* Thou shalt not kidnap your child to keep her from getting married. [CNN]
* This really happened? [CNN]
* Supreme Court takes antitrust case involving investment banks. [New York Times]
* Specter introduces legislation designed to blunt the effects of the Thompson memo. [WSJ Law Blog]
* Same-sex marriage still legal, eh? [Reuters via Yahoo!]
Kids
- Arlen Specter, Bad Ideas, Canada, Deaths, Gay Marriage, Kids, Morning Docket, SCOTUS, Senate Judiciary Committee, Supreme Court, Violence, Weddings, White-Collar Crime
Morning Docket: 12.08.06
By Billy Merck
* Let’s see…a corrupt Laguardia Community College instructor on the one hand, and students dumb enough to think that a slightly better grade in computer science will compensate for the fact that they attend Laguardia Community College…I won’t comment, lest you think I’m elitist or something. [Newsday]
* Sponsoring babies, but not the Sally Struthers way. [Madisonian]
* And another way in which babies can pay off. [Cookie; The Poop]
* We too are hoping the judge’s mishandling of this case comes back to bite shoot him in the ass. [Legal Reader]
* So Tom Brady is like one of 5 football players I actually recognize. (I’m exaggerating of course — I’m counting Tiki Barber as two.) Well, he’s suing Yahoo! for improperly using his image in its promotion of Fantasy Football. (Which is strange since he did not sue SNL for skits that made him look as interesting as a brick.) [The Smoking Gun]
- Biglaw, Boutique Law Firms, Crime, Fashion, Fat People, Holidays and Seasons, Kids, Malpractice, Non-Sequiturs, Solo Practitioners, Tobacco / Smoking, Tort Reform
Non-Sequiturs: 12.06.06
By Stella Q* Pity the petty, Tommy Bahama-wearing victims of the defectively long and narrow armrests of Metro-North commuter trains. [New York Times]
* Dr. Daniel goes to prison after lubing up the Beverly Hills ladies… in a bad way. [Los Angeles Times]
* Small firms are great and all, but can they afford the luxury of a Holiday Extravaganza in the cafeteria? [Build a Solo Practice, LLC]
* A crime against the Christmas spirit? No, just a mom charging her kid with petty larceny. [The Smoking Gun via CrimLaw]
* Remember that ninth-grade health ed presentation on the dangers of smoking, with the gross photos of cancerous lungs? That is when the statute of limitations should start running. (The SOL in trans-fat cases, because it’s only a matter of days now, should run the day you realize you can’t see your penis anymore.) [Point of Law]
* This, this, and this from How Appealing on the race in public schools cases argued before the Supreme Court yesterday.
* And for the second straight day, someone blames their crime on bingo. [CNN]
* A “temporary” solution for being burned out on biglaw. [WSJ Law Blog]
* I guess this is kinda like the flip-side of using someone as a human shield. [CNN]
* Always get it in writing, especially when it comes to constitutions. [Jurist]
* LexisNexis paid someone to conclude that 71 percent of adults who have never witnessed some pot-bellied schmuck leering at a female intern at the office holiday party were probably passed out near the punch bowl, or singing Don’t Stop Believin’ on the karaoke stage. [Martindale-Hubbell’s Lawyers.com]
* And here we were worried that all of these social sites would make shut-ins of our bright young kids. [NorthJersey.com via CrimProf Blog]
* This time, it’s okay to throw out the lawyer with the bathwater. [f/k/a]
* All we know is that the Aristocrats joke is not protected, probably because every version is vile and really not that funny. Of course, many comedians would disagree. [Hollywood Reporter]
- Crime, Deaths, Family Law, Fast Food, Intellectual Property, Kids, Non-Sequiturs, Patents, Sex, Supreme Court, Tort Reform
Non-Sequiturs: 11.28.06
By Stella Q* Thesauruses can still do the trick. Who knows if I would have passed AP English without one? On the other hand, one of the perks of public high schools is having your Cliffs Notes-cribbed essay graded by a teacher qualified only to teach woodshop and coach girls’ softball. [New York Times]
* What would the Supreme Court say about McDonald’s plans to patent its sandwich-making process? [CNN Legal Pad]
* Ah, law school flirting is just so cute. [Overheard in New York]
* While the poodles seem to be safe, babies, sadly, are not. [WCSH Portland]
* Blood money, in a way. Because someone killed my will to love. [Newsweek via Overlawyered]
Some happy news from New Haven, Connecticut. Seriously.
It’s about Asha Rangappa, Assistant Dean of Admissions at Yale Law School — and here at ATL, better known as the winner of our recent Hottest Law School Deans contest. Check out this memo, from YLS Dean Harold Koh:
To: Yale Law School Community
From: Harold Hongju KohIf you have not already heard the wonderful news, I am delighted to report that Asha Rangappa and Andrew Dodd’s new baby boy, Paras Nikhil Dodd arrived on November 21, 2006! (He was instantly named “America’s Hottest Law Baby.”)
Baby Paras weighed in at 8 pounds even, 22 inches long and is wonderfully healthy. The whole family is now home from the hospital and doing well–tired but happy. If you’d like to send congratulations, their home address is [redacted -- America's hottest law school dean must be kept safe from unhinged admirers].
Please note that the baby’s name is “Paras” with an “a.”
We don’t think we’re flattering ourselves in construing the reference to “America’s Hottest Law Baby” as a shout-out to ATL. How cool!
(This shout-out does raise the possibility that Dean Koh has read Above the Law. If so, Dean Koh, we hope you weren’t upset about this post. Or this one, with comments. Everything we do around here is all in good fun.)
* For you law review nerds out there, some direction as to the citation of new species of sources. But *sigh* you probably already know all of this. [Slaw.ca]
* Law students bring logic and order to child-bearing… It’s a shame that we have to forego all that spontaneity and excitement of unplanned pregnancies. (Like what 2L Tamina must have felt when she had her first of two kids in her late teens.) [Law.com]
* An Ohio woman litters by tossing bags of McDonald’s out her window, then invokes the Fast Food Nation defense — to no avail. [Tribune Chronicle]
* An Indian thief seizes the day — what’s money if you can’t spend it? [Reuters]
* If you’re going to ban junk food ads, then bring back the cigarette ads! Nothing is as glamorous as a hot girl/guy smoking languorously. I’m only half kidding. [The Guardian]
* It’s great that attorneys have lives outside the law, but these people are probably the type who refer to themselves (and by “themselves,” I mean each of their “personas”) in the third person. [ABA Journal eReport]
* Although still not legal for non-medical purposes, much to Woody Harrelson’s chagrin. [Hit & Run]
- Animal Law, Books, Crime, Food, Immigration, Kids, Mafia, Non-Sequiturs, Tobacco / Smoking, Traffic Accidents
Non-Sequiturs: 11.16.06
By Stella Q* I’d rather go naked than eat foie gras. (Wait, is that how it goes? Like Pamela, I’ll find any excuse to show off my glorious rack.) [New York Sun]
* Would it have been a crime if the motive had been a little head-start on Thanksgiving preparations? Not everyone can be Rachel Ray. (Thank the F*&king Lord.) [Rutland Herald]
* You can still smoke in your detached, single-family residence, where the only victims will be you and anyone else likely to live in a detached, single-family residence. Like your kids. [San Mateo Daily Journal]
* If I had received this book as a stocking stuffer when I was 12, I actually would be sad I didn’t get socks instead. Let’s wait for the movie, and then only if it is narrated by Morgan Freeman. He’s just so kind and knowing. If you don’t just love him, well then, there is something seriously wrong with you. [Lowering the Bar]
* But you’ll still be able to gamble and pay someone for sex. [KTNV]
* May we recommend a theatrical adaptation of this instead? Cute, but not offensive. (We think.) [Chicago Tribune]



