Each state regulates gambling and marital bliss in its own way. South Carolina, for example, doesn’t truck with gambling much at all. And Utah has "forever prohibited" plural or polygamous marriages.
But what happens when somebody goes to federal court to challenge such state laws as unconstitutional? Two circuit court decisions from today and yesterday
Do you ever tire of reading federal court of appeals opinions? How about Blawgletter’s handy-dandy encapsulizations of same? If you do — and nobody would blame you — perhaps you ought to try beer pong.
In today’s WSJ, Shelly Banjo (awesome name!) gives the low-down on "the popular campus drinking game". Ms. Banjo helpfully includes
Who will replace Alberto Gonzales as U.S. Attorney General?
A gaggle of names has emerged, and just about all the list-makers include Senior Circuit Judge Laurence H. Silberman. Judge Silberman has sat on the D.C. Circuit since Ronald Reagan appointed him in 1985. He also has tons of other government experience. So Blawgletter thought
The Seventh Circuit today affirmed a district court’s ruling on whether a party to an international arbitration missed the deadline for appointing one of three arbitrators. The parties’ agreement required each side to make its appointment "by" a certain time — within 30 days. The two arbitrators would then pick the third. The end of
On August 24, the day after it dissolved an adminstrative injunction, the D.C. Circuit issued a scheduling order that "deferred" the "briefing in this case . . . pending further order of the Court." Federal Trade Comm’n v. Whole Foods Market, Inc., No. 07-5276 (D.C. Cir. Aug. 24, 2007).
Blawgletter doesn’t know the
The Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act bars most suits against, well, foreign sovereigns. The Republic of Lebanon disqualified American Telecom as a bidder on a contract to manage cellular telephone networks in the Cedar Republic. American Telecom sued Lebanon in federal court. It based jurisdiction on the FSIA’s "commercial activity" exception to immunity. But that exception
The WSJ reports this afternoon that Bill Lerach "is retiring from his law firm, according to the firm."
His firm’s press release pretty much seals the deal.
Blawgletter said pretty much the same thing in May.
Barry Barnett
Blawgletter reported last month on a case in which the trial judge refused to ask potential jurors about their views on tort reform. It’s happened again — and with the same result.
In Chlopek v. Federal Ins. Co., No. 06-2927 (7th Cir. Aug. 28, 2007), the Chlopeks tried their amputation-of-a-big-toe claim to a jury.
The Fifth Circuit today affirmed an interlocutory judgment that held Union Pacific potentially responsible for clean-up of contamination on all contiguous tracts in a former railroad yard. The plaintiff, Consolidated Companies, bought part of the old yard and used the property for a food warehouse and distribution facility. Conco later discovered fuel oil and other
