The NCAA has been on the receiving end of a lot of criticism lately – and rightly so. The NCAA, which has a stranglehold on the top college sports in the United States, sets out rules based on the fiction that college athletes are students first and athletes second, and that they play college sports simply for the love of the game. The rules are also based on the fiction that college sports are not a business....
As has been exhaustively written about, we’re living in a time of extreme polarization. Each side feels that they are under siege. Political science professors Alan Abramowitz and Steven Webster note that people are now more politically motivated in opposition to another party rather than a firm adherence to their own party’s platforms. What this fear and antipathy mean, besides a lot of angry Twitter threads, is that law school applications have risen since 2017....
In an ERISA action claiming that defendant breached its collective bargaining agreement (CBA) with, and violated fiduciary duties owed to, plaintiffs when it refused to provide plaintiffs with retiree health benefits, summary judgment for defendants is reversed where: 1) the district court erred in construing the CBA as including a specific durational clause limiting retiree healthcare benefits to the duration of the CBA; and 2) even if defendant-employer’s transfer of assets was not a “fiduciary act,” it was still required to comply with ERISA procedures....
Petition for Review of BIA Order Partially Granted In She v. Holder, No. 06-71794, a petition for review of an order of the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) dismissing her appeal from an Immigration Judge’s (IJ’s) denial of her application for asylum, withholding of removal, and relief under the Convention Against Torture (CAT), the court granted the petition in part where, although the IJ did not put it in so many words, the BIA improperly surmised that the IJ had properly made a finding of firm resettlement....
Forget about Russians interfering with elections. We should worry about State Farm. The insurance giant has reportedly agreed to pay $250 million to settle a lawsuit that claims the company tried to buy a judicial election. The company allegedly poured $3.5 million into Judge Lloyd Karmeier’s campaign for the Illinois Supreme Court, hoping to get a friendly judge on the state’s highest court. Plaintiffs sued under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act....
District court’s sentence of defendant, for violating the terms of his supervised release following his conviction and imprisonment for possessing counterfeit checks, to additional 14 months in prison, to be followed by 36 month of supervised release is affirmed as the court’s factual findings were not clearly erroneous and the sentence imposed is not plainly unreasonable. Read US v. Berry, No. 09-1812 Appeals from the United States District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin...
In a drug prosecution, a denial of defendant’s motion to suppress evidence is affirmed where: 1) an affidavit in support of the search warrant established the reliability of the police’s informant; and 2) there were sufficient indicia of reliability without substantial independent police corroboration. Read US v. Dyer, No. 08-5671 Appellate Information Argued: June 16, 2009 Decided and Filed: September 8, 2009 Judges Opinion by Judge Gibbons Dissent by Judge Moore...
District court’s sentence of a defendant convicted of traveling with intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct is affirmed where: 1) the court properly applied an enhancement for unduly influencing a minor after finding that defendant failed to rebut the applicable presumption that he had unduly influenced the much younger victim; 2) the district court permissibly applied an enhancement for use of a computer to entice the minor, even though none of defendant’s discussions with the minor about sexual activity occurred via computer; 3) defendant did not qualify for a reduction for acceptance of responsibility because the district court found that he did not testify truthfully in all relevant respects, despite professing to accept responsibility; and 4) defendant’s sentence is substantively reasonable, though he will face significant restraints on his freedom when he is on supervised release....
Most states expanded voting access – many of them dramatically – in response to the coronavirus pandemic in 2020. The result was an election that by nearly all accounts was well-managed and secure. But as the National Conference of State Legislatures points out in an excellent roundup of voting actions in 2020, most of these changes were temporary. As a result, while some states are thinking of making them permanent, others want to roll them back....
The number of ways law firms and other businesses have had to pivot in the last few years has left those of us who write about such topics running out of ways to introduce them. How many times can we say, “Wow, the pandemic sure changed things, huh?” At least once more, as always. Whether due to the continuing battle over legal talent or a realization that expensive offices in urban centers may not be necessary, many firms are re-examining the way they’ll work in 2022 and beyond....
Are you one of the ever-growing mass of people swearing off of cow’s milk in favor of an animal-free alternative like nut or oat milk? Have you noticed a change in the packaging of what used to be called “soy milk” now being marketed as a much less enticing “soy beverage” instead? The reason for that is an strange one: Big Dairy. A Milk By Any Other Name Dairy sales have been declining for decades now, with prices dropping approximately 40% over five years....
The legendary La Contessa which once started off life as a school bus but later transformed into a model replica of a 16th century Spanish galleon did not qualify as visual art under the federal Visual Artists Rights Act and other implicated Nevada laws, the Ninth Circuit ruled. For those who can’t remember, La Contessa lasted about four years at the festival until she was banned because her “unsafe driving practices far exceeded community tolerance and out-weighed the visual contribution [she] made....
The Court rules that the government may regulate corporate political speech through disclaimer and disclosure requirements, but it may not suppress that speech altogether. Specifically, in an action brought by a nonprofit corporation, the makers of a documentary critical of Hillary Clinton’s presidential candidacy, challenging the constitutionality of a federal law prohibiting corporations and unions from using their general treasury funds to make independent expenditures for speech that was an “electioneering communication” or for speech that expressly advocated the election or defeat of a candidate, a denial of a preliminary injunction for plaintiff is reversed in part where Austin v....
Indiana sex offenders can resume tweeting, thanks to a recent decision from the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals. Wednesday, the Chicago-based appellate court overturned an Indiana law banning sex offenders from social networks, IndyStar.com reports. The law, Ind. Code § 35-42-4-12, prohibited certain registered sex offenders from “knowingly or intentionally” using a social networking web site, instant messaging, or a chat room program that the offender knows allows users who are under 18....
In New York, an employer can change arbitration conditions by mailing a notice to workers. That’s nothing new, which is one reason the U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals said its summary order had no precedential effect in Weiss v. Macy’s Retail Holdings. But the appeals court did tell Macy’s to clean up its description of arbitration as a “benefit,” which is why it made the news. Not a “Benefit” David Weiss had worked for Macy’s in Yonkers for 18 years, when a new manager fired him....
Two sheriff’s deputies out of Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania filed an appeal after winning a judgment against their employer for unpaid overtime in the Souryavong v. Lackawanna County case. The government employer contended that the failure to pay overtime was an administrative error, a payroll glitch and nothing more. While the lower district court did award the three plaintiffs their unpaid wages, and even doubled the damages and awarded attorney’s fees, the plaintiffs, and their attorney, filed an appeal seeking more money....
Dismissal of Appeal from Anti-SLAPP Dismissal In Greensprings Baptist Christian Fellowship Trust v. Cilley, No. 09-16924, an action for malicious prosecution, the court dismissed plaintiffs’ appeal from the dismissal of their suit under the California anti-SLAPP statute where the court lacked jurisdiction under the collateral order doctrine to entertain an appeal from the portion of a district court’s order granting a defendant’s anti-SLAPP motion which gives a plaintiff leave to amend her complaint....
Even as an experienced attorney (hah - I blog), once in a while, I run across a case synopsis and think - can they do that? This was one of those times. Douglas Suing isn’t suing. He’s actually appealing, though many would say that a man convicted of manufacturing and possessing child porn isn’t exactly appealing. (Sorry. I’ll stop.) The FBI had been keeping tabs on Suing for a while because someone, using his Internet Protocol (IP) address, was sharing child porn via a peer-to-peer network....
Hussein v. City of Perrysburg, 09-4054, involved a homeowners’ suit against a city, a city inspector and other individuals in their official and personal capacities, claiming that defendants violated their procedural and substantive due process rights by ordering a construction worker to remove a temporary asphalt layer in their driveway. Fields v. Howes, 09-1215, concerned a challenge to the district court’s conditional grant of defendant’s petition of habeas relief from his conviction for third degree criminal sexual conduct....
Raging hormones, butterflies in your stomach, make-out sessions when your parents aren’t looking. Ahh, there’s nothing like young love (or lust). Many teens are sexually active. But did you know if you’re 18 years of age or older and have a sexual relationship with someone younger, you could be committing statutory rape? Or if you’re both younger than 18, you could still be breaking the law? So hold off on the perfume and Axe body spray for now....
