A few extremely odd marriage stories — make that “marriage” stories — popped up recently in the news. Thousands of people in Japan say they have married fictional characters. An Australian man announced that he intends to marry a robot. A Cambodian woman married a cow, believing it contains the soul of her late husband, and a woman in London married her cat to avoid a landlord’s restrictions on pets....
In a death penalty case, district court’s new trial order granting defendant’s petition for habeas relief based on a finding that the state violated Brady is affirmed where: 1) a withheld pretrial report was exculpatory and should have been disclosed at trial; 2) it was material because, if true, it would likely change the outcome of the trial; and 3) the ultimate determination concerning the truth of the withheld report is for the state courts to resolve....
The Sixth Circuit effectively negated a 1996 ruling it had made which gave substantial media access to criminal defendants’ mugshots taken during the booking process. But the decision was a tight one: 9-7. Free press advocates were not happy with the decision, but they expressed a hope that the Supreme Court would review the issues of the case. Access to Mugshots The legal issue at bar was the level of access that ought to be granted to media outlets to suspects’ mugshots before trial proceedings....
The popular Netflix movie “I Care a Lot" tells a sordid tale about an evil fraudster who enriches herself by victimizing elderly people. The icy villain, Marla Grayson (played magnificently by Rosamund Pike), is a court-appointed legal guardian for the elderly. She has built a busy and thriving agency that supposedly assists old people in the autumn of their lives, but the reality is nothing so noble. The movie makes it clear early on that Marla is a scam artist whose only interest in her elderly “clients" is how much money and how many assets she can extract from them....
The lawsuits and enforcement actions against alleged price gougers is heating up. State attorneys general have been handling numerous complaints and have indicated a willingness to prosecute offenders. Florida businesses have returned hundreds of thousands of dollars to consumers after complaints about price gouging were filed with the state. Meanwhile, consumers in California and elsewhere are beginning to file class actions against retailers, alleging they are profiting from the pandemic....
The Department of Homeland Security announced the Migrant Protection Protocols in December, 2018, as an alternative to detaining asylum seekers in the U.S. Instead, they are returned to Mexico while their application is processed. A large majority of the asylum seekers processed under MPP (colloquially known as the “remain in Mexico" policy) are not from Mexico, but from other Central American countries such as Guatemala and Honduras. Asylum seekers, displaced by the violence plaguing these countries, cross Mexico to enter the U....
The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed a class action lawsuit against Shell Oil this week, finding that the company did not willfully violate the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACT Act) by printing the last four digits of customers’ account numbers on gas pump receipts, Reuters reports. The FACT Act requires that companies truncate credit card numbers on electronically-printed receipts to combat identity theft. The Act states that receipts must not display more than the last five digits of a card number, but it doesn’t define “card number....
In a move to curb government surveillance, San Francisco has banned itself from using facial recognition technology. The ordinance is the first of its kind for any major American city, and extends to local police and all other agencies in the city and county. The board of supervisors approved the ban “to ensure the safe and responsible use” of the technology. The supervisors said it is part of data privacy reforms signed into California law last year, and emphasized it is not an “anti-technology policy....
Summary judgment in favor of a shipper for third-party carrier tractor trailer driver’s injuries vacated and remanded Spence v. ESAB Group, Inc., 09-4363, concerned a challenge to the district court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of the defendant, in an injured tractor trailer driver’s suit against a shipper, claiming that an accident was the result of the shipper’s failure to secure the cargo it loaded onto the trailer, which he claimed was a violation of its duty of care to him and the proximate cause of his injuries....
There’s a massive showdown coming to the Supreme Court – over cheerleader uniforms. On one side is Star Athletica, an upstart purveyor of spirited outfits for spirited squads. On the other is Varsity Brands, hometown heroes and long-time reigning champs, at least when it comes to everything cheerleading. Caught in the middle are thousands of peppy high schoolers who just want to waive some pompoms and scream “go team!” And last Monday, the Supreme Court decided it would play referee in the competition between the two companies, granting cert to a dispute over whether cheerleading uniform designs are entitled to copyright protection....
Defendant’s drug conviction is affirmed where: 1) the evidence was sufficient for a reasonable jury to conclude that defendant provided cocaine for drug transactions; and 2) certain challenged statements by a prosecution witness were not hearsay because they did not depend on the witness’s truthfulness, memory, or perception. Read US v. Cesareo-Ayala, No. 08-3201 Appellate Information Filed August 12, 2009 Judges Opinion by Judge Hartz Counsel For Appellant: Rick E. Bailey, Conlee, Schmidt & Emerson, L....
In a tacit affirmation of another U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals decision this week, the U.S. Supreme Court left intact the appeals court’s ruling that Nevada’s lien law violated due process rights of mortgage lenders. The Ninth Circuit said in Bourne Valley Court Trust v. Wells Fargo Bank last year that homeowners’ associations should have to give notice to lenders before foreclosing on a property for delinquent dues. The Nevada law allowed the HOA to strip the bank’s title without notice, unless the lender “opted-in” beforehand....
Chicago-based international law firm Winston & Strawn has asked the Supreme Court to grant cert in a case involving a former partner, allegations of gender bias, and an arbitration agreement invalidated by the appellate courts in California. Former Winston & Strawn partner Constance Ramos contends the terms of the firm’s the arbitration agreement were overly harsh, including a clause she deemed the “firm always wins” provision. Interestingly, despite the drama of a claim that “the firm always wins,” the question presented to SCOTUS is more focused on the interplay between federal arbitration laws and long-standing rules of interpretation in California....
District court’s grant of defendant’s writ of habeas corpus from her conviction of first degree murder is reversed as, in its sufficiency-of-the-evidence review, the district court failed to accord the deference due to the judgment of the Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals. Read White v. Steele, No. 08-5498 Appellate Information Argued: October 16, 2009 Decided and Filed: December 21, 2009 Judges Opinion by Circuit Judge Cook Counsel For Appellant: Francis R....
This post was updated on March 28, 2022 Let’s face it: Estate planning is not exactly exciting or uplifting. Pondering what will happen after you die can feel pretty morbid. But here’s something we all know: Dying with a will in place is better than dying without, for both your family and your assets. So how do you get past all the unpleasantness and get yourself a plan? By answering the hard questions....
The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals has granted an injunction to temporarily block a Minnesota law authorizing child-care providers to unionize. The decision is a victory for the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, which is representing Minnesota providers who oppose unionization. But the decision hasn’t seemed to faze proponents of the law, who are chalking up the injunction to a “temporary roadblock,” reports the St. Paul Pioneer Press....
Who are the Chamorros? The simple answer is: the indigenous people of Guam. But it leads to a more complicated question in a case pending before the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Who should be allowed to vote for the political future of the island? That is a question the appeals court must answer in Davis v. Guam, and it won’t be easy. A 500-Year Struggle Ferdinand Magellan landed on Guam in 1521, beginning 300 years of Spanish rule there....
Copyright holders can be rather prickly about their protecting their works. For example, Flava Works, a porn production company, gets antsy when people copy their pay-to-play content and host it for free on other websites. When Flava Works discovered its flava-ful content on MyVidster.com, it joined forces with the Motion Picture Association of America to sue MyVidster for copyright infringement. Last year, U.S. District Judge John Grady agreed with Flava Works and the Motion Picture Association of American that myVidster, a social video bookmarking site, infringed on copyrighted material by embedding Flava Works’ videos and reaping the ad revenue rewards....
The Third Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a district court to grant an appellant’s motion for suppression this week, finding that the police did not have reasonable suspicion to stop the appellant’s car and conduct a search. Police officers in St. Thomas, Virgin Islands stopped Ahmoi Lewis after receiving a tip from a reliable source that individuals in a white Toyota Camry with the number 181 in the license plate were carrying firearms....
There are a slew of copyright-related cases making their way through the Second Circuit, some even making it to the Supreme Court. The Author’s Guild filed an appeal with the Second Circuit on Friday, challenging the district court’s ruling in favor of Google. The Second Circuit also agreed to hear arguments in a case brought by record companies against Vimeo. And next week, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in the Aereo case....
