The first Monday in October arrives in three weeks — on October 1, 2007. And, as U.S. Supreme Court junkies know, then begins the Court’s October 2007 Term.
Blawgletter counts seven Supreme Court cases that fall within, or near, the zone we think of as "commercial". We offer the following preview:
Preemption
Riegel v. Medtronic
Linda Greenhouse over at the NYT has an article today on proposals to end life tenure for U.S. Supreme Court justices. The main one would appoint justices for 18-year terms, after which they’d remain federal judges but wouldn’t regularly sit on the Court. Ms. Greenhouse cites several books and articles, including UT law professor Sanford
Chief Joseph (1840-1904).
On October 5, 1877, Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce said in surrendering to General Nelson Appleton Miles:
Hear me, my chiefs! I am tired. My heart is sad and sick. From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever.
Barry Barnett
Blawgletter hates most uses of the past participle verb form. To us, you see, the past participle almost always signals the passive voice, which we dread.
Why does past participle equal passive voice?
We’ll skip over the passive voice thing, about which we ranted last week. The truncation will allow us to focus on how
Genuine quotes from actual Blawgletter readers:
10. "Brilliant"
9. A "laugh riot"
8. "Entertaining"
7. "Iconoclastic"
6. "One of my daily reads"
5. "Funny, creative stuff"
4. "Well worth your time"
3. "Humorous and clever"
2. "Interesting and timely"
1. "Beats a poke in the eye with a sharp stick"
Blawgletter made the last one
The Washington Post reports that former Solicitor General Theodore B. Olson may get the presidential nod next week to replace the resigning Alberto Gonzales as the next Attorney General.
The story quotes a Senate aide as saying that "[a] lot of Democrats up here would view that as a shocking and unwise choice."
Barry Barnett
Payors claim they overpaid for Vioxx prescriptions.
On Thursday, the Supreme Court of New Jersey decertified "a nationwide class of third-party non-government payors" in a consumer fraud case against pharmaceutical maker Merck. The payors alleged that Merck fraudulently induced them to overpay for prescriptions of the anti-inflammatory drug Vioxx. Int’l Union of Operating Engineers
The Second Circuit today invalidated the New York Mercantile Exchange’s claim of copyright in the "settlement prices" of commodity futures contracts. NYMEX estimates settlement prices for a great many contracts at the end of each day and publishes the results. IntercontinentalExchange, Inc., copied the NYMEX prices and used them to clear its customers’ trades. The
A party, Pertamina, loses an arbitration in Switzerland. It reacts by getting an Indonesian court to annul the award, but the Supreme Court of Indonesia reverses the annulment order. The winning party, Karaha Bodas Company, successfully moves in a Texas federal court to confirm the award. The Fifth Circuit upholds the confirmation. KBC registers the
Rocky kept debt collection fair.
Blawgletter’s heart swelled with pride today as we read the Third Circuit’s decision rejecting an ex-lawyer’s claim that the Fair Debt Collections Practices Act didn’t reach his repulsive behavior. His fertile — or febrile — mind birthed the notion that the FDCPA doesn’t apply to companies that buy NSF (non-sufficient