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Like so many employers, law firms were resistant to the idea of letting employees work from home or relying too much on technology - until they had no choice. The coronavirus pandemic forced many industries to reconsider how people work and use technology. Even the Supreme Court began holding oral arguments via video conference. Although a recent survey shows that most lawyers don’t want to work from home full-time, it’s unlikely firms will be able to completely roll back remote work when the pandemic subsides....

In Jacobson v. Mott, No. 09-2484, an action against a police officer under 42 U.S.C. section 1983, claiming that defendant violated plaintiff’s rights under the First, Fourth, and Fourteenth Amendments by arresting and detaining him without probable cause, and by fabricating charges against him so that he would be held in jail over the weekend, the court affirmed judgment for defendant where 1) because the district court’s instructions were consistent with the Supreme Court of Minnesota’s interpretation of the obstruction statute in Engholm, the district court did not abuse its discretion in rejecting a proposed instruction; and 2) it was of no moment whether defendant also had arguable probable cause to arrest for a different offense....

Moving back in with your parents, as an adult, can be difficult. For one Michigan man, what the Beastie Boys said has never been truer: Man living at home is such a drag; Now your mom threw away your best porno mag. But what really takes the cake is the fact that the man is now suing his parents over a $30,000 pornography collection that was destroyed. As the story goes, the man moved back in with his folks after getting divorced....

Back in the 90s, the Sixth Circuit ruled that Michigan law provides next of kin with a constitutionally-protected property interest in a deceased relative’s body. In two different cases, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that officials can’t remove a decedent’s corneas without the family’s consent. But what a coroner does with organs after a family member consents to removal is another story. The Cincinnati-based appellate court ruled on Monday that, under Michigan law, a next of kin does not have a property interest in a decedent’s brain that was removed and retained pursuant to a lawful investigation....

At least according to the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, which held on October 18 that, contrary to the interpretation of the ordinance by both parties, nothing in the law prohibited sidewalk counseling. Because the ordinance could be interpreted narrowly, it offered limited restrictions on the anti-abortion activists’ free speech and did not violate their First Amendment rights. Try, and Try Again This was not the first time Pittsburgh’s ordinance was in federal circuit court for challenges to its constitutionality....

If it were the battle of the poet against the public access channel, then the poet won. In Halleck v. Manhattan Community Access Corporation, a federal appeals court said the plaintiffs may sue a public access company for violating their free speech rights. East Harlem poet Jesus Papoleto Melendez and an activist sued after the company stopped a television show that nearly caused a fist-fight. But the case also caused a split in the U....

Destroying a fish isn’t a federal crime, the Supreme Court ruled today, in another victory for sanity when it comes to prosecutorial over-charging. By a surprising 5-4 split, the Court said that the provisions of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act that prohibit destroying a “tangible object” refer to tangible objects used to record information, not any tangible object at all. John Yates was cited by an officer of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Service for catching undersized fish....

Fast food giant McDonald’s may have questionable animal welfare practices—its suppliers use gestation crates for pregnant pigs, which are considered inhumane. To address this, billionaire investor Carl Icahn has proposed a proxy contest to change the composition of McDonald’s Board of Directors. Gestation crates typically house pigs so tightly that they cannot turn around, but the practice of using them is widespread in the American pork industry. Though the company pledged to stop using the crates a decade ago, it failed to follow through....

In Devcon Int’l Corp. v. Reliance Ins. Co., No. 07-4602, the Third Circuit dealt with a plaintiff’s claim that its insurer was required to defend and indemnify plaintiff in a nuisance action brought against it, arising from a construction to extend an airport that generated large amounts of dust which drifted over nearby property. In affirming the district court’s entry of a declaratory judgment in favor of the insurer, the court held that the insurer has carried its burden to show that the plain language of the pollution exclusion removes coverage for the plaintiffs’ alleged harms....

Travis Denny was sentenced to 240 months in jail for possession with intent to distribute cocaine. He told his attorney, Joe Romero, that he wanted to appeal. Romero explained that an appeal was probably a bad idea, since Denny had received a substantial downward variance from the guideline range of 324 to 405 months, and could receive more time if the government challenged the downward variance on appeal. Attorney-client communication wasn’t so good here....

In US v. O’Brien, 08-1569, the Supreme Court affirmed the First Circuit’s decision affirming defendant’s sentence for using a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence, holding that, contrary to the government’s arguments, the fact that a firearm was a machine gun is an element to be proved to the jury beyond a reasonable doubt, not a sentencing factor to be proved to the judge at sentencing. As the Court wrote: “The Court must interpret, once again, §924(c) of Title 18 of the United States Code....

This week, the U.S. Supreme Court issued an emergency stay in an ongoing fight over undated mail-in ballots. On May 27, the U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals held that election officials in Pennsylvania should count mail-in ballots missing a required date on the outer envelope if they were “indisputably received” before the deadline. But on May 31, Justice Samuel Alito, who oversees the Third Circuit and recently made headlines with his leaked draft opinion overturning Roe v....

The push for non-essential businesses to open is gaining momentum. As American employers contemplate reopening, they will face some legal obstacles. Perhaps the biggest concern is the risk that workers will contract COVID-19 after returning to work. What liability will businesses have if that occurs? Easing Social Distancing May Not Let Employers Off the Hook While more restrictive measures may end soon, employers will have to be sure to follow all CDC, OSHA, and DOL guidelines when they do reopen for business....

The story of how an employer in Miami allegedly fired an employee over jury duty service highlights an important question: Do you know how to deal with employee jury duty and the jury duty law? One of the most basic rights of employment is allowing employees to do their civic duty. Do You Need to Give Employees Time Off for Jury Duty? The laws of almost every state require that employers give employees time off in order to vote and serve time in jury duty when the receive a jury duty summons....

For all those law gra.ds (or soon to be law grads) who will start studying for the bar in a week or two, you will all soon know how anti-climactic law school graduation is. But let yourself celebrate the occasion, because you’re just days away from the most intense study session you’ll ever endure. Bar prep isn’t easy. Most bar review courses set a breakneck pace that only the most diligent of students can keep up with....

In a taxpayer’s appeal from a tax court’s dismissal of his claim for relief from joint and several tax liability with his spouse under 26 U.S.C. section 6015, the order is affirmed where the deficiency challenged by the taxpayer stemmed from a partnership interest that was the subject of an ongoing partnership proceeding under the Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act and regulated by a separate set of provisions. Read Adkison v....

The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals recently issued a rather controversial decision that is raising the ire of legal commentators. The decision in the USA v. Huskisson case explains that cops can get away with illegally entering a home if they were at least thinking about getting a warrant before doing so. Significantly, the three-judge panel agreed that the facts of the Huskisson case threaded a rather particular needle such that the illegal entry and the evidence obtained from it were not necessary to support a warrant, thus triggering the independent source exception....

In a 42 U.S.C. section 1983 action challenging a charter school’s termination of a teacher, dismissal of the complaint is affirmed where plaintiff’s allegations were insufficient to raise a reasonable inference that defendant was a state actor and thus acted under color of state law in taking the alleged actions. Read Caviness v. Horizon Cmty. Learning Ctr., Inc., No. 08-15245 Appellate Information Argued and Submitted June 9, 2009 Filed January 4, 2010...

MES, Inc claims that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers unfairly terminated three of its construction/renovation contracts in retaliation for MES’s criticism of the Corps’ mismanagement of construction projects. After an administrative challenge, MES brought a Bivens action in federal court. The district court dismissed their claim, finding that it was precluded by the Contract Disputes Act (CDA). The Second Circuit Court of Appeals, in a matter of first impression, affirmed that decision....

Whatever their options may have been for dealing with the unarmed LSD-influenced naked man, their chosen route, which included tackling, choke-holds, “hammer punches,” and multiple men holding him down until he died of asphyxiation was probably not the correct route to take. The police department, recognizing the possibility of these types of accidental asphyxiation deaths, had two policies in place at the time: an appropriate amount of force policy and a “Positional Asphyxia Policy,” which was implemented in April 2003, four years before William Martin’s death....