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Csiszer v. Wren, No. 09-2010, involved an action against the hospital and obstetrician that provided care to a mother during the birth of their daughter, claiming that negligent care during the delivery was the proximate cause of the daughter’s cerebral palsy. The court affirmed judgment for defendants, holding that 1) the objectionable portions of defense counsel’s argument, as well as any evidence presented concerning the financial aspects of the daughter’s care and treatment, were rendered irrelevant by the jury’s verdict in the defendants’ favor on liability; and 2) the Arkansas statute setting forth the elements that a medical malpractice a plaintiff must prove through expert testimony did not burden plaintiffs’ fundamental rights....

James Nduribe, who was wanted for heroin offenses, led authorities on a 5-year chase across three continents. Eventually, the law caught up to Nduribe in Amsterdam, and he was extradited to the U.S. to face charges. The trial court sentenced Nduribe to an additional twenty-two months of imprisonment for obstruction of justice. On appeal, Nduribe argued that his conduct didn’t constitute obstruction, merely flight. The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals didn’t buy it....

Earlier this week, the Sixth Circuit heard oral arguments in two en banc cases that we’ve been covering: the “irritable bowel” telecommuting case and a habeas case where a man claims that he was denied his right to self-representation. The former case asks whether summary judgment in favor of Ford Motor Co. was proper when an employee requested to telecommute as a reasonable accommodation of her disability – irritable bowel syndrome (IBS)....

In a copyright infringement action based on Defendant’s alleged copying of Plaintiff’s independent-engineer reports, summary judgment for Defendant is affirmed in part, where Plaintiff’s state-law claims were preempted by the Copyright Act; but reversed in part, where Plaintiff created genuine disputes of material fact by presenting evidence that: 1) Plaintiff did not take the language in its copyrighted reports from a third-party report; and 2) the copyrighted reports derived their language from earlier, nonpublic reports prepared by Plaintiff....

What a week! And we were worried that we’d be topic dry once the Supreme Court’s summer session hit. As is our usual Friday bit, we’re going to do a roundup of Supreme Court-related headlines. This time, Utah is seeking a stay on “interim” marriages (same-sex couples married before the Supreme Court’s grant of a stay), the Tenth Circuit rules against Oklahoma’s ban, and Florida gets its first pro-gay marriage opinion....

SEC v. Vescor Capital Corp., No. 08-4224, concerned an appeal from a district court’s order staying all actions related to property in a receivership estate containing the proceeds of an alleged financial fraud. The court of appeals affirmed the order, holding that 1) the district court properly focused on safeguarding the investors’ assets as a whole in refusing to lift the stay; and 2) the receiver’s actions to this point did not invalidate or otherwise impact any party’s perfected security interest....

In Wayne LaPierre’s world, the best way to stop a bad guy with a gun is not a good guy with a gun. It’s a rich friend with a yacht. LaPierre is the executive vice president and CEO of the financially beleaguered National Rifle Association, which is seeking bankruptcy protection in a closely watched hearing in Texas. One of the highlights as the hearing got underway April 5 was a revelation that on two occasions LaPierre felt personally endangered by threats following school shootings and used a friend’s yacht to provide refuge....

The new Texas anti-abortion law signed into law recently by Gov. Greg Abbott is one of the strictest in the nation. It calls for a ban on abortions if a fetal heartbeat can be detected – as early as six weeks into a pregnancy – and puts in place a legal wrinkle not seen in other states that have passed similar legislation: Private citizens can sue abortion providers for violating the law....

It was a classic case of illegal gambling, and it began with a classic movie line: “I’m shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!” Captain Renault proclaimed in “Casablanca.” So quoted the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in finding that Churchill Downs has been running more than fast horses. Only the court was not surprised there was an illegal gambling operation at the track’s “Big Fish Casino....

It was a frontier-themed set of oral arguments in the Supreme Court today, as attorneys debated how to define native tribal territory and the extent of federal regulation over wild lands. The first case involves liquor stores and the boundaries of the Omaha Indian Reservation since 1882. The second concerns a 70-year old elk hunter and his renegade hovercraft. Here’s what went down when the Wild West came east for oral arguments....

The Supreme Court heard arguments today in Astrue v. Capato, regarding whether the Social Security Administration (SSA) should pay survivor benefits to posthumously-conceived children. Currently, the SSA denies benefits to children born more than nine months after a wage-earner’s death. Based on the justices’ reactions to the oral arguments, there will not be a change in that SSA policy. Part of the reason is that the Obama administration is opposed to extending benefits in such situations....

The Supreme Court will start its final sitting of the 2012 Term with what might be the most controversial intellectual property case of the year, Association for Molecular Pathology v. Myriad Genetics, Inc. The case presents a simple question about a complex process: Are human genes patentable? The Federal Circuit Court of Appeals has twice ruled that they are, but the Supreme Court’s decision last year in Mayo v. Prometheus Laboratories casts doubt on that theory....

For former students of the now defunct ITT Technical Institute, there’s finally some good news: A nationwide settlement will be cancelling the most burdensome student loan debts these students took on. As part of a nationwide settlement in a lawsuit brought by several attorneys general, the predatory loans offered by ITT Tech through Student CU Connect CUSO LLC will be cancelled. This settlement will cancel private student loan debt for approximately 18,000 former ITT Tech students....

A “sovereign citizen” who claims he’s a “crown prince emperor” can’t remove his case to federal court, a judge has ruled. What are “sovereign citizens”? They’re Americans who, for some reason, don’t believe the law applies to them. They are real problems in some parts of the country, where they gum up local court systems by filing copious documents containing ridiculous legalese and citations lifted out of context from court opinions....

2014 Tax Update – 1.29.14 – Highlighting changes to state and federal tax laws. Preventing Legal Malpractice 2014 – 1.30.14 – How to protect yourself and your practice, focusing on transactional practices. Practicing with Professionalism – 2.27.14 – A mandatory professionalism course, make sure you attend one of these. Launching Your Civil Rights Practice – On Demand Video – How to file a civil rights claim on behalf of a plaintiff....

Psychiatry didn’t provide the income and challenge he expected, so Jerome Feldman, once a practicing psychiatrist, made the leap into an entrepreneurial marketing career that would allow him to travel to exotic locales.The marketing gig? Feldman’s own website, www.liver4you.org, which fraudulently promised to provide critically ill patients liver or kidney transplants for $65,000 to $130,000. Travel hot spot? Feldman initially fled the United States with Medicare fraud funds to live in the Philippines....

Ever since President Trump put Judge Amy Coney Barrett on his short list for the U.S. Supreme Court, she has been under the political microscope. Some pundits say Barrett, of the U.S. Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, would have been a better choice than Justice Brett Kavanaugh. Meanwhile, Barrett has been soldiering on at the Seventh Circuit. And if March came in like a lion on the court’s docket, it went out like a lamb in April....

And so, another odd legal dispute comes to a … well, it’s still going, thanks to the First Amendment. But we at least know this: the government controls military bases, even if there is a public highway passing through. The case, with its odd plaintiff (a man who sprayed his own blood on a military sign, and who has been arrested seventeen times for protesting on the base, with three convictions), will be returned to the lower courts in order to hear the First Amendment implications of barring certain protestors from designated protest areas....

Adoptive Couple v. Baby Girl’s holding was unambiguous. Justice Alito, writing for the majority, held that the Indian Child Welfare Act did not apply to situations where the biological parent had waived his rights pre-birth, and had never taken responsibility before contesting the adoption. The Court vacated the South Carolina Supreme Court’s decision mandating a return of Baby Veronica to Dusten Brown, the biological father contesting the adoption. “As the State Supreme Court read [the Indian Child Welfare Act], a biological Indian father could abandon his child in utero and refuse any support for the birth mother–perhaps contributing to the mother’s decision to put the child up for adoption – and then could play his ICWA trump card at the eleventh hour to override the mother’s decision and the child’s best interests....

Getting locked up isn’t easy. While inmates certainly are not entitled to the same comforts that most people are accustomed to, they are entitled to habitable living conditions, including heating and cooling, nutritious food, and enough time to sleep. And inmates might be able to sleep a little bit easier knowing that a federal court has just ruled in favor of inmates claiming cruel and unusual punishment due to not being given enough or adequate time to sleep....