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The Pennsylvania Supreme Court upheld the lower court’s finding of witness intimidation and terrorists threats when they rejected rapper Jamal Knox’s free speech claim in a music video entitled “F— the Police.” In that video, Knox, using the name Mayhem Mal, threatens to kill the two police officers and an informant that led to his conviction on a 2012 drug charge. Less Is More, Just Ask N.W.A. If Knox had merely stuck with the title “F— the Police” and not elaborated so much in the lyrics, like N....

In an action claiming that defendant-city violated plaintiff telecommunications company’s rights under the Telecommunications Act (TCA) by failing to act on its applications for zoning variances and a special use permit within a reasonable period of time, summary judgment for defendant is affirmed where: 1) plaintiff did not preserve for appeal its claim that defendant failed to act on plaintiff’s variance application within a reasonable period of time; and 2) because the city Board of Adjustment’s “final action” under 47 U....

Following a verdict, lawyers sometimes take the time to talk to the jurors. It is not always a pleasant conversation. Monsanto’s attorneys, for example, were taken aback by juror comments following a trial over its weed killer Roundup. Jurors had just handed a verdict for $2.055 billion to the plaintiffs, who said they got cancer from the herbicide. The verdict was shocking enough, but the juror comments told the real story....

Last week, we reported about a quick, three-paragraph order allowing Citizens United to show the film “Rocky Mountain Heist” without having to disclose the names of the people who donated to the project. The Tenth Circuit promised that it would deliver a substantive opinion on the issue soon, and on Monday it certainly did – in the form of a 34-page opinion with a nine-page dissent. So why, exactly, doesn’t Citizens United have to disclose the donors of “Rocky Mountain Heist”?...

Municipal bankruptcies, at least until recently, were a rare phenomenon. Even more rare is a bankruptcy filing of this magnitude. Detroit has $18.5 billion in debt and liabilities that it cannot afford to pay, including $3.5 billion in unfunded pension liabilities. In a 150-page order earlier this month, Judge Steven W. Rhodes held that Motown was eligible to file for Chapter 9 bankruptcy and more importantly, could restructure or avoid some of its massive pension obligations, despite the Michigan Constitution’s protections for pensioners from cuts, as federal bankruptcy law trumps state law....

There’s a good chance your company communicates largely in English, but that doesn’t necessarily mean you should adopt an English-only policy at work. An English-only policy tells employees that other languages can’t be used in the workplace, and while it might sound intriguing, it’s probably not a good idea for your business. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission generally frowns on those policies for various reasons. If you’re a monolingual English speaker, that attitude may leave you scratching your head....

You can do almost everything online these days. Want a pizza? Order online. Want to prepare and file your taxes? Do it online. Find love? There are many online options for you. But when it comes to wills or other important estate planning documents, people are skeptical about doing it over the internet. Can I Make a Will Online? Yes. You can draft your own last will and testament using an estate planning form and service company....

The recent death of a popular British YouTube personality in an electric scooter accident has prompted renewed calls for tighter regulation of the personal transport devices. Actress Emily Hartridge, 35-year-old host of the YouTube comedy video series, “Ten Reasons Why,” was killed July 12 when the scooter she was riding collided with a bus in a London roundabout. Well before that tragedy, e-scooters had been drawing increasing ire as an unregulated public nuisance, but Hartridge’s death drew attention to a more serious impact: the threat they are posing to life and limb....

Rosario v. Ercole, No. 08-5521, involved a murder prosecution in which the trial court denied petitioner’s habeas petition. The court of appeals affirmed, on the ground that the trial court conducted a thorough hearing, assessing the credibility of the potential witnesses first-hand, in denying petitioner’s ineffective assistance claim, and petitioner did not rebut those findings by clear and convincing evidence. Shabaj v. Holder, No. 09-0558, concerned a petition for review of the BIA’s order removing petitioner from the U....

While the news reports on Democratic Party fears of an electoral bloodbath, U.S. House of Representatives district maps for 2022’s midterm elections appear more evenly split than they have been in a century. What happened? A fair amount of partisan gerrymandering on both sides of the aisle, some help from the courts, and a lot of luck resulted in a map with nearly equal numbers of districts that lean Republican and Democratic....

Douglas Wayne Tarnow was convicted of aggravated sexual assault and sentenced to 480 months in prison. He’s a wee bit miffed, as most people destined to spend 40 years in prison would be. Then again, he deserves it. His conviction stems from a violent sexual assault upon his girlfriend. He beat her in a jealous rage, forcibly sexually assaulted her, and then beat her again, splitting open her chin and causing her to bleed from her vagina....

Every trial lawyer knows the clerk is the most important person in the courtroom – after the judge, of course. The clerk stands at the gateway, insulating the judge from the riff-raff while leading worthy lawyers into chambers. The clerk shuts the door; the clerk calls the calendar; the clerk knows the judge. At the U.S. Supreme Court, the law clerk is even more integral to the process of justice. “How much?...

Back in July, Microsoft lost a battle to protect data stored on Irish email servers, wholly owned and controlled by Microsoft, from the U.S. Justice Department. All we know about these email MacGuffins is that they have something to do with drugs. Appealing to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, Microsoft argues that, because the magnetic particles comprising the data are physically located in Ireland, those particles – and the data they represent – are protected by Irish and European privacy laws, meaning Microsoft can’t be compelled to turn them over....

Military service might serve as a get-out-of-jail early, if not free, card for a number of minor crimes, but it won’t guarantee a defendant a Sentencing Guidelines departure for child pornography possession. The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled this week that a district court did not abuse its discretion in sentencing a child pornography offender to the most lenient prison term under the Sentencing Guidelines because, despite the defendant’s assertions to the contrary, the punishment was substantively reasonable....

Most jurisdictions have held that prisons must inform inmates if they are recording attorney-client conversations from prison. Otherwise, inmates may have an expectation of privacy and recording those conversations could violate the prisoner’s Fourth or Sixth Amendment rights and the federal Wiretap Act. The Wiretap Act, which prohibits any entity from intercepting communications without the knowledge of the people involved in the conversation, specifically provides a civil cause of action for violations....

In an action seeking a writ of habeas corpus on behalf of plaintiff and a class of aliens detained for more than six months without a bond hearing while engaged in immigration proceedings, a denial of class certification is reversed where: 1) 8 U.S.C. section 1252(f) did not bar the proposed class from receiving injunctive relief; and 2) the constitutional issue at the heart of each class member’s claim for relief is common to all proposed class members....

It may not be an old fisherman’s tale, but when a group of Wall Street investors and seafood loving friends opened The Sloppy Tuna restaurant in Montauk in 2011, they likely didn’t expect to be embroiled in litigation, especially against each other. However, the Sloppy Tuna owners split up the business in typical corporate protect-against-exposure style. There was a business that owned the property, another that ran the operations, and a third that owned the IP....

The Supreme Court affirmed the Third Circuit Court of Appeals dismissal of Kurns v. Railroad Friction Products today, agreeing with the Philadelphia-based appellate court that the Locomotive Inspection Act (LIA) preempts Pennsylvania tort law claims for asbestos exposure. Plaintiff George Corson, spent 27 years as a locomotive welder and machinist, installing brakeshoes on locomotives and stripping insulation from locomotive boilers, both of which contained asbestos. After Corson developed mesothelioma, which is caused solely by asbestos exposure, he sued 59 railroad-related defendants in Pennsylvania state court, claiming that the defendants’ defective design and failure to warn caused his injuries....

In a drug and firearm prosecution, the District Court’s order suppressing evidence obtained through a wiretap is reversed, where the government’s affidavit in support of its application for the wiretap set forth facts minimally adequate to support the finding that a wiretap was necessary to the government’s investigation. Read US v. Concepcion, No. 08-3785 Appellate Information Argued: June 3, 2009 Decided: August 31, 2009 Judges Opinion by Judge McLaughlin Counsel...

On Monday, the Nine will return to Washington to consider the future of employment lawsuits in Vance v. Ball State University. More specifically, who qualifies as a supervisor? In Faragher v. City of Boca Raton and Burlington Industries, Inc. v. Ellerth, the Supreme Court held that an employer is vicariously liable under Title VII for severe or pervasive workplace harassment by a supervisor of the victim. If the harasser was the victim’s co-employee, however, the employer is not liable absent proof of negligence....