How Appealing



Tuesday, October 27, 2009

“US Dem Reps Craft Bill To Prevent Easily Dismissing Lawsuits”: Dow Jones Newswires have a report that begins, “Three Democratic lawmakers plan to introduce a bill next week that would override a recent Supreme Court ruling, and make it easier for plaintiffs to get their cases heard in court.”

Posted at 10:33 PM by Howard Bashman



“Full judicial panel to decide if torture suit should go to trial; Three judges of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals had ruled that the claims by five men that they were tortured could go to trial; The Justice Department sought and was granted a rehearing”: Carol J. Williams of The Los Angeles Times has this news update.

My earlier coverage of today’s Ninth Circuit order granting rehearing en banc appears here and here.

Posted at 10:15 PM by Howard Bashman



“Waiter, There’s a Gavel in My Soup”: Yesterday at the “City Room” blog of The New York Times, Gay Talese had a post that begins, “My writer friend Sidney Offit and I were dining at Lumi’s on 70th Street and Lexington Avenue on Saturday night with our mutual friend, the enduringly beautiful 78-year-old model Carmen Dell’Orefice; and seated next to our table, quietly engaged in conversation with his wife, Jane, while sipping red wine, was the chief justice of the United States, John G. Roberts Jr.” (Via WSJ.com’s “Law Blog“).

Posted at 2:55 PM by Howard Bashman



“Wis. group: Justices shouldn’t have to step aside.” The Associated Press has a report that begins, “A powerful business group that spent millions of dollars to help elect two Wisconsin Supreme Court justices is proposing a rule that would allow them to hear its cases.”

And in somewhat related commentary, The Capital Times of Madison, Wisconsin has posted online an editorial entitled “Gableman’s bias is showing.”

Posted at 2:48 PM by Howard Bashman



“Judge seals damage award against Wyeth”: Today’s edition of The Philadelphia Inquirer contains an article that begins, “A Philadelphia jury yesterday awarded punitive damages to an Illinois woman who said Wyeth’s Prempro hormone replacement therapy caused her breast cancer, but the world will have to wait at least another month before anyone knows how much.”

And Bloomberg News reports that “Pfizer Unit’s Prempro Punitive Damages Verdict Remains Secret.”

Posted at 2:44 PM by Howard Bashman



“Court to reconsider CIA ‘torture flight’ ruling”: Bob Egelko of The San Francisco Chronicle has a news update that begins, “A federal appeals court granted the Obama administration’s request today to reconsider a ruling allowing foreign captives to sue a Bay Area company that reportedly helped to plan CIA flights to countries where the prisoners were allegedly tortured.”

Via the ACLU’s web page devoted to the case, you can access the federal government’s petition for rehearing en banc and the plaintiffs’ opposition thereto.

You can access today’s order of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit granting rehearing en banc at this link.

In April 2009, a three-judge Ninth Circuit panel issued this ruling in the case, which revived the rendition lawsuit. Next, in August 2009, the three-judge panel issued this amended ruling.

My posts covering the Ninth Circuit’s original ruling can be accessed here and here. And my posts covering the original Ninth Circuit oral argument of the case and previews of that oral argument can be accessed here, here, here, here, and here.

Posted at 2:27 PM by Howard Bashman



“For Class Actions, It’s All About Location”: Today in The Daily Journal of California, Lawrence Hurley has an article that begins, “When the U.S. Supreme Court hears arguments in a major class action case next month, trial lawyers in California will face a severe threat to their ability to file certain claims in plaintiff-friendly state courts.”

Posted at 12:05 PM by Howard Bashman