“Obama Signs First Piece of Legislation Into Law; Lilly Ledbetter Act Makes It Easier for Workers to Sue for Pay Discrimination”: The Washington Post has this news update.
The New York Times has a news update headlined “Obama Signs Equal-Pay Legislation.”
And The Los Angeles Times has a news update headlined “Michelle Obama salutes Lilly Ledbetter at White House; The first lady, making her first public appearance since the inaugural, hosts a White House reception in honor of Ledbetter, who inspired a new law aimed at ensuring equal pay for women.”
In today’s mail: Jeff Benedict’s new book, “Little Pink House: A True Story of Defiance and Courage; One Woman’s Historic Battle Against Eminent Domain.”
As I noted in this earlier post, on Monday of this week, The Wall Street Journal published Melanie Kirkpatrick’s review of the book headlined “Evicted, But Not Without a Fight: The government took her home; The Supreme Court approved.”
“Supreme Court’s Hecht appeals ethics fine”: Chuck Lindell has this post at the “Austin Legal” blog of The Austin American-Statesman.
“Learned in the Law”: Tony Mauro has this post at “The BLT: The Blog of Legal Times.”
No judicial review is available for the People of Bikini, Federal Circuit rules: You can access today’s ruling of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in The People of Bikini v. United States at this link.
“Obama touts equal-pay bill at signing ceremony”: The Associated Press provides this report.
“Obama To Sign Fair Pay Legislation”: This audio segment (RealPlayer required) featuring Nina Totenberg appeared on today’s broadcast of NPR’s “Morning Edition.”
“Fired worker’s suit tests Florida’s concealed-gun law; A Boca Raton man claims he was fired in violation of Florida law for keeping a gun in his car while at work”: This article appears today in The Miami Herald.
“Benjamin should stay on case, Massey argues”: Today’s edition of The Charleston (W. Va.) Gazette contains an article that begins, “Forcing a justice to step aside from a case because there is a ‘probability of bias’ because of a possible ‘debt of gratitude’ would create an unworkable recusal standard, Massey Energy Co. argued in a brief filed Wednesday with the U.S. Supreme Court.” Last night, I linked to that brief in this post.
And the web site Knowledge@W.P. Carey has posted online an item headlined “Sandra Day O’Connor: Where Judges Can Be Bought and Sold.”
“Former cheerleader leaving college after high court decision”: The La Crosse Tribune contains this article today.
“U.S. Can Continue Yemeni’s Detention”: This article appears today in The Washington Post. You can access yesterday’s ruling of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia at this link.
Today in The Wall Street Journal, John Yoo has an op-ed entitled “Obama Made a Rash Decision on Gitmo: The president will soon realize that governing involves hard choices.”
In The New York Times, columnist Nicholas D. Kristof has an op-ed entitled “Putting Torture Behind Us.”
And in The Boston Globe, Richard Clarke has an op-ed entitled “The confusion over renditions.”
“Firefighters’ case deemed ‘quite unusual'”: The Yale Daily News today contains an article that begins, “Stereotypically, lawyers rarely agree. But, according to four law school professors, the Supreme Court case Ricci v. DeStefano is quite unusual.”
“Obama set to sign equal-pay bill”: The Associated Press provides this report.
And today in The New York Times, columnist Gail Collins has an op-ed entitled “Lilly’s Big Day.”
“Panel Backs Justice Dept. Nominee”: Neil A. Lewis has this article today in The New York Times.
The Los Angeles Times today contains an editorial entitled “Holder passes the test: Atty. Gen.-nominee Eric Holder deserved a Senate panel’s grilling; his record shows he deserves to be attorney.”
And at Politico.com, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) has an essay entitled “Why Holder is right for Justice.”
“First of 8,000 antitobacco suits to go to trial in Florida; Once part of a huge class action lawsuit, plaintiffs are now waging fights one at a time”: This article appears today in The Christian Science Monitor.
“Legal System Struggles With How to React When Police Officers Lie”: Amir Efrati has this article today in The Wall Street Journal.
“Will Padilla’s case be heard? The Justice Department says a victory by the convicted terrorist would harm national security.” Warren Richey will have this article Thursday in The Christian Science Monitor.
“U.S. high court asked to take up Bilski patent case”: Reuters provides a report that begins, “The U.S. Supreme Court is being asked to review a decision in a patent case which put a question mark over the ability to patent such things as software and financial strategies.”
And at “SCOTUSblog,” Lyle Denniston has a post titled “Major new case on patent rights.”
You can access the petition for writ of certiorari at this link.
“High Court Justices Protect Workers From Retaliation in Job Bias Investigations”: Marcia Coyle of The National Law Journal has this report.
“Eroding the Exclusionary Rule: Why the Supreme Court got it wrong in Herring v. United States.” Radley Balko has this essay online today at Reason.
“Scalia speaks on digital privacy at NYC conference”: The Associated Press provides this report.
The Brief for Respondent was filed today in the U.S. Supreme Court case of Caperton v. A.T. Massey Coal, No. 08-22: You can access the Brief for Respondent at this link.
In addition, yesterday I linked here to an article forthcoming in the February 2009 issue of ABA Journal magazine headlined “Caperton’s Coal: The battle over an Appalachian mine exposes a nasty vein in bench politics.” Today, attorney Andrew L. Frey, counsel of record in the Supreme Court for the Massey parties, sent this letter to the editor and publisher of the ABA Journal to seek the correction of what Frey described as “certain striking errors in the story.”
Finally, The Associated Press on Monday had a report headlined “Benjamin expected to hear Massey appeal” that begins, “West Virginia Chief Justice Brent Benjamin is participating in another appeal involving Massey Energy even as the U.S. Supreme Court reviews his participation in a case involving the coal company.”
On this evening’s broadcast of NPR’s “All Things Considered“: The broadcast contained audio segments entitled “Gitmo’s ‘Dangerous Detainees’ Pose Vexing Problem” and “Can Gitmo’s Jihadists Be Rehabilitated?” (RealPlayer required).
“Congress overturns Court on job bias”: Lyle Denniston has this post at “SCOTUSblog.”
“DOJ wants delay on detainee question”: At Politico.com, Josh Gerstein has an article that begins, “President Obama’s Justice Department is asking a federal judge for at least two more weeks to answer the thorny question of who is and who isn’t an ‘enemy combatant.'”
“Ninth Circuit Denies En Banc Review in Text Message Privacy Case”: Steven M. Ellis of Metropolitan News-Enterprise has an article that begins, “The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, over the dissent of seven of its judges, yesterday declined to review en banc a ruling that the Ontario Police Department violated an employee’s right to privacy when supervisors examined the contents of text messages sent on department pagers. A panel of the court ruled in June that the department violated the Fourth Amendment rights of Sgt. Jeff Quon and three others to whom he sent text messages when the department obtained transcripts from the service provider and examined the messages’ contents to determine whether a monthly overage charge resulted from personal use.”
In addition to yesterday’s order of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit denying rehearnig en banc, you can also access online Circuit Judge Kim McLane Wardlaw‘s opinion concurring in the denial of rehearing en banc, and Circuit Judge Sandra S. Ikuta‘s opinion dissenting from the denial of rehearing en banc. A total of seven judges noted their dissent from the denial of rehearing en banc.
Judge Wardlaw’s concurring opinion begins, “No poet ever interpreted nature as freely as Judge Ikuta interprets the record on this appeal. The dissent is not bound by the facts, even those found by the jury; nor is it confined to the actual fact-driven Fourth Amendment holding.”
“Senate committee OKs Holder for attorney general”: The Associated Press provides this report.
And at “The BLT: The Blog of Legal Times,” David Ingram has a post titled “Judiciary Committee Sends Holder’s Nomination to the Senate.”
And the award for being the first U.S. Court of Appeals to recognize in a precedential opinion that Mark R. Filip is now the Acting U.S. Attorney General goes to: The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, in this opinion issued on Monday.
New York State’s statutory ban on the possession of nunchucks does not violate the Second and Fourteenth Amendments, the Second Circuit holds: According to today’s ruling of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, the plaintiff argued that “New York’s statutory ban on the possession of nunchakus violates (1) the Second Amendment because it infringes on his right to keep and bear arms, and (2) the Fourteenth Amendment because it lacks a rational basis.” The Second Circuit finds merit in neither argument.
With regard to the Second Amendment, today’s ruling notes that “It is settled law, however, that the Second Amendment applies only to limitations the federal government seeks to impose” on the right of the people to keep and bear arms.
“Eight Former SGs Endorse Kagan”: Tony Mauro has this post at “The BLT: The Blog of Legal Times.”
“Court: Nurses on strike deserve benefits; Employees in Willingboro were entitled to collect unemployment.” This article appears today in The Newark (N.J.) Star-Ledger.
You can access yesterday’s ruling of the Supreme Court of New Jersey at this link.
“Holder confirmation won’t end torture questions”: The Associated Press provides this report.
At “The BLT: The Blog of Legal Times,” David Ingram has a post titled “Specter Says He Will Vote for Holder.”
The Los Angeles Times today contains an editorial entitled “Cornyn’s outrageous confirmation demand: The GOP senator defies legal ethics by demanding that the attorney general nominee vow to not pursue any torture prosecutions.”
And The New York Times today contains an editorial entitled “Alberto Gonzales, the Sequel.” You can access my recent related coverage at this link.
“Mother’s violent porn ban now law; A law banning violent online porn has come into force following a campaign by a mother whose daughter was murdered”: BBC News provided this report on Monday.
And Monday’s edition of The Guardian (UK) contained an article headlined “Police will not target offenders against law on violent porn; New ban expected to bring just 30 prosecutions a year; Women’s groups worried by lack of active approach.”
“Democrats Overturn Barrier to Unequal-Pay Suits”: This article appears today in The Washington Post.
Today’s edition of The New York Times reports that “Congress Relaxes Rules on Suits Over Pay Inequity.” The newspaper also contains an editorial entitled “Progress on Fair Pay.”
“Hang Him Up? The Bad Judge and His Image.” The New York Times today contains this front page article about the portrait of Martin T. Manton, a Second Circuit judge who was found guilty of corruption and resigned from the bench in 1939.
You can learn more about Manton from The New York Times via this link and from Time magazine here and here.
