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Author Archive | Eugene Volokh
Move to the Washington Post Site
We’ve moved to the Washington Post site, as part of a new joint venture with the Post; if you aren’t redirected automatically, please click here.
Thanks for Help with Obsidian Finance v. Cox
I just wanted to thank the many people who helped me with Obsidian Finance v. Cox: Benjamin Souede of Angeli Ungar Law Group LLC, our pro bono local counsel for the motion for new trial in district court and for the motion to block plaintiff’s zany attempt to seize the appeal rights. Mayer Brown LLP, […]
Two Toddlers Killed in Exorcisms in Maryland
So reports the Washington Post (thanks to Prof. Howard (Friedman) Religion Clause for the pointer): A Germantown mother and another woman accused of killing two toddlers and trying to kill two other children believed that they were releasing demonic spirits that had possessed the siblings, Montgomery County police said Saturday. The two dead children — […]
Prison for Blasphemy
The Guardian (UK) reports: A man who created a Facebook page poking fun at a revered Greek Orthodox monk has been sentenced to 10 months in prison in Greece after being found guilty of blasphemy…. Filippos Loizos, 28, … used a play on words to portray Father Paisios as a traditional pasta-based dish [pastitsio -EV] […]
Federal Ban on Lobbyists’ Service on Advisory Committees May Violate the First Amendment
[UPDATE: Whoops, Jonathan beat me to it; I’m turning off comments, so people can post on that thread instead.] So holds Autor v. Pritzker (D.C. Cir. Jan. 17, 2014), a very interesting D.C. Circuit decision just handed down today. (Congratulates to my Mayer Brown LLP colleagues Charles Rothfeld and Joseph Minta, who represent the plaintiffs.) […]
Bloggers = Media for First Amendment Libel Law Purposes
So holds today’s Obsidian Finance Group v. Cox (9th Cir. Jan. 17, 2014) (in which I represented the defendant). To be precise, the Ninth Circuit concludes that all who speak to the public, whether or not they are members of the institutional press, are equally protected by the First Amendment. To quote the court, The […]
Writing Briefs When Judges Read on iPads
I just read a very interesting article, Daniel Sockwell, Writing a Brief for the iPad Judge. The basic problem: [M]ore and more judges are reading briefs primarily on iPads or other tablets…. The Fifth Circuit judiciary reads the majority of their briefs on iPads, and, from conversations with numerous judges and clerks, the other Circuits […]
Empire State Building Owners Sue Photographer for Taking Topless Photograph on the 86th Floor Observatory
See the complaint, and a New York Daily News story: Empire State Building management has filed a $1.1 million lawsuit against photographer Allen Henson for taking pictures of a topless woman at the skyscraper’s packed 86th floor observatory in August. Here’s one of the photos, which I imagine originally didn’t contain the black rectangle; the […]
Adoption by Close Friend (and Not Romantic Partner) of the Child’s Parent
An “intimate partners without benefits” case, from In re Adoption of G., N.Y. Slip Op. 23454 (Surr. Ct. Dec. 27, 2013): In this uncontested second-parent adoption proceeding, the court is faced with an interesting question: may two close personal friends, who together decided to adopt and have jointly participated in all aspects of the adoption […]
“Programmer Privilege”
Philip Guo (Slate) argues that his being an Asian young man led him to “fit society’s image of a young programmer,” and therefore got him cut various kinds of slack while he was a beginner and not very good. Maybe that’s right; I’m sure people do view others through these sorts of stereotypes to some […]
What’s Misleading About This Picture?
That’s a graphic from an article last month in Vocativ, titled “Way More People Die in Texas From Drunk Driving Than Anywhere Else. (Vocativ is a new media startup that got a good deal of buzz last Fall, including for relying on “data ninjas.”) Here’s some of the analysis accompanying the graphic: Texas, in many […]
Twitter and Facebook
Embarrassing as it is for me to admit, I’ve been pretty absent-minded about maintaining our “social media presence,” such as it is. We’re delighted that we have almost 10,000 Twitter followers — with the Twitter feeds automatically coming from our RSS feed — but I can’t figure out how to sign on to manage one […]
Islamic Law and Saudi Law in American Courts
By Eugene Volokh on January 14, 2014 12:17 pm in Foreign and Religious Law in American Courts, Islamic Law in the American Legal System
From Standard Chartered Bank v. Ahmad Hamad AL Gosaibi and Bros. Co., 2014 WL 96219 (N.Y. trial ct. Jan. 10, 2014): Defendants assert that they have standing to move to quash the instant subpoenas on the ground that the subpoenas seek all contracts between Pepsi and the defendants, documents which, they claim, include confidential proprietary […]
Using Foreign Law in Interpreting the U.S. Constitution
Those interested in this subject might want to check out today’s Supreme Court decision in Daimler AG v. Bauman. The question is whether California courts could have jurisdiction over Daimler AG, a German company whose subsidiaries do business in California, for actions allegedly committed by another Daimler AG subsidiary in Argentina: The complaint alleged that […]