an atheist, the program is non-secular, and you can probably see where this is headed. The OUTP According to his complaint, Jackson alleged that the OUTP “had required meetings [and] invoked religious tenets by using the serenity prayer and religious meditations....

A recently released survey about the American public’s views on SCOTUS has some interesting, and potentially good news. First the good news: The survey, conducted by PSB, and reported by C-SPAN, explains that nearly 70 percent of Americans have been following the news of the recent Supreme Court nominations. This is good because it shows the American public is interested in the High Court. This is bolstered by the fact that over 90 percent believe Supreme Court decisions impact their everyday life....

Results from the first post-Dobbs election reveal that abortion remains a powerful issue for voters. Abortion-rights supporters prevailed in all five states with ballot questions on the issue in 2022. Also, in races where the Supreme Court’s June reversal of Roe v. Wade was an issue, voters appeared to strongly support abortion rights. Ballot questions in three states — California, Michigan, and Vermont — sought to enshrine abortion rights into their constitutions, and each passed by wide margins....

In mandamus proceedings seeking to overturn the district court’s appointment of a law firm as lead counsel in a securities fraud action, the petition is granted in part where the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act made clear that it was the lead plaintiff who selected lead counsel, not the district court. However, the petition is denied in part where the district court was still entitled to approve or disapprove the lead plaintiff’s choice of counsel....

Major League Baseball is awash in money. The average team is worth $2.2 billion. The average player makes $4.17 million per year, and 45 of them make at least $20 million. And now that MLB and the MLB Players Association union settled their differences and inked a new collective bargaining agreement, the minimum player salary increases from $570,500 to $700,000. The lower levels of professional baseball are quite another matter, however....

Tamara Greene was the exotic dancer that wasn’t assaulted by the former Mayor of Detroit’s wife at the infamous party that never happened at the Manoogian Mansion in fall 2002. Months after the party that never was, Greene was shot dead in a drive-by. Seems like a simple correlation, right? It’s more likely that Carlita Kilpatrick’s alleged (non) assault of an adult entertainer months before her death was sheer coincidence. Except, for some reason, it seems that every attempt to investigate the murder, and the possible connection to Mayor Kilpatrick’s cronies, was quickly quashed and the investigators replaced....

District court’s grant of summary judgment to multiple defendants involved in a civil rights case brought by a federal prisoner alleging cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Eighth Amendment and other constitutional violations is affirmed in part and reversed in part where: 1) officer Ayala’s dismissal from the lawsuit was appropriate, as he cannot be liable for failing to respond to other officer’s use of the taser gun where there was no realistic opportunity to intervene; 2) it is unlikely that the defendant who was awaiting sentencing and the entry of final judgment had yet accrued Eighth Amendment protections, where at the time of relevant events, plaintiff was neither a pretrial detainee nor a sentenced prisoner, and thus, the basis for plaintiff’s section 1983 action should have been the Fourteenth Amendment Due Process Clause; 3) in evaluating plaintiff’s claims under the Fourteenth Amendment, insofar as the alleged conduct would have violated the Eighth Amendment, district court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of officer Shreffler was improper, as plaintiff has raised a genuine issue of material fact regarding Shreffler’s mental state at the time he discharged the taser; 4) officer Shreffler is not entitled to qualified immunity; and 5) plaintiff’s Fourteenth Amendment Due Process claim that arose from his placement in segregation without a hearing is dismissed....

The Ninth Circuit is one of the busiest circuits in the nation, with “over 1,470 pending appeals per panel,” which is “two and a half times the average of other circuits,” Senator Dianne Feinstein stated in her remarks for the Congressional record. In this context, Dianne Feinstein argued for Michelle Friedland’s confirmation to the Ninth Circuit bench. Despite conservatives’ reservations with her previous work supporting gay rights, on Monday, Michelle Friedland was confirmed by a vote of 51-40, with only one Republican, Senator Susan Collins of Maine, crossing party lines, reports the San Francisco Chronicle....

In an appeal from the Bankruptcy Court’s order converting Debtor’s bankruptcy case from Chapter 11 to Chapter 7 nunc pro tunc, the order is affirmed, where the equitable powers granted to the Bankruptcy Court under 11 U.S.C. section 105(a) include the power to enter such a conversion order. Read Mitan v. Duval, No. 07-2111 Appellate Information Submitted: December 4, 2008 Decided and Filed: July 17, 2009 Judges Opinion by Judge Gibbons...

The American Society of Media Photographers, a photographers’ trade association, filed a class action copyright infringement lawsuit against Google today. The ASMP charges that the search engine failed to obtain legal authorization from the group’s member photographers before scanning, reproducing, and storing their work as part of Google’s Library Project. The federal court in the existing copyright infringement lawsuit filed by authors against Google denied ASMP’s request to join their still pending class action over the Google Library Project....

We lawyers have lots of dirty little secrets. While the non-lawyers in our lives thought that we spent law school learning how to practice the law, we really spent three years “learning how to think” and realizing what high school would have been like with legal access to alcohol. What we didn’t learn while mainlining caffeine to keep up with cliques and study groups, (which, let’s admit, were one and the same), were the nuts and bolts of the law, like how to draft wills or business contracts....

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals occasionally transforms itself into a sort of traveling circus, visiting law schools and letting students delight in the joy of seeing a real-life Article III judge. (Most recently, the court dazzled the students at UC Irvine.) If you missed the last off-site hearing, you’re in luck: Next week, the three-judge panel of Ninth Circuit Judges Margaret McKeown, Milan Smith, Jr., and Senior District Judge Rudi Brewster will hold a hearing at the University of San Diego School of Law....

Earlier in May, we noted that a case originating in the Seventh Circuit, Elmsbrook School District v. John Doe was languishing in certiorari purgatory, as the case – at that time – had already been distributed for conference eight times. After supplemental briefs were filed, the case was distributed for conference four more times. The twelfth time was a charm apparently, as the Court finally decided whether to grant or deny cert....

Employment Action Against State Election Board In Taylor v. St. Louis Cty. Bd. of Election Comm’rs., No. 09-3714, an action against the St. Louis County Board of Election Commissioners in their official and individual capacities for wrongful discharge under Missouri common law and for a violation of the Equal Pay Act, the court affirmed summary judgment for defendants where 1) Missouri law allowed a former employee to maintain a public-policy wrongful discharge cause of action only against a former employer; and 2) defendant did not produce any evidence to show that the Commissioners, when acting in their individual capacities, had the right to, or did in fact, exercise any of these indicia of control....