Entries from March 2008

Tuesday, March 18th, 2008

Surfacing

I haven’t been posting lately because I’m feeling a bit snowed under by work (every independent contractor’s favorite problem), but I know just from reading the newspaper that there’s a lot of blog-worthy stuff happening. I promise I’ll be on it when things clear up a bit.

Thursday, March 13th, 2008

Three from the Ninth

First, we have Lanier v. City of Woodburn, in which the Ninth says it’s unconstitutional (under both the federal constitution and the constitution of the state of Oregon) to drug-test a woman who wanted to be a part-time page at a city-owned library in Oregon. They didn’t have any special reason to suspect her of […]

Monday, March 10th, 2008

Home schooling in the courts and the news.

Over the weekend, I saw a couple of articles in the LA Times about a recent appellate decision on home schooling. The articles didn’t mention when or where the decision came from, IIRC, but it was a weekend and I didn’t get around to looking it up. Fortunately, Professor Martin reminded me about the case, […]

Thursday, March 6th, 2008

It’s SLAPP Day!

SLAPP means Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation. We have an anti-SLAPP law in California, which allows you to ask the judge to dismiss a lawsuit you believe is a SLAPP. (Other states have similar laws.) I have always pictured this as a metaphorical judicial smackdown, daytime-talk-show style, but I’m sure judges prefer a metaphor with […]

Tuesday, March 4th, 2008

On British “libel tourism.”

Freelance writers with legal savvy look for clauses in their contracts that say where legal disputes should be heard. Erik Sherman, who frequently looks over contracts on his WriterBiz blog, is a stickler for this (which I applaud). Generally, that’s because you want to ensure that you can sue in your own area if you […]

Tuesday, March 4th, 2008

SCOCAL: Californians can’t sue individual bosses under FEHA for retaliation

Technology has failed me on the SCOCAL oral arguments, so I’m turning to the second most interesting thing happening in the California Supreme Court this week that has to do with gay people: Jones v. The Lodge At Torrey Pines. In this case, plaintiff Scott Jones was a manager at a fancy hotel’s restaurant in […]

Monday, March 3rd, 2008

Monday morning shorts

First, let me just remind everyone that SCOCAL is going to broadcast oral arguments in In re Marriage Cases tomorrow from 9 a.m. to noon on the California Channel. Press releases from the court say the channel will also webcast it, if you’re interested but don’t have Californian cable. As far as I know, the […]