John Yoo wrote memos that purported to legalize aggressive interrogation techniques in the service of national security and the war on terror.
Today the WSJ published a piece in which Mr. Yoo opined that "Obama Made a Rash Decision on Gitmo" – referring to President Barack Obama's executive order directing closure of part of the U.S.
State Senator Christine Radogno (R-Ill.)
He gives a good speech. He’s a performer. He’s very good at that. Perhaps he can get a job in the arts.
Illinois State Senator Christine Radogno, Jan. 29, 2009, referring in a NYT interview to Governor Rod Blagojevich's closing statement before the Illinois Senate a few hours before his
The Flying Spaghetti Monster.
Blawgletter has remarked on how so dadburn much litigation flows from arbitration. We've even called the phenomenon arbitragation. Today we find ourselves drowning in it again.
Let's start with the Ninth Circuit case. Improv West alleged in an arbitration that Comedy Club and Al Copeland Investments lost their exclusive license to use
Blawgletter learned today that the U.S. government may go to court to "arrest" money on deposit in an overseas bank and seek forfeiture of the funds on the ground that they resulted from conduct that violated federal criminal law. We also discovered, thanks to the D.C. Circuit, that a third party claimant may contest forfeiture by arguing
Al Capone didn't confess to racketeering.
Today Blawgletter takes up the Bernard L. Madoff scandal. First we rhetorically bash the Securities and Exchange Commission; then we speculate on what made Mr. Madoff such a exquisitely good defrauder.
The SEC has an unerring sense for the capillary
We read yesterday, in the WSJ, that the
Does section 3 of the federal Arbitration Act mandate a stay of litigation pending arbitration not only as to parties that entered into an arbitration agreement but also as to parties that didn't?
The Third Circuit said nosir — and noted its disagreement with the Fifth Circuit on that point. Mendez v. Puerto Rican
This image appears on the first page of Steven Pinker's Harvard bio.
Steven Pinker wrote last week about why two of the country's smartest lawyers stumbled over the 36-word presidential oath of office. Professor Pinker's explanation? "[B]lowback from Chief Justice Roberts’s habit of grammatical niggling."
The Harvard don sets the scene thus:
On
After a six-month hiatus, Blawgetter's award-winning sister publication, Barnett's Notes on Commercial Litigation, has a new issue. Behold its features:
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Have you ever wondered why a lawsuit that has turned uneconomic — i.e., the cumulative historical cost dwarfs any reasonable estimate of the possible gain — keeps motoring along? Seventh Circuit Judge Richard Posner offered an answer in an opinion yesterday. He said:
For 22 years these parties and their predecessors have been litigating, in numerous lawsuits in
Expect to see more CEOs (like Bill Gates here) having to answer monopolization charges.
Blawgletter has made no secret of our disappointment with antitrust law enforcement over the last eight years. (Lookie here and here, for example.) We've also guessed that an Obama administration would get tougher on monopolists and cartels.
Today, the rumor