How Appealing



Thursday, May 17, 2012

“Health care reform: GOP preps plan for ruling on law.” Politico.com has a report that begins, “House Republican leaders are quietly hatching a plan of attack as they await a historic Supreme Court ruling on President Barack Obama’s health care law. If the law is upheld, Republicans will take to the floor to tear out its most controversial pieces, such as the individual mandate and requirements that employers provide insurance or face fines.”

And in this past Sunday’s edition of The New York Times, professor Richard H. Thaler had an essay entitled “Slippery-Slope Logic, Applied to Health Care.”

Posted at 8:44 PM by Howard Bashman



“Court to review request of illegal immigrant to practice law; A paralegal who was brought to the United States as a young child has been certified by the State Bar of California, raising broader questions about licensing illegal immigrants in other professions”: Maura Dolan has this article today in The Los Angeles Times.

In today’s edition of The San Francisco Chronicle, Bob Egelko reports that “Court to decide if illegal immigrant can practice law.”

And Howard Mintz of The San Jose Mercury News reports that “California Supreme Court to decide if illegal immigrant can practice law.”

Posted at 8:36 PM by Howard Bashman



“Tasering a pregnant woman: excessive police force or not? Seattle officers contest appeal court verdict on 2004 confrontation over speeding ticket.” This article appears in Friday’s edition of The Independent (UK).

Posted at 8:22 PM by Howard Bashman



“Justice Breyer’s Georgetown home hit by burglar”: “The Reliable Source” blog of The Washington Post has this post today.

Posted at 3:30 PM by Howard Bashman



“Federal judge blocks indefinite military detention provision”: Reuters has a report that begins, “A federal judge on Wednesday blocked enforcement of a recently enacted law’s provision that authorizes indefinite military detention for those deemed to have ‘substantially supported’ al Qaeda, the Taliban or ‘associated forces.'”

And at the “Lawfare” blog, Steve Vladeck has a post titled “Federal Judge Enjoins Section 1021 of the FY2012 NDAA.”

You can access yesterday’s ruling of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York at this link.

Posted at 3:12 PM by Howard Bashman



By popular demand, new posts at “How Appealing” can now be accessed online via Twitter: As Tony Mauro’s recent article about this blog’s tenth birthday pointed out, the “How Appealing” blog during its first ten years lacked any Twitter feed.

Starting today, however, “How Appealing” does have a twitter feed, @howappealing. Via a service known as Twitterfeed, new posts published here will automatically appear as tweets, so if you prefer to be notified of new posts using Twitter, you can now do so by following this blog at twitter.com/howappealing.

Posted at 2:00 PM by Howard Bashman



“Melvin to soon learn fate”: Today’s edition of The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review contains an article that begins, “An Allegheny County grand jury investigating state Supreme Court Justice Joan Orie Melvin will hear testimony this morning as a deadline on recommending charges nears.”

Posted at 1:40 PM by Howard Bashman



“Although it is customary not to issue opinions when an appellate court affirms on a tie vote, there are occasional departures.” So explains a per curiam opinion that the en banc U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit issued today explaining that the court has divided 5-to-5 on a case involving a so-called “class of one” equal protection claim.

The per curiam opinion proceeds to explain:

A majority of the judges of the court have concluded that this is an appropriate occasion for such a departure. The law concerning “class of one” equal-protection claims is in flux, and other courts faced with these cases may find the discussion in the three opinions in this case helpful.

The three opinions in question were (listed in the order in which they appear) written by Circuit Judge Richard A. Posner, Chief Judge Frank H. Easterbrook, and Circuit Judge Diane P. Wood. You can access the audio of the en banc oral argument via this link (10.3 MB mp3 audio file).

The Seventh Circuit voted to take the case en banc before the original three-judge panel assigned to decide the case had issued its ruling. Once the case went en banc, the Seventh Circuit appointed attorney Thomas L. Shriner, Jr. of Foley & Lardner to represent the appellant, who had previously appeared pro se.

Posted at 1:09 PM by Howard Bashman



“[T]he only live issue on appeal is whether the district court erred in rejecting the plaintiffs’ assertion that the town’s prayer practice had the effect, even if not the purpose, of establishing religion.” A unanimous three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, in an opinion by Senior Circuit Judge Guido Calabresi, today reinstated a lawsuit challenging the practice of the Town of Greece, New York, of beginning its Town Board meetings with a short prayer.

As the first paragraph of today’s opinion explains, “We hold that, on this record, the district court erred in rejecting the plaintiffs’ argument that the prayer practice impermissibly affiliated the town with a single creed, Christianity.”

Posted at 12:42 PM by Howard Bashman



“Copyright suit against West and Lexis halted”: Reuters has a report that begins, “Attorneys who did not register their works cannot sue the legal research providers West and LexisNexis for violating their copyright, a U.S. judge ruled on Wednesday.”

Posted at 11:42 AM by Howard Bashman



“Justice Dept. Defends Public’s Constitutional ‘Right to Record’ Cops”: Kim Zetter has this post at Wired.com’s “Threat Level” blog, reporting on a letter that the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice issued on Monday.

Posted at 8:40 AM by Howard Bashman



“Changing Roles on Secret Appeals Court in Washington”: At “The BLT: The Blog of Legal Times,” Mike Scarcella has a post that begins, “Judge Morris Arnold of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit will take over as the presiding judge of a secret federal appeals court in Washington this week, a court official said.”

Posted at 8:36 AM by Howard Bashman