How Appealing



Friday, May 16, 2008

“Court sides with MySpace in suit over sex assault”: The Associated Press provides a report that begins, “Federal law gives MySpace.com immunity from a lawsuit over the alleged sexual assault of a teenage girl by a man she met on the social networking Web site, a federal appeals court ruled Friday.”

You can access today’s ruling of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in Doe v. MySpace Inc at this link. Footnote one of today’s ruling helpfully explains that “The term ‘blog’ is a portmanteau of ‘Web log’ and is a term referring to an online journal or diary.”

On February 14, 2007, I had this post collecting coverage of the federal district court’s ruling that dismissed the lawsuit.

Posted at 8:20 PM by Howard Bashman



Books recently received in the mail: In today’s mail, I received a copy of Benjamin Wittes‘s forthcoming book, “Law and the Long War: The Future of Justice in the Age of Terror.” It is scheduled to go on sale on June 19, 2008.

Earlier this week, I received a copy of “Some Joys of Lawyering,” by Bennett Boskey. The book is published by The Green Bag Press.

And recently I received a copy of “Federal Appellate Practice and Procedure in a Nutshell” by Gregory A. Castanias and Robert H. Klonoff.

Posted at 12:10 PM by Howard Bashman



“Attorneys want full appeal heard; The ex-Qwest CEO’s lawyers say if the court proceeds, its review shouldn’t be limited”: The Denver Post today contains an article that begins, “Former Qwest chief executive Joe Nacchio, convicted of insider trading last year, should be allowed to present his entire appeal anew if a federal appellate court grants a government petition to rehear a portion of the case, his attorneys argue in papers filed Thursday.”

Posted at 11:54 AM by Howard Bashman



“Chief Judge Michel Speaks on the State of the Court”: Yesterday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit held its judicial conference in Washington, D.C. You can view the program at this link. Chief Judge Paul R. Michel delivered these remarks at the start of yesterday’s program.

According to Chief Judge Michel’s remarks, Seventh Circuit Judge Richard A. Posner will sit by designation with the Federal Circuit in April 2009. And Chief Judge Michel has asked Congress to authorize the hiring of a fourth law clerk for all active Federal Circuit judges, which is already the norm in the other U.S. Courts of Appeals.

Posted at 11:47 AM by Howard Bashman



“Torture’s Blowback: An alleged Sept. 11 conspirator can’t be tried because the administration thought harsh tactics were a good idea.” This editorial appears today in The Washington Post.

Posted at 9:12 AM by Howard Bashman



“Judge Sides With Red Cross Over Trademark”: The New York Times today contains an article that begins, “A decision by Johnson & Johnson, the giant health care conglomerate, to sue the American Red Cross last year for commercializing the Red Cross symbol may be turning into a bit of a disaster for the company. This week the company lost the second round in its trademark dispute against the disaster relief agency when a federal judge in Manhattan threw out most of the case.”

I have posted online at this link Wednesday’s ruling of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

Posted at 8:40 AM by Howard Bashman



“Posner Sees Need for More ‘Candid’ U.S. Supreme Court”: Bloomberg News recently posted online this mp3 podcast (9.11MB mp3 audio file) of an interview with Seventh Circuit Judge Richard A. Posner. According to Bloomberg’s description of the interview, “U.S. Circuit Judge Richard Posner talks with Bloomberg’s Tom Keene from Chicago about his new book, ‘How Judges Think,’ the U.S. Supreme Court, and the impact of ethanol production on food supply and prices.”

Posted at 8:12 AM by Howard Bashman