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There’s a good chance you know of David Lat, even if you don’t know David Lat. Lat is the mastermind behind the (dearly departed) Underneath their Robes, and the founder of the legal blogging juggernaut Above the Law. Now, he’s a serial fiction writer, too. Well, almost… The tag line? One First Street … or die trying. Here’s his description of the project: So Lat, a Yale Law grad and a former clerk for Ninth Circuit Judge Diarmuid O’Scannlain, (a conservative appointee on the famously left-learning court), is writing about a Yale Law grad who’s clerking … for a noted conservative on the famously left-leaning court....

Popular English singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran, who prevailed in a music plagiarism lawsuit on April 6, says enough is enough. Musicians are facing too many lawsuits from other musicians and songwriters, he said in a YouTube video following his win in a London court. These actions, he said, have money-making settlement as their sole goal “even if there’s no basis for the claim.” Sami Chokri and Ross O’Donoghue sued Sheeran and co-writers of the 2017 hit “Shape of You,” arguing that the “Oh I” refrain in Sheeran’s tune plagiarized Chokri’s 2015 song, “Oh Why....

President Trump’s re-election campaign committee filed a lawsuit against a Wisconsin TV station this week, claiming an ad run on the station was defamatory. The ad, produced by a liberal super PAC called Priorities USA, ran on WJFW-TV based in Rhinelander, Wisconsin. It first aired around March 24. Entitled “Exponential Threat,” the advertisement criticized the Trump Administration’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic - using the President’s own words. Statements highlighted in the ad include Mr....

Sentence for drug crimes is affirmed where: 1) the district court did not abuse its discretion in departing upward for underrepresentaion of criminal history pursuant to U.S.S.G. sec. 4A1.3 as the court considered the appropriate factors and gave an adequate explanation for its decision to impose the upward departure; and 2) the court did not abuse its discretion in denying a downward variance as it properly weighed the factors warranting downward variance and those that militated against a departure....

In plaintiff’s suit against the USPS arising from an automobile collision with a USPS employee, dismissal of the claim is affirmed as a claimant under the Federal Tort Claims Act, whose damages continue to accrue, must nevertheless submit a claim to the appropriate agency containing a “sum certain” for damages prior to filing suit because the sum certain requirement is jurisdictional. Read White-Squire v. U.S. Postal Serv., No. 09-1577 Appellate Information...

The Rocky Mountain High was popularized long before Colorado legalized recreational marijuana. After all, what is the Centennial State if not the perfect place for stoners, snowboarders, and fast food chains? But Colorado’s pot-friendly status doesn’t justify pulling over out-of-state drivers with Colorado plates, the Tenth Circuit ruled recently, throwing out two Kansas Highway Patrol officers’ claims of qualified immunity after they cited Colorado plates as a reason for stopping drivers....

Publicly supported charity, 509(a)1 – This includes the entities that the public generally associates with non-profit, 501(c)3 status including schools, hospitals, religious organizations, and other charities that receive their public support primarily from gifts, grants and contributions from the public. Exempt purpose activity-supported charities, 509(a)2 – Similar to 509(a)1 charities, these include the charities typically associated with non-profit status. Specifically, these organizations usually receive their support from a combination of gifts, grants and contributions and fees for their exempt services....

A salvage scrapper will have to pay the full amount of some $10 million in cleaning costs to the EPA according to a recent ruling by the Sixth Circuit which affirmed the decision of a federal district court. That lower federal appeals courts was not persuaded by defendant Mark Sawyer’s theories, saying that in this case of first impression, the EPA must be compensated for its clean-up expenditures after Sawyer’s company completely contaminated a 300-acre plot of land in violation of federal environmental law....

The Ninth Circuit swooped in for the rescue of a man convicted under Stolen Valor Act for having unlawfully worn military decorations and medals that he did not earn. The court ruled that the section of the act under which he was convicted was unconstitutional. There was dissent among the judges. Hon. Jay Bybee, who wrote the dissenting opinion, countered that the majority underestimated the negative effects of disallowing criminal punishments for flouting the law; and that letting persons wear medals they did not earn would damage public trust and cause confusion....

On December 8, the Ninth Circuit heard oral arguments in the case Smith v. Obama, in which a nurse from Idaho, Anna Smith, challenged the NSA’s warrantless collection of phone metadata as a violation of the Fourth Amendment. Yes, there was talk about Smith v. Maryland. Yes, there was talk about the Fourth Amendment. Actually, though, we’ve seen this movie before. If you can even get to the merits, it’s likely a violation and probably distinct from Smith v....

Experiment by experiment, study by study, the shine of vaping as a safer alternative to traditional cigarettes seems to be wearing off. The latest, courtesy of the University of California, Riverside, finds that e-cigarette usage can cause critical brain cell damage and death. The study points to the effects of e-cig usage as especially perilous to pregnant women and teens. Study: Vaping Produces ‘Stress Response’ in Cells According to the study, published in June in the journal iScience, nicotine consumption through e-cigarettes leads to “stress-induced mitochondrial hyperfusion....

In a murder prosecution, dismissal of petitioner’s habeas petition as untimely is vacated where petitioner’s mental illness could serve as a ground for equitable tolling of the one-year statute of limitations for filing habeas petitions prescribed by the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act. Read Bolarinwa v. Williams, No. 08-0832 Appellate Information Argued: November 18, 2009 Decided: January 28, 2010 Judges Opinion by Judge Katzmann Counsel For Appellant: Theodore S. Green, Green & Willstatter, White Plains, NY...

Google software engineer Blake Lemoine claims that the company’s LaMDA (Language Model for Dialogue Applications) chatbot is sentient — and that he can prove it. The company recently placed Lemoine on leave after he released transcripts he says show that LaMDA can understand and express thoughts and emotions at the level of a 7-year-old child. But we’re not here to talk about Blake Lemoine’s employment status. We’re here to wildly speculate....

Habeas Petition in Murder Matter In Douglas v. Jacquez, No. 08-17478, a habeas petitioner’s appeal from the district court’s order vacating petitioner’s murder conviction, but remanding the case to the state court with instructions for the state court to enter judgment against petitioner for arson of a structure, the court vacated the order where the district court exceeded its habeas powers when it directed the state to modify petitioner’s sentence, but the Double Jeopardy Clause would not be implicated if the state court, of its own accord, were to re-sentence petitioner....

In a capital murder matter, the District Court’s order denying Petitioner’s motion seeking funds to hire a neuropsychologist to assist in the preparation of his state clemency petition is affirmed, where Petitioner advanced no evidence from which the District Court could find that the proposed evaluation would not be duplicative. Read Fautenberry v. Mitchell, No. 09-3819 Appellate Information Submitted: July 7, 2009 Decided and Filed: July 10, 2009 Judges Opinion by Judge Batchelder...

The FBI has released hundreds of pages of tips the agency received about Justice Brett Kavanaugh. They were bad. That’s because none of them were reliable enough to warrant further investigation. The case for sexual assault, alleged during the Supreme Court confirmation hearings, apparently is closed. It doesn’t mean Kavanaugh will never have to account for his alleged misdeeds. It just means, as far as the FBI is concerned, he already has....

Americans are carrying their love for their furry and feathered animal friends to new, statutorily protected levels. From California to New York, states and cities have considered bans on fur sales, animal testing, cat declawing, and more: California is poised to become the first state to ban the manufacture and sale of new fur products, following the lead of several cities in the state that have done so. In addition, New York City is seriously considering a fur ban....

Petition for Review of CPUC Order In Global NAPs Cal., Inc. v. Pub. Util. Comm’n of Cal., No. 09-55600, a petition for review of the California Public Utilities Commission’s (CPUC) order requiring it to pay Cox California Telcom, LLC in accordance with an interconnection agreement and the CPUC’s order suspending petitioner’s right to operate as a telecommunications provider in California, the court affirmed the denial of the petition where 1) the CPUC’s characterization of petitioner’s VoIP traffic as intraLATA toll traffic came from Global itself; 2) a fact hearing was unnecessary to determine whether petitioner’s VoIP traffic fell within the agreement’s intraLATA-toll-call provision; and 3) the CPUC did not require petitioner to pay any compensation under the federal access-charges regime....

Declining to review a state law on reporting internet sales taxes, the U.S. Supreme Court said nothing about internet taxation itself. But it was close, and perhaps a lucky break for internet businesses in the United States. The High Court denied a petition to review Colorado’s reporting law, which the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld against a legal challenge earlier this year. The Tenth Circuit said the state law, which requires out-of-state internet retailers to report tax liabilities for its Colorado customers, was constitutional....

When creating a trust, how many trustees can you have? Trusts are estate planning tools that can be used to manage how a person’s property is distributed after death, without going through probate. Trustees play an important role in protecting the beneficiary’s (or beneficiaries’) interests. So how many trustees should you have? To understand the answer to that question, you’ll want to have a better understanding of a trustee’s role....