Anyone remember that pair of Nicholas Cage abominations masquerading as “superhero films” from a few years back? Yeah. Those were awful. They also led to this lawsuit. Though Marvel already had a horse-riding “Ghost Rider” character as early as 1966, freelance writer Gary Friedrich proposed a man on a motorcycle in 1972. Credit for the flaming skull head and the “pact with Satan to save [loved one’s] life” cliché are still in dispute....
Criminal justice reform efforts continue to gather momentum across the country. Lawmakers from both parties are seeing the value in creating a justice system that allows people to move on with their lives more easily. California took a huge leap into that future when Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a package of 25 criminal justice reform measures into law last week. Several of the laws roll back the “tough on crime” approach that was popular across the U....
For weeks, people around the world watched the defamation trial between Johnny Depp and Amber Heard play out like a daytime soap opera. The suspense finally came to an end last week when the jury reached a verdict after three days of deliberation. Depp filed his defamation lawsuit against his ex-wife for statements she made in a 2018 op-ed for The Washington Post claiming to be a victim of domestic abuse during their relationship....
“You find a drug dealer and you ask him,” one mother told Liz Lewis, writing for Narratively. “And he’ll ask somebody who knows somebody, and then you can get oils and extracts.” When people refer to marijuana being a gateway drug, they usually mean that young adults may try marijuana, and once they do, that will lead them to experiment with more dangerous illicit substances. But in the cases of mothers of autistic children, turning to CBD and THC oils to alleviate their kids’ worst symptoms led instead to creating the kind of systemic and secretive drug distribution networks we’d usually associate with notorious drug kingpins than with suburban moms....
In one of the so-called “birther” suits challenging Barack Obama’s eligibility to run for and serve as President of the United States based on claims that Obama was born in Kenya and therefore was not a natural born citizen of the United States, dismissal of the action is affirmed where plaintiff lacked standing to bring the suit because he suffered no injury particularized to him. Read Berg v. Obama, No. 08-4340...
What, exactly, is “academic freedom"? It’s a term that refers to teachers’ somewhat limited rights of free speech under the First Amendment. The concept has been around for a long time, but it has gained fresh urgency in recent weeks because several states have passed laws restricting how teachers can teach about race-related subjects, and several more states are considering it. Specifically, lawmakers in these states have targeted a concept called “critical race theory," a concept that assumes that racism is a fundamental part of American society and should be examined from that perspective....
“Nobody likes a tattletale.” While that might’ve been appropriate advice for kindergarteners decades ago, it’s not what you say to victims of sexual assault here and now. But according to a lawsuit filed in Georgia, that’s what high school administrators essentially said to one 16-year-old female student who was expelled for the remainder of the school year after reporting that she was coerced into performing oral sex on a male classmate....
Your state just legalized it. You want in on the billion-dollar cannabiz boom. And you’ve got a particular strain of that sticky icky that you think will set your marijuana startup ablaze. (In a good way.) But how do you protect your intellectual property in a burgeoning yet quasi-legal industry? After all, the federal government still lists marijuana as a Schedule I illegal narcotic, and it’s that same federal government that issues patents, trademarks, and copyright protections....
The Citizenship and Immigration Service operated beyond its powers when it adopted regulations requiring that immigrants seeking a “special immigrant religious worker” visa to have done prerequisite work in the U.S. under lawful immigration status, the Third Circuit ruled Tuesday. Under the Immigration and Nationality Act, non-citizens may obtain a “special immigrant religious worker” visa which allows religious workers, such as ministers, to to eventually obtain legal permanent residency. Before applying, immigrants must have completed two years of religious work....
The future of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program hangs in the balance following a series of rulings in the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. Those who qualify for protection from deportation under DACA (known as DREAMers) have been on uneven footing for years. And while the Biden administration made moves to codify the program, will that be enough to overcome the legal challenges DACA faces? A Quick Refresh The DACA program sprung into existence in 2012 via a three-page memo issued by the Obama administration that the courts have not-so-creatively nicknamed “the DACA memorandum....
The Department of Justice filed suit in Texas this week, saying the state’s new voting district maps discriminate against Latino and Black voters. The 2020 census revealed that these communities have fueled a boom in the state’s population, but the DOJ alleges that redistricting plans ignored that fact in “an extraordinarily rapid and opaque legislative process.” Like many gerrymandering cases, the complaint references bizarrely-shaped voting districts and the trimming of minority neighborhoods from districts where a legislative seat is up for grabs....
Most people use the internet for everything from leaning a new language to ordering food, but not everyone is able to use the internet in the same way. People with disabilities face a unique set of challenges when navigating the internet, and businesses are legally obliged to accommodate them. According to the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA), businesses must accommodate people with disabilities. But are businesses’ websites legally considered part of their infrastructure?...
In a case involving prison guards’ suit against other guards, complaint handlers, sheriff, and a County, after plaintiffs’ peers allegedly threatened to kill them, summary judgment for defendants is affirmed in part and reversed in part where: 1) requiring guards to report, or maintain a code of silence, on misconduct by their colleagues is not part of freedom of speech as the first amendment does not protect statements made as part of one’s job; and 2) a prior-restraint claim, that plaintiffs were bullied and threatened in order to deter them from testifying in a separate suit by inmates, was erroneously dismissed....
In Black v. US, No. 08-876, the Court vacated the Seventh Circuit’s affirmance of defendants’ (including Conrad Black) honest-services mail fraud convictions, holding that 1) the honest-services component of the federal mail-fraud statute, 18 U.S.C. section 1346, criminalized only schemes to defraud that involved bribes or kickbacks, and that holding rendered the honest-services instructions given in this case incorrect; and 2) by properly objecting to the honest-services jury instructions at trial, defendants secured their right to challenge those instructions on appeal, and they did not forfeit that right by declining to acquiesce in the government-proposed special-verdict forms....
The coronavirus crisis is reordering everyday life in America in a hurry for a large portion of the population. One of the ways that is happening is the rapid disappearance of everyday products that we assumed would always be available: hand sanitizer, disinfecting wipes, toilet paper, soap, and more. In the face of all the hoarding and supply chain disruption, people are turning to the Internet to acquire these products. But instead of finding hand sanitizer at a normal price, all of a sudden a 3 oz....
If you’re someone walking around with “J.D.” or “Esq.” behind your name, chances are someone thinking of going to law school has sought your advice. They always ask the same question - Is law school worth it? Unsurprisingly, the answer is the same one many lawyers give for a multitude of inquiries: It depends. What Young Attorneys Have To Say Attorneys who earned their degrees over the last ten years or so told U....
A judge in Oklahoma found Johnson & Johnson played a role in the state’s opioid addiction and overdose epidemic, slapping the company with a $572 million fine. While the state of Oklahoma sought $17.1 billion in damages from the prescription drug manufacturing giant, the verdict still represents the first loss at trial for the industry. Some companies have chosen to settle lawsuits brought by states, counties, and municipalities. Opioids a ‘Menace’ to Society The lawsuit, filed by Oklahoma Attorney General Mike Hunter, accused the company of creating a public nuisance by lying in its marketing of the drugs Duragesic and Nucynta....
Maybe $50 million isn’t a lot of money to a bank. Before the mortgage meltdown of 2007 and 2008, Republic Bank & Trust Company purchased over $50 million of residential-mortgage-backed securities from Bear Stearns. Anyone who knows anything about the mortgage industry can easily spot three red flags in that paragraph, so it’s no surprise that Republic’s investment turned out to be a bad decision. Republic lost millions on the deal, and Republic and Bear Stearns found themselves litigating responsibility for that bad decision before the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals....
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled this week that Maricopa Sheriff Joe Arpaio can’t detain people solely on the suspicion that they’re undocumented immigrants, reports Fox News. “America’s toughest sheriff” was appealing a preliminary injunction that a district court judge issued last year. Plaintiffs in the case sued Arpaio in 2007, alleging that the Maricopa Sheriff’s Department has a “custom, policy and practice of racial profiling toward Latino persons in Maricopa County and an unconstitutional policy and practice of stopping Latino drivers and passengers pretextually and without individualized suspicion or cause, and of subjecting them to different, burdensome, stigmatizing and injurious treatment once stopped” under the auspices of enforcing immigration laws....
Plus Civil Rights, Criminal, Environmental and Government Benefits Matter Krainski v. Nevada, No. 08-17523, involved an action alleging constitutional and state law violations by a college student arising from an altercation with plaintiff’s former roommate that led to plaintiff’s arrest and subjection to university discipline. The Ninth Circuit affirmed the dismissal of the action on the grounds that 1) the district court did not err in dismissing plaintiff’s claims against defendants in their official capacities based on sovereign immunity; 2) the record did not contain any information that would create a genuine issue of material fact as to whether officers had facts sufficiently detailed to cause a reasonable person to believe a crime had been committed and that plaintiff was the perpetrator; and 3) plaintiff did not allege that defendants suspended or expelled her for her conduct, or that she was otherwise deprived of an entitlement to education conferred by the state or secured by some other independent source or understanding....
