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Dr. K.R. Conklin had two children from his first marriage, and then acquired two stepchildren (not adopted) via his second marriage. In 1996, before his second marriage, he created a trust for the benefit of his biological children only (conveniently called “Children” in the opinion). In 2002, Conklin and his second wife Jo undertook a cross-country trip by plane and automobile. On their way to the airport, Conklin wrote a letter by hand indicating what should happen to his estate if he and his wife should die during this trip....

First Amendment to Prescriber-Identifiable Data Sale Ban In IMS Health Inc. v. Sorrell, No. 09-1913, a First Amendment challenge to a Vermont statute banning the sale, transmission, or use of prescriber-identifiable data (PI data) for marketing or promoting a prescription drug unless the prescriber consents, the court reversed judgment for defendants where, because the statute was a commercial speech restriction that did not directly advance the substantial state interests asserted by Vermont, and was not narrowly tailored to serve those interests, the statute could not survive intermediate scrutiny under Central Hudson....

In an appeal from a district court order granting an application by a newspaper to access sealed wiretap applications relating to the investigation of a prostitution ring, the order is reversed where: 1) petitioner did not show good cause to unseal the wiretap-related documents pursuant to Title III of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968; and 2) petitioner did not have a First Amendment right to gain access to wiretap applications....

Perhaps you’re looking to switch from private practice to in-house. Or maybe you find out a colleague is making more money than you. In the past, we’d be encouraged to reach out to someone in our field for advice. But that is rarely easy. If networking makes you feel awkward, you’re not alone. First, you have to find the right person to reach out to. Or you agonize over which coworker to approach about your concerns....

It’s been exactly ten years, 3,652 days, and about 800 oral arguments since Justice Thomas last asked a question from the Supreme Court bench. The justice’s last active participation in an oral argument was February 22nd, 2006, according to The New York Times. What’s behind Justice Thomas’s unbreakable vow of silence and is there any chance we’ll hear from him in the future? When it comes to Supreme Court oral arguments, Justice Breyer is the most vociferous, averaging 821 words per oral argument, more than 200 words ahead the second most talkative justice, Justice Roberts, according to FiveThirtyEight....

If your life were in the balance, it could be disconcerting to hear a debate over semantics. Like doctors arguing in surgery about whether robots will take their place in the operating room, the debate might be interesting, but not when you’re bleeding out. So it was interesting to court watchers that U.S. Supreme Court Justices were arguing about whether two phrases meant the same thing. It was a death penalty case....

Denial of Certificate of Appealability In Lopez v. Trani, No. 10-1088, an application for a certificate of appealability to appeal the district court’s denial of petitioner’s 28 U.S.C. section 2254 habeas petition, the court denied the application where 1) the state court’s evidentiary rulings were not so grossly prejudicial that it fatally infected the trial and denied the fundamental fairness that is the essence of due process; and 2) nor would reasonable jurists debate whether the alleged instances of prosecutorial misconduct so infected the trial with unfairness as to make the resulting conviction a denial of due process....

District court’s grant of conditional habeas relief to a defendant convicted of first degree murder is affirmed as withholding impeachment evidence regarding a witness’s status as a confidential informer was material under Brady because there was a reasonable probability that disclosure of the evidence would have resulted in a different outcome for the proceeding. Read Robinson v. Mills, No. 09-5243 Appellate Information Argued: October 8, 2009 Decided and Filed: January 28, 2010...

Two more days until the Court gets back to work. Friday’s conference presents a number of interesting cases, including concealed carry of firearms and remedies for prosecutorial misconduct. Anticipation is building for the conference, where the Court could take on a number of cases that could prove to be landmark decisions. Here is a roundup of a few interesting issues that could make their way onto the court’s docket in the near future:...

We have less than a week until the Nine head to the bench, and the world starts to make sense again. We’re celebrating the return of relative normalcy by continuing our preview of the 2012 term. The Supreme Court’s second day of oral arguments next week will be a federal government fun fest. The Court will consider two cases in which lawyers will argue that the federal government is out to get everyone: Kloeckner v....

Congress was back to business on Monday following the Thanksgiving break. The Senate unanimously confirmed Judge Christopher Droney for the Second Circuit Court of Appeals yesterday in an 88-0 vote. Droney, who was nominated in May, will fill Judge Guido Calabresi’s seat. The American Bar Association rated him as “well-qualified” for the seat. Droney’s confirmation vote was part of a bipartisan deal to bring at least five judicial nominees to a full floor vote after the Thanksgiving break....

Oklahoma City University has named Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals Senior Judge David Ebel as the 2012 McAfee & Taft Distinguished Jurist-in-Residence. So what does a Jurist-in-Residence do? (Sidebar: We imagine Judge Ebel’s lecture will take a slightly more positive approach to the practice of law than the “Dear 16-Year-Old Me” video that’s been making the Internet rounds.) The Jurist-in-Residence program is a partnership between OCU LAW and McAfee & Taft that brings respected members of the bench to the OCU campus for to interact with students and faculty....

Gas company’s claim, that a county’s decision regarding an underground pipelines constitutes a taking of property which just compensation must be provided, dismissed for lack of jurisdiction Texas Gas Transmissions, LLC v. Butler County of Bd. of Comm’r, 09-3743, concerned a suit for declaratory and injunctive relief, brought by Butler County and Texas Gas, seeking a declaration of the priority of their respective property interests and of the county’s authority to order Texas Gas to strengthen or remove the pipelines underneath a certain road at issue at the company’s expense....

Every American learns in grammar school that we launched the Revolutionary War against England over the issue of “taxation without representation.” While nobody’s talking about taking up arms, the same sort of issue is behind a movement to make Washington, D.C. the nation’s 51st state. Even though the District of Columbia (population 720,000) has more people than two states (Vermont and Wyoming), its residents have only token representation on Capitol Hill....

A group of Nigerian plaintiffs claim that Royal Dutch Petroleum Company and Shell Transport and Trading Company – which you probably know as Shell Oil – aided and abetted the Nigerian government in committing human rights abuses against them. Those abuses included beating, raping, and arresting people, and destroying or looting property. The plaintiffs sued the oil company in the U.S. under the Alien Tort Statute in 2002. Eleven years later, they have officially lost their case because the presumption against extraterritoriality applies to claims under the ATS, and the statute doesn’t rebut that presumption....

In 2012, Taylor Bell, a Mississippi high school senior with a spotless disciplinary record, posted a rap song online. The song accused two gym teachers at Itawamba Agricultural High School of sexually harassing female students – but it also included violent lyrics not uncommon in much gangsta rap. Bell was suspended, sued, and is now petitioning the Supreme Court for cert. On his side is a host of civil libertarians and students’ rights groups filing amici briefs urging the Court to take up Bell’s case....

Campbell v. Henry, No. 07-16481, involved petitioner’s appeal from the dismissal of her federal petition for writ of habeas corpus for failure to file within the one year statute of limitations mandated by 28 U.S.C. section 2244(d). The court reversed on the ground that, for purposes of the section 2244(d) statute of limitations, she was entitled to the benefit of the mailbox rule when determining the filing dates of her state and federal habeas petitions, all of which were filed pro se....

Seventh Day Adventists take their Sabbath very seriously; some will forfeit their jobs over it. Richard Tabura and Guadalupe Diaz are that serious. When they refused to work on the Seventh Day, their employer fired them. They responded with a lawsuit, which a federal judge dismissed. But these plaintiffs are very serious, and they appealed in Tabura v. Kellogg USA. Sundown to Sundown The plaintiffs alleged that Kellogg USA violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act by failing to accommodate their Sabbath observance....

District judges do not have the power to disclose grand jury records protected by federal law, a federal appeals court said. In a divided opinion, the DC Circuit Court of Appeals said the law protects grand jury information from disclosure, and courts do not have independent authority to release it. A dissenter said the appeals court should have made an exception in the case for an author seeking information about a missing person....

Habitat Educ. Ctr. v. U.S. Forest Serv., No. 09-278, concerned a nonprofit environmental organization’s suit against the U.S. forest service to obtain judicial review of the service’s decision to allow several thousand acres of a national forest in Wisconsin to be logged. In affirming the district court’s denial of plaintiff’s request to rescind or modify the injunction bond order, the court held that plaintiff’s argument that nonprofit entities should be exempt from having to post injunction bonds flies in the face of Rule 65(c)....