“Cassell to step down as federal judge in Utah”: The Deseret Morning News provides an update that begins, “Utah’s youngest serving federal judge has announced he will be stepping down from the bench and returning to teaching law at the University of Utah. On Friday, U.S. District Judge Paul Cassell submitted his letter of resignation to President George W. Bush, informing the president his last day on the bench is expected to be Nov. 5.”
And the “Sentencing Law and Policy” provides a post titled “Breaking news (and SL&P exclusive?): federal Judge Paul Cassell resigning!”
The Associated Press is reporting: An article headlined “Prosecutors Eyeing Wiretap Problems” begins, “The Justice Department is worried that a recent appeals court ruling could make it impossible to use wiretaps to investigate members of Congress in corruption cases.”
And Lara Jakes Jordan reports that “Mukasey Hit Justice Dept on Sentencing.”
To convict someone of the federal crime of “willful failure to pay a past due child support obligation with respect to a child who resides in another State,” must the prosecution prove that the defendant knew the child lived out-of-state? A unanimous three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit today issued an interesting decision answering that question “yes.”
Third Circuit holds that City of Philadelphia health workers did not violate the constitutional rights of a 16-year-old girl or her parents by providing the girl with the emergency contraceptives she requested without notifying her parents: The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit issued this ruling today.
Ninth Circuit holds unripe a challenge to Alaska Code of Judicial Conduct provisions that caused state judges seeking retention to refuse to disclose their views on a variety of legal and political issues such as abortion and assisted suicide: You can access today’s ruling at this link.
The constitutionality of strip-searching a 13-year-old female honor roll student with no prior disciplinary problems during school hours and on school premises based on the allegation she had given a classmate a prescription-strength ibuprofen tablet: A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit divided 2-1 on that question in this ruling issued today.
“Horse meat was until recently an accepted part of the American diet–the Harvard Faculty Club served horse-meat steaks until the 1970s.” So begins an opinion that Circuit Judge Richard A. Posner issued today on behalf of a unanimous three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.
Today’s very interesting decision rejects on the merits a lawsuit brought by the only remaining facility in the United States for slaughtering horses, which happens to be based in Illinois, against a recently-enacted Illinois law that makes it unlawful to “slaughter a horse if that person knows or should know that any of the horse meat will be used for human consumption.”
Some readers may recall that in July 2007, this very same three-judge panel, by a vote of 2-1, issued an injunction pending appeal against enforcement of this law, thereby allowing the slaughterhouse to remain in operation pending today’s ruling. My earlier coverage of the opinions in support of and opposed to the issuance of that injunction pending appeal appears at this link. Today’s ruling dissolves that injunction.
“Talk centers on abortion rights”: The Yale Daily News today contains an article that begins, “A recent Supreme Court decision was the impetus for a panel discussion on the future of abortion rights Thursday night. At the event, which was sponsored by the Yale Law Students for Reproductive Justice, three legal experts discussed the state of abortion rights after the April Supreme Court decision in Gonzales v. Carhart, which upheld the federal ban on partial-birth abortion.”
“W.R. Grace Loses Appeal In Asbestos Mine Case”: This article appears today in The Washington Post.
And The Missoulian reports today that “9th Circuit overturns Grace rulings.”
My earlier coverage of yesterday’s Ninth Circuit ruling appears at this link.
“Regulating Microsoft”: The New York Times contains this editorial today.
“Law firm founder indicted; Melvyn Weiss is alleged to have participated in a scheme to make secret payment to plaintiffs in class-action cases”: This article appears today in The Los Angeles Times.
The New York Times reports today that “Top Class-Action Lawyer Faces Federal Charges.”
The Washington Post reports that “Class-Action Lawyer Weiss Indicted.”
And in The New York Sun, Josh Gerstein reports that “Class Action Attorney Melvyn Weiss Is Indicted.”
“UC Irvine chancellor says he ‘bungled’ Chemerinsky firing; In an interview, Michael V. Drake insists that his reversal was not prompted by outside pressure”: The Los Angeles Times contains this article today.
“Rulings by Mukasey Are Called Conservative, Fair”: Robert Barnes and Michael A. Fletcher have this article today in The Washington Post.
“Critics Right and Left Protest Book Removals”: The New York Times today contains an article that begins, “The federal Bureau of Prisons is under pressure from members of Congress and religious groups to reverse its decision to purge the shelves of prison chapel libraries of all religious books and materials that are not on the bureau’s lists of approved resources.”
“Court Allows Boys’ Protest via Buttons”: The New York Times today contains an article that begins, “A federal district judge ruled on Thursday that two grade-school students here can wear buttons depicting Hitler Youth to protest having to wear school uniforms.”
And law.com provides a report headlined “Federal Judge: First Amendment Bars School’s Ban on ‘Hitler Youth’ Badges.”
I have posted online at this link Wednesday’s ruling of the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey.
“Power Lineup, Swings From Right”: Today in The New York Times, Michiko Kakutani has this review of Jeffrey Toobin’s new book, “The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court.”
