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March Madness is a goldmine for the NCAA and its member conferences. Again this year, the organization expects to rake in nearly $1 billion from the popular tournament for college basketball supremacy. It’s a cash cow as well for CBS Sports and Turner Sports, which also expect to make about $1 billion in ad revenue for their live game coverage. And let’s not forget America’s bettors and bookies, some of whom will profit handsomely from this year’s estimated $3....

Publicity, according to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, is a two-way street. This week, the Ninth Circuit rejected a motion to eliminate a prosecutor’s name from an opinion that alleged the attorney had engaged in prosecutorial misconduct. The prosecutor in question is Arizona Assistant U.S. Attorney Jerry Albert, who allegedly misrepresented a drug defendant’s prior statements when trying to impeach her trial testimony. (Brief thanks to Jonathan Turley for bringing this opinion to our attention....

Google has changed how we search, email, and navigate. It’s altered how we tell our friends to find their own answers. It’s a part of the zeitgeist. Google also dreams of changing the way that we read books, but achieving that dream is a legal nightmare that has made its way to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. Authors fought back against the digitization plan, claiming that Google Books copied their work without permission....

Investors and tech industry insiders have seen the potential of legal tech for some time. Recently, however, legal tech seems poised for a breakthrough. According to Bloomberg Law, Silicon Valley investment in legal tech grew to $1.7 billion in 2018. That’s up from $233 million in 2017. And that trend shows no sign of slowing in 2019. Since everyone from Big Law to solo practitioners use legal tech for help with time and billing, checking for conflicts, and case management, among other things, investor optimism seems well-placed....

A federal appeals court affirmed the life sentence for a darknet criminal who was convicted of selling more than $180 million in illegal drugs on the internet. Ross William Ulbricht, who created Silk Road and allegedly hired killers to protect his enterprise, was sentenced to life plus 40 years for his crimes. The U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the sentence, rejecting Ulbricht’s claims that the government’s search warrant for his computer was too broad....

Last week, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Michigan’s affirmative action ban was unconstitutional because it presents an extraordinary burden to opponents who would try to protect affirmative action, The Wall Street Journal reports. Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette says he will appeal the decision. After the ruling came down, people immediately start drawing comparisons to Fisher v. University of Texas, the affirmative action challenge that the Supreme Court is currently considering....

In plaintiff’s 42 U.S.C. section 1983 suit challenging school district’s prohibition on celebratory religious music at school-sponsored events for the purpose of maintaining a policy of complete religious neutrality, summary judgment for the school district is affirmed as the court did not err in concluding that December concerts are not public fora, and that the school district’s interpretation of the policy was reasonably related to legitimate pedagogical concerns. Read Stratechuk v....

Start building your arks, carving out your bunkers, or stocking up on canned food, because surely the end is upon us. The sky must be dark; the oceans must have turned to blood. Somewhere, I think, four horsemen are trotting this way. After ten years of silence, Justice Thomas asked a question during oral arguments today. What Rough Beast Slouches Towards Bethlehem to Be Born? The details this morning are sparse, but here’s what we know: Monday morning, during oral arguments in Voisine v....

First Sale Doctrine Issue in Copyright Matter In UMG Recordings, Inc. v. Augusto, No. 08-55998, an action for copyright infringement in violation of section 501 of the Copyright Act, which entitled copyright owners to institute an action for infringement of the exclusive right to distribute copies of the copyrighted work (specially produced phonorecords), the court affirmed summary judgment for defendants where the mailing at issue effected a sale of the promotional music discs to the recipients for purposes of the first sale doctrine....

In forfeiture proceedings involving cash that was suspected to be connected to drugs, district court’s grant of defendant’s motion to suppress dog-sniff test evidence is reversed and remanded where: 1) the police officers’ suspicion that a briefcase contained drugs or money associated with drugs was reasonable; 2) detention of the briefcase was reasonable; and 3) officer’s unlawful search of the briefcase fell under the inevitable discovery doctrine where the government obtained an independent legal justification for conducting a search which led to the discovery of the evidence and officers inevitably would have sought the warrant and conducted a lawful search....

The summer wedding season is here, and whether you’re a photographer, musician, florist, or chef, it’s time to cash in. Weddings and wedding services can be a unique business opportunity, and at the same time they can provide some unique legal challenges to vendors. So here are three tips on keeping it fun, profitable, and legal this wedding season. 1. Wedding Discrimination After the Same-Sex Marriage Ruling One of the running subplots to the gay marriage debate was whether businesses could withhold wedding services from same-sex couples based on their religious beliefs....

You may love the sight of dandelions or want to cover your lawn in crabgrass. Maybe bunches of native wildflowers make your heart sing, while sculpted hedges and pedigree roses fail to impress. Well, sorry Mary Mary quiet contrary: your garden isn’t allowed to grow that way in Chicago. Unconventional green thumbs can run afoul of the city’s weed ordinance, which can lead to daily fines of up to $1,200....

From municipal bonds to telephone regulations, the U.S. First Court of Appeals has heard about them all in recent months. But one case stands out for its impact on the average American’s bank account: Fawcett v. Citizens Bank. This class-action pitted the everyday customer against a bank in arguments about overdraft fees. The plaintiffs alleged the bank charged usurious interest fees for overdrawn checking accounts. The appeals court said that’s not interest, that’s just business....

Sitting in our sunny outpost in California, we are very sincere when we say that we are happy not to be in your shoes right now. While you’ve been inundated with snow, and then more snow, California trees think it’s spring because of our drought conditions. But, enough about the weather, let’s get down to business. While snow days are expected at schools, sometimes big kids get to take advantage of them too....

Remembering the late singer Whitney Houston when she so famously told Diane Sawyer that “Crack is whack,” the Sixth Circuit could not agree more. More specifically, the court would probably agree with the famous singer that the use of crack cocaine is “whack,” but it’s actually the old minimum sentencing rules that are really “whack.” Their cases were remanded for resentencing applying the current Act. The Fair Sentencing Act of 2010 was passed to restore fairness to federal cocaine sentencing that had once unfairly impacted African-Americans for almost 25 years....

Working from home, as millions more of us are doing now because of the coronavirus, has several advantages. No wasted time on commutes. Fewer interruptions. Better work/life balance. And with the spread of COVID-19, of course, perhaps the biggest advantage: Reduced likelihood of getting seriously sick. On the negative side of the ledger, at-home workers may incur necessary expenses to do their jobs. For many employees told to work from home, the task of putting together a home office can be challenging....

The U.S. Supreme Court turned down a billionaire’s case to close off public access to a California beach. Vinod Khosla bought 89-acre Martins Beach in Northern California for $32.5 million, then put a gate across the only road that leads to the ocean. The Surfrider Foundation sued for public access, and every court along the way agreed: California beaches are public. Open the Gate The High Court issued a per curiam decision without comment....

Optimism is a good thing, especially when the news is bad. The California State Bar knows that. In a press release about the latest bar exam results, the state bar heralded that the February pass rate improved “more than four percentage points over last year.” That’s the good news. The bad news: it was the second-worse performance on the California bar in more than 30 years. Nearly 70 percent of the test-takers failed....

All of us still harbor a seething resentment towards our mother after she made us dress up in a banana costume for Halloween in fourth grade. Okay, maybe only some of us do. But for those of us still traumatized by those tragic events, the news of a years-long banana costume copyright battle perhaps finally coming to an end is welcome indeed. Slippery Slope If you weren’t already aware, legendary costume brand Rasta Imposta has been fighting with Kmart and Kangaroo Manufacturing over the design of banana costumes for years....

The NCAA lost some and won some in the wake of the Ninth Circuit decision. The court ruled 2-1 that the National Collegiate Athletic Association was not required to pay athletes royalties for the use of their names and likenesses. The Circuit decision comes in the wake of Judge Claudia Wilken’s August 2014 ruling that required the NCAA to pay athletes for their performances. The recent ruling by the Ninth Circuit does not equal to giving the NCAA free reign....