She should have just suffocated her husband by sitting on him.

Are her weight and girth really relevant?

Buh ha! Did everyone else see the ad for a weight loss clinic or something while the video was loading?

3:59, please spare us the political correctness.

The ABA Journal article (good article btw) calls Halverson "morbidly obese." If the MSM mentions it, surely an irreverent gossip blog can poke fun at her size.

"Are her weight and girth really relevant?"

It the totality of the circus, er, circumstances that "boundlessly" amuse.

I knew she was too fat to walk. Then I learned she was too fat to rub her own feet. NOW I learn that she is even too fat to breath. WOW!

I think morbidly obese is actually a clinical term...this is just mean!

3:59 sounds like he/she may have some extraneous junk in their metaphorical trunk.

yes, her weight and girth are relevant. That's part of what makes this amusing.

3:59: yes, highly.

Of course, if all else fails she could ingest Ed's body in one sitting....

I think she became a judge because the only professional attire that fits her is a tent, er, robe.

okay seriously--like there's not plenty to make fun of here besides her weight. I just don't get how the weight jokes make anything funnier. More pathetic and grade school like maybe...

4:14, you must have missed the picture of her on her scooter. That was pretty damn funny.

It is inconsistent to shut down comments because people are making untoward comments about the physical attractiveness of the legal couple du jour, but then engage in thoroughly vicious comments against someone who clearly has significant personal problems. If you're going to require your commenters to exercise restraint, you should set the tone, Lat. Don't get me wrong, the fact of the post itself is fine, the problem is its utter lack of restraint.

4:14, quite nice. i'm certain her new job will make keen use of the "any" key.

Dang, her ex secretary and law clerk are sexy!

Dang, her ex secretary and law clerk are sexy!

Imagine throwing some flour on her and looking for the wet sopt!!!!! Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!!!!!!!!

Rolling Thunder:

http://media.lvrj.com/images/1804560.jpg

forget the weight, check out her "sexy" clerk and secretary, that'll ruin your appetite

The posted Halverson photo shows a classic “bed head” doo….

4:18

The commenters' "utter lack of restraint" is nothing compared to this Judge's. Let's keep things in perspective. It is one thing to be fat, yet quite another to be too fat to breath without an oxygen tube.

She is a beached whale in the desert. How amusing. Maybe L2L should apply for this open job. . . . . oh wait, you had to goto USC or UCLA, sorry L2Loser

Actually, compared to the law clerk and secretary, Halverson is a goddess…which probably explains their hire…

One quick scroll through her brief indicates Jaba soon will be working on Tattooine. One of the points her attorneys argued is "NRS 1 .4675(3) IS CONSTITUTIONALLY VAUGE."

I think they meant to say unconstitutionally vague, but Nevada is a funny jurisdiction about which I know little.

4:18, judges are public figures. It's that simple.

In case you don't know, the legal standards governing what you can say about public figures and non-public-figures are different. It is not surprising that Lat runs a tighter ship when it comes to non-public-figures.

Also, you need to chillax. ATL has always been irreverent and politically incorrect. If you want more polite discourse, there are other sites you can visit.

You take your girl
And multiply her by four
Now a whole lotta woman
Needs a whole lot more

If you think the secretary LOOKS sexy, check out her voice on the video link next to the photo.

And she has a way with words:

""I did testify in front of the judicial committee and to be absolutely honest, I could have sat there stark-a** naked and recited the Gettysburg Address for as much attention as they paid to our testimony."

Stark ass naked? Yikes!!!!

Oh my g-d. She's not disabled, she's fat. She's so fat that even when she reached the point where she couldn't get up to walk to the fridge, despite her high iq, she kept eating. This is highly amusing and worthy of mockery.

The former secretaries look like two ladies one might find hunched over a dimly lit slot machine in Laughlin at 4:30 am on a Sunday morning chain-smoking Pall Malls.

4:40 pm: That's where the scooter comes in, silly....

Lat, I am disappointed beyond words at your post. To my mind, this is no different than making fun of someone who has MS or some other disability.

Really disgusting. You never know how your own kids are going to turn out. Karma comes around!

What philosophical difference is there between making fun of someone's weight, or making fun of their race, ethnicity, etc..

If you don't find the fact that this woman is 500 lbs funny and an integral part of the story, you're probably 500 lbs yourself.

3:59:

I agree with you; I don't see how her weight is relevant. I also think it is mean for you guys to be making fun of someone with an obvious disease. But what do I know; I am not half as obnoxious as most of you.

The secretary’s voice sounds like she smokes 5 packs of Pall Malls a day.

But I am not thinking casino, I am thinking honky-tonk or trailer park.

4:40 #1 you're right on. Then she says that her bailiff was concerned for her and had to cook b/c she "had to eat." Priceless.

Has anyone noticed that she's a little fat?

I heard she was in minneapolis when the bridge collapsed.

Lat:

I am very disappointed with your post; Making fun of someone's weight is very distasteful.

Lat:

I am very disappointed with your post; Making fun of someone's weight is very distasteful.

4:43: Face it, in your own way, you are more so.

I heard she was ON minneapolis when the bridge collapsed.

Wait, wait, wait, was she a great big fat person?

Are you about a size 14?

What philosophical difference is there between making fun of someone's weight, or making fun of their race, ethnicity, etc..

Very simple: you have control over weight, but not over race and ethnicity. With control comes responsibility, which is the entire basis for application of moral approbation.

Now, some people may be predisposed to have to work a lot harder than others to manage their weight, but we're not talking about a 160-pound woman here, or even a 200-pound woman. It's her fault she's disgustingly fat.

"What philosophical difference is there between making fun of someone's weight, or making fun of their race, ethnicity, etc."

Because in former case one can do somthing about it OTHER THAN smply elect to ride in a scooter and get even more fat.

I heard she ate a defendant in a criminal case. She's unfit to be a judge.

Put the f*cking lotion in the basket, 4:53!

She has no regard for due process. In Nevada, you can't eat a defendant prior to arraignment.

Thanks Lat. This may have made my day.

I would love to hear her "scooter" move her about. Did that thing run on diesel?

4:45, 4:47 LOL

All of you people complaining are what is wrong with our country. It is NOT ok to weigh 500 lbs. I appreciate some people who are overweight actually do have medical disorders (that cause the weight gain- as opposed to the many cases where it is the other way around) but so many people simply think it is ok not to take care of themselves that it has become ok to be fat and be comfortable with it, and not ok to think it is not ok. This woman is horrendously overweight, and not so unprivileged it couldn't be somewhat addressed by medical attention if she wanted it to be.

Additionally- if you are this fat, whatever the reason, you pretty much should know you HAVE to be nice to people. You know exactly what they will say about you if they hate you- fat jokes. So it's not like she didn't ask for this, being such a complete and total bitch to so many people.

Can we go back to laughing now?

There are secretaries at my law firm that are this obese and the bathroom smells of the most disgusting stench when they leave the stall. In fact, it permeates the entire bathroom. It's one of the worst smells ever. And I'm not talking about what they do in the bathroom...the stench is coming from 'down there.' Honestly, how do you even get that fat? If my pants are too tight I don't get new ones, I LOSE WEIGHT! What's the deal...

Anyways, she makes me sick. If she were a good person I would overlook her repulsive appearance, but apparently she doesn't even have personality going for her...or brains for that matter.

I wish I had 2 more hands so I could give those titties 4 thumbs down.

Hello: It’s not just the weight. It’s the yard that was declared a public nuisance. It’s the ex-felon husband. It’s her reference to court staff as “bitches”. Calling her former law clerk a “faux Jew”. Its not only the improper ex-parte contact with deliberating juries, it’s the MASSIVE rib and Italian dinners Halverson shared with them while blithely chatting way about the law, oblivious to basic judicial ethics and without informing the defense or prosecution until afterward. It’s the California appeal she prosecuted before moving to NV, with an AOB typed in all capital letters and without record citations. Its that to this day she doesn’t have a clue why she is being “picked on”. It’s the whole picture. And the highly unusual fact that she weighs 500 lb and rides a scooter is a part of that picture.

And the picture is that of a CLOWN.

5:00 I agree. She set herself up for this. Fat people pretty much have to be nice... plus, i heard she ate Jon Benet Ramsey. It's all coming together now.

I wash myself with a rag on a stick.

If I were her husband, I'd ask the bailiff to shoot me as well.
Although the fat jokes are very amusing, I have to say, 4:47-Not Cool, and not funny.

5:03: In light of you’re experience, consider that Halverson's microwave was in her chambers bathroom, and that is where she ordered bailiff Johnny Jordan to heat up her lunch just right...

No wonder Jordan cried while recounting his ordeal on the witness stand…

Maybe I am going to hell for this, but I laughed out loud at 4:47.

Lat, you suck. This was really nasty and totally inappropriate. ("The Las Vegas Review-Journal published a story this morning that basically places the final nail in the (425) 500 lb jurist’s (cavernous coffin) career.")

Heaven forbid someone make a comment about associates wearing huge afros at Clearly. That's dreadful. But being fat and requiring a cavernous coffin? Totally cool. You're sick.

Where are all the Bigot labelers now?

I heard she went into a restuarant and ate all the food in the restuarant and they had to close the restuarant.

How many whole fryers and farm animals must this woman consume in a 24 hour period?

5:16 GOOD ONE!

That reminds me of that Jewish joke . . . did you hear about the Jew who went to the restaurant . . . ha ha ha . . . oh, oh, oh . . . or man, have you heard about the black at the restaurant . . . gets me every time.

You people are sick.

5:16 for some reason that was hilarious.

On a serious note, the out of control weight is relevant because this judge was, well, out of control. How can someone that can't even keep themselves thin enough to walk on their own be responsible for upholding the law?

This post is not out of line at all. What's out of line are these people apologizing for this woman's outrageousness.

Did you hear the one about the sititng judge who ordered her bailiff to shoot her ex-felon husband, then offered to dispose of the corpse, then went on TV and cried?

"Morbidly Obsese" is not a suspect classification. Not even intermediate scrutiny.

I say laugh away.

So if no fat jokes, can we at least make fun of her hair, then? I mean, what is up with the hair standing straight up on one side? Does she even comb her hair? or does eating take up all her time before work, I mean, oops....

Ralph Wiggum, I heard that it was an all you can eat buffet and that they closed the restaurant as a preemptive measure.

I don't like a lot of the comments that end up on the wedding threads or the comments that were made about that Schulte partner's wife the other day, but I don't feel particularly bad about making fun of someone who openly talks about disposing of her husband's corpse. Congrats to the holier than thou people who spend their days reading a gossip blog and then scold others for making unproductive or inappropriate comments, though. Job well done!

She needs oxygen for heaven's sake! At some point, after she was already to fat to walk, she made it to the doctor and instead of asking for help losing weight so she could walk again, she asked for oxygen so she could keep eating!

Yes, this lack of judgment is relevant.

I wonder if the state had to install a Tommy Lift to get her fat ass up to the bench.

5:25: Hint: She may have been sleeping just prior to being photographed. See, e.g, the post.

If Judge Hefty's, er, Halverson's chambers got any more white trash, they'd have to adjudicate from a trailer park.

5:37: Its called "accomodation".

Free steak knives with a gastric bypass!

That's a huuuge bitch.

I used to be 5-5 and 180 pounds. I was fat.

People made fun of me. And I am grateful to them.

Because of the social stigma attached to being fat, I dieted and exercised. I lost weight.

I am now at a normal weight. I am healthier and I will live longer than I would have if I had remained fat.

So to everyone who makes fun of fat people, thank you. You are performing a service to society.

Being ridiculously fat is not a victimless crime, for example:

- Really fat people smell bad and waft unpleasant odors wherever they go;

- Really fat people frequently have to sit down next to other people, which results in fatness getting all over everyone; and

- Really fat people make loud grunting, gasping and smacking noises that create sound pollution everywhere they go.

6:04, anyone who was ever fat is disgusting. Nice try.

Right on, Ex-Fat Person (6:04).

We have an obesity epidemic in this nation that is contributing to a health care crisis. If we lose the stigma attached to obesity, that crisis will only worsen.

6:04

You are also short.

Damn! I had an interview with Judge Elizabeth, she said I would be here "special" clerk. I wonder what this would have entailed?

L2L,

She wouldn't hire you b/c you are a lame Loyola 2L and probably wouldn't know how to use a microwave (or claim everyone else figured it out quicker due to unfairness). Are you related to Halverson?

Do you think it is possible to 69 Halverson? I mean, how would you even reach her coochie?

Being fat is contagious, like the plague. Fat people should be avoided (if at all possible). If that is not an option, fat people should be reminded that they are a visual/financial burden to society.

As a for instance, I wonder who pays for her oxygen tank refills.

RE: 4:32---I can't believe you are bringing Mika into this. Only a certain type of man could sing that song....

Yeah, scotch and guns, a man who loves fatties!

6:31: I would not touch that commnet with a ten foot pole.

6:31 -- it would require Cirque du Soleil-style maneuvering.

you can't help being a minority. you can't help being gay. making jokes about factors like that is a sign of small thinking.

you CAN put down the bag of fucking nachos so that you don't get so fat you can't walk or breath without mechanical assistance. you CAN treat people with dignity if you're in an office of high power. if you fail to accomplish either of those tasks, are are a vile excuse for a human being, i think jokes are totally fair.

this fat bitch deserves to go down, just like her life expectancy has gone down with each snickers bar she ingests.

That's a huge bitch!

I know that spelling police comments are about as unpopular as fat jokes with some people, but I'm surprised at how many comments on this thread talk about Halverson's inability to "breath" without assistance.

The way she acted proves that she is a bitch. The way she looks proves that she is a FAT BITCH.

Just like a moped...fun to use, until your friends see you riding one.

"you CAN put down the bag of fucking nachos so that you don't get so fat you can't walk or breath without mechanical assistance."

180!

Of course her weight and girth are relevant. A skinny woman wouldn't have been left with abusive ex-cons as marriage material.

This woman will be dead soon and good riddance.

I have a feeling that it is not the "ex-con" who is on the "abusive" side of the relationship, but he certainly goes with the filthy yard, the chambers trash talk, and the trailer-park personal staff.

On another subject, anyone know how I can get Halverson's recipe for barbequed ribs?

Her deliberating criminal juries love-um.

TELL 'EM LARGE MARGE SENT YA!

She has an ass growing from underneath her chin!

It is my understanding that fat asses like this are superior at giving oral sex.... I may try that...

This thread is officially dead.

Just the scavengers at this point...

Hey! She's kind of fat!

So judges can be made fun of because they are public figures, but people who put wedding announcements in the New York Times, and post photos of their ridiculously costumed dogs on their wedding internet page, cannot be made fun of because...why?

Totally ridiculous Lat.

The only thing missing from that picture is Carrie Fisher, chained to her while wearing a metal bikini.

06:53: Small thinking? You are a TOTAL MORON. Food addiction. Can't help that. Food disorders that prevent your brain from knowing it's full. Can't help that. Why don't you learn a little about what being truly obese means and then write your smug, idiotic opinions.

And if the only test for whether bigotry is acceptable is whether you can "help" being something, I guess that means it's open season on religion jokes. Jews, Mormons, Catholics . . . let's go! Hey, let's reopen the debate on whether being gay is nature or nuture.

But let's be nice to stupid people . . . because they can't help it.

YOU'RE A MORON.

8:00 -- Great idea, making fun of mormons is even more fun than making fun of fat people!

Flock Of Seagulls called - they want their hair back........

I heard she wears a Hefty Cinch Sack for her judicial robe.

Those yellow drawstrings must look so tacky . . .

Some people have metabolism problems, and some people have weight issues incidental to other medical conditions. This situation, however, suggests mental illness (and, true, we shouldn't mock the mentally ill). No one pities anorexics for UNDER-eating - no one supports that choice they make. Why should anyone support the morbidly obese in their decision to OVER-eat? Get your butt to a nutritionist and stick to the f-ing plan.

Addicts of any kind should not be molly-coddled. What a poor, poor alcoholic! He shouldn't be forced to stop drinking, because it's an addiction! Poor, poor smoker - it's OK to pollute the air for all of us, because you're addicted.

But, everyone is right. Morbidly obese or no, she's unfit for the bench for numerous reasons unrelated to her physical appearance.

For those of you who just joined us, the above posts fall into four categories:

1. Funny albeit a tad cruel;

2. The moralists who decry the post;

3. Those who argue against the moralists;

4. Psychotic, unfunny, mean spirited trolls. (Probably high school students.)

The first category petered out after the first 80 or so posts.

You may now scroll down to the nearest associate benefits post.

Actually we should be cheering her as she obviously has beaten anorexia. She looked straight into the pit of that disease and beat it to a pulp with a club (sandwich).

does anyone have the link for the scooter picture?

I was just imagining having to have a crane installed in my bedroom to lower her down over my face so I could chow her box without risk of injury. If I'm lucky, maybe I will find a slice of pizza or a pepperoni stick in her rolls.

How many of you young associates had to Google "Flock of Seagulls"?

i hope she reads this and changes her ways. starting with diet soda (and a mpre study guide).

No question - I'd hit it.

I would ride her 'til she bucked me.

This phuckin' cow has no business on the bench. Any public official should be in reasonably good shape - you know, promote a positive image. She's probably on the seefood diet - she sees food and she eats it. On a different note, I'll bet she's great in the sack!

7:46 (and everyone else who wants to talk trash about the NYT wedding pages couples):

You can start a blog for free and talk trash. You can go to AutoAdmit and talk trash.

But Lat is not obligated to let you use his website to talk trash. Esp. if it might get him and the company he works for sued.

Judges are public figures as a matter of law. People whose weddings are written up in the NYT, not so much.

9:07, here is the pic of Halverson on her scooter:

http://media.lvrj.com/images/1804560.jpg

found the scooter pic, for anyone who wants to relive: http://media.lvrj.com/images/1804560.jpg

9:52 / 9:55, thanks.

Karma will surely make me 300 pounds some day, but I laugh every time I see that picture. It is just too ridiculous.

That video clip of the two former assistants of Halverson is hilarious.

But why is there so much footage of their gnarled hands and nasty nails?

The whole thing is a freak show, including the female news anchor's outfits.

10:19: In Las Vegas these woman are average looking. Perfectly acceptable.

Note also how they dressed up to be interviewed on TV.

9:30: Great argument. Seriously. Great argument. Conclusory statements such as "People whose weddings are written up in the NYT, not so much..." always convince.

And I love how you make it seem that the people in the wedding announcements are passive participants. Like the announcement happened to them; they "caught a case" as it were. Absurd. These couples ask to be in the NYT. They offer themselves up for public ridicule. As other posters have noted, wedding announcements in the NYT are officially tacky.

It's much worse to make fun of this unfortunately obese woman than d-bags who dress up their dogs in stupid outfits and plaster their images across major media to boost their terrible self-esteem. How comments like those present in this thread continue, but one comment about the attractiveness or relative social cluelessness of successful, rich, physically healthy people is grounds for closing a post is beyond me.

Just saying there's no way to justify one and not the other.

BTW

11:45: What?

Elizabeth Halverson ran for elected office in Nevada. Twice. Controversially.

Her judicial wages are being garnished pursuant to a $42,000 judgment against her. Commencing from her swearing in, she was in violation of a County order to abate the filthy condition of her yard and pool, deemed a nusance. She married a three time felon, who did 3 years in prison. For things like burglary, gun possession, and cocaine. While he was on parole.

She used language in chambers like “bitch” in front of staff and to refer to her husband and court personnel. She commented that certain attorneys cannot win because they did not contribute to her campaign. She fell asleep on the bench. During trial testimony. She falsely accused the court executive officer of “assault”.

Halverson was abusive to staff, and regularly dined with deliberating jurors—out of the presence of the attorneys—during which time she entertained freewheeling legal questions and discussions.

She became embroiled in three high profile lawsuits and an appeal (two of which she initiated) and is the second judge in the history of Nevada to be removed on an interim basis to protect the public. (The first was under indictment.)

It was just revealed TODAY that she fell asleep every day in court and asked her bailiff (the same guy who had to lint roll her robe, rub her feet, rub her neck, and micro-wave her food in her smelly chambers bathroom) TO KILL HER EX-FELON HUSBAND and offered to dispose of the body, and that has been testified to in a very high profile case and revealed in news reports today, including in the national legal media.

She went on TV and accused her former clerk of corruption, then got sued for libel.

And yes, she is (to my knowledge) is the only trial judge in the history of the world to 1) weigh 500+ pounds AND 2) zip around on a scooter.

The points are these:

1. She is at least a qualified public figure.

2. Comments are further and independently privileged if related to any of the on-going legal proceedings.

3. She is a circus freak on all levels, due to her volitional conduct. She is NOT an “unfortunate obese woman” or some kind of a victim.

4. None of the above bears any resemblance to a couple Yale graduates who announce their wedding in the Times.

Did you sleep through constitutional law or what?

8:00- I agree. Making fun of religion is always acceptable. Scratch that. Make that preferable.

Notice the fancy quotation marks in 12:16 a.m.'s post, particularly compared to the straight quotation marks in 11:45 p.m.'s. Looks like someone's drafting his comments in Word and pasting them into ATL comments -- which is a pretty good sign that he's taking the whole blog commenting thing a tad too seriously. (Even if I did get a good laugh from how he pwned 11:45.)

Look, just like this judge is a public figure, if you TAKE A PHOTO, WRITE A BIO, and SEND IT IN TO THE GLOBE'S PAPER OF RECORD, THE NY TIMES, it should be open season on you.

This is not to say, of course, that Lat cannot delete whatever he wants on his own blog. But the idea that it's more illegitimate to mock the looks of an NYT vows pager than this women I think is bizarre.

11:45: Sometimes statements are conclusory because they are so obviously true. Like "George Washington was the first president of the United States."

11:45 and 8:41: Maybe you haven't studied defamation law, but "public figure" is a term of art. A high-profile, controversial elected judge, who is the subject of allegations of misconduct, is a public figure.

A husband and wife whose wedding is featured in the NYT are not public figures (unless they were public figures before the wedding). They are not even "limited-purpose public figures," since they (generally) are not trying to influence any public debate by appearing in the paper (generally, because some people try to use their write-up as a plug for some cause or issue).

OK, let me express this in terms you might understand:

There are two kids of “public figures”.

To be a public figure for all purposes, once must have achieved “pervasive fame or notoriety”. (Gertz v. Robert Welch, Inc. (1974) 418 U.S. 323, 351.) Arguably Judge Halverson is such, but clearly a young couple whose only publicity to date is a wedding announcement in the NYT is not.

To characterize a plaintiff as a limited purpose public figure, the courts must first find that there was a public controversy. Not every private conflict that attracts widespread interest in the general public is considered to be a “public controversy” for this purpose. (Time, Inc. v. Firestone (1976) 424 U.S. 448, 454, 96 S.Ct. 958, 47 L.Ed.2d 154.)

In Firestone, for example, the Supreme Court found that the ex-wife of “the scion of one of America's wealthier industrial families” ( id. at p. 450, 96 S.Ct. 958) was not a limited purpose public figure, even though her divorce case was highly publicized and she held press conferences during the course of the divorce proceedings. ( Id. at p. 454, 96 S.Ct. 958, fn. 3.) The court reasoned: “Dissolution of a marriage through judicial proceedings is not the sort of ‘public controversy’ referred to in Gertz, even though the marital difficulties of extremely wealthy individuals may be of interest to some portion of the reading public.” ( Id. at p. 454, 96 S.Ct. 958.)

The United States Supreme Court has not specifically defined the meaning of a “public controversy.” However, the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia has defined the term to mean “a dispute that in fact has received public attention because its ramifications will be felt by persons who are not direct participants.” ( Waldbaum v. Fairchild Publications, Inc. (D.C.Cir.1980) 627 F.2d 1287, 1296 ( Waldbaum ).) “If the issue was being debated publicly and if it had foreseeable and substantial ramifications for nonparticipants, it was a public controversy.” ( Id. at p. 1297.) The Waldbaum formulation of a public controversy has been followed in California. ( Copp v. Paxton, supra, 45 Cal.App.4th at p. 845, 52 Cal.Rptr.2d 831.)

By this definition, A COUPLE SENDING A WEDDING ANNOUNCEMENT TO THE TIMES JUST CANNOT BE CONSIDERED EVEN A LIMITED PUBLIC FIGURE.

Therefore, if one of these couples (for example) files a doe complaint for libel and compels discovery of your IP address, and from there your identity, and you have disparaged them, you are fair game as a defendant.

If you don’t get it now either you are not a lawyer or have no hope of passing the bar. Or took the bar with Halverson in Nevada.

9:21: This is not simply about who is or is not a public figure. The comments by the guy above and others who criticize Bash are made only because these losers like to bash people people who are more successful and otherwise more fortunate than they are. If the comments turn into a hatefest by liberal underachievers from low-ranked schools making random hateful and immature comments against people who are actually impressive, that just doesn't look good for ATL. I don't think that Lat has an obligation to tolerate this on his blog (though he does seem to tolerate this to a very large extent, which is fine too), and that would still be true if Bash were a public figure.

VEGAS BABY, VEGAS!

This whole public figure debate is silly and pointless (and pathetic if ppl are drafting their comments in Word).

There was nothing defamatory posted on either thread. Saying someone is fat, or "busted," is not libelous, so a public figure/First Amendment defense would never have to be considered.

Didn't they also teach you in Con Law that courts don't rule on constitutionality if there is another ground for disposing the case?

10:08 is right. Truth is an absolutely defense to libel. Saying that Halverson weighs 500 pounds is not actionable.

(That's no exaggeration. It was mentioned in past news coverage.)

Given the prissy intolerance on this site for the most minor spelling errors—which are then cited as a reflection on the intelligence of the poster—either one has to either waste time proof reading OR compose in word then cut and paste. (No spell check here.) Maybe that’s a Vault 100 thing, I don’t know. (I suspect not.)

In any event, several obstinate individuals on this site insisted on grousing because Lat closed a thread on NYT legal wedding couples and also stated that it is fair game to disparage them, because they sent in their wedding announcements and photos to the times, AND THAT IT IS NO DIFFERENT THAN COMMENTING ABOUT PUBLIC FIGURE HALVERSON.

Simple logic was not sufficient to disabuse these posters.

So one clicks on Westlaw and delivers a definitive legal conclusion. Low and behold, “public figure” is indeed a term of art. How surprising.

If that post (and this) is “pathetic[ly]” composed on word, so be it. Put it where the moon don’t shine.

Either way, you’re still talking out of your ass.

Did anyone notice that she's fat?

-- ET!

12:45: Yes.

She's huge. In fact, her ass is so big the crew of the space shuttle Endeavour suspended repair efforts to view her ass, which is visible from outer space.

Sorry, I just couldn't help myself.

Actually, I really feel sorry for her. Yep, her behavior was pretty atrocious, and she shouldn't get a free pass because she's ... well, ... large. But it DID kind of look like her secretary was "fixing" tickets on court time, and her beating the chief judge's husband in an election kind of supports the theory that CJ was out to get her. IMHO, I think she's prolly a really smart woman who was really, really insecure, and handled it in spectacularly bad fashion.

-- ET!

How did they determine her weight? I don't think I have ever seen a scale (for people) that went past 350 lbs. Did she have to go to a vet? Water displacement? Perhaps the roadside weigh station?

there's nothing libelous about making fun of a couple for what they do to their dog, or opinions about how annoying they are. people weren't calling them "fags" or some other derogatory term that has a relation to fact. weren't even calling them ugly. the comments mostly seemed to be opinions about how annoying the winning couple looked. you can't sue someone for expressing an opinion. and don't you think these really successful people can take it? much more so than someone with obvious mental problems? why allow opinions about head cases but not supreme court clerks?

Lat, you prick. You make fun of a fat woman, but then delete comments and close threads when people make fun of how the people in the picture looks. You suck.

LOL.. so, let me get this right. An Officer of the court and baliff Johnny Jordan reports the Judge told him to shoot her husband and he NEVER reports it? He states in the hearing he did not know if she was serious and he IGNORED it? LOL... ok.. yeah, I believe you Johnny.

And now, the intellectual Johnny Jordan wants us to believe the Judge fell asleep in court DAILY. Yet, no one complained. No Attorneys, No defendants, No Plaintiffs? The judge is asleep and everybody just does what? Waits till she wakes up?

What a crock of shtt.

You people are so gulliable. LOL...

The court system is so corrupt, and all you can talk about is Judge Halverson's size.

Speaking of which, I am just curious who weighed this Judge? How do we know she is 500 lbs? Grow up.

Dear August 17, 2007 06:28 PM:

As an avid reader of this site, your post does not ring true.

Your stiff ( and too frequent) use of “lol”, your focus on the nuances of the story, all flag your post as public relations spin by the Halversonites.

I am sure you have read this recent R. J. commentary, but I respectfully suggest you re-read it.

http://www.lvrj.com/opinion/9112626.html

Shame on all you pepole who made fun of Judge Halverson have you no respect for public figure . no one has the right to make fun of enyone this could be your mother or sister or family shame on you how would you feel if it was your family

Shame on all you pepole who made fun of Judge Halverson have you no respect for public figure . no one has the right to make fun of enyone this could be your mother or sister or family shame on you how would you feel if it was your family