Legal Commentary

Pakistan Minister: Video of Flogging of Teen Girl a ?Jewish Conspiracy?

Posted on April 06, 2009
According to Pakistani Federal Minister Senator Azam Khan Swati of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam the flogging of the 17-year-old girl in Swat was a Jewish conspiracy. He explained that it is the work of Jews aimed at destroying peace in Swat and distorting the image of those Islamists who sport beards and wear turbans...

The ?Eyes? Have It: Philadelphia Police Accused Of Cutting Security Systems Before Looting Stores

Posted on April 06, 2009
Recently, there have been a spate of charges against officers in New York and other cities captured on video cameras in incriminating acts. Philadelphia police appear to have different approach: they first methodically disable cameras before allegedly committing criminal acts...

Elementary Teacher Sues Eight-Year-Old Boy For Running Recklessly for Ice Cream

Posted on April 06, 2009
Rosanna Tomack, a former New York teacher’s aide, is suing a student from her Queens grammar school for running into her with an ice cream cone in the halls. The boy, Joseph Cicack, was eight years old at the time. He is now an eleven-year-old torts defendant...

Berlusconi Blackout: Italian President Accuses Media of Harming Italy By Covering Gaffes and Promises ?Hard Measures?

Posted on April 06, 2009
Italian President Silvio Berlusconi has secured a reputation as the clown of Europe and, like most circus clowns, he is getting really scary. After the media reported on his latest gaffes, Berlusconi is threatening “hard measures” against the media, saying “The Italian press, with their stories of my gaffes, harm the reputation of Italy...

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Teenage Girl Denies That She Was Flogged in Infamous Pakistani Video

Posted on April 06, 2009
After a Pakistani minister alleged that the video of a teenage girl being flogged was a “Jewish conspiracy,” the 17-year-old girl Chand Bibi in the film has claimed that the whole thing is a hoax and that she was never flogged. The video has appeared widely around the world and in Pakistan...

Karzai Promises to Review His Legalization of Rape in Afghanistan

Posted on April 05, 2009
Afghan President Hamid Karzai has announced that he will review the new law legalizing rape of women in the country after an international outcry. It is an act similar to the recent shock expressed by the Pakistani government after it turned over the Swat Valley to extremists and Sharia law — only to [...

Video: 17-Year-Old Girl Flogged Under Pakistan?s New Sharia Law in Swat Valley

Posted on April 05, 2009
Recently, Pakistan shocked the world by surrendering the Swat Valley to Islamic extremists and allowing the huge area to be placed under Sharia law. Now, a video (shown below) has emerged of what this means, particularly for women. The video shows a teenage girl being flogged for an improper relationship as she begs [...

Slap on the Wrist for ?Spanking Judge?: Texas Commission Fails To Remove Judge Who Ordered Spankings In Courtroom

Posted on April 05, 2009
The Texas State Commission on Judicial Conduct had imposed remarkably light punishment in the admonishment of Justice of the Peace Gustavo “Gus” Garza. While the act was in the mid range of the possible discipline, it is disturbing that this Commission would consider Garza to be competent to continue on the bench after he [...

Protecting Life or License to Kill? Oklahoma Moves To Give Pregnant Women Enhanced Rights to Use Lethal Force

Posted on April 05, 2009
The Oklahoma legislature appears on the verge of passing a bill that would give pregnant women the right to use lethal force in response to threats against their babies. The Use of Force For the Protection of the Unborn Act would protect pregnant women from being criminally charged when they kill people who [...

Small Town Valuables: Sarah Palin?s Sister-in-Law Arrested for Burglary ? As Tabloid Show Prepares Segment on Family

Posted on April 05, 2009
Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is having a particularly difficult time going national with her small town and family values theme without the cooperation of her family. During the campaign, Palin had to address the teenage pregnancy of her daughter Bristol. The campaign promptly announced that the teen father, Levi Johnston, would marry Bristol...

Double Dipper: Episcopal Church Defrocks Minister Who Converted to Islam

Posted on April 05, 2009
The Episcopal Church of Rhode Island has terminated the ministry of Ann Holmes Redding over a novel dispute. For three years, Redding has been both a practicing Christian and practicing Muslim. While Redding does not see a conflict, the church has essentially told her to pick a God and go with it...

FAT CAT

Posted on April 05, 2009
With billions of federal stimulus and bailout money engorging lobbyists in Washington, I finally found a photo of one of these fat cats in the aftermath of visiting the public troth. What is astonishing is that this particular fat cat appears slumped against the wall of Congress — unable to even walk to a waiting limo [...

Judge Claims Judicial Immunity After Being Sued for Judicial Corruption

Posted on April 04, 2009
Now this take a bit of hubris. Disgraced former Pennsylvania judge Mark Ciavarella has moved to discuss federal lawsuits from juveniles who sent to jail after accepting bribes. tax evasion and depriving the public of their honest services for accepting more than $2...

The Ultimate Subrogation Contract: Man Sues Neighbor for Failure to Impregant Wife

Posted on April 04, 2009
It is well-known that, as a Torts professor, I have made my share of anti-contracts statements — part of a long-standing feud between common law Torts and Contracts faculty. However, to make up for decades of badmouthing contracts, I give you a really interesting contracts case worthy of ...

?Holy Hell Has Broken Loose?: Controversial Obama Intelligence Official Blocks Efforts to Release Torture Memos

Posted on April 04, 2009
There is an astonishing effort by intelligence officials to block Attorney General Eric Holder and White House counsel Gregory Craig from releasing torture memos from the Justice Department. A senior national-security aide named John Brennan is leading the effort to block the release with the backing of people at the CIA...

No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Police Arrest Teenager For Finding Lost Cellphone and Bringing It to Police Station

Posted on April 04, 2009
There is another curious case out of England. Paul Leicester, 18, was acting as a good citizen when he found a cellphone on the street and picked it up to return it to its owner. He rang the last number on the cellphone and spoke to the friend of the owner — telling [...

Iowa Supreme Court Strikes Down Ban On Same-Sex Marriage

Posted on April 04, 2009
In a major ruling, the Iowa Supreme Court has struck down a state law that confines marriage to heterosexual couples. The decision moves the current national debate from the East and West coasts to the heartland. On aspect of this ruling that distinguishes it from states like California is the more restrictive rules in Iowa [...

Afghanistan Legalizes Rape and Obligates Women ?to Preen? for Their Husbands

Posted on April 03, 2009
For years, there has been growing discomfort over the loss of American lives and treasure in Afghanistan while the government moves increasingly toward a Taliban-like legal system that rejects most of the rights that we consider fundamental for all humanity...

Ted Stevens Claims Vindication While Palin and the GOP Call For Begich to Step Down

Posted on April 03, 2009
It the ultimate example of hubris, former Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska is claiming vindication in the decision of the Justice Department to drop the case against him. In the meantime, the Alaska GOP is calling for Sen. Mark Begich to step down. Stevens’ statement that he has been vindicated by this action is positively [...

Blagojevich Indicted on 19 Felony Counts

Posted on April 03, 2009
Impeached former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, 52, has been indicted Thursday on 19 felony counts by a federal grand jury for racketeering, conspiracy and wire fraud. The indictment accuses Blagojevich of a “scheme to deprive the people of Illinois of honest government...

Bring Your Daughter To Rob Day: Police Seek Man Who Robbed Store With Daughter in Tow

Posted on April 03, 2009
Even for those of us who practice in the criminal law area, some crimes simply leave us stunned. In Ellensburg, Washington, Robert Daniel Webb, 42, brought his 9-year-old daughter as he robbed a convenience store with a handgun. The girl is shown in the video below watching her father commit the armed robbery at [...

Ward Churchill Wins Major Verdict of Wrongful Termination

Posted on April 03, 2009
Ward Churchill, the controversial former professor at the University of Colorado at Boulder, has won an important verdict in court. A jury found that he had been wrongly terminated by the university after his public repudiation for referring to the victims of the September 11, 2001, attacks as “little Eichmanns...

Progeny Product: Federal Court Rules that Product Liability Covers Defective Sperm

Posted on April 03, 2009
Senior U.S. District Judge Thomas N. O’Neill Jr. has handed down a significant ruling in Donovan v. Idant Laboratories that a sperm bank may be sued for product liability. The product defect in this case would be a genetic defect in the sperm itself...

Justice Department Finds D.C. Vote Bill Unconstitutional ? Holder Reverses Conclusion and Declares Bill Constitutional

Posted on April 02, 2009
The Washington Post has revealed that an internal review has found that the D.C. Voting legislation is indeed flagrantly unconstitutional. However, Attorney General Eric Holder overruled the view of career lawyers and declared that the law is constitutional — thereby avoiding an embarrassing confrontation with Democrats...

Model Teacher: English Teacher Faces Possible Discipline Over Modeling Career

Posted on April 02, 2009
We have yet another teacher facing punishment over her private life. We have previously seen teachers in the United States disciplined over appearing in provocative pictures after hours. In this case, Natasha Gray is not an elementary teacher but a physical education teacher at Manor Community College in Cambridge, England...

Dallas Officer Resigns in Controversy Over Blocking NFL Player Ryan Moats From Seeing Dying Mother-in-Law

Posted on April 02, 2009
Dallas Police Officer Robert Powell, who delayed NFL player Ryan Moats from seeing his dying mother-in-law, has resigned from the Dallas Police Department. It was likely that Powell would face termination or severe punishment over the incident recorded on his dashcam...

We Are Not Amused: The First Family Gives IPod to Queen

Posted on April 02, 2009
The Obama assault on English sensibilities continued yesterday with another bizarre gift of an IPod to the Queen — leaving many in that country wondering if the Obamas are trying to be insulting. If you have been following this impressive and growing litany of social faux pas, the Obamas shocked both Americans and English [...

One Size Fits All: Police Exhume Body To Determine If Funeral Home Cut Off Legs of Corpse to Fit Into Coffin

Posted on April 02, 2009
Police in Allendale, South Carolina have taken the extraordinary action of exhuming the body of Minister James Hines to see if he was buried with his legs attached. A former employee of Cave Funeral Services claimed that the funeral home cut off the legs of the 6-foot, 5-inch man to fit into a coffin [...

Murphy?s Law: White House Military Office Withholds Evidence Leading to the Release of Convicted Air Force Officer

Posted on April 02, 2009
The Air Force has completed a bizarre case involving a former senior judge advocate general to practiced for more than 20 years without disclosing that he had been disbarred from practice. Col. Michael D. Murphy was convicted on three counts of conduct unbecoming an officer and gentleman, one count of failing to obey a [...

Attorney General Eric Holder Announces Justice Department Will Not Investigate War Crimes Due to Prosecutorial Misconduct

Posted on April 01, 2009
In a major decision, Attorney General Eric Holder has announced that he has found that the Justice Department has acted improperly in barring any criminal investigation of well-documented war crimes committed by the Bush Administration in the torture program...

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