This story:
http://n.pr/p156H7
on NPR is worth a read, about Italian scientists who thought that an earthquake wouldn't occur, said so, and are now on trial for manslaughter, which, in Italy, can attract a twelve year prison sentence.
Fastcase, whom I had not heard of before, has a free legal research app available if you use an iOS device. The download is free, and you can do whatever research you'd like it. It would be handy for doing research on the fly, if, like me, you do not have access to Westlaw/LexisNexis.
See:
http://bit.ly/eTh5VH
Judge Posner recently published an article in the Yale Law Journal on the Bluebook (a legal citation manual) and how he does not use use it for his citation. He explains why he does not and makes some valid points about it. For those of you who had to deal with this in law school (or still deal with it), you might appreciate this article.
See:
http://bit.ly/fbXqaO
There was an article in the Times yesterday on law schools, debt, and the awful state of the legal job market. It's something anyone considering attending law school should read. Very carefully.
See:
http://bit.ly/g3taZO
The Pennsylvania Disciplinary Board discussed Facebook/MySpace and how two trial courts -- in New York and Pennsylvania -- have issued orders compelling parties to turn over their Facebook/MySpace passwords.
Here are links to the New York and Pennsylvania cases.
In these cases, I'll concede that the parties foolishly posted information relevant to their cases on the social networking site. Nonetheless, I am not sure I agree with the two judge's decisions. Just because the privacy policies of both these sites say that the information can be disclosed pursuant to a court order does not give a court carte blanche to grant someone access to someone's Facebook or MySpace profile. While people can choose to make information public on social network sites, they also might store personal information as well. In some ways, these sites are similar to any email provider. Gmail's privacy policy says something quite similar about disclosure.
The moral of this story, though, is that people should be very careful with what they post on MySpace or Facebook.
I wonder if this company (which I saw through Ryan's Facebook) is listed in the Central Contractor Registry. And if it is, could I do a sole source justification under Federal Acquisition Regulation 6.302-1? There can't be that many companies that do vampire killing
My brother passed me this motion for a continuance, which, in part, states:
This blog post talks about some subtle and not-so-subtle ways that law schools try to prevent students from transferring. An example of a subtle way: the dean writing the no-disciplinary letter might delay performing the task. An example of a less-subtle way: the dean tries to dissuade the student from transferring. An even less-subtle way: students requesting to transfer are asked to waive their right to participate on law review to get information released. And, if it's true, a pretty outrageous method: a school will not release a student's transcript until the student pays the next semester's tuition bill. I wonder if the last two methods are even legal under FERPA (the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act), which provides a right of access to records.
There are other techniques in the blog entry which I do not post here.
I have a tag for Penn State Dickinson which I sometimes use on my blog entries, but I'm not going to here. I hope they don't engage in any of these practices
The police in Hawaii arrested a census worker for trespassing on someone's property to give a census form. Admittedly, when asked to leave, he did not, but I think that he could remain on the property for at least a short while to explain about the Census. He had the right -- under federal law -- to be there. Now, the Assistant United States Attorney is defending him -- as they should.
The other article is funny, it talks about a reporter who did the follow-up survey with people who did not return their forms for the Census and talked about some of the responses he got.
I liked reading both these articles. In some ways, both people's experiences were not unlike my time working for the Census (well, except the getting arrested for trespassing part). But what I like the most about working for the Census last year is that whenever I go running/walking around Silver Spring, practically no matter which direction I leave my apartment, I know that I helped to count the people that live around me. And that, I think, is pretty cool.
I read this article in the New York Times about how Loyola Law School Los Angeles has decided to add .333 points to each student's GPA to make each student more competitive on the job market. This will be done retroactively. While, to some extent, I sympathize with the law school and the students (the legal job market is not good right now), I do not think that this is the right way to go about doing it. First, a grade is a measure of performance, and if one artificially raises it, that measure of performance is severely damaged if not destroyed. Second, for Loyola Law School Los Angeles, after this New York Times article, I do not think that anyone will respect their students' transcripts ever again.
I hope Dickinson doesn't do this. The grade earned should be the one on the transcript.
My brother passed me this article, and I thought I'd post it to my blog. It's nice that Law & Order was such a lifeblood to actors who otherwise might not have been able to make ends meet. What the article doesn't mention, is that it also gave law students an excuse to watch television. I used to rationalize watching Law & Order by saying it was "educational."
See this blog entry, in which the author analyzes many of the applicable ethical rules that an attorney who tried to smite his client with a baseball bat violated. I think this may be the first blog entry in which I used the word "smite."
Yesterday (but not today), Google had the Olympic rings on its home page. Unfortunately for Google, the Olympic rings are protected by law. The law provides that no one but the United States Olympic Committee has the right to use the Olympic rings for "for the purpose of trade [or] to induce the sale of any goods or services..." Even if Google is not selling anything, I think that they are definitely using it for the purpose of trade. If you put aside the commercialization of the Olympics, keep in mind that corporations like Visa probably pay lots of money to use the Olympic rings in their logos. It's not right for Google to use the Olympic rings on its page without paying.
As an aside, I like the logos that Google is using, because of all the blue and the nice artistic syling. It's different from what they did for Beijing and Torino.
Google Scholar now has searchable legal opinions. They're not that comprehensive right now, but they have a primitive equivalent of Keyciting/Shephardizing.
Update:
Here's a link to Google's blog entry.
Here is a good video on Time Dollar Youth Court, which one of my friends works at. See:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hqp8MzJzm4M
I heard this piece on Marketplace the other day on downloading music illegally in France. While I think it's important that artists' rights are protected, I'm not entirely sure that I agree with the method that France is using. Summarily disconnecting someone from the Internet, without a court order, strikes me as a little bit draconian. The idea of monitoring someone's Internet use without a court order also strikes me as a little bit creepy. Comments?
There was an interesting article in the Times today about a Manhattan assistant district attorney who intentionally lost a case where he did not believe in the conviction. According to the Times article, the responsible court agency (which I presume is the First Department Disciplinary Committee) chose not to purse a case against Mr. Bibb. The case raised the question of what zealous representation means when one is a district attorney.
