Today a Superior Court in Rhode Island held the State of Rhode Island must reimburse almost $250,000 to the paint companies it sued for creating a public nuisance by selling lead paint years ago. State of Rhode Island v. Lead Industries Ass'n, No. PB/99-5226 (R.I. Super. Jan. 22, 2009).
News article here.
The expenses
President Barack Obama has said he wants judges who are sympathetic to the vulnerable and powerless.
When will change come?
If you wonder how quickly the new Obama administration can rebalance the philosophical bent of the lower federal courts, consider some statistics.
In his eight years in office, President George W. Bush filled 67 of the
President Barack Obama taking the oath of office. He and Chief Justice John Roberts repeat it — this time flawlessly — the next day.
Blawgletter's journal of the 56th Inaugural continues:
Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-68).
I know you are asking today, "How long will it take?" Somebody’s asking, "How long will prejudice blind the visions of men, darken their understanding, and drive bright-eyed wisdom from her sacred throne?" Somebody’s asking, "When will wounded justice, lying prostrate on the streets of Selma and Birmingham and
Blawgletter sits nine blocks from the White House at this moment. We thought we'd share some reportage from our first-ever inauguration observation:
Day 1, 3:17 p.m.: Very cold,
It's one thing to write opinion on matter of abstruse law. It's quite something else to write on whether something is or isn't a crime.
U.S. Attorney General, Michael Mukasey, interview, Jan. 16, 2009.
Did you know that inducing, taking, or publishing nekkid pictures of frolicking spring breakers could land the images-purveyor in a federal lawsuit for damages? If you didn't, now you do.
The Eleventh Circuit — which, yes, does include Daytona Beach, Florida — ruled yesterday that one such frolicker didn't have a claim despite video of her, er, involvement
Boston Scientific sued Cordis for making Cyper stents like this one.
Recall that KSR Int'l Co. v. Teleflex, Inc., 127 S. Ct. 1727 (2007) (see post), eased the test for patent-invalidating "obviousness" – whether a practitioner in the relevant art would have found the invention obvious in light of existing art. Pre-KSR decisions by the
This smart card uses radio frequency identification to expedite transactions.
The European Commission raided smart chip makers' premises last October. Smart chips go into smart cards, which can store and process data, and SIM cards, which identify the subscriber in cell phones and other telephony devices.
The press release of January 7, 2009
Catch your breath before going to the latest Deliberations post, which looks at a 1936 article by Clarence Darrow on "How to Pick a Jury".
Anne Reed there expresses proper horror at Darrow's categorizations, including our favorite, the Presbyterian, whom Darrow deems "as cold as the grave".
Baptists? Worse. Much worse.
