|
|
|
Friday, November 03, 2006 "Nepal 'goddess' inquiry ordered": BBC News provides a report that begins, "The Supreme Court in Nepal has ordered an inquiry into whether the tradition of worshipping a 'living goddess' has led to the exploitation of girls." Reuters reports that "Nepal plans inquiry on 'living goddess' tradition." The Associated Press reports that "Nepal court orders probe of goddess." And People's Daily Online of China reports that "Inquiry planned on 'living goddess.'" Available online from law.com: An article reports that "In a Midterm Election Year, President May Face an Uphill Battle to Fill the Bench; Lame duck era, animosity are obstacles." Tony Mauro reports that "Self-Described 'Old Hippie' Wins High Praise in High Court Debut." In other news, "Attorneys Planning Fla. Broadcast Ads Will Need State Bar's Pre-Approval." And the brand new installment of my "On Appeal" column is headlined "Examining the 'Predictive' Model of Judging." Therein, I address the question "To what extent does the job of U.S. Court of Appeals judge, when properly performed, require those judges to implement their views of the law, as opposed to merely predicting how the applicable court of last resort would decide the issues presented in the case?" "Supreme Court to Ponder Sentencing": The Associated Press provides this report. You can access today's U.S. Supreme Court Order List at this link. At his "Sentencing Law and Policy" blog, Law Professor Doug Berman now has numerous posts about today's grants of review. "Eminent domain and the ballot box: Numerous challenges to the government's right to seize or regulate private property are up for vote this election day." CNNMoney.com provides this report. Posted at 03:44 PM by Howard Bashman "Microsoft judge: Plaintiffs can call Gates first." The Des Moines Register provides a news update that begins, "Des Moines lawyer Roxanne Conlin won a strategic victory today in her class action law suit against Microsoft when a judge said she can call Microsoft chairman Bill Gates and chief executive Steve Ballmer as witnesses to help prove her case against the company. A jury trial of the anti-trust case against Microsoft is set to begin in Polk County District Court on Nov. 13 with as much as $450 million in damages at stake." And The Associated Press provides a report headlined "Judge: Microsoft's Gates Must Testify." "Court will rule on Guidelines issue": Lyle Denniston has a post at "SCOTUSblog" that begins, "The Supreme Court agreed on Friday to decide whether a criminal sentence that is within the federal guidelines is to be treated as reasonable, and thus valid. It also said it would rule on whether a sentence below the guideline range is reasonable." Posted at 03:04 PM by Howard Bashman "Appeals court rules against Maag suit": The Belleville (Ill.) News-Democrat today contains an article that begins, "The 5th District Appellate Court in Mount Vernon has upheld a judge's dismissal of a $110 million defamation suit filed by Gordon Maag, a former justice of the appeals court who sued a business-backed organization over a campaign flier." The newspaper has posted online the text of yesterday's ruling at this link. And The Madison County Record reports that "Gordon Maag's appeal turned down by Fifth." "Justice Roberts to talk at SU; The nation's chief judge will discuss First Amendment at Newhouse III dedication": This article appears today in The Post-Standard of Syracuse, New York. And Syracuse University today issued a news release entitled "Chief Justice of the United States John G. Roberts, Jr., to deliver Newhouse III dedication keynote next fall." My earlier coverage appears at this link. Federal Bureau of Prisons must provide records in electronic format as requested in federal prison inmate's Freedom of Information Act request, even though BOP regulations restrict inmates' possession of or access to electronic media: The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit issued this interesting decision today. Today's ruling merely requires the BOP, in its capacity as FOIA respondent, to produce the records in the format requested. The ruling, however, does not prevent the BOP, in its capacity as custodian of the inmate who requested the record, from confiscating the CD-ROM containing the records when it arrives at the prison pursuant to generally-applicable BOP regulations. "Viewing child porn not a crime, panel rules": The Patriot-News of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania today contains an article that begins, "Just looking at child pornography on the Internet is not a crime under Pennsylvania law, a state Superior Court panel ruled yesterday." And The Associated Press provides a report headlined "Court: Child porn charges require downloading, not just viewing." You can access yesterday's ruling of the Superior Court of Pennsylvania at this link. A key passage from the unanimous three-judge pane's opinion states, "Although the pornographic images were automatically saved to an internet cache file on the computer's hard drive, there is no evidence that Diodoro knew that the images were saved. Therefore, the issue is whether merely viewing child pornography on the internet without intentionally saving or downloading any of the images constitutes 'knowing possession' of child pornography under section 6312(d). We conclude that it does not." "Rehnquist professorship questioned": Yesterday's issue of The Middlebury Campus weekly newspaper contains an article that begins, "The College's decision to establish a professorship in honor of the late Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist has set students, faculty and administrators in an impossible debate over the merits of honoring an individual with a far-reaching and controversial record of legal opinions. Disagreement over the decision has transformed the traditionally uneventful, behind-the-scenes choices made in naming a chair into a campus-wide concern." Posted at 08:12 AM by Howard Bashman The Argus Leader of Sioux Falls, South Dakota is reporting: Today's newspaper contains articles headlined "Abortion fight's biggest donor a mystery" and "Gay marriage issue a tossup, poll shows." Posted at 07:48 AM by Howard Bashman "Punting habeas: Congress can't complain about activist judges when it knowingly passed a detainee law of questionable constitutionality." This editorial appears today in The Los Angeles Times. Posted at 06:48 AM by Howard Bashman "Libby Suffers Legal Setback As Judge Rejects Memory Specialist": Josh Gerstein has this article today in The New York Sun. My earlier coverage appears at this link. Posted at 06:47 AM by Howard Bashman "Many fear FBI's anthrax case is cold; Its investigation into the deadly 2001 attacks seems to be making no progress, but the agency urges patience": This article appears today in The Los Angeles Times. Posted at 06:45 AM by Howard Bashman "Beyond the tobacco case": The Washington Times contains this editorial today. Posted at 06:42 AM by Howard Bashman "The Court and Clean Air: The Supreme Court needs to send a strong message to polluters, lower courts and the Bush administration." This editorial appears today in The Washington Post. Posted at 06:33 AM by Howard Bashman "Setback for Times in Anthrax Suit": Neil A. Lewis has this article today in The New York Times. Posted at 06:28 AM by Howard Bashman "Writers find scandal, face jail; Why should public service be rewarded with prison time?" This editorial appears today in USA Today. The newspaper also contains a related op-ed by Randall D. Eliason entitled "Threat is exaggerated: 'Leaks' to reporters are common even without federal shield law." Posted at 06:20 AM by Howard Bashman "Underpaid And Overworked: The National Disgrace of Undercompensating Federal Judges, While Allowing Their Workload to Balloon." John W. Dean has this essay today at FindLaw. Posted at 06:14 AM by Howard Bashman  
|
|
|
||||||||||||||
