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In a 42 U.S.C. section 1983 action based on plaintiff’s involuntary commitment, denial of summary judgment for defendant is affirmed where: 1) the medical-standards test set forth in Rodriguez v. City of New York, 72 F.3d 1051 (2d Cir. 1995), for determining whether an involuntary commitment violates substantive due process, was not inconsistent with County of Sacramento v. Lewis, 523 U.S. 833 (1998); and 2) denying defendant-county summary judgment based on sovereign immunity did not require a showing that it acted with discriminatory animus or ill will toward plaintiff....

DirecTV, Inc. v. Barczewski, No. 06-2219, concerned a DirecTV’s suit against two defendants for intercepting encrypted signals from DirecTV’s satellite system without authorization and for furnishing devices to assist others to steal the signals. Judgment of district court against the defendants is affirmed for the most part. However, the award of damages against the defendant charged with intercepting DirecTV’s signal, is vacated as, the portion of Rodgers v. Wood, 910 F....

In 2008, Crystal Dixon — then-interim Associate Vice President for Human Resources at the University of Toledo — penned an op-ed column in the Toledo Free Press criticizing comparisons between the civil rights and gay rights movements. Dixon wrote, “As a Black woman who happens to be an alumnus of the University of Toledo’s Graduate School, an employee and business owner, I take great umbrage at the notion that those choosing the homosexual lifestyle are ‘civil rights victims....

The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals thinks that the Truth in Lending Act (TILA) is “hypertechnical,” but that won’t stop the court from enforcing the letter of the law. This week, the Seventh Circuit ruled that a Wisconsin borrower could proceed with a right of rescission action regarding a mortgage that was supposedly finalized in 2007 because the lender did not provide him with an adequate number of copies of a TILA-mandated disclosure....

In this modern era of legal marijuana in several states, consumers might find themselves wondering if the marijuana they are consuming was legally produced and sold. Simply put, despite legalization, in states with legal marijuana, the illegal marijuana business is still booming. In California, much of the marijuana produced is not legally compliant, and also, a vast majority of it is being illegally exported to other states. In addition to illegally produced marijuana, many marijuana retailers operate without the proper permitting, or licensing, or in places where it is just not permitted....

The death of a child is tragic, but it is not always considered a crime. Knowingly leaving a child alone in a car is, by itself, illegal in 19 states. And if a child is injured or dies after being left unattended on purpose, a parent or guardian could be charged with negligence or even murder. But what if it was an accident? Such appears to be the case for the New York man who dropped his 4-year-old son off at day care, but forgot to drop off his 1-year-old twins as well and the pair died in his car while he was at work....

Chief Judge Alex Kozinski, of the Ninth Circuit, bench-slaps lawyers and crashes class-action settlements on a semi-regular basis. This, however, was something different, as Kozinski’s wrath wasn’t felt from the bench – he was an objecting plaintiff. Nissan makes the Leaf, an all-electric car with an alleged 100-mile range. Unfortunately, the battery packs seem to either be partially defective, or simply have a shorter range than promised. Kozinski and his wife, Marcy Tiffany, purchased a 2011 Nissan Leaf, and the range wasn’t even sufficient to make the 80-mile trek home, leaving them plugged in to a charger at a dealership fifteen miles short of their destination....

According to the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals, one can only copyright material that requires “intellectual labor.” “Let’s Go Thunder,” in the court’s opinion, did not require sufficient thought to be entitled to copyright protection. Charles Syrus wrote a song for the Oklahoma City Thunder (Thunder), a professional basketball team in the NBA. Syrus gave a copy of his song, for which he has a copyright registration, to the Oklahoma City Mayor’s office in 2008....

“Oh My God, My State-Level Elected Representatives Are So Embarrassing. . .” That chorus of “whatever"s you’re hearing this morning is coming from New Jersey, where Governor Jon Corzine has signed a law that will require drivers under 21 to display an identifying decal on any vehicle they drive. The law is set to go into effect next year, according to the Associated Press. The director of New Jersey’s Division of Highway Safety says that police officers will use the decals to determine if teenagers are violating New Jersey’s driving curfew and vehicle passenger restrictions (not to determine who is a total dork)....

Lying to the FBI is a bad idea. For an alien, lying to the FBI is even more dangerous, as it could be considered aggravated felony for immigration removal. Ramani Pilla learned that lesson the hard way. This week, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals denied Ramani Pilla’s writ of coram nobis as she attempted to overturn her conviction and subsequent removal for lying to the FBI, finding that Pilla could not prove the merits of her ineffective counsel claim....

In U.S. v. Pulley, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit addressed a criminal defendant’s challenge to his sentence for wire fraud conviction related to a scheme to defraud the United Airlines Employees’ Credit Union. In rejecting defendant’s argument that the government’s lack of candor at his co-defendant’s sentencing proceedings caused the district court to make significant procedural errors at his sentencing, the Court held that the district court approached the sentencing hearing with an open mind, and that defendant has not provided sufficient evidence of government’s breach of its duty of candor to require resentencing....

Happy birthday, RBG! The Supreme Court Justice was born this day in Brooklyn, New York, 84 years ago. She is currently the oldest, and the shortest, member of the Supreme Court. Justice Ginsburg’s age has some worrying that she won’t be on the Court for much longer. And whether you agree with her jurisprudence or not, there’s no questioning that the Supreme Court wouldn’t be the same without Justice Ginsburg. Thankfully, RBG doesn’t seem to be going anywhere soon....

There aren’t many rape cases in the federal courts, so we rarely write about rape appeals. That’s probably a good thing, because we get kinda angry when a defendant concedes that he had sex with the victim, and then gets a new trial. This is one of those anger-inducing cases. According to the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals, a man who had sex with a completely blitzed woman deserves a new trial because the jury wasn’t properly instructed on mens rea....

There are two Golden Rules that can be applied to congressional redistricting maps. The first is your pre-school teacher’s Golden Rule: Treat others that way you want to be treated. The second is your political science professor’s Golden Rule: He who has the gold makes the rules. Guess which of these versions politicians use. Texas was awarded four additional congressional seats after the 2010 Census. Tasked with redesigning the state’s legislative and congressional districts to reflect the adjusted population numbers, the Republican-controlled Texas legislature proposed a redistricting map that – no surprise – favored Republicans....

In an action by a water users’ association seeking a declaration that it had the right to develop power in a certain area, judgment for defendants is affirmed where the district court: 1) properly confined its holding to the federal questions raised by the change applications at issue; and 2) did not err by declining to further declare plaintiff’s rights. Read Strawberry Water Users Ass’n. v. US, No. 07-4172 Appellate Information...

Courts cannot sanction a party for their bad-faith conduct by forcing the offending litigant to cover all of the opponent’s legal fees without first showing but-for causation, the Supreme Court ruled this morning. The case stems from a dispute between Goodyear Tire & Rubber and a family who claimed the company’s tires were responsible for their motorhome accident. During discovery, Goodyear withheld important internal reports. Finding the misconduct especially egregious, the district court sanctioned the tire company, ordering it to pay all of the family’s attorney’s fees and costs since the deception began – a total of $2....

The Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals weighed in on the Stolen Valor Act on Friday, less than a month before the Supreme Court hears oral arguments in U.S. v. Alvarez. In a lengthy, split decision, the Denver-based court upheld the Act, which criminalizes false claims about military honors. Congress passed the Stolen Valor Act in 2006 in an attempt to protect true military heroes’ accomplishments from being cheapened by G.I. Joe imposters....

For being the editor and publisher of one of the most prominent neo-Nazi message boards around, Andrew Anglin is a hard fellow to track down. He’s spent years in hiding, evading service on a slew of lawsuits involving directed harassment born from his “Daily Stormer” website. But just because litigants couldn’t physically locate Anglin didn’t mean those lawsuits went away. Anglin now owes almost $20 million to three people as part of three different legal judgments against him, but he may prove “judgment proof,” to borrow a legal term....

District court’s imposition of a statutory maximum of 120 months’ imprisonment on a defendant convicted of conspiracy to defraud the U.S. and to harbor illegal aliens, and of harboring more than one hundred illegal aliens, is affirmed where: 1) there was no error in district court’s denial of government’s 5K1.1 motion to reduce defendant’s sentence, as the court found it significant that defendant had not begun cooperating until after one of his co-defendants had agreed to cooperate and found that bulk of his cooperation to be incomplete at the time of sentencing; and 2) defendant’s sentence is presumed reasonable as it was within the advisory Guidelines range....

Washington and Colorado marijuana retailers and growers are getting some legal breathing room, as the Justice Department announced Thursday that it will refocus on more serious drug offenses. But will the DEA and fedreal prosecutors really back off? Many cannabis advocates see the DOJ’s announcement as a welcome change from the raids and seizures of a “marijuana prohibition” era – a time which may be coming to an end as more states experiment with new pot laws, reports Reuters....