How Appealing



Wednesday, January 30, 2013

If you thought that The Los Angeles Times’ coverage of Ninth Circuit Chief Judge Alex Kozinski was already too negative, just wait and see how it turns out to be going forward: Today’s edition of The Los Angeles Times reports that “Tribune taps former FCC official Edward Lazarus as general counsel.”

Judge Kozinski’s harsh review of Lazarus’s book “Closed Chambers: The First Eyewitness Account of the Epic Struggles Inside the Supreme Court” appeared in the January 1999 issue of the Yale Law Journal.

More recently, Emily Bazelon’s profile of Judge Kozinski, which appeared in the January-February 2004 issue of Legal Affairs magazine, devoted four paragraphs to Judge Kozinski’s “excoriation” of Lazarus.

Posted at 1:28 PM by Howard Bashman



Access online the State of California’s opening brief on appeal from a preliminary injunction prohibiting enforcement of a state law banning therapies to change children’s sexual orientation: Via the Ninth Circuit’s web site, you can freely access the State of California’s opening brief at this link. The brief was electronically filed in the Ninth Circuit on Monday of this week.

Posted at 1:12 PM by Howard Bashman



“[W]e have occasion here to address an issue of first impression in this circuit, namely whether a witness’s testimony in disguise at trial violates the Confrontation Clause of the Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution.” So states an opinion that a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit issued today.

The unanimous panel proceeds to hold “that in this case, the disguise in the form of a wig and mustache did not violate the Confrontation Clause.”

Posted at 1:08 PM by Howard Bashman



“Texas Supreme Court Justice Don Willett: master of the Twitterverse.” Angela Morris has this post at the “Tex Parte Blog” of Texas Lawyer.

Posted at 12:50 PM by Howard Bashman



“DOJ/FDA Brief in SCOTUS Generic Drug Preemption Case Hands Plaintiffs New Liability Theories”: Richard Samp of the Washington Legal Foundation has this blog post at Forbes.com.

Posted at 12:44 PM by Howard Bashman



Unanimous en banc Pa. Commonwealth Court ruled in my client’s favor today in an appeal that I argued last month: You can access today’s ruling of the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania at this link.

I previously previewed the oral argument in a post that you can access here. That post provided access to the Brief for Appellant and Reply Brief for Appellant that I filed on my client’s behalf, together with the trial court’s ruling and earlier news coverage of the trial court’s ruling.

Posted at 11:30 AM by Howard Bashman



“Boston College asks court to throw out ruling on IRS tapes, citing death of IRA veteran”: The Associated Press has a report that begins, “Boston College wants a federal appeals court to throw out a ruling that orders the college to turn over audiotaped interviews with former members of the Irish Republican Army, citing the death of a key figure in the legal battle.”

Posted at 10:37 AM by Howard Bashman



“United States Supreme Court Undergoes Facelift with Help from Merritt Graphics; Merritt Graphics Contracted for Mesh Replica of US Supreme Court”: You can access the company’s press release at this link.

Posted at 9:00 AM by Howard Bashman



“Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court upholds state’s gun storage law, rejects challenge by Springfield man”: The Republican of Springfield, Massachusetts has this report.

My earlier coverage of yesterday’s rulings appears at this link.

Posted at 8:57 AM by Howard Bashman



“Feds stumbling after Anonymous launches ‘Operation Last Resort’; The U.S. Department of Justice still has two Federal websites down since Friday when Anonymous launched ‘Operation Last Resort’ demanding legal reform”: ZDNet has this report.

Today’s edition of The Los Angeles Times contains an article headlined “A martyr in the fight for free online access to research; By killing himself, Internet activist Aaron Swartz has heated up the battle over whether the works of scientists and scholars should be available for free.”

The Vancouver Observer has an article headlined “How Aaron Swartz paved way for Jack Andraka’s revolutionary cancer test; Jack Andraka’s studies about pancreatic cancer would have never come about were it not for open access to online journals — the very thing Aaron Swartz was promoting before his death.”

And the blog “Main Justice” has a post titled “With Bipartisan Letter on Swartz, Criticism of Plea Bargain Tactics Gains New Prominence.”

Posted at 8:34 AM by Howard Bashman



Tuesday, January 29, 2013

“Christian school’s lawsuit may test court ruling”: The Associated Press has a report that begins, “A lawsuit by a Southern California Christian school against two former teachers who refused to provide proof of their faith could pose one of the first court tests of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling on religious freedom.”

Posted at 10:00 PM by Howard Bashman



“Should Federal Circuit hear standard essential antitrust appeals?” Alison Frankel’s “On the Case” from Thomson Reuters News & Insight has this report.

Posted at 6:22 PM by Howard Bashman



“US gay marriage foes suffer from fundraising shortfall; Urgent call to donors ahead of March Supreme Court arguments; Mormon fundraising falls off after 2008 California battle; Big donor sees ‘intensity of anger’ over gay marriage issue”: Dan Levine and Peter Henderson of Reuters have this report.

Posted at 5:40 PM by Howard Bashman



“Mass. high court upholds gun storage law”: The Associated Press has a report that begins, “The highest court in Massachusetts has rejected challenges to a state law that requires gun owners to keep their weapons in a locked container or equipped with a safety device.”

You can access today’s rulings of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts in two related cases here and here.

Posted at 4:39 PM by Howard Bashman



“Portland lawyer reconsidered for federal bench”: Today’s edition of The Portland (Me.) Press Herald contains an article that begins, “The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday will consider the renomination of William Kayatta to the 1st Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday.”

Posted at 4:23 PM by Howard Bashman



“Truth and justice are elusive in Chevron Ecuador case”: Alison Frankel’s “On the Case” from Thomson Reuters News & Insight has this report.

Posted at 4:15 PM by Howard Bashman



In appeal asserting that New York State’s ban on home handgun possession by part-time state residents violates the Second Amendment, Second Circuit certifies predicate question to New York State’s highest court: You can access today’s ruling of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, written by retired Justice Sandra Day O’Connor sitting by designation, at this link.

Attorney Paul D. Clement argued the case for the plaintiff-appellant, whose opening brief you can access here.

Posted at 1:44 PM by Howard Bashman



“From Fighting Same-Sex Marriage to Forging a Pro-Marriage Coalition for All”: Wednesday’s edition of The New York Times will contain an article that begins, “David Blankenhorn, a traditional-marriage advocate and star witness in the Proposition 8 trial in California in 2010, shocked his allies with an Op-Ed article in The New York Times last June announcing that he was quitting the fight against same-sex marriage.”

Posted at 1:27 PM by Howard Bashman