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Mt. Laurel, New Jersey should have an appellate court ruling on its billboard ban in about six months. After losing its case in the district court, Interstate Outdoor Advertising (Interstate) in Cherry Hill, NJ announced last week that it has filed a notice of appeal in the Third Circuit Court of Appeals. Mt. Laurel has had a zoning ordinance banning outdoor billboards for 23 years, but in 2008, shortly after Interstate filed development applications to the Township Zoning Board of Adjustment for nine outdoor advertising signs, Mt....

Now that the phrase “OK, Boomer” has been uttered by U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, it’s probably safe to say that it’s gone mainstream. As you are probably aware by now, “OK, Boomer” is basically a Gen Z put-down of Baby Boomers — or, at least, the more sanctimonious of Baby Boomers. The phrase lived and grew online in 2019, but in recent months it’s expanded into the real world....

When you own a small business, it’s all about income. A classic shop or store may have profits from sales or service. A startup may have venture capital money coming in. In either case, you might need to get a little more creative with your revenue streams. Individuals and investment funds can make money off the stock market, so why not your small business? But before you start day trading with company funds, here’s what you need to know about your small business investing in stocks....

The political and policy debates surrounding climate change have been going on for decades. But what policy changes have come about have not been enough to reassure activists concerned about human-induced global warming. The United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change recently warned that Earth’s population is in a “code red” due to rising temperatures, rising sea levels, and more extreme weather events. These warnings have come repeatedly in recent years, so much so that surveys show that many younger people are fatalistic about the chances of curbing the effects of climate change....

In a petition for review of the BIA’s denial of petitioner-Mexican native’s application for a waiver of removal, the petition is denied where the BIA correctly held that petitioner was not eligible for multiple waivers of removability and inadmissibility. Read Corona-Mendez v. Holder, No. 08-72492 Appellate Information Argued and Submitted October 14, 2009 Filed February 3, 2010 Judges Opinion by Judge Cudahy Counsel For Petitioner: Antonio Salazar, Seattle, Washington, for the petitioner....

Attorneys have a responsibility to ensure that they don’t represent clients with divergent interests. Class representatives have responsibility to represent their own interests as well as the interests of the other members of the class. Conditioning a class representative’s award on their approval of the terms of the settlement, therefore would seem to cause a bit of an issue. Will a class representative reject a settlement and risk losing a $5,000 award?...

Montanez v. Thompson, No. 05-4430, concerned a plaintiff’s 42 U.S.C. section 1983 suit against a records specialist with the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections, claiming that he was incarcerated beyond the expiration of his maximum term of imprisonment as a result of defendant’s deliberate indifference in responding to his inquiries and challenges. In reversing the district court’s order denying defendant’s motion for summary judgment, the court held that defendant is entitled to qualified immunity with respect to plaintiff’s Eighth Amendment claims....

The Seventh Circuit decided two criminal matters today, and a 42 U.S.C. section 1983 case brought by a mother and a grandmother against an elementary school principal and others for their arrest. In Brown v. Watters, No. 08-1171, the court faced a challenge to the district court’s denial of defendant’s petition for habeas relief for his civil commitment as a sexually violent person. Defendant argued that he was denied due process because the state court relied on evidence that was not supported by scientific knowledge or accepted in the medical community....

Employment Contract Action In DeFranco v. Storage Tech. Corp., No. 08-1095, an action for breach of contract and promissory estoppel based on alleged breaches of an employment agreement, the court affirmed summary judgment for defendants where 1) common law contract principles allowed for the formation of contracts without the signatures of the parties bound by them, and thus the written agreement making plaintiff an at-will employee bound defendant; and 2) because plaintiff could not show that he provided special consideration to defendant in exchange for defendant’s alleged promise to provide permanent employment, no enforceable contract providing for anything other than employment at will existed....

In US v. Greer, No. 09-1230, the court of appeals affirmed defendant’s conviction and sentence for unlawful possession of a firearm as a previously convicted felon, on the grounds that 1) the district court properly found that, when an officer opened the door to the porch of defendant’s house and stepped back, he impliedly invited the officers to enter; 2) there were several opportunities for defendant to pause and reflect, to decline consent, or to revoke consent, but he granted permission to search and never withdrew it; 3) a reasonable jury could find that defendant possessed the firearm; and 4) the district court did not err in finding that defendant qualified for an enhanced sentence under the Armed Career Criminal Act....

If you signed into Facebook a few years ago, you were likely to see one of the social network’s “Sponsored Stories,” which repurposed user’s names and images – including children’s likenesses – for advertisements. “Sponsored Stories” led to a class action lawsuit against Facebook and a $20 million settlement. Public interest groups sued, saying the settlement did little to nothing to protect consumer and children’s rights. Indeed, they argue that the terms of the settlement are against California law....

After reading the Sixth Circuit’s lengthy reversal of sanctions orders by District Court Judge John Adams, you seriously have to wonder: what’s got his knickers in a twist? As the court noted, “this case began with a government attorney’s unauthorized filing of a motion for sanctions.” The overzealous district attorney, after an email argument over a mutual mistake about redacted information in the discovery files, asked for sanctions due to alleged abuses of the discovery process....

The Third Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the convictions and sentences of five Muslim men accused of planning terrorist attacks on United States military bases. Nicknamed the Fort Dix Five, the five men were arrested in May 2007 and convicted a year later of conspiring to kill U.S. military personnel at the Fort Dix military base in New Jersey. All but one were sentenced to life in prison. The Fort Dix Five appealed their convictions, primarily arguing that the use of wiretaps under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act violated the Fourth Amendment’s protection against unreasonable searches....

We’ve previously written about three separate but related lawsuits against energy companies alleging that they knowingly lied and engaged in misinformation campaigns about the risks of climate change. In all three, which were brought in state courts, venue has been a hotly contested issue. On Friday, March 6, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals became the first U.S. appeals court to weigh in on whether state courts can hear these cases....

Kenneth Lujan’s marriage was ending. His wife left him in early 1998. He regularly stalked her after the separation, and when she threatened to get a restraining order, he threatened her life. He was eventually arrested for making terrorist threats and stalking, but it didn’t curb his behavior. In early August, he returned to her residence at two o’clock in the morning and chased her inside. One week later, he drove by her home and saw her becoming “intimate” with Officer Gilbert Madrigal....

Your company’s data has been hacked, so what are your lawyers going to do? They can’t sue the hackers because they’re long gone. Your company, unfortunately, is left holding the bag. That means your lawyers won’t be filing a lawsuit. Instead, they will be defending against one, or two, or three…. Sued for Getting Hacked It’s a problem that is becoming all too common. Companies get hacked, then get sued for getting hacked....

The practice of solitary confinement may not seem like cruel and unusual punishment, but for the many inmates facing or who have endured long stretches in solitary, it can actually be a form of psychological torture. But that doesn’t mean prisons have to stop the use of solitary confinement, after all it is often necessary to protect certain inmates from both attacks from other inmates and self-harm. This leaves the question open as to how much solitary confinement is too much?...

A federal appeals court revived a police officer’s lawsuit for injuries he suffered during a Black Lives Matter protest. In the complaint, the officer alleges that protestors struck him with a cement block that knocked out his teeth, injured his jaw, and caused brain damage. According to reports, they were enraged by a police-shooting in Baton Rouge in 2016. A trial judge threw out the lawsuit, saying Black Lives Matter is not a legal entity that can be sued....

It just wasn’t meant to be for D.C Circuit Chief Judge Merrick Garland and the Supreme Court. On Monday, 278 days after Garland was first nominated to the Court by President Obama, Chief Justice Roberts rejected a long-shot attempt to force the Senate to consider Garland for the bench. The same day, the D.C. Circuit put Garland back on its schedule, announcing that he’d hear his first circuit oral arguments in more than ten months....

In the IRS’s appeal from a bankruptcy court’s order confirming debtors’ Chapter 12 reorganization plan, the order is affirmed where: 1) a Chapter 12 debtor may treat postpetition income taxes imposed on the debtor’s income earned during the pendency of the case as administrative expenses under 11 U.S.C. section 503; 2) debtors’ sale of their slaughter hogs in 2004 constituted the sale of a “farm asset used in the debtor’s farming operation” under section 1222(a)(2)(A); and 3) the “marginal method” was the correct method to determine the allocation of taxes between priority and non-priority claims under section 1222(a)(2)(A)....