Legal Commentary

Dean in a Moral Maze: Villanova Law School Dean Resigns After Being Implicated in Prostitution Ring

Posted on July 06, 2009
Villanova Law Dean Mark Sargent has resigned after news reports that he was a customer of a prostitution ring. Sargent previously wrote a law review article entitled “Lawyers in a Moral Maze.” Sargent’s name reportedly surfaced after a raid on the prostitution ring...

Idaho Couple Faces Life in Prison for Incest

Posted on July 06, 2009
Brian Lee Reed, 30, and Marilyn Renee Lee, 36, have been arrested for having consensual sex. The problem is not the sex but the fact that Marilyn is the half-sister of Brian. The case could raise some interesting legal questions. I have long been a critic of criminalization of polygamy, here and other [...

Flying Cargo Class: Airline to Introduce Standing Only Section on Flights

Posted on July 06, 2009
Just when you thought that air travel could not get more punishing and degrading . . . Ryanair is seeking to have Boeing design “standing only” sections of airplanes to stuff more people into planes. O’Leary believes that he can increase passengers by 50% by stacking them like firewood...

THE MORNING AFTER

Posted on July 05, 2009
No doubt many Turley bloggers are experiencing this same state of exhaustion after the celebrations on the Fourth of July. After spending a day at the pool with the kids, two out of four passed out in our living room, so we never got to go to the D.C...

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Unholy Challah: Israel Court Orders Religious Board to Certify Bakery of Messianic Jew

Posted on July 05, 2009
Israel continues to struggle with entanglement of temple and church. The latest battle occurred over the denial of a bakery, bakery, Pnina Pie, as a kashrut bakery. The denial was based on the faith of the owner, Pnina Comporati, who is a Messianic Jew...

Ave Maria Law School Invokes Status as Religious Institution and ?Ecclesiastical Abstention? to Dismiss Law Professors? Lawsuit

Posted on July 05, 2009
The Ave Maria Law School in Naples, Florida has long been controversial. Dedicated to Catholic education and values, the school is the subject of a lawsuit by professors who are challenging the move from Michigan to Florida as well as management policies...

God is My Co-Host: Turkish Show Under Fire for Syndicating Salvation

Posted on July 05, 2009
It sounds like the lead of a hundred bad jokes: A Muslim imam, a Catholic priest, and a Buddhist monk walk into a television studio . . . However, this is the setup for a new show “Penitents Compete” on Turkish television station Kanal T where the clerics are put into a room with [...

HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!

Posted on July 04, 2009
Happy Independence Day! We began our celebrations last night on July 3rd with the Turley fireworks display on our street (Fireworks are legal in Fairfax). We made “cowboy burgers” and my favorite Fourth of July treat (cherry pie). It was an enormous success as I set off roughly the equivalent of the ordinance [...

Caught in the Rye: Court Enjoins Sequel to Salinger Masterpiece

Posted on July 04, 2009
U.S. District Judge Deborah Batts in New York has enjoined the publication of a sequel to The Catcher in the Rye as a copyright infringement. She found that the sequel used the original work and was not a parody. Salinger broke from his self-imposed seclusion to file an interesting lawsuit to block a novel based on [...

?Little Death?: Mexican Midget Wrestlers Killed By Fake Prostitutes

Posted on July 04, 2009
The midget wrestling world is reeling from the news that Mexican midget wresters Alberto (aka ‘La Parkita’ — “Little Death”) and Alejandro Pérez Jiménez (aka Espectrito II) have been found dead in a hotel room — the apparent victims of a gang known alternatively as The Leak or The Drops...

Judge Kozinski Cleared of Wrongdoing By Judicial Council

Posted on July 03, 2009
The judicial council of the Philadelphia-based 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has cleared Chief Judge Alex Kozinski of the 9th Circuit of wrongdoing in the long investigation over sexually explicit materials on his personal website. However, the council found that he acted with “carelessness” and was “judicially imprudent...

The New Math: Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal Solves Low School Passage Rates By Lowering School Standards

Posted on July 03, 2009
Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal has come up with a sure-fire way to improving the performance of students in the low-ranked state: lower the academic standards so more students can pass. Jindal has signed a law that creates a new and easier public school curriculum despite the fact that educators have objected that it will result [...

Republican State Senator: We Allow Gays To Exist

Posted on July 03, 2009
Pennsylvania State Sen. John Eichelberger (R) has refused to apologize after a statement that the public has allowed gays to exist. Eichelberger is pushing a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage and made the statement after being asked by Sen...

Ruth Madoff Clings to Fur Coat ? And Claim of Innocence

Posted on July 03, 2009
It appears that, despite the extensive litigation over assets seized by the U.S. government to pay victims of Bernard Madoff, Ruth Madoff had one more claim to make before being kicked out of her $7 million Manhattan home — her fur coat. While it is the dead of summer, Madoff insisted that she wanted [...

It?s Pop! Swedish Parents Raise ?Genderless Child?

Posted on July 03, 2009
This is just too bizarre to pass up. A Swedish couple has long opposed “the artificial construct of gender.” So, they have refused to disclose the gender of their child, who is being called Pop in the Swedish media. They are dressing Pop with dresses as well as non-dresses — and have [...

New York Judges Deny Admission to Bar for Lawyer With $400,000 in Student Loans

Posted on July 03, 2009
The New York?s Committee on Character and Fitness has rendered a novel, if not unprecedented, ruling: barring Robert Bowman, 47, from becoming an attorney because of the size of his student loans. The Committee was unmoved by Bowman’s claim that he has suffered two debilitating injuries and was wrongly denied a deferment of [...

Sarah Palin Resigns As Alaskan Governor Effective July 26th

Posted on July 03, 2009
Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has announced that she will resign from office on July 26th. The news has led bloggers and comedians to breath into paper bags and use emergency dial-ins for their analysts across the country. Palin has been God’s gift to bloggers, including this blog...

Federal Judge Challenges Justice Department Over Another Case of Withholding Evidence and False Statements

Posted on July 02, 2009
The Justice Department is again being accused of withholding evidence and making false statements to the court. Judge Emmet Sullivan sharply questioned Justice Department lawyers about whether they are in violation of the D.C. Rules of Professional Conduct by making false statements to the court or failing to correct false statements...

The Real Thing? New York Republican Claims Democrats Misconstrued a Coke Run as Political Statement

Posted on July 02, 2009
The New York Republican Senators are up in arms over what they insist was a Democratic trick: using the brief appearance of a Republican Senator to break a long-standing stalemate. Sen. Frank Padavan of Queens says that he was on a quest for a Coca Cola, not voting, when he cut through the Senate [...

Dispensing Justice: Pez Sues Town Over Giant Pez Dispenser

Posted on July 02, 2009
In Burlingame, California, citizens are fighting to protect their cherished town’s symbol: the giant Pez dispenser. Pez Candy Inc. is suing to force the town to tear down the super-sized Pez — which is recorded as the world’s largest in the Guiness Book of World Records...

The Post?s ?Powerful Few?: Newspaper Under Fire for Arranging Dinners Between Reporters, Lobbyists, and Politicians

Posted on July 02, 2009
The Washington Post is accused of arranging for meetings between power brokers, lobbyists, and politicians, including Post reporters and editors for $25,000 to $250,000. These meetings are billed as off the record, non-confrontational access to “those powerful few” in the Beltway...

Vacationing for the Public Good: Members Massively Increase Travel at Taxpayer Expense for Themselves and Family

Posted on July 02, 2009
The members of Congress are once again facing the dangers of public service from sunburns to shopping overload. Our public servants are again planning their summer vacations at public expense. Many of us have been concerned about the runaway spending of this Administration and Congress...

Court Throws Out Lori Drew Conviction

Posted on July 02, 2009
In the ultimate proof that law is not a popularity contest, U.S. District Judge George H. Wu has tossed out the conviction of the much-despised Lori Drew — the woman behind the cyber-bully case that led to the suicide of 13-year-old Megan Meier...

?Sins of the Lawyer?: Seventh Circuit Rules Against Company in Legal Malpractice Case

Posted on July 01, 2009
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit ruled that an Illinois baking machinery manufacturer, Bakery Machinery & Fabrication Inc., is liable to a default judgment blamed on the alleged legal malpractice of its attorney, James Hinterlong of Grand Ridge, Ill...

Israeli High Court Orders Harsher Punishment for Officer Who Ordered the Shooting of a Bound Palestinian with Rubber-Coated Bullet

Posted on July 01, 2009
The Israeli High Court has ordered the Military Advocate General to file more serious charges against an Israel Defense Forces officer who ordered a soldier to shoot a bound Palestinian with a rubber-coated metal bullet. Lt. Col. Omri Burberg, the officer, and Staff Sgt...

From Catwalk to Perpwalk: Supermodel Arrested in Paris for Criminal Threats

Posted on July 01, 2009
Karen Mulder has been accused of an almost stereotypical crime for a “supermodel.” Mulder, 39, was arrested in Paris today after allegedly threatening to attack her plastic surgeon. French police say that Mulder made “vicious telephone calls” over a recent cosmetic surgery...

Court Takes Man?s Head: Wisconsin Driver Ordered to Return Roadkill Trophy

Posted on July 01, 2009
John Longo, 69, has been ordered by a Wisconsin court of appeals to surrender roadkill that he found on the side of the road in February 2008. It appears that even a dead deer on the side of the road requires a permit, which Longo did not have. The 2nd District Court of Appeals reversed [...

McBleach: Man Accuses McDonald?s of Slipping Him an Intentionally Tainted Burger

Posted on July 01, 2009
Joe Jackson, 65, of Washington State believes that he has discovered a secret sauce for McDonald’s burgers: bleach. In a disturbing lawsuit pending against McDonald’s, he claims that, after he returned a cold and crushed burger, a hostile employee gave him a burger laced with bleach that burned his mouth...

New Jersey Man Pleads Guilty to 15th Drunk Driving Offense ? Allowed to Drive Despite 78 Suspensions

Posted on July 01, 2009
For some, third is the charm. For Shaun Campbell, it is more like the 79th time. Campbell, 40, plowed into a pickup truck while drunk, endangering Harold A. Bivins Jr., 48, and his 4-year-old daughter, Hannah Bivins. Police soon discovered that his license has been suspended 78 times...

Dog Owner Accuses New York?s First Hasidic Police Officer of Abuse and Sexism

Posted on July 01, 2009
In 2006, Joel Witriol broke barriers in becoming New York’s first Hasidic cop — a proud moment for both Witriol and the Hasidic community. He is now, however, embroiled in a controversy over whether he was abusive in the treatment of Chrissie Brodigan and her pug dog in a New York subway station...

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