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The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled last week that grizzly bears still need endangered species protection from the federal government until the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service can demonstrate a rational connection between its research on the bear population and a proposal to lift the protection. Grizzly bears may seem tough, but the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has classified them as “threatened” since 1975. For much of the 20th century, Yellowstone National Park’s grizzly population fed at the trough of open-pit garbage dumps....

District court’s finding that plaintiffs’ new claims in their amended complaint were time-barred under the applicable Kentucky statute of limitations and dismissal of federal claims is reversed as: 1) the claims asserted in the amended complaint were based on the same conduct, transaction or occurrence as the claims in the original complaint that defendants impermissibly reduced and suspended assignment of wrecker calls to plaintiffs’ towing service; and 2) as such, the claims in the amended complaint relate back to the claims in the original complaint and were filed within the statute of limitations....

Making it abundantly clear that on the High Court, Justice Sotomayor is unquestionably the coolest Justice, she explained to an audience at Cornell that she prefers bourbon over beer, and jazz over opera. Sadly, she also explained that none of her SCOTUS colleagues will go listen to jazz with her. And along with letting all the students see just how awesome she is, Justice Sotomayor encouraged everyone in the audience to be involved in making their communities better places....

In an ERISA action by a multiemployer employee welfare fund (Plan) against an employer for deficient contributions, district court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of the Plan is affirmed where: 1) the Plan properly brought suit under ERISA as Congress has provided that plans can sue and be sued and that fiduciaries may enforce substantive rights under 29 U.S.C. section 1132(e); and 2) the employer is liable for the deficient contributions for July, August, and December 2006, and January and February 2007, as it treats as irrelevant the fact that its course of conduct - making payments precisely in accordance with the 2005 collective bargaining agreement from the start - demonstrates its assent to that agreement....

Law students who are looking for hands-on experience in the appellate realm in circuits that allow law students to make court appearances may want to look into appellate clinics. One such clinic, the Appellate Clinic at Washington University in St. Louis, lets students represent pro se litigants in cases to be heard by the Eighth Circuit. It’s among only a handful of programs nationally that provide law students with an opportunity to represent clients in appellate cases....

Indian Cigarette Sale Taxation Case In Nisqually Indian Tribe v. Gregoire, No. 09-35725, an action claiming that the State of Washington breached a contract with plaintiff Indian tribe by entering into an agreement with another tribe, governing taxation of cigarettes at Frank’s Landing in Washington, the court affirmed summary judgment for defendants where 1) plaintiff had no private right of action to enforce the statutes governing the parcel of land at issue; and 2) plaintiff’s agreement with Washington did not grant it the exclusive right to sell cigarettes at Frank’s Landing....

For a while, it looked like Ohio Gov. John Kasich wasn’t going to be re-elected. Kasich was the same type of staunch Republican as Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker. But where Walker succeeded, Kasich failed. Voters harshly rebuked a Kasich-endorsed state senate bill that would have limited public employees’ collective bargaining rights. In 2012, toeing the party line with other Republican governors, Kasich said the state wouldn’t be implementing a state health insurance exchange....

Steel workers have to wear safety gear. Lots of it, in fact. And “donning and doffing” this gear takes quite a bit of time. They want to be paid for this time. Unfortunately, their union, pursuant to 29 U.S.C. §203(o), already agreed that they shouldn’t get paid for this time. That provision requires employers to pay for time spent changing clothes, unless collective bargaining provides to the contrary. The question is, can the massive amount of protective gear that they are required to wear be considered “clothes,” as that word was used in the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938?...

FindLaw columnist Eric Sinrod writes regularly in this section on legal developments surrounding technology and the internet. Relatively unheard of not too long ago, deepfakes are a growing problem with serious consequences. The war on deepfakes has commenced, and only time will tell whether the deepfakes problem will be eradicated — at least in large part. This could be a long and hard fight. What Is a Deepfake? A deepfake is a human image synthesis method based on artificial intelligence....

The honorable move for a debtor is to pay off all the debt they gathered. But while this may be the honorable move, paying off your debt isn’t always the best move (like in some short sales/foreclosures). This is especially true for older Americans who have the option of filing bankruptcy. This applies only if the senior citizens can withstand the hit to their credit score, The Wall Street Journal reports....

“In our constitutional order, a vague law is no law at all.” That is not only philosophically true, but according to Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch’s words in a recent ruling, it’s literally true now regarding a federal sentencing enhancement. The provision handed out increased prison sentences for defendants who committed crimes of violence while possessing a gun. Gorsuch and the Court found that the statute defining a “crime of violence” failed to “give ordinary people fair warning about what the law demands of them....

In case the influx of politicians shaking hands and kissing babies didn’t tip you off, it’s an election year. And, much like in 2000, a Texan is asking the Supreme Court justices to cast the deciding votes in an election. This time, however, the fate of the Texas redistricting map, (not the presidency), hangs in the balance. Texas was awarded four additional congressional seats after the 2010 Census. The Republican-controlled Texas legislature proposed a redistricting map that favored Republicans....

The Third Circuit dealt the final blow to a long-running whistleblower suit last Tuesday. Jeffrey Wiest, a former accounts payable manager for Tyco Electronics, alleged that he had been illegally terminated in retaliation for raising concerns over expenditures on lavish parties featuring mermaid greeters, pirate performers and fire dancers. He sued, claiming that his firing months later violated the anti-retaliation provisions of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. The Third Circuit wasn’t convinced, however, finding that Wiest had failed to show that his termination was connected to his mermaid expenditures complaints, rather than a later, independent sexual harassment investigation....

Bill Cosby’s reputation is once again in shambles. A California jury found him liable for the 1975 sexual assault of a minor at the Playboy Mansion and awarded the victim $500,000 in compensatory damages. This undermines Cosby’s claims of full exoneration after his aggravated indecent assault conviction was overturned by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. If you haven’t been following the proceedings, you might wonder how it’s possible for him to win one case and lose the other....

Everybody has nightmares, but some people are really good at writing about them. Judge Stefan Underhill gave it a try. In Horror, Inc. v. Miller, he put some effort into writing about the famous “Friday the 13th” horror film. The backstory started out with a handshake deal between the author and a producer. In the end, it turned into a nightmare for a company that exploited the work. Copyright Act The judge told the legal tale with some dramatic flare....

This post was updated on December 13, 2022. Divorce is in the air. Or not. But if you happen to be contemplating one, you probably want to know which is the best state for divorce. There is no overall “best” place to get a divorce–it all depends on you. For instance, those divorcing cheaters can avoid alimony if they file in Georgia. And only some states split assets 50/50, so stay-at-home parents have a tough decision to make....

So, there’s these Russians, right? And they had this … defrauding the government thing. They’d sell medical equipment to the government at ridiculously inflated prices – home whirlpools that cost about $30 were listed as costing $380 – and they’d pocket the difference between the real cost and the fake cost, split it amongst co-conspirators, etc. Hilariously, Vadim Yuzovitskiy and Grigory Groysman had been here before. They ran the same scam previously, Yuzovitskiy got caught, snitched on Groysman, and he snitched on everybody else....

According to the Indiana Code of Judicial Conduct, judges in the Hoosier State will “act at all times in a manner that promotes public confidence in the independence, integrity, and impartiality of the judiciary, and shall avoid impropriety and the appearance of impropriety.” So, does that include starting a drunken brawl outside a White Castle in the middle of the night? That’s for the Judicial Qualifications Commission and Indiana Supreme Court to determine....

The undefeated streak is over. Last week, a state judge in Tennessee ruled against gay marriage, becoming the first to do so since the Supreme Court decided United States v. Windsor last year. In a case brought by two men, legally married in Iowa but seeking a divorce in Tennessee, Judge Russell E. Simmons, Jr. held that Tennessee’s Anti-Recognition clause, passed directly by the voters, should stand, as “neither the Federal Government nor another state should be allowed to dictate to Tennessee what has traditionally been a state’s responsibility....

In a 42 U.S.C. section 1983 action alleging excessive force by police, judgment for defendant-officer is affirmed where, because the jury unanimously found that defendant was entitled to qualified immunity and there was no flaw in the finding that required the district court to reject it, the district court acted within its discretion in entering judgment for defendant and denying plaintiff’s motion for a new trial. Read Aczel v. Labonia, No....