400 posts tagged with legal.
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It's Legal to Execute Innocent People in the US
Robert Roberson Will be Executed Because It's Legal to Execute Innocent People in the U.S. Tonight, Texas was scheduled to execute Robert Roberson, who would have been (will be?) the first person executed based on the shaken baby syndrome hypothesis. [more inside]
Christian nationalists in the court system
Justice Alito Caught on Tape Discussing How Battle for America 'Can't Be Compromised' [ungated] - "In a new, secret recording, the Supreme Court justice says he 'agrees' that the U.S. should return to a place of godliness." [more inside]
It doesn’t have those "standard validity and reliability things"
An Expert Who Has Testified in Foster Care Cases Across Colorado Admits Her Evaluations Are Unscientific Diane Baird labeled her method for assessing families the "Kempe Protocol" after the renowned University of Colorado institute where she worked for decades. The school has yet to publicly disavow it. [ProPublica]
Congratulations to the California Golden Chanterelle
more of a say in whether the birth family should be reunified
When Foster Parents Don’t Want to Give Back the Baby: In many states, adoption lawyers are pushing a new legal strategy that forces biological parents to compete for custody of their children. [ProPublica]
Legal London is far too nice to be left to the lawyers
"Legal London" is beautiful and functional. Personally, I am not a lawyer, nor do I particularly like them, with their prodigious consumption of booze and cocaine (source: constantly watching my friends at it) but I once spent a lot of time in this area largely because it's rather nice - and I worked very near. I met my wife in the Cheshire Cheese pub; I bought my first suit from this Ede and Ravenscroft.
And you too could do those things!
I like to ensure that the lawyers can't claim this part of the public space all to themselves - and I'm sure you would too - so please visit, often.
It happens to all of us unless we go first.
My Parents Are Dead: What Now? A resource (aimed at Millennials, but useful to people of any age) for those who have no idea what to do when their parents die. From the last days through the funeral to probate and beyond, useful advice and links for folks who are working through one of the awful parts of adult life. US-centric.
David Sosa has some thoughts. So does David Sosa. Also, David Sosa.
Brief of amici curiae David Sosa, David Sosa, David Sosa, David Sosa, & the Institute For Justice in Support of Petitioner David Sosa An amicus brief filed by the Institute for Justice, composed in hopes of keeping people with the same name as criminal suspects from having their rights violated.
More information on Techdirt.
Walking Out the Door
While entering associate classes have been comprised of approximately 45% women for several decades, in the typical large firm, women constitute only 30% of non-equity partners and 20% of equity partners ... [and] the number of lawyers named as new equity partners at big firms has declined by nearly 30% over the past several years ... The critical question, of course, is why? What is it about the experiences of women in BigLaw that result in such different outcomes for women than men, and why do even senior women lawyers have so many more obstacles to overcome? These core questions drove this first-of-its-kind study ... through the perspective of more than 1,200 big firm lawyers who have been in practice for at least 15 years.(direct link to the report [pdf]) [more inside]
Face-eating leopard eats own face, burps.
Revenge served ice cold. Top L.A. law firm outs former partners’ racist, sexist emails. Last month, Lewis, Brisbois, Bisgaard and Smith, one of the nation’s largest law firms, was rocked by the announcement that two top partners who ran their labor and employment practice, defending corporations against harassment and discrimination lawsuits, were starting their own boutique practice and taking as many as 140 colleagues with them. The shock inside the’ downtown Los Angeles headquarters soon gave way to anger as the recently departed partners embarked on a press campaign that portrayed their former employer as a profit-focused legal mill that ground down the aspirations of its lawyers. In an extraordinary move, the law firm's management team directed the release of scores of emails in which Barber and Ranen used vile terms for women, Black people, Armenians, Persians, and gay men and traded in offensive stereotypes of Jews and Asians. [more inside]
Andy Warhol v. Goldsmith: Historic SCOTUS Ruling on Fair Use and IP
In a landmark 7-2 decision that many artists forewarned could have significant implications for fair use doctrine, the Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that the Andy Warhol Foundation failed to honor photographer Lynn Goldsmith's copyright when Warhol, in the 1980s, used her portrait of Prince to create a work of art. Justice Sotomayor wrote the majority opinion with Justice Kagan penning a fiery dissent in which she alleged Sotomayor had, "adopted a 'posture of indifference' and left 'in shambles' part of a fair-use test used in copyright cases." Some point to the ruling's possible consequences for generative AI artwork while art museums have expressed concerns of their own. [more inside]
Ethics in Supreme Court Jurisprudence
The real reason for the Supreme Court's corruption crisis - "Roberts's 2011 report and the Court's more recent statement on ethics portray the Supreme Court as a unique institution that cannot be constrained by the same ethical rules that apply to less powerful judges, especially when it comes to recusals." (previously) [more inside]
Nintendo can take 25-30% of his monthly income
Nintendo 'Hacker' Will Be Punished For The Rest Of His Life [Polygon] “A man sentenced to three years in prison for his role in a Nintendo Switch hack-selling scheme has been released early. But he says he will have to pay Nintendo a portion of whatever income he makes every month, for a very long time, as part of a $10 million settlement with company. In a podcast interview (first reported by TorrentFreak), Gary Bowser, 53, said he was let out of federal prison in Seattle early because of his age, medical condition, and nationality (he is Canadian). He will soon return to the Toronto area. But Bowser noted that his plea agreement calls for him to pay Nintendo $10 million in restitution. [...] In December 2021, he agreed to pay Nintendo $10 million to settle a civil lawsuit Nintendo had brought against him. Bowser’s criminal sentence also called for a $4.5 million fine, but since he is returning to Canada, Bowser said he is unlikely to have to pay that.” [Podcast interview with Gary Bowser about release.]
"Epic put children and teens at risk"
"Epic used privacy-invasive default settings and deceptive interfaces that tricked Fortnite users, including teenagers and children.... these enforcement actions make clear to businesses that the FTC is cracking down on these unlawful practices." Fortnite Video Game Maker Epic Games to Pay More Than Half a Billion Dollars over FTC Allegations of Privacy Violations and Unwanted Charges
And the winner is............ NOT Rebekah Vardy
Liverpudlian Coleen Rooney has been a WAG since the term was invented. Rebekah Vardy is also a WAG albeit perhaps slightly less high profile. The two women are acquainted with each other, and Vardy was a follower of Rooney's private Instagram account. In a social media post that quickly went viral, Rooney claimed to have established in an elaborate sting that Vardy's account was responsibly for leaking stories about her to The Sun newspaper and attracted the hashtag #WagathaChristie [more inside]
Steven Donziger now in federal prison for his work against Chevron
After already serving 2 years house-arrest for a misdemeanor contempt of court charge, Donziger will now serve 6 months in prison. The charge stems from his refusal to hand over his cell phone and computer when Chevron demanded access to all of his confidential client communications. Donziger refused while appealing the request, and was charged with contempt of court. His term is by far the harshest sentence ever served by someone facing the same charge. Donziger explains his decisions and the events that occurred in his prior interview with Democracy Now from April 2021. [more inside]
Peter Pym's "Murder at Full Moon," a werewolf novel
Over the course of nine days in 1930, using the pen name Peter Pym, John Steinbeck wrote a pulp detective novel featuring werewolves. [more inside]
Google v. Oracle
The United States Supreme Court has decided in favor of Google [pdf] in the case of Google v. Oracle, essentially resolving a case begun 11 years ago. The 6-2 majority* avoided deciding whether or not the Java API was copyrightable. Rather, it held that, even if the API is copyrightable, Google's use of the API for Android was fair use. SCOTUSblog has more. [more inside]
The Frontex Files
The Frontex Files documents how Frontex, the rapidly-growing EU border and coast guard agency, has been working closely with the weapons industry to equip Frontex with firearms and controversial technologies such as biometrics (including facial recognition) and drones, all in an effort to "push back" migrants away from Europe. [more inside]
Volcano charges filed
A year ago 47 people, mostly tourists, were on Whakaari / White Island when the volcano erupted killing 22 people and injuring most of the rest. Today New Zealand authorities filed 13 safety violation charges against 10 organizations and three individuals. Each of the organizations faces a maximum fine of NZ$1.5 million (US$1.1 million). Each individual charged faces a maximum fine of NZ$300,000 (US$211,000).
Por otro lado, no se puede apartar la mirada
The potato head of Palencia: defaced Spanish statue latest victim of botched restoration (The Art Newspaper, Nov. 11, 2020) Conservation experts in Spain are once again calling for stricter regulations within the sector after yet another work has been irreparably damaged by an amateur restorer. Adorning the facade of a high street bank in the north-western city of Palencia, the statue, first unveiled in 1923, once depicted a smiling woman carved among a pastoral scene of livestock. Behold the latest art "restoration" gone completely wrong in Spain: A melted face with two round cavities standing in for eyes, a misshapen lump approximating a nose, and an agape maw of a mouth (NPR, Nov. 11, 2020). [more inside]
Chocolate latest
"Serves 8"? Nope. Tin of Disappointment? Nope. 2,268 slices of chocolate cake? Yes! All the chocolate! As a chocolate museum opens in Switzerland where it snows chocolate (but a rival in Belgium?), and people nibble on Terry's balls or the nation's favourite (the right way up), what else is happening in the world of chocolate? "...disgusted yet excited..." Orange twix? Body paint? Chocolate candles? Breakfast oats? Legal shenanigans? Salted caramel chocolate spread? Lindt chocolate spread? Violet Crumble becomes liquid. Science! The Mirage? Please make a chocolate and pear pudding and take me to Bristol's finest. White chocolate Nutella? CBD bar? Or steal it in Austria or read the regular Notes on chocolate or watch TikTok or make chocolate chip cookies.
The chickenization of everything
How to Destroy Surveillance Capitalism (thread) - "Surveillance Capitalism is a real, serious, urgent problem... because it is both emblematic of monopolies (which lead to corruption, AKA conspiracies) and because the vast, nonconsensual dossiers it compiles on us can be used to compromise and neutralize opposition to the status quo."[1,2,3] [more inside]
A blind and opaque reputelligent nosedive
Data isn't just being collected from your phone. It's being used to score you. - "Operating in the shadows of the online marketplace, specialized tech companies you've likely never heard of are tapping vast troves of our personal data to generate secret 'surveillance scores' — digital mug shots of millions of Americans — that supposedly predict our future behavior. The firms sell their scoring services to major businesses across the U.S. economy. People with low scores can suffer harsh consequences."[1] [more inside]
Supreme Court DACA ruling - 'HOME IS HERE'
In a 5-4 ruling today in Department of Homeland Security v. Regents of the University of California, Chief Justice John Roberts cast the decisive fifth vote with the court's four liberal justices, saying the Department of Homeland Security's decision to rescind the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, was arbitrary and capricious under the Administrative Procedure Act. (NPR News | Guardian | Washington Post) [more inside]
Bostock v. Clayton County
In a 6-3 decision written by Justice Gorsuch [pdf], the United States Supreme Court has held that "In Title VII [of the Civil Rights Act of 1964], Congress adopted broad language making it illegal for an employer to rely on an employee’s sex when deciding to fire that employee. We do not hesitate to recognize today a necessary consequence of that legislative choice: An employer who fires an individual merely for being gay or transgender defies the law." [more inside]
In re Toilet Flush
In response to the pandemic the US Supreme Court began hearing oral arguments via conference call, and it was only a matter of time before the inevitable happened. From Ashley Feinberg at Slate: Who Flushed? A Supreme Court Investigation.
Who owns your tattoo?
NBA 2K Beats Copyright Case Over LeBron's Tattoos (Law360 paywall): A Manhattan federal judge ruled Thursday that Take-Two Interactive couldn't be sued for copyright infringement over tattoos on LeBron James and others in the NBA 2K video games, saying tattoo artists gave the players automatic licenses when they inked their bodies: "The undisputed factual record clearly supports the reasonable inference that the tattooists necessarily granted the Players nonexclusive licenses to use the Tattoos as part of their likenesses." Related: Who Owns Your Tattoo? Tattoo Artists Answer (Youtube) [more inside]
Look who's redefining marriage now
Magic Valley NAPA franchise changes health plan to prevent same-sex spouses from receiving insurance (wayback link) [more inside]
relied on this faulty concept of memory
False witness: why is the US still using hypnosis to convict criminals? "For decades, US law enforcement has used ‘forensic hypnosis’ to help solve crimes – yet despite growing evidence that it is junk science, this method is still being used to send people to death row." [The Guardian]
The Court Question
“The changes that the Senate Judiciary Committee have made has created a rubber stamp for nominees to sail through,” Buchert said. “Nominee after nominee is either unqualified, or hiding their writings from the committee, or they’ve got clear views on LGBT people that show they aren’t going to provide fair and impartial justice.” How Trump fucked the courts for a generation (Outline) “ In the face of an enemy Supreme Court, the only option is for progressives to begin work on a long-term plan to recast the role of fundamental law in our society for the sake of majority rule—disempowering the courts and angling, when they can, to redo our undemocratic constitution itself.” Resisting the Juristocracy (Boston Review) How Democrats Can Insulate New Laws From a Hostile Supreme Court (American Prospect)
The legal afterlife of Herman Melville's "Bartleby, the Scrivener"
"Bartleby is referred to again and again in court records, where he is not evoked as a signal of ambiguity but reduced instead to pure obstacle: a bad citizen whose intentions cannot be surmised. There is no room in law for something beyond logic, because rational explanation is the key to argument." In I Would Prefer Not To, Your Honor, Daniel Tovrov looks at references in the American judicial system to Herman Melville's infamously noncompliant Bartleby. Bartleby may primarily be referenced as a flattened symbol of insubordination, but he's also present as a symptom of a flattening system. [more inside]
Clarence Thomas: Conservative Black Nationalist
Clarence Thomas's Radical Vision of Race - "Thomas has moved from black nationalism to the right. But his beliefs about racism, and our ability to solve it, remain the same." [more inside]
An alcohol cat poses a disease
A German court has ruled hangovers are an "illness", in a case against the maker of an anti-hangover drink. (Title from the charmingly inept Google translation of the court's press release.)
Restrictions in Canada's assisted-dying laws struck down
Medical assistance in dying (MAID), known elsewhere and previously as physician-assisted death, assisted suicide, and voluntary euthanasia, has been legal in Canada since 2016, following the historic Supreme Court decision in Carter v. Canada, in which two women, Gloria Taylor and Kay Carter (represented by her family posthumously), successfully challenged the government's restriction on MAID. But that was not the end of the story. [more inside]
The Most Important Supreme Court Cases of 2019
Money Stuff
Facebook Will Make the Money Now - "Money is a technology. This is true, first of all, in a grand abstract sense: The human capacity to generate collective fictions is our most powerful and general technology, the thing that distinguishes us from other animals and enables long-term cooperation and complex societies, and money is one of the most important collective fictions."[1] [more inside]
The Rule Of Law
The Punishment Bureaucracy: How To Think About Criminal Justice Reform, Alec Karakatsanis, Yale Law Journal [more inside]
“OBJECTION!” ☞
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy Review [US Gamer] “A judicial system where literally any old scrub can practice law. A court that's apparently never heard of being in contempt. A courtroom in which playground insults can be hurled around and witnesses can be cautioned for "wanton winking." Welcome to the world of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, the first three games of which have been repackaged in glorious, non-pixelated HD for the Ace Attorney Trilogy. Phoenix Wright is a detective series of games consisting of collecting evidence and interrogating suspects, as much as it is a courtroom showdown of proving contradictions and errors in witness testimonies. Practicing law in the anime world is a hell of a good time.” [YouTube][Trailer] [more inside]
The Liberal Argument For a Green New Deal
“Candidates and opinion-makers can do this by describing a Green New Deal as a remedy for personal and local issues that people experience every day: air and water pollution and high energy costs in low-income and minority communities. Mass transit inadequacies, congestion, and sprawl in urban and suburban communities. Stagnating economic growth and shrinking union jobs set against dwindling wildlife and agricultural yields in rural communities. The loss of culture and community by encroaching sea levels in coastal towns and aggressive expansion of fossil fuel industries on public and Indigenous lands.” What’s Your Green New Deal? “The fact that the implications are “radical” has led many people to overlook a simple fact: Climate change may be “human-made,” but it is not made by all humans equally, and if some are responsible for knowingly doing damage to others, they must be held legally liable.“ If Property Rights Were Real Climate Destroying Companies Would Be Sued Out Of Existence (Current Affairs)
Money Laundering 101
What supports high housing prices when the market's in the toilet? Money laundries. A Twitter thread (unrolled) by @CZEdwards, found linked by @CStross (MeFi).
Algorithms define our lives
And 40 million pages of justice for all
"The Caselaw Access Project (“CAP”) expands public access to U.S. law. Our goal is to make all published U.S. court decisions freely available to the public online, in a consistent format, digitized from the collection of the Harvard Law Library. Our scope includes all state courts, federal courts, and territorial courts for American Samoa, Dakota Territory, Guam, Native American Courts, Navajo Nation, and the Northern Mariana Islands. Our earliest case is from 1658, and our most recent cases are from 2018." [more inside]
A day in the life of a former global superpower
As a recent deputy Prime Minister joins Facebook, a John Inman double sues his weary hosts, something from the 1990s makes an unwelcome return, technology startups quietly move eastwards, residents hide from a cat, amputated limbs are (allegedly) kept in handy skips, and a rising Tory MP who but a few hours ago demonstrated he is a very angry man goes "pub carpark fight" on (inevitably) Twitter, so the lonely Prime Minister, bereft of even a genuine handshake or a legal joint (which is ironic), charges on with cannon to right of her, cannon to left of her, and cannon in front of her, though much of the nation is otherwise gripped by the latter part of Bread and Circuses, namely Jose-drama and who is [redacated] who on Strictly Come Dancing, when not growing pumpkins.
And Justice For All
“If you are seeking a sentence of 3 years incarceration, state on the record that the cost to the taxpayer will be $126,000.00 (3 x $42,000.00) if not more and explain why you believe the cost is justified.” Philadelphia DA Larry Krasner Leading A Criminal Justice Revolution (The Intercept). Inside The Fight Against Cash Bail, Meet The Advocates Working To End The Predatory Practice (Pacific Standard). A Billionare And A Nurse Shouldn't Pay The Same Fine For Speeding (NYT Opinion).
The Christian Legal Army Behind ‘Masterpiece Cakeshop’
The Nation investigates the Alliance Defending Freedom. An in-depth look at one of the most powerful anti-gay-rights legal groups in the country, with ties to the Department of Justice, Congress, multiple state legislators and state departments of justice, thousands of attorneys who will work pro bono, and donors including Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos and noted puncher of journalists Representative Greg Gianforte (R-MT).
“...to crush a 14-year-old would appear to be a step too far.”
Epic Games is suing more Fortnite cheaters, and at least one of them is a minor [Polygon] “In October, Polygon learned that Epic Games had filed suit against two individuals for making and using software that allows players to cheat in the game Fortnite. Since then, the publisher and developer has filed suit against at least nine more individuals, both in the United States and overseas. Unsurprisingly, at least one of them is a minor. We know this because a new and unusual document has been entered into the court record: A sternly worded, and legally savvy, note from his mom.” [Lauren Rogers to the U.S. District Court Eastern District of North Carolina by Polygondotcom on Scribd] [more inside]
Love's Road Home
Let it be known that Ashley Volk had loved Sam Siatta since elementary school, the age of True Love Always in sidewalk chalk. She loved him before he joined the Marines and went to war, before he descended into depression and alcoholism upon his return, before he was convicted on a felony charge for a crime he did not remember through a blackout fog.
[more inside]
Bad Medicine
Allergan, maker of eye drug Restasis, tries to sidestep a patent challenge by transferring the drug's patent rights to the St. Regis Mohawk Indian Nation, under the theory that the tribe's sovereign immunity will prevent the patent from being invalidated. An expert wonders if this will open a new chapter in IP law where "“The validity of your patents is subject to review, unless you pay off some Indian tribe”.
You are sitting in jail because you cannot afford bail.
The Bail Trap Game : an 8 bit game that explores money bail and the consequences for different types of people