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Ah … the commercial general liability policy: savior of the business sector, the great indemnifier, the … defender of patent infringement lawsuits? That’s right. The Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled last week in Dish Network Corp. v. Arch Specialty Ins. that insurers may have a responsibility to defend and indemnify Dish Network (Dish) against a patent infringement lawsuit because the lawsuit could be considered an advertising injury under Dish’s commercial general liability (CGL) policy....

Muhammad Tanvir, a Muslim-American, tried to fly from the United States to visit his mother in Pakistan for five years. Every time he went to the airport, however, federal agents stopped him. The FBI had placed him on the “No Fly List,” a watchlist for suspected terrorists. Tanvir sued in Tanvir v. Tanzin, claiming he wasn’t a terrorist and that the agents had violated his civil rights. A trial judge threw out the case, but the U....

Int’l Dairy Foods Ass’n v. Boggs, 09-3515, concerned a challenge to the district court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of the state of Ohio on all but one of plaintiffs’ claims, in a suit brought by two separate dairy-processor trade organizations, challenging a regulation adopted by the Ohio Department of Agriculture (ODA), designed to regulate labeling of dairy products that reflect the nonuse of artificial hormones. In re: NM Holdings Co....

As the fraudsters and the methods they employ become more and more sophisticated, in house and general counsel need to be more attuned to the risks these sophisticated fraudsters present. Recently, it has been reported that one major scammer was arrested and pleaded guilty to wire fraud after getting paid for over $120 million in fake invoices sent to Google and Facebook. And if you think that your company couldn’t be next, you might want to read up on how the scheme worked to ensure the proper safeguards are in place....

The Hatfields and the McCoys had the most famous feud in American history, but brothers William and Lester Lee had one of the ugliest in corporate history. The brothers fought for more than a decade over their interests in a family business. When they disagreed over a proposed merger, Lester proceeded down a path of “trickery,” “evasion,” and “spoilation” that ultimately bankrupt their enterprise. In The William R. Lee Irrevocable Trust v....

Doe v. Reed, No. 09-559, involved a First Amendment challenge to the Washington Public Records Act based on its provision permitting the disclosure of referendum petition signers’ names and addresses. The Court affirmed the Ninth Circuit’s reversal of the district court’s preliminary injunction in favor of plaintiffs, holding that disclosure of referendum petitions does not as a general matter violate the First Amendment. As the Court wrote: “The State of Washington allows its citizens to challenge state laws by referendum....

The pandemic has resulted in an opportunity to rethink the practice of law. Part of that reflection should include licensing requirements for attorneys. Already, we’ve seen states grant diploma privileges for recent graduates, for example. We’ve also seen that attorneys do not necessarily need a brick-and-mortar establishment to serve clients, meaning that states should ease restrictions on running a virtual law office. A more dramatic rethinking of licensing requirements may involve practicing out-of-state....

Looking for a new job? The Second Circuit Court of Appeals is advertising an opening for a Federal Public Defender for the Northern District of New York. The Northern New York Federal Public Defender’s office provides legal representation to persons financially unable to retain counsel in federal criminal and related proceedings. Representation includes counsel and investigative, expert and other services. Admission to the bar in any state. A reputation for integrity....

It’s not uncommon for an attorney-client relationship to not work out, even with a high-profile client like the rapper Ye, the artist formerly known as Kanye West. But when Ye’s lawyers decided they wanted to call it quits, they ran into one tiny problem: They couldn’t find him. In November, a federal judge granted Greenberg Traurig LLP’s request to withdraw as Ye’s counsel in a copyright action filed by Ultra International Music Publishing....

District court order denying defendant-police officers’ motion for summary judgment on plaintiff’s claim of excessive force on the basis of qualified immunity is affirmed where: 1) the defendants violated plaintiff’s Fourth Amendment right to be free from excessive force when they seized him, as the defendants’ actions in forcing a victim with gunshot wounds to lie without a shirt on hot asphalt and causing second-degree burns were not objectively reasonable; and 2) the defendants had fair warning that their alleged conduct was not objectively reasonable, and thus unconstitutional....

A year ago on Sunday, while campaigning in Iowa, Donald Trump said that as president he would “absolutely” implement a registry for Muslims in the United States. He has since denied ever supporting a registry, though his Chief of Staff-in-waiting, Reince Priebus, has refused to rule the possibility out. And just the other day, a Trump surrogate went on TV to argue that such a registry would be perfectly constitutional. His evidence?...

Thanks to a federal judge’s ruling, schools in Texas can now decide whether to require masks in the classroom. Parents, school officials, and disability advocates have been fighting for months over how to best protect students from the spread of COVID-19. In May, Governor Greg Abbott issued an executive order prohibiting government entities, including Texas public schools, from requiring masks. Several other states followed suit. Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Education opened an investigation on whether such policies violated the civil rights of students with disabilities....

In US v. Sabhnani, No. 08-3720, defendants’ forced labor, harboring aliens, peonage, and document servitude convictions are affirmed, on the grounds that 1) the district court did not err in denying defendants’ motion for a change of venue because the prosecution’s statements regarding the character of the crimes were proper in the context in which they were made: bail hearings in which the prosecutors were arguing that defendants were a danger to the victims and their families, justifying an order of pretrial detention; 2) the pretrial publicity was not so pervasive and prejudicial as to have created a reasonable likelihood that a fair trial could not be conducted; 3) the district court acted well within its discretion in determining that the evidence proffered by defendants in support of their motion to require a psychiatric examination of a prosecution witness was insufficient; 4) the district court’s instruction on willfulness, considered in the context of the aiding and abetting instruction as a whole, did not render the instructions confusing; and 5) the existence of a criminal agreement between two persons could be inferred from circumstantial evidence....

Welcome to our second ‘More Perfect’ recap, a look at the most interesting historical tidbits from NPR’s new Supreme Court-focused podcast. Today’s episode delves into the story behind Baker v. Carr, the landmark case that gave us “one man, one vote,” rejecting the argument that legislative redistricting was an issue reserved for politicians, not courts. And, according to “More Perfect,” it’s a case that drove one justice from the bench and may have killed another....

A Minnesota high school student’s plan to bring a porn star to his prom has been shot down by his school district. Mike Stone, 18, devised an ingenious ploy to turn himself into a legend at Tartan High School. The student sent out tweets to hundreds of porn actresses online, inviting them to be his date to his prom, USA Today reports. And not just one, but two actually replied back and accepted....

In an action alleging that a union breached its duty of fair representation by choosing to distribute the surplus of a settlement fund to the entire membership of the union, rather than distributing it to members who had filed grievances, summary judgment for defendant is affirmed where the settlement agreement did not indicate that the settlement was for the exclusive benefit of the individuals with grievances. Read Thompson v. United Transp....

Defendant’s sentence for crack cocaine conviction reversed and remanded in light of Kimbrough and Spears US v. Curb, 07-5286, concerne a challenge to the district court’s imposition of a sentence of twenty-one years and ten months’ imprisonment to be followed by eight years of supervised release, in a prosecution of defendant for crack cocaine related offenses. In reversing, the court remanded for resentencing, the court held that, although defendant’s challenge to the district court’s enhancement of the total offense level for his status as a career offender fails, defendant’s sentence is reversed and remanded for resentencing in light of the Supreme Court’s recognition of crack-to-powder cocaine sentencing disparities in Kimbrough and Spears....

1. Should Lawyers Ever Follow Clients on Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn? 2. Should Lawyers Use GIFs in Their Social Media? 3. Does Your Firm Need a Social Media Manager? 4. 5 Ways to Find Your Law Firm’s Social Media Tone 5. Are You Eating Lunch Alone? You’re Losing Business 4 Steps to Improve Your Online Attorney Reviews (FindLaw’s Strategist) 10 Tweets of Advice: Social Media Lawyer Marketing (FindLaw’s Strategist) When Reaching out for a Lawyer, Consumers Go for the Phone (FindLaw’s Strategist) 3 Ways Law Firms Lose Clients at Intake (FindLaw’s Strategist) You Don’t Have To Solve This on Your Own – Get a Lawyer’s Help Civil Rights Block on Trump’s Asylum Ban Upheld by Supreme Court...

For some reason, criminals think there is magic in the phrase: “You gotta tell me if you’re a cop.” Except there isn’t and really, police don’t. This lead to Leslie Mayfield’s predicament. Mayfield was set up by undercover government agents to rob a fake drug “stash” house. Mayfield tried to invoke the “entrapment” defense, but predictably, the court said no. Mayfield was convicted and sentenced to a “whopping” 322 months in prison (that’s almost 27 years)....

A new class-action lawsuit claims that Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream is misleading consumers into believing that their product derives from “happy cows” cared for by “happy farmers.” Instead, says lead plaintiff James Ehlers, the world-famous ice cream is produced mostly from milk produced in “factory-style, mass-production dairy operations” of Ben & Jerry’s parent company, Unilever. Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream was founded in 1978 by Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield in Burlington, Vermont....