Legal Commentary

Eligibility Questions: Can Clinton Serve Obama and Can Obama Serve the Country?

Posted on December 04, 2008
This week, the Supreme Court will likely consider whether to grant review in in a case challenging the eligibility of President-elect Barack Obama due to his alleged foreign birth or his lack of “natural born” status. In the meantime, another constitutional question of eligibility is being raised over Hillary Clinton’s nomination as Secretary of [...

Police Chief and Club Indicted with Others in Gun Show Death of Eight-Year-Old

Posted on December 04, 2008
There are now formal criminal charges in the death of 8-year-old Christopher Bizilj of Ashford, Connecticut. Christopher shot himself in the head while firing an Uzi submachine gun at a gun fair. Now charged are Pelham Police Chief Edward Fleury owns the COP Firearms & Training, which sponsored the gun show last month...

Fashion Police: Iran Arrests 49 People for ?Satanic? Clothing

Posted on December 04, 2008
It appears that the Iranian government is not just concerned with Satanic Verses but Satanic vests and other “unIslamic” outfits. The Iranian police have arrested 49 people this week in a northern Iranian city of Qaemshahr in a crackdown on “satanic” clothes...

Roman Polanski Files to Set Aside Criminal Warrant

Posted on December 03, 2008
Roman Polanski is back on the criminal docket. Thirty years after his conviction for a sex offense involving a minor, Polanski’s lawyers are asking a California court to dismiss the case against him, claiming prosecutorial and judicial misconduct...

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Rants and Raves: Man Criminally Charged for Alleged Libel on Craigslist

Posted on December 03, 2008
An interesting case has emerged out of Loveland, Colorado. J.P. Weichel, 40, has been criminally charged for libel for statements that he made on CraigsList under a nineteenth century law. Weichel allegedly made the comments in Craigslist’s “Rants and Raves Section...

Proposition 8: The Musical

Posted on December 03, 2008
The video below is Hollywood’s response to the passage of Proposition 8: a full-throated, star-studded musical. There is something quintessentially Hollywood in all this. The musical stars the likes of Jack Black, John C. Reilly, Margaret Cho, Maya Rudolph, and Neil Patrick Harris...

Fire Sale: Fire and Police Departments Charging Victims for Services

Posted on December 03, 2008
The tough economic times are producing some highly questionable revenue measures by cities and states. One of the most problematic is the growing trend for towns, cities, and counties to charge citizens to use of police or fire services in emergencies...

Big Boxer Store: Police Arrest Man Caught Video Taping Other Men in Wal-Mart Toilet

Posted on December 03, 2008
As Wal-Mart faces lawsuits over its failure to stop a lethal holiday stampede, it is also facing a bizarre case in its Greensburg, Pennsylvania store. A 29-year-old man has been questioned over his videotaping of other men going to the toilet. The man was caught over the weekend at a Wal-Mart...

Teen Good Samaritans Charged With Elder Abuse at Nursing Home

Posted on December 03, 2008
A terrible case has emerged from Albert Lea, Minnesota where two of the former Good Samaritan Society employees ? 19-year-old Brianna Broitzman and 18-year-old Ashton Larson ? have been criminally charged with the abuse of elderly patients in a nursing home...

Dead Worker?s Family and Two Wal-Mart Customers Sue As Police Investigate Wal-Mart Stampede

Posted on December 03, 2008
The holiday lawsuits have begun with two customers alleging negligence after being injured in the holiday stampede that killed temporary Wal-Mart worker Jdimytai Damour, 34. A father and son team — Fritz Mesadieu (51) and Jonathan Mesadieu (19) — are suing for their neck and back injuries (classic slip-and-fall injuries)...

Nuclear Option: Franken Lawyer Suggests He May Invoke Senate Option to Trump State Board

Posted on December 02, 2008
With the unanimous vote of the bipartisan Minnesota Board of Canvassers against his demand for the counting of rejected ballots, Al Franken (D) is suggesting that he may ask the Senate (with a democratic majority) to simply order the counting of the ballots and hand him the victory over incumbent Sen...

Giant Killer: Plaxico Burress Facing Jail Time Over Gun Wound

Posted on December 02, 2008
New York Giants receiver Plaxico Burress is looking at a very serious prosecution after shooting himself in the leg with his own gun while at a club in New York. In the meantime, a hospital worker New York Presbyterian Hospital who appears to have helped Burress by not reporting the gunshot has been fired...

Turley Blog Makes Top 100: Vote Now For Your Favorite Blogs

Posted on December 02, 2008
Congratulations to everyone who regularly posts at this blog. Our blog has made the top 100 legal blogs in the annual survey by the ABA Journal. [OK, there is no trophy but I figured we needed something and I liked the Barclays trophy] The Journal is now taking votes on various categories [...

Hilton Employee Alleges Hotel Fired Her After Disclosure of Executive Orgy

Posted on December 02, 2008
There is an interesting case filed against the Hilton Hotel chain by the night manager of the SkyWater Restaurant and Lounge. Deborah Smith claims that she was fired after she had walked in on and witnessed several members of Hilton?s upper management engaging in sex acts in a banquet room...

The Stink of the Citizenry: Congress Celebrates the Opening of the Visitors Center

Posted on December 02, 2008
The Capitol Visitor Center has finally opened as a symbol of congressional over-runs and poor management. Years late and many millions over budget, the Center is a towering example of the inability of Congress to balance its own checkbook. The only problem may be stinking citizens and rotting souls...

Pop-Up Justice in Norwich: Connecticut Teacher Stripped of Credentials and Forced to Plead Guilty to Crime Due to a Likely Computer Glitch

Posted on December 01, 2008
One of the strangest cases in years is now over in Connecticut, but the resolution is hardly satisfying. Connecticut substitute teacher, Julie Amero, 41, pleaded guilty plea to a misdemeanor disorderly conduct charge and agreed to pay a $100 fine as well as surrender her credentials to teach in the state of Connecticut...

Christian University Arrested for Sex Crime

Posted on December 01, 2008
A leader of a local Christian University is facing sex charges. Robert Williams is the Chief Financial Officer of Cincinnati Christian University has been arrested for sexual imposition — grabbing an undercover cop in a sexual manner. According to the police report, Robert Williams entered the victim’s vehicle and “manually stimulated” the victim...

Missouri Man Alleges that Detective Framed Him of a Crime While Having an Affair With His Wife

Posted on December 01, 2008
The small town of Lee’s Summit, Missouri has an amazing case unfolding in front of its city council. Ted White recently won a federal case showing that detective Richard McKinley violated his civil rights after spending five years behind jail on a sexual abuse charge...

Hunter Shoots Deer; Deer Attacks Hunter

Posted on December 01, 2008
Randy Goodman, 49, thought that he had the better of a deer when he shot a 240-pound buck with his .270 caliber rifle. This deer, however, refused to become venison before getting a little vengeance. The amazing thing is that this is not the most embarrassing hunting story this season...

Happy Holiday, You God-Enslaved Zombie: Atheists Get Their Own Holiday Display

Posted on December 01, 2008
There is a bizarre holiday display in Washington. On one side is a Nativity scene and on the other is a atheist display denouncing religion. Tis the season for our endless debate over entanglement of church and state. Yet, here, a Wisconsin group takes an obnoxious approach that secretly should delight those who [...

Un-Worthy: English Cleric Accuses Disney of Corrupting the Youth

Posted on November 30, 2008
Christopher Jamison, the Abbot of Worth in West Sussex, has accused Disney of “exploiting spirituality” to sell its products and corrupting youth. Even worst, he says that Disneyland is now a modern day pilgrimage site. I will note that, long ago, I had the courage to disclose in a column the fact that Michael Eisner was [...

Indian Tribe Sues Researchers For Using Blood Samples to Disprove Religious Beliefs

Posted on November 30, 2008
An Arizona appeals court has reinstated an interesting lawsuit by the Havasupai Indians who alleged that researchers at the Arizona State University and University of Arizona misused blood samples taken from members of the northern Arizona tribe. The tribe insists that it agreed to the use of blood samples to look into genetic links [...

Soothsaying Returns to Livingston: Parish Yields to Court Striking Down Prohibition on Palm Reading, Clairvoyance, ?And the Like?

Posted on November 30, 2008
I predict palm readers will soon appear in Livingston Parish, Louisiana. Alright, I had a little help from a federal court in New Orleans. A court has ruled that the parish prohibition on soothsaying, fortune telling, palm reading, clairvoyance, crystal ball gazing, mind reading, card reading “and the like” is unconstitutional...

California Opens Formal Investigation of Mormon Church?s Role in Financing Proposition 8

Posted on November 30, 2008
California’s Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC) has officially opened an investigation in the role of the Church of Latter Day Saints in financing and failing to report nonmonetary contributions to support Proposition 8 — the successful resolution that barred same-sex marriage...

Well-Known Lawyer Accuses Prosecutors of Racism and Being Anti-Jamaican After Being Indicted for Money Laundering and Other Crimes

Posted on November 30, 2008
Well-known defense attorney Walter L. Blair, who practiced with the Johnnie L. Cochran Jr. and has litigated some high-profile cases, is facing very serious criminal allegations and making some controversial claims in his own defense. Blair, 57, is representing himself after being indicted for money laundering and witness tampering...

Undercover Mama: New York Mother Assumes New Identity to Seduce and Entrap Juror in Son?s Murder Case

Posted on November 29, 2008
An incredible story has emerged out of New York. Doreen Giuliano, 46, has admitted to assuming a fake identity to seduce Jason Allo, a contractor who lived in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn who was a juror on her son’s murder trial. Three years ago, John Giuca from Brooklyn was convicted with another man in the 2003 [...

Rhode Island Teacher Sets Himself on Fire After Being Fired

Posted on November 29, 2008
A special education teacher in Providence, Rhode Island set himself on fire after he was fired from Lincoln High School. He had crashed his car into the side of the school and then, pushing away other teachers, dosed himself with gas and set himself ablaze...

Kentucky Mandates Praise of the Almighty as Homeland Security Priority

Posted on November 29, 2008
People in Kentucky are just now hearing about one of the state’s priorities in fighting terrorism, as stated in the 2006 anti-terrorism law. The Kentucky Office of Homeland Security’s list of core duties includes “stressing the dependence on Almighty God as being vital to the security of the Commonwealth...

Stampeding Shoppers: Holiday Shoppers Kill Wal-Mart Worker

Posted on November 29, 2008
The holiday carnage has begun. An employee at the Long Island Wal-Mart was trampled to death as shoppers stampeded to grab special deals on “Black Friday” after Thanksgiving. In the meantime, the video below shows shoppers at another Wal-Mart fighting each other over the last XBox in the store...

Lawyer Tasered at Tampa Hearing

Posted on November 28, 2008
Carl Roland Hayes, 53, appeared at a city Code enforcement hearing in Tampa, Florida and was tasered twice after becoming upset and allegedly unruly. The controversy turned on the fact that Hayes installed aluminum windows rather than wooden windows in a historic home...

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