How Appealing



Tuesday, July 5, 2016

“Constitution Check: Where does same-sex marriage stand, one year later?” Lyle Denniston has this post today at the “Constitution Daily” blog of the National Constitution Center.

Posted at 11:52 PM by Howard Bashman



“U.S. appeals court upholds conviction over shared password”: Jonathan Stempel of Reuters has this report.

Mario Trujillo of The Hill reports that “Court ruling could hurt millions who share passwords online.”

Stephanie Condon of ZDNet has an article headlined “U.S. appeals court: Anti-hacking law applies to password sharing case; The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling expands the scope of the already-broad Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.”

And Adam Klasfeld of Courthouse News Service reports that “Password-Sharing May Be Criminal, 9th Circ. Rules.”

My earlier coverage of today’s Ninth Circuit ruling by a divided three-judge panel can be accessed here.

Posted at 9:00 PM by Howard Bashman



“‘To Allow Members of Congress to Change Hats . . . .’: The Legacy of Chief Judge Abner Mikva.” Aaron Nielson has this post today at the “Notice and Comment” blog of the Yale Journal on Regulation.

Posted at 8:40 PM by Howard Bashman



“Roger Gregory to take over as chief judge of 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals”: Frank Green of The Richmond Times-Dispatch has this report.

According to the article, Gregory “was the first African-American to serve on what was then widely viewed as the most conservative of the nation’s 12 federal circuit courts. He also will be the first African-American to serve as the court’s chief judge.” The article also reports that Gregory “is the only person ever to be appointed to a federal appeals court by presidents of two different parties.”

Posted at 8:24 PM by Howard Bashman



“Abner Mikva, ’51, Law School Clinical Faculty Member, 1926-2016”: The University of Chicago Law School has posted this obituary online.

Posted at 5:14 PM by Howard Bashman



**Save the date** The 2016 Appellate Judges Education Institute Summit in Philadelphia, November 10-13, 2016: You can access the AJEI’s “Save the Date” postcard listing the titles of the programs planned for this November’s Summit at this link. Online registration for the event will be available beginning later this month.

Fans of this blog know that I very much enjoyed attending the 2014 AJEI Summit in Dallas and the 2015 AJEI Summit in Washington, DC. This year, the summit will be in my hometown of Philadelphia, so I hope that the event can attract a large turnout of “How Appealing” readers.

In addition to wonderful programming that should satisfy most anyone’s annual CLE requirements, the Summit also sets aside time for cultural events, a “dine around,” a banquet dinner on Saturday night, and other downtime for attendees to interact. The Summit will launch with an opening night event at the National Constitution Center, and the programming will occur at the Loews Philadelphia Hotel, which is centrally located only blocks away from the many historic and cultural attractions and wonderful dining options that Philadelphia has to offer.

On the morning of Sunday, November 13th, I will have the pleasure of moderating a panel titled “Unreported Opinions: Declining News Coverage of Appellate Courts,” featuring a number of panelists whose work this blog has regularly linked to over the years. And I also helped recruit the stellar participants in a second panel, titled “Election, “Merit,’ or Advice and Consent: Trends in Judicial Selection.”

For those of you who in recent years had hoped to attend the annual AJEI Summit only to find that it conflicted with the Federalist Society’s National Lawyers Convention, this year I am happy to report that these two events — which each attract numerous appellate practitioners — will be occurring during different weeks in November, so if that presented a conflict for you in previous years, why not attend both?

Posted at 3:36 PM by Howard Bashman



United States v. Nosal, part two: A divided three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit issued this ruling today.

Circuit Judge Stephen Reinhardt‘s dissenting opinion begins:

This case is about password sharing. People frequently share their passwords, notwithstanding the fact that websites and employers have policies prohibiting it. In my view, the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (“CFAA”) does not make the millions of people who engage in this ubiquitous, useful, and generally harmless conduct into unwitting federal criminals. Whatever other liability, criminal or civil, Nosal may have incurred in his improper attempt to compete with his former employer, he has not violated the CFAA.

You can access the dissenting opinion via this link.

Posted at 1:44 PM by Howard Bashman



“Court rules government can’t use private emails to hide from transparency”: Stephen Dinan of The Washington Times has this report.

The Associated Press reports that “Court rules against White House science office in email case.”

Josh Gerstein of Politico.com has an article headlined “Court: Private-account email can be subject to FOIA.”

And Megan R. Wilson of The Hill has an article headlined “Court: Officials can’t use private email accounts to evade records laws.”

You can access today’s ruling of a unanimous three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit at this link.

Posted at 1:20 PM by Howard Bashman



“‘Stubborn’ Facts, ‘Stable’ Law Shaped Kennedy’s Votes”: Kenneth Jost has this post at his blog, “Jost on Justice.”

Posted at 11:22 AM by Howard Bashman



“State loses another round in fight against feds over Alaska tribal lands”: Erica Martinson of Alaska Dispatch News has this report.

Weston Morrow of The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reports that “Alaska Natives win major land rights case.”

Courthouse News Service reports that “Alaska Tribes Allowed to Put Land Into Trust.”

And in commentary, online at Alaska Dispatch News, Donald Craig Mitchell has an essay titled “The road to ‘Indian Country’ in Alaska,” while Jenny Bell-Jones has an essay titled “To suggest tribes didn’t exist in Alaska until the ’90s ignores legal history.”

You can access Friday’s ruling of a divided three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit at this link.

Posted at 11:18 AM by Howard Bashman