Legal Commentary

McCanns Win Over $1 Million in Libel Case Against British Newspapers

Posted on March 19, 2008
Kate and Gerry McCann, parents of missing Madeleine McCann, have accepted £550,000 ($1.1 million) in damages for libel and front page apologies from the Daily Express and the Daily Star newspapers for their coverage suggesting that they killed Madeleine...

Video: How Not to Seize a Van Full of Illegal Aliens

Posted on March 18, 2008
I can’t resist posting this video of the problem of seizing a van of suspected illegal aliens along a highway. An encounter with this officer along a highway took on the appearance of a Barnum & Bailey clown car. For the video, click here

Bono, Cher, and the Supremes: Supreme Court Takes Profanity Case

Posted on March 18, 2008
The Supreme Court has accepted a case that will explore the first amendment protections of certain types of profanity uttered on the air by Bono, Cher and Nicole Richie. The question is whether the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) can punish broadcasters for “fleeting expletives” by such celebrities...

Governors Gone Wild: New York and New Jersey Governors Expose a Wide Array of Sexual Encounters and Legal Complications

Posted on March 18, 2008
Current and former governors of New York and New Jersey appear to be vying for their own sexual reality shows this week, releasing details on affairs that have not been seen in politics since the primaries of Sodom and Gomorrah. Ex-Governor New York Eliot Spitzer, Ex-Governor New Jersey Jim McGreevey, and current New York [...

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Supreme Court Hears Second Amendment Case As Cheney Opposes His Own Administration on the Question

Posted on March 18, 2008
The Supreme Court today will hear arguments in District of Columbia v. Heller, No. 07-290. The lower court decision in Parker v. District of Columbia, 478 F.3d 370 (D.C. Cir. 2007) contained strong majority and dissenting opinions on the question of whether there is an individual right to gun ownership...

Autos and Old Lace: Elderly Women Accused of Insuring and Then Running Over Homeless Men

Posted on March 18, 2008
The case reads like a modern version of Arsenic and Old Lace, but here the old ladies are killing the old men for their insurance policies. Helen Golay, 77, and Olga Rutterschmidt, 75, are accused of insuring homeless men and then running them over to collect millions in insurance benefits...

Oral Argument Appears to Favor Individual Right to Gun Owernship

Posted on March 18, 2008
At oral argument today, at least five justices appeared to favor the recognition of an individual right to gun ownership under the Second Amendment. Justice Kennedy and possibly Justice Breyer could join the right side of the Court in upholding the lower Court...

Negligent Lap Dance: Man Sues Over Injurious Lap Dance

Posted on March 18, 2008
Securities trader Stephen Chang could well create new law with his lawsuit in New York. There are copious cases on medical malpractice, legal malpractice, but now he would like to create a law of stripper malpractice after lap dancer negligently swiveled and hit him in the face with the heel of her shoe...

Albany Police Charged with Series of Abusive Cavity Searches

Posted on March 17, 2008
A very disturbing series of allegations have been made against the Albany police involving abusive cavity searches, including one alleged performance in public. Women have accused the police of conducting cavity searches with little or no suspicion of crime acts...

The Insanity Defense and the Limits of Legal Reason

Posted on March 17, 2008
Insanity cases continue trouble the courts and counsel from Andrea Yates to Colin Fergusan to the on-going controversy over John Wayne Hinckley Jr. This prior column explores the issue. The Crazy World of the Insanity Defense It was a crime that still haunts the nation...

No Fool I: High School Dropout Represents Himself and Beats Murder Charge

Posted on March 17, 2008
Harold J. Stewart may be a high school dropout, but he is no fool –despite that fact that he had himself for a lawyer in a first-degree murder case. Stewart not only was acquitted of all charges, but the pro se defendant had previously rejected an agreement that his defense attorney supported for a [...

How to Stop a Dangerous Drunk Driver in Belarus: Throw Citizens and Children in His Path

Posted on March 17, 2008
Belarus police were notified recently that a drunk driver was careening down a highway. As discussed in the video below, they reacted quickly by lining up cars filled with people and children as a human shield and then got out of the way. Drivers did not know why the police had stopped them, but they [...

?Dickie? Scruggs Pleads Guilty to Conspiracy to Bribe Judge

Posted on March 17, 2008
Richard ?Dickie? Scruggs has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to bribe a judge — a plea that will likely send him to jail and certainly end his controversial but storied career of the “King of Torts.” While another lawyer from his firm also pleaded guilty, his son Zach is still scheduled to go to trial...

Highway Closed as Twelve Million Bees Threaten Motorists

Posted on March 17, 2008
They seem so cute in the Bee Movie. Yet, Sacramento drivers were prevented for using a highway after a truck overturned, spilling crates with as many as 12 million bees. Various people report being stung, including a volunteer in this video who claims 80 stings...

Dr. Al-Arian?s Counsel File Emergency Motions While Hunger Strike Continues

Posted on March 17, 2008
As counsel to Dr. Sami Al-Arian, I am not at liberty to discuss sealed filings in the case. However, on behalf of the legal team, I wanted to offer some update on his health and legal status. Today, we filed motions with the United States District Court to address Dr...

Dupre Sings: Prostitute Given Immunity and Reportedly Testified Before Grand Jury

Posted on March 16, 2008
In a remarkable development, prosecutors appear to have granted immunity to call girl Ashley Alexandra Dupré to testify in a grand jury investigation. It appears that Dupre could succeed in securing a windfall contract while avoiding any serious criminal charge...

The Real Deal: Ninth Circuit Reverses Sentencing of Hollywood Producer Medawar

Posted on March 16, 2008
In the latest rebuke of U.S. District Judge Manuel Real, the Ninth Circuit has again reversed a sentence by the judge viewed as too lenient and too little justified — in this case, the sentencing of ex-producer Jospeh Medawar. The unanimous decision noted that the Real’s sentence of only a year and a day was less [...

Video: Pocket Machine Gun to Take the Mass Out of Massacre

Posted on March 16, 2008
Only recently, the world was given the first two-inch gun. Now, for those looking for more firepower but less bulk, there is the pocket machine gun. It is far from clear what the niche may be for smaller machine guns or handguns. Beyond terrorists and really tiny felons, the downsizing of serious weaponry does not [...

American Airlines Sued in Flight Masturbation Case

Posted on March 16, 2008
A 21-year-old woman, Centava Dozier, has filed a $200,000 lawsuit against American Airlines for alleged negligence that led to another passenger masturbating on a flight next to her and ejaculating in her hair. The case will pit the higher duties of a common carrier against the concept of a superseding intervening act...

Litigating Against Free Speech in the Name of Free Exercise

Posted on March 15, 2008
Fundamentalist Islamic nations and leaders are speaking of unleashing a new weapon against those who defame Islam: lawyers. During a two-day summit in Senegal, leaders called for a litigation offensive against those who fail to give the prophet or Islam sufficient respect by publishing cartoons or saying negative things...

Mukasey Tells Joke ? Gives Voice to the Sadists

Posted on March 15, 2008
With torture and detainees, Attorney General Michael Mukasey has never been viewed as much of a whoopee cushion. However, while speaking at the London School of Economics, Mukasey seemed to tell give a humorous example that seemed to put the Bush administration in the role of the sadist speaking to the al Qaeda masochist...

Paper Chase: D.C. Recyling Police Trigger Privacy and Constitutional Concerns

Posted on March 15, 2008
D.C. inspectors have been conducting surprise searches on offices, rifling through waste cans and garbage looking for violations of recycling laws. In the process, they are looking through papers with may have protected or privileged information, including material from legal and medical offices...

Dr. Sami Al-Arian Continues Hunger Strike Amidst International Calls for Government to Intervene

Posted on March 15, 2008
Dr. Sami Al-Arian has continued his hunger strike — refusing either food or water for twelve days. Serious concerns have been raised over his health, but the government has declined to give him intravenous fluids and says that it still intends to take him from the hospital and force him to testify before a [...

Only 29 Senators Vote to Suspend Earmarks for Just One Year

Posted on March 14, 2008
In a measure of just how unrepentant our congressional members are over rampant corruption and waste in government, barely one-fourth of the Senate voted to freeze earmarks for just one year. It was a vote of utter contempt for not just government reform but the voters ...

Call Girl Interrupted: Ashley Dupre Could Face Potential Criminal and Civil Charges

Posted on March 14, 2008
There has been much speculation about the expected criminal indictment of former Eliot Spitzer, but relatively little about Client No. 9’s co-conspirator, Ashley Alexandra Dupre (AKA “Kristen”). In reality, she faces not just possible criminal but civil charges while rapidly losing her own ability to sue for defamation and privacy violations...

Rev. Jeremiah Wright?s Church May Have Tax Problems

Posted on March 14, 2008
Barack Obama’s Minister, Jeremiah Wright, may have gotten himself into hot water with the IRS. He recently spoke in favor of Obama and against Clinton from the pulpit, a violation of the tax-free status of his church. He may soon learn that the only biblical passage that the IRS endorses is Matthew 22:21: [...

Belated but Combat Ready: Bush Says He is Envious of Soldiers Fighting on the Front Lines

Posted on March 14, 2008
In what is surely going to be fodder for months to come, President Bush responded to a briefing on the difficulties faced in Afghanistan by saying that he is envious of those able to be on the front lines. Given the controversy of his perceived avoidance of combat in Vietnam, it seems a rather [...

Florida Appellate Judge Accused of Helping Stripper Shield Funds

Posted on March 13, 2008
Judge Thomas E. Stringer Sr., who sits on the 2nd District Court of Appeals in Florida is facing allegations that he helped a stripper hide over $300,000 from creditors. Stringer admits a relationship but denies a direct role in the concealment of money to help Christy Yamanaka, a New York City stripper...

Video Shows Police Tasering a Handcuffed and Disabled Man by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police

Posted on March 13, 2008
Recently uncovered video of a disabled British Columbia man being shocked with a taser by a Royal Canadian Mounted Police officer has sparked controversy and once again brought the use of such weapons into the limelight. John Dempsey suffers from a condition similar to Parkinson’s disease...

Dux Treat: Mother Arrested Over ?Dognapping? After Son Calls Cops

Posted on March 13, 2008
It appears that the notorious dog vixon Puddles has competition from a golden retriever named Dux — a dog that has torn a family apart and led to a son calling police to arrest his mother, Margareta Doughty. The arrest came after protracted litigation over Dux and his ...

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