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No, it’s not your imagination. There is a storm brewing. Pro-life activists are passing dozens of controversial abortion restrictions in state legislatures throughout the country, hoping and praying that the challenges will reach our increasingly conservative Supreme Court. According to USA Today, 92 abortion restrictions were passed in 24 states in 2011. In 2012, 43 more were added to the books. No such luck, at least so far. Fresh off a rejection of an appeal from Oklahoma over the state’s ban on so-called “off-label” medical abortions, Oklahoma once again felt the sting of a SCOTUS rejection, even though there was a bit of a circuit split to resolve....

A recent article in The New York Times Magazine tells a harrowing story, which raises a hypothetical. Suppose a state child protection agency gets a call that a child may be abused or neglected. The caseworker investigates and determines that this may be true and that leaving the child with the parents may be harmful. The caseworker then presents the parents with a Hobson’s choice: Give your child to another caregiver, typically a family member (kinship placement), indefinitely, or else they will seek a family court order placing your child in foster care with strangers....

In an employment and sex discrimination action, summary judgment for plaintiff’s former employer is affirmed where: 1) plaintiff failed to make a prima facie case of sex discrimination as the conduct plaintiff relied on to support her claim was not sufficiently severe or pervasive to affect a term, condition, or privilege of her employment: and 2) there was no evidence to support plaintiff’s claim that she suffered adverse employment action as a result of her refusal to submit to a supervisor’s implied or inferred demand for sexual favors....

Owners of iPhone 7 devices may be pleased to hear that Apple is being sued due to its lack of response to the complaints over what has been dubbed “loop disease.” And it’s not just one lawsuit, there are now at least two class action cases over the loop disease issue, one out of Illinois and another in California. While affected users experience a variety of audio problems, some rendering the device useless, the flaw has been known for sometime, and can be simply repaired by a technician....

The Supreme Court will start its final day of oral arguments this week with Arkansas Game & Fish Commission v. U.S. Why should you care about this case? Because the Court’s holding could allow states and individuals to recover when the federal government accidentally hurts private property. The Pacific Legal Foundation offers this brief background: AGFC sued the government, claiming that the over-flooding effected a temporary taking, and seeking compensation under the Fifth Amendment....

When James McKinney was sentenced to death for two murders, evidence of his turbulent childhood and post-traumatic stress disorder wasn’t considered a mitigating factor. For over 15 years, Arizona courts relied on a “causal nexus” test for mitigating factors, which forbids consideration of family background and mental illness as mitigating factors. Arizona’s causal nexus test for mitigating factors is unconstitutional, a divided Ninth Circuit, sitting en banc, ruled on Tuesday. The decision not only puts McKinney’s death sentence into question, it could jeopardize many Arizona capital sentences issued between 1989 and 2005....

In Foster v. Booker No. 08-1371, the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit faced a challenge to the Michigan Parole Board’s application of post-1992 changes to the state’s parole laws to plaintiffs’ parole review as being in violation of the Ex Post Facto and Due Process Clauses. However, as stated in the decision: “To the extent that plaintiffs face a risk of increased punishment under the post-1992 parole laws as compared to the laws in effect when they committed their offenses, we cannot conclude that changes to the parole laws caused such an increase....

The trucker lawsuit is making its way to the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals, reports The Washington Post. On Monday, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission asked the federal appeals court to review a ruling issued by the appeals court in February. The February decision was a panel decision in which the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals disposed of the class action suit brought by the EEOC on behalf of “approximately 270” women....

It’s hard for most people to feel sorry for Mark Christeson. According to The Associated Press, he teamed up with his cousin to rape a mother of two, then, when one of the kids recognized him, Christeson and his cousin murdered the whole family before taking off with their car and electronics. Of course, there’s often more to the story – murderers don’t often emerge from the womb without a conscience....

You always hope for honest sellers and an exciting transition into your new home. But the list of possible schemes or fraud committed by home sellers, buyers, real estate agents, and others in the industry is endless. Adding Fake Logos to Appliances This is a form of fraud, but it can be hard to nail down who committed it. Was it the current seller or a previous homeowner? You can try looking back through listing pictures to narrow down when the logo swap happened, but this can be time-consuming and difficult....

There’s been so much hand-wringing over the past decade or so concerning attorneys, their mental well-being, and their work-life balance that we’re left to wonder whether it’s the work that will kill lawyers or the lack of companionship resulting from working so much. And that’s just for single lawyers. If you’ve got a family, is matching a successful legal career and a rewarding home life just a pipe dream? Maybe not....

The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals held in favor of investors earlier this week, saying that the investors could pursue claims against KV Pharmaceutical Corporation for its false and misleading statements made to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, reports Reuters. The case had been dismissed in 2010 by a district court. The company has been under fire and criminal investigation for the production and sale of over-sized morphine pills....

This post was updated on March 25, 2022 When people think about creating a will, they often envision a formal event involving the testator, a lawyer, witnesses, and maybe a notary. However, a handwritten will without witness signatures can be a valid will under some circumstances. Why a Valid Will Is Important A last will and testament, commonly called a will, is an important estate planning document. If you are making a will, you should take extra care to create a valid will....

Chief Justice John Roberts named eight judges as new committee chairs for the Judicial Conference this week, and extended the service of three judges as committee chairs. Justice Roberts named Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Timothy Tymkovich as the new chair of the Judicial Conference Committee on Judicial Resources. Judge Tymcovich, who was appointed by President George W. Bush, has served on the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals since 2003....

New Jersey attorney Andrew Dwyer’s practice is focused on representing employees in matters of employment law, and in cases where judges had to assess his legal services, in the context of fee shifting statutes, many judges praised his work. But what started out as praise turned into a conflict with New Jersey’s Committee on Attorney Advertising. Read on to see why the Third Circuit ruled that the Committee violated his First Amendment rights....

Trademark Infringement Action In Masters v. UHS of Del., Inc., No. 09-3543, an action claiming that defendant breached the parties’ trademark license agreement, and committed trademark infringement, the court affirmed judgment for plaintiff where 1) defendant’s equitable defenses presented fact-bound inquiries that were properly submitted to the jury; 2) the jury properly found that defendant used the mark at issue for unlicensed purposes; and 3) the district court did not err when it determined that monetary relief was appropriate, were the jury to conclude that defendant willfully infringed the mark....

District court judgment affirming a denial by the Commissioner of Social Security of two applications by plaintiff for benefits is vacated and remanded where plaintiff proceeded pro se at his hearing, and the judge failed to provide the requisite assistance to plaintiff in developing a record to support his application. Read Moran v. Astrue, No. 07-1728 Appellate InformationAppeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of New York....

Your credit is once again as good as gold in New York, thanks to a recent ruling by the Second Circuit. The state’s ban on credit card surcharges is not unconstitutional, the court ruled Tuesday. Under the law, companies cannot impose a surcharge on a customer who chooses to pay by credit card rather than cash, check, or gold doubloons. That law, in place since 1984, was invalidated two years ago when a district court found that it violated merchants First Amendment and due process rights....

Franky and Aldo are the fuzzy-eared pawns in a legal showdown over dog-sniff searches. Franky is a chocolate Lab. Aldo is a German shepherd. Wednesday, the two canine officers will dominate oral arguments in Florida v. Jardines and Florida v. Harris, two cases examining the relationship between dog sniff searches and the Fourth Amendment. The cases involve distinctly different issues, Reuters reports: whether a dog can sniff outside a home without a warrant, and how qualified a dog must be to do a legitimate sniff....

Ricky Edwards worked for CSX Transportation for 31 years before his career was ended by a freak accident – caused in part by a “nasty” toilet. When Edwards showed up to work with an upset stomach one day, his nausea was only exacerbated by the foul conditions in his train’s bathroom: urine, feces, and “blue chemical” splattered all over the toilet. When his nausea escalated, Edwards chose to ralph over the rails, rather than in the foul toilet....