A Brooklyn man is suing Equifax over the right to use his given name: God. God Gazarov, 26, owns a jewelry store in Brighton Beach and was outraged when the credit-reporting agency suggested that he change his name in order to obtain his proper credit history, reports the New York Post. Gazarov, a native of Russia, is named after his grandfather. His lawsuit seeks to force Equifax to accept “God” as his proper name....
In an action against an online marketer for sending unsolicited e-mail (i.e. spam), summary judgment for defendants-spammers is affirmed where: 1) plaintiff was not an “Internet access service” provider within the meaning of the CAN-SPAM Act; and 2) plaintiff was not “adversely affected by” spam e-mail solely by virtue of receiving a large amount of commercial e-mail. Read Gordon v. Virtumundo, Inc., No. 07-35487 Appellate Information Argued and Submitted December 9, 2008...
In US v. King, No. 09-1861, the Third Circuit faced a defendant’s challenge to his conviction for interstate transportation to engage in sex with a minor claiming, inter alia, that his Fourth Amendment rights were violated when the district court erred in denying his motion to suppress that when an owner of a computer consents to its seizure, that consent does not include the computer’s hard drive installed by another who claims ownership of it and objects to its seizure....
Unfortunately, on occasion, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) just gets it wrong. Sometimes they deport U.S. citizens and others that shouldn’t be deported. This tends to occur as a result of overburdened immigration court judges and court staff, in combination with ICE’s documentation failures, and the lack of attorney representation for defendants. Law enforcement officials will bring people to detention centers for immigration enforcement, but citizens and noncitizens alike can get swept up in faulty customs and border protection issues....
Environmental Action Regarding Killing of Sea Lions In Humane Soc. of US v. Locke, No. 08-36038, a challenge to the National Marine Fisheries Service’s (NMFS) authorization of the states of Oregon, Washington and Idaho to kill up to 85 California sea lions annually at Bonneville Dam, the court affirmed judgment for defendants on plaintiffs’ National Environmental Policy Act claim where 1) just because NMFS concluded that sea lions were having a significant negative impact on listed salmonid populations did not mean that the agency had also determined that the removal action authorized here would have a significant positive impact on these same populations; and 2) even if NMFS concluded that its action would have a “significant” positive impact on the fish populations involved, that would not necessarily translate into a finding of a significant effect on the quality of the human environment, as required by NEPA....
You may have never heard of Jack Kirby, but you’ve heard of X-Men, The Fantastic Four, and The Incredible Hulk? Kirby created, or co-created, all of them – and more – between 1958 and 1963, when he was an independent contractor for Marvel Comics. Last Friday, a surprise announcement sent a shockwave through the legal-comics community. The estate of Jack Kirby and Marvel Entertainment had reached a settlement, meaning the Kirby v....
You know that saying, “Go big, or go home”? The inverse is true when it comes to application asylums. If the feds bust an alien telling big lies on an asylum application, there’s a good chance the alien will be going home. Pavel Pavlov, a citizen of Bulgaria, entered the United States in 2000 on a nonimmigrant visa. He didn’t leave when it expired. In 2006, Pavlov filed an application for asylum....
A week after finding the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy unconstitutional, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ordered the Obama Administration to clarify whether it would defend the policy in court. According to the order, the merits panel does not believe that the government is prepared to defend the law. Though Congress repealed “don’t ask, don’t tell” last December, the measure has yet to take effect. Further confusing the situation, the legislation does not include a clearly-defined effective date, instead stating that the policy will be repealed 60 days after the President submits a written certification to the congressional defense committees that certain requirements have been met....
The Drug Enforcement Agency recently moved cannabidiol products with less than 0.1 percent THC from the Schedule 1 list of illegal drugs to the Schedule 5 list of legal medications. But that doesn’t mean that all CBD is legal all the time. In particular, bars and restaurants seeking to serve CBD-infused products have faced increased scrutiny from the Food and Drug Administration. Cities and states are stepping up as well. New York City’s health department, for example, announced plans to start issuing violations – and fines – to restaurants selling CBD-laced food and drink products, beginning in October....
Foreign nationals who arrive in the United States illegally but later attain temporary protected status are considered legally admitted for the purposes of getting a green card, according to the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals. The decision handed down this week could be good news for TPS beneficiaries who feared deportation when President Donald Trump announced he planned to remove certain countries from the program. Two Words: “Inspected” and “Admitted” The case concerned two portions of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA)....
New York City’s Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC) is not required to provide wheelchair-accessible taxicabs under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), according to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. On Thursday, the appellate court reversed a temporary injunction ordering the city to develop a plan to expand its fleet of accessible taxis, noting that TLC had not denied wheelchair-bound customers an opportunity to participate in TLC’s services, reports Thomson Reuters News & Insight....
In 1999, a then-19-year-old burglary and murder suspect named Tio Dinero Sessoms was interrogated by police officers. They did not advise him of his Miranda rights, and after a bit of overly polite small talk, Sessoms stated, “There wouldn’t be any possible way that I could have a – a lawyer present while we do this?” The detectives began to parry his question, which led Sessoms to meekly mention that his father “asked me to ask you guys … uh, give me a lawyer....
This week is The Big One. On Tuesday, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in Obergefell v. Hodges, the caption that will be forever attached to the definitive (we hope) same-sex marriage cases. That’s not all that’s happening, though. Though it will devote a full day (two hours) of arguments to the four same-sex marriage cases from the Sixth Circuit, it will also hear a case about lethal injection on Wednesday....
A regulation called the “post-departure bar” precludes a removed person from filing a motion to reopen immigration proceedings. In Prestol Espinal v. Attorney General, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals held the post-departure bar invalid to the extent it conflicted with a statute, the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRIRA), which grants aliens the right to file one motion to reopen under certain conditions. This week, the Third Circuit ruled that the same bar it rejected in Prestol Espinal can nonetheless be invoked by the agency as a basis for refusing to reopen proceedings sua sponte under the regulation....
A federal appeals court said book publishers violated antitrust laws by conspiring to change prices for ebooks, but they did not injure the retailers who sued them over it. In Diesel eBooks v. Simon & Schuster, the U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals said the retailers could not prove by the publishers caused their losses. The decision also spared further embarrassment for Apple, which was forced to pay a record fine in a related matter....
Brown v. Chicago, No. 08-4265, concerned a 42 U.S.C. section 1983 action claiming that an officer used excessive force. The court of appeals affirmed summary judgment for defendant, holding that, because plaintiff had been convicted of aggravated assault, aggravated unlawful use of a weapon, and unlawful possession of a weapon by a felon based on his encounter with defendant-officer, plaintiff’s suit was barred by collateral estoppel. In US v. Simmons, No....
SCOTUS has let stand a case decided by the Court of Appeals by the Fifth Circuit involving what has been deridingly called occupational speech limits by civil rights advocates. The High Court’s decision not to grant the case cert means continued confusion about just how much limitation states can place on their professionals concerning the content or manner of their speech. It appears that scholars will have to wait before they see whether or not Holder v....
Saying that one half of the state’s bicameral legislature could not proceed without the other, the U.S. Supreme Court dismissed a Republican-backed appeal to stop elections in Virginia. In Virginia House of Delegates v. Bethune-Hill, the big issue was over gerrymandering that favored Republicans. The Supreme Court already decided the legislative districts had to be redrawn to correct racial gerrymandering years ago. But Republicans who controlled the House of Delegates didn’t like the new maps and fought past Democrats for another hearing in the Supreme Court....
Crack is whack. But what was more whack was the discrepancy in sentences between powdered and rock cocaine. After all, shoot it, snort it, or smoke it - it’s all coke. And yet, it’s never that simple, is it? In an opinion released on Tuesday, the Ninth Circuit ruled that it is not the sentence applied but the sentence initially applicable that determines one’s eligibility for a sentence reduction under the FSA....
In an insurance liability dispute, district court judgment is affirmed in part and reversed in part where: 1) the court did not err in finding that an insurance agent did not have any special or expanded agreement with defendant which would have transformed the general duty into an expanded duty; 2) the court properly found that Kansas’s Valued Property Law does not apply and that plaintiff’s liability was not limited to the valuation sheet value; 3) the coinsurance provision of the policy did not since the Valued Policy Law did not apply; 4) the policy provisions that limit coverage for the cost of repair or replacement in order to comply with an ordinance were in violation of Kansas public policy and not enforceable; 5) Missouri’s vexatious refusal to pay statute did not apply as Kansas law governs the dispute; and 6) Kansas law concerning award of attorneys’ fees applies if the insured obtains a judgment in excess of the amount the insurer tendered....
