Non-Sequiturs

Non-Sequiturs: 10.19.12

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* There’s a lot going on here: an Iowa Law prof suing over alleged discrimination for her conservative views, inexplicable sexual noises at work, strange unnamed health problems… just read the damn article. [ABC News]

* An 80-year-old woman was arrested for taking down posters comparing Obama to Hitler, because she lived through WWII and was “angry that someone would portray the president as a Nazi.” What a great use of law enforcement resources. [Yahoo!]

* I am never buying soda again. Ever. [Kansas City Star via Legal Blog Watch]

* Could the secret to upholding the Defense of Marriage Act lie in… the Obamacare ruling? Paul Clement, are you listening? [Tumblr / John Carney]

* A former district attorney in Texas (who is now a judge) could get disbarred for intentionally withholding favorable evidence from a man who spent 25 years in prison for a murder he didn’t commit. Errbody in the club put your hands up and scream, “Brady violation!” [Austin American-Statesman]

* A Malaysian law student is in trouble for putting his sexy times on a public blog. I strongly recommend you resist the urge to look up the NSFW blog on Google. If you just can’t help yourself, don’t say I didn’t warn you. And you will probably need this, too. [Roll On Friday]

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Non-Sequiturs: 10.18.12

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* For the first time in history, both major party presidential candidates are graduates of Harvard Law School. When reached for comment, Yale Law School said, “President, that’s one of those jobs that you don’t get for life, right?” [Harvard Law Bulletin]

* Please tell me our election technology has at least caught up with 1996 by now. [Election Law Blog]

* Uruguay legalizes abortion — subject to a panel review, a five-day waiting period, and getting the father’s opinion on the matter. Yay? [Salon]

* Twitter censors a user! But it was a Nazi group, so nobody is going to freak out too much. [Slate]

* If this freaking idiot makes it even harder for young, intelligent students to come here on student visas, then his thwarted attack will have caused real damage to American interests. [WSJ Law Blog]

* Abraham Lincoln would have gotten tort reform done. [Futility Closet]

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Non-Sequiturs: 10.17.12

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‘Folks, if you happen to see a damaged boat down there, please hit the flight attendant call button.’

* New York police just arrested a man for allegedly planning to blow up the Federal Reserve Bank. Thank you, officers. [CNN]

* This judge made a telecom executive cry in court. After the teary-eyed businesswoman stormed out, she re-entered the courtroom a short time later and “verbally assaulted” opposing counsel. That’s what I call a serious case of the Mondays. [New York Post]

* Much has been made about the terrible connections prostitution has to human trafficking, but what about the self-professed “hos” who, by all accounts, enjoy having sex for money? [East Bay Express]

* If you want to ride a mechanical bull, you should probably be aware that getting thrown off isn’t even a risk, it’s a veritable certainty. [Abnormal Use]

* I unabashedly dislike the TSA, but it seems these dummies had it coming. [Denver Post]

* Back to hating on the airline industry: “Sorry, folks, we’re going to be delayed arriving in Vancouver because of some weather issues… and because we have to detour for a moment and search for a missing yacht.” [Consumerist]

* Law blogger Eric Turkewitz’s face is all over a bunch of New York bus ads. And no, he’s not advertising himself. This story is actually pretty neat. [New York Personal Injury Attorney]

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Non-Sequiturs: 10.16.12

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* Now they’re telling people NOT to go the highest-ranked law school possible? Does not compute… [The Careerist]

* If Thelma and Louise had made it to their 70′s, they might look like this. By that I mean, running men over with their car for insurance money. [FindLaw]

* “Hello, 911? Someone stole all my marijuana plants. Mm-hmm, yes, yes I do. You’ll send an officer over to help? Great, thank you!” [The Consumerist]

* Buying a judge a bottle of wine and offering to settle your dispute privately doesn’t mean what this lawyer thought it meant. What does it actually mean? Sanctions. [South Florida Lawyer]

* The overall SCOTUS docket is decreasing in size, but the number of IP cases is going up. I am smartphone, hear me roar. [SCOTUSblog]

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Non-Sequiturs: 10.15.12

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Kim Koopersmith

* A firm allegedly said “F**k you” (literally) to a disabled veteran, then suggested his wife should divorce him, called him a crummy soldier, and said he should have died. I can’t imagine this is going to end well. [Simple Justice]

* How do criminal defense attorneys defend those people and sleep at night? [Katz Justice]

* Well, sometimes, those people just might be innocent. Errol Morris wrote a new book (affiliate link) on one such case. I interviewed the Oscar-winning filmmaker about it last month, and Morris just published another grim update. [New York Times]

* Congratulations to Kim Koopersmith, who has been chosen to succeed Bruce McLean as the new leader (and first female chairperson) of Akin Gump. [Thomson Reuters]

* In a further display of total isolation from reality, music publishers have now sued websites that post lyrics to popular songs. Because God forbid fans sing along to their favorite tunes. [IT-Lex]

* By the way, did you know those folks who illegally share music also purchase significantly more music than everyone else? Like, with real money. Something to chew on for a minute or 15. [TorrentFreak]

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Non-Sequiturs: 10.12.12

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* Even silly prime-time television shows can raise serious, interesting legal questions. [PrawfsBlawg]

* Joe Biden is hilarious, Paul Ryan is Eddie Haskel, yadda yadda, but let’s not forget that judicial appointments are kind of a big deal here in this election, too. [Volokh Conspiracy]

* For anyone interested in the prestigious Presidential Management Fellowship (PMF) program, check out the new Path to PMF initiative, which will prepare you for the application process. [Path to PMF]

* This judge is upping the ante for prospective jurors who can’t stay off the Google machine. [Tampa Bay Times]

* Go see the America’s Funniest Attorney competition next week AND help fight juvenile diabetes. [Gotham Comedy Club]

* Meet David Lat in the flesh — or at least hear him speak — at UC Hastings on Monday evening. [California Lawyer]

After the jump, check out Lee Pacchia of Bloomberg Law interview the author of Adam Smith, Esq., on the implications of “suicide pricing”….

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Non-Sequiturs: 10.11.12

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*James Henderson, former senior counsel at the American Center for Law & Justice, is no longer with the ACLJ — and there are interesting theories as to why. [Metro Weekly]

* Part one of an epic story about a Texan’s wrongful murder conviction, written by Pamela Colloff, one of the best investigative reporters in the state, if not the country. Get a drink and a comfy chair; you won’t want to get up for a while. [Texas Monthly]

* Chief Judge Alex Kozinski is going to be in pictures — or a picture, at least. Check out Atlas Shrugged: Part II, which hits theaters tomorrow. [Atlas Shrugged]

* Our tipster provided a nifty blurb for this article: “This has everything. Bumbling Frenchmen dependent on a heroic (albeit opportunistic) American to save the day? Check. Twenty-first century application of 19th century maritime law? Check. Overblown invocation of piracy? Check.” [San Francisco Chronicle]

* San Franciscans, come see David Lat speak at U.C. Hastings on Monday. It’s free and open to the public! Heck, I’ll probably go too. [Legally Speaking]

* You gotta admit, trying to get rich off claims about the death of an imaginary cat (and/or parrot) is a pretty imaginative way to commit insurance fraud. [Seattle Weekly]

* Colorado Bar Exam results are out. Congratulations to those who passed. [Colorado Supreme Court]

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Non-Sequiturs: 10.10.12

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Competitive wife-carrying. Seriously.

* SCOTUS decided not to hear the case about telecoms allegedly warrantlessly letting the NSA listen to your calls. So, does this mean we’re all on Candid Cellphone? [Threat Level / Wired]

* We mentioned the Harvard Law grad turned alleged scam artist, John Donald Cody (a.k.a. Mr. X), last week. Check out this cool story about how the feds tracked him down after years of searching. [Arizona Republic]

* A Finnish lawyer recently won the World Wife Carrying Championship, which is, I guess, exactly what it sounds like. Scandinavians are strange. [The Irreverent Lawyer]

* Everyone loves stories about old people accidentally growing drugs because they didn’t know what marijuana looks or smells like. Harkens back to simpler time! [Legal Juice]

* Now the TSA is apparently mistreating and humiliating terminal leukemia patients. Pardon the bluntness, but f**k you. Seriously. [San Francisco Chronicle]

* At least U.S.Customs Enforcement agents can still get their jobs done without disrespecting the sick and the old. Kudos for nabbing this dude flying in from Asia wearing body armor and carrying luggage full of weapons. The TSA folks should take notes. [ABC News]

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Non-Sequiturs: 10.09.12

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Talk about bad romance.

* Can we please fill this Facebook pay-for-posts rabbit hole with cement, ASAP? Then let’s grow a forest on top of the cement, and then napalm the whole thing for good measure. [Not-So Private Parts / Forbes]

* In America, law school dropouts turn to aggressive blogging. In Syria, they join the rebel army. [LA Times]

* A U.S. judge upholds the government’s indictment of Kim Dotcom and Megaupload, despite the whole “they’re based in another hemisphere” snag. The only tricky part is getting him here. [Ars Technica]

* This insane wedding ended with a dead uncle, a relative in jail, and several dozen cops on the scene. I”ll bet ten-to-one Zach Galifianakis was somewhere nearby. [Dealbreaker]

* Hello, Jimmy, welcome to the Pleasantville Middle School Scrapbooking Club! We’re so glad to have you. But, first, could you please pee in this cup? [Overlawyered]

* This is an amusing video of British law students sucking up to William and Kate. More importantly, a reminder that Kate is gorgeous, even when she is unpixelated and wearing clothes. [Legal Cheek]

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Non-Sequiturs: 10.08.12

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Chief Justice Roberts: he ain’t evolving.

* In light of Chief Justice Roberts’s historic vote to uphold Obamacare, should we expect JGR to be more liberal going forward? According to Jeffrey Toobin, author of The Oath (affiliate link), “Do not expect a new John Roberts. Expect the conservative he has always been.” [Talking Points Memo via How Appealing]

* Law firm staff layoffs: they’re not just an American thing. Slaughter and May is dropping the ax on 28 secretaries. [Roll On Friday]

* “[A]ny robot or high school graduate can calculate numbers in a matrix to arrive at the highest possible sentence. But it takes a Judge — a man or woman tempered by experience in life and law — to properly judge another human being’s transgressions.” [Justice Building Blog]

* Professor Dershowitz’s $4 million Cambridge mansion? Robert Wenzel is not impressed: “if I lived in that house, I would want to attack Iran and most of the rest of the world, also.” [Economic Policy Journal]

* A man sues a strip club, alleging that a stripper ruptured his bladder when she slid down a pole and onto his abdomen. Ouch. [Legally Weird / Findlaw]

* Still on the subject of Torts, two attractive blonde sisters walk into a bar — and discuss who can be held liable if a man suffers a heart attack during a threesome. Video after the jump….

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