How Appealing



Tuesday, July 21, 2009

“The Day Obscenity Became Art”: Today in The New York Times, Fred Kaplan has an op-ed that begins, “Today is the 50th anniversary of the court ruling that overturned America’s obscenity laws, setting off an explosion of free speech — and also, in retrospect, splashing cold water on the idea, much discussed during Sonia Sotomayor’s Supreme Court confirmation hearings, that judges are ‘umpires’ rather than agents of social change.”

Posted at 10:34 PM by Howard Bashman



“Judicial Bias Case Heads Back to West Virginia Court”: At “The BLT: The Blog of Legal Times,” Marcia Coyle has a post that begins, “The West Virginia Supreme Court in September will take its third look at the appeal of a $50 million-jury verdict which led to a key U.S. Supreme Court ruling last month on judicial bias.”

And speaking of heading back to West Virginia, it now appears that I’ll be in Huntington, West Virginia this September during Constitution Week to participate in a panel discussion about blogging and the First Amendment to be hosted by Chief Justice Brent D. Benjamin of the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia.

Posted at 2:34 PM by Howard Bashman



Programming note: This morning, I will be presenting oral argument before a three-judge panel of the Superior Court of Pennsylvania in a matter that involves fourteen consolidated appeals. I previously filed this Brief for Appellants in connection with those appeals. The cases have previously received some press coverage. SeeJudge Asks Pa. Appeals Court to Uphold Dismissal of Consolidated HRT Cases“; “Pa. Judge Denies Another Breast Cancer-HRT Claim“; and “HRT Patient’s Personal Injury Claim Found to Be Time-Barred” (all freely available via law.com).

Additional posts will appear here this afternoon.

Posted at 6:44 AM by Howard Bashman