How Appealing



Tuesday, September 8, 2015

“Finding the Appellate Style and Voice That Work Best for You”: This month’s installment of my “Upon Further Review” column appears in today’s edition of The Legal Intelligencer, Philadelphia’s daily newspaper for lawyers.

You can freely access the full text of the column via Google.

Posted at 1:54 PM by Howard Bashman



“Historic Kennebec County Courthouse in Augusta to host Maine Supreme Judicial Court again; In addition, a ceremonial opening is set for Sept. 18 in the adjoining Capital Judicial Center”: Today’s edition of The Kennebec Journal contains a front page article that begins, “When the Maine Supreme Judicial Court sits in session at the Kennebec County Courthouse later this month, it will really be coming home. The state supreme court first started there in 1830 and held regular sessions there until 1970, when it moved permanently to the Cumberland County Courthouse in Portland.”

Posted at 1:42 PM by Howard Bashman



“Is Southern California the New Deep South? Los Angeles County has sentenced more people to death than five Southern states combined.” Law professor Robert J. Smith has this jurisprudence essay online at Slate.

Posted at 1:22 PM by Howard Bashman



“Jennifer Jorgensen’s appeal of manslaughter conviction goes to New York’s highest court”: This article appears in today’s edition of Newsday. According to the article, “The state Court of Appeals will weigh the penal-law definitions of homicide and ‘person’ in trying to determine whether Jorgensen could be convicted of manslaughter in the death of a child who was injured in utero.”

Additional coverage is available from The Times Union of Albany, New York and The Associated Press.

Posted at 1:14 PM by Howard Bashman



“A Dialogue with Justices: A panel of Supreme Court Justices from the USA, Canada and Israel.” Hebrew University of Jerusalem has posted online at YouTube this video featuring a conversation among Justice Rosalie Silberman Abella of the Supreme Court of Canada; Justice Dorit Beinish, former president of the Supreme Court of Israel; and Justice Elena Kagan of Supreme Court of the United States.

The event took place last Wednesday, and the video was posted online on Sunday.

Posted at 11:23 AM by Howard Bashman



“Law school continues fight over minimum bar exam passage rate”: This article appears in today’s edition of The Los Angeles Times.

Posted at 11:15 AM by Howard Bashman



“NM Supreme Court to review assisted suicide case”: Emil J. Kiehne has this post today at his “New Mexico Appellate Law Blog.”

Posted at 11:09 AM by Howard Bashman



“Ted Cruz to Star in Government Shutdown, the Sequel; The presidential candidate plots another shutdown fight that could boost his prospects in the Republican primary”: Sahil Kapur of Bloomberg News has this report today.

Posted at 11:04 AM by Howard Bashman



“Is It Time to Tax Harvard’s Endowment? While state schools suffer and middle-class students drown in loans, elite universities are only getting richer.” Jordan Weissmann has this essay online at Slate.

Posted at 11:03 AM by Howard Bashman



“Ontario appeal court refutes judge’s hockey insights in assault case”: In last Wednesday’s edition of The Toronto Globe and Mail, Sean Fine had an article that begins, “It was the most Canadian of legal cases: a recreational hockey player charged with aggravated assault over an alleged bodycheck in a no-contact league. The players on each team giving biased views of what occurred in support of their teammate. And a trial judge who used her knowledge of hockey strategy to determine that what happened was not an accidental collision.”

You can access the ruling of the Court of Appeal of Ontario, issued two Mondays ago, at this link.

The ruling concludes:

Measured against the above principles, hockey strategy is not a proper subject for judicial notice. From the sports pages to social media, it is abundantly clear that reasonable Canadians often disagree about what constitutes a rational hockey strategy in a given situation. Nor is there any source of indisputable accuracy by which to settle these disagreements. Neither branch of the test for judicial notice is fulfilled.

To my knowledge, Seventh Circuit Judge Richard A. Posner has yet to offer his views on the ruling.

Posted at 10:40 AM by Howard Bashman



“Huckabee, Cruz plan to meet with jailed Kentucky clerk”: The Associated Press has a report that begins, “Two Republican presidential candidates planned jailhouse meetings Tuesday with Kentucky clerk Kim Davis, raising her conservative-hero status as she remains behind bars over her refusal to give marriage licenses to gay couples.”

Posted at 10:17 AM by Howard Bashman



“Constitution Check: Did the Supreme Court take away states’ power over marriage?” Lyle Denniston has this post today at the “Constitution Daily” blog of the National Constitution Center.

Posted at 8:26 AM by Howard Bashman