News & Media

At least in Sicily it is. Good ol’ “Giuseppe Z” was minding his own business, watching a little porn on his lunch break, when some bastone in culo decided that this was too much for him to bear. Giuseppe lost his job, but he sued FIAT to get his job back. At the trial level, Giuseppe lost – with the court in Termini Imerese (near Palermo) supporting the termination. However, the Court of Appeals for Palermo reversed. Italy’s supreme court upheld the decision today. (source) In contrast, FIAT was within its rights to fire another worker for smoking weed at

In Wayne v. James, a Mormon airman flipped out that there were gay weddings at West Point’s chapel. In reaction to being reprimanded, he claimed that he had a right to express his sincerely held religious opinion under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act and under the First Amendment. Both arguments failed. RFRA provides that the government “shall not substantially burden a person’s exercise of religion even if the burden results from a rule of general applicability,” unless the burden “(1) is in furtherance of a compelling governmental interest; and (2) is the least restrictive means of furthering that compelling governmental

Tesla reports that two apparent Reno Gazette Journal reporters trespassed on Tesla’s property, and then ran their car into a Tesla employee who was trying to take down their tag number. (source) This is all Tesla’s side of the story, so I’ll see if there’s more to it. Here’s the Reno Gazette Journal’s side of the story The newspaper’s vehicle was damaged in the altercation. A rock had been used to shatter the driver’s-side window and the driver’s-side seat belt had been cut in half. [Sheriff] Antinoro said he couldn’t confirm how that damage occurred. (source) But, here’s a free

Yep, Canada has become such a politically correct sackless nation that you’re not allowed to disagree politically with feminists anymore. (source) Update: A reader correctly pointed out that this is not yet a conviction – just some prosecutor decided that this was a crime. We’ll see what the court and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms has to say about it. But, the mere fact that a prosecutor was willing to bring charges based on these facts is quite troubling. UPDATE: A reader provided this counterpoint. The counterpoint is from a blog, Canadaland, so make of it what you will

While it is only a trial court decision from a state court in Idaho, Vandersloot v. Mother Jones occupies a significant place in my thoughts lately. On its surface, the decision is a wonderful thing. The decision contains more than 50 pages of research and citations, showing that the judge went to great lengths to understand the law before ruling. However, the case shows how ludicrous American defamation law can be in the absence of an Anti-SLAPP law. In this case, the defendant “prevailed” – but was still $2.5 million poorer as a result. The First Amendment means that you

Steve Wynn is a plaintiff in a new defamation suit — this time in Boston. The Boston Globe reports: In a lawsuit filed Monday in Suffolk Superior Court, Wynn Resorts Ltd. says unknown defendants defamed the company by providing subpoenas to the media related to a City of Boston lawsuit against the Massachusetts Gaming Commission. The suit alleges the city’s subpoenas were intended not to collect information but to spread falsehoods contained within the documents to hurt Wynn, the company that holds a state license to build a $1.7 billion casino resort on vacant industrial land in Everett.(source) Of course,

Everyone knows that White people love Yoga. (source) I guess. I love yoga. Rich milfs in yoga pants. My fucking office is located next to the rich-white-lady-in-yoga-pants capitol of the Southwest – the Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf on Town Center Drive. I walk in that place and feel like a teenager on his way to the chalkboard sometimes. But, doing yoga? I’ve tried it. I fucking hate it. But, maybe it’s that eggplant blood that Quentin Tarantino says I carry. Oh, but wait, apparently I can be either while or black or whatever and still like yoga. In fact,

Updated here.

In May 2014, the European High Court ruled that EU citizens had a right to data privacy that included a right to insist that Google de-list old or irrelevant links about them. (Case) It was mis-named a “right to be forgotten,” as there is no such right at all. While it is easy to sell the public on a newfound digital human right, what the Court really handed down was a duty on Internet search engines to de-list results. Almost immediately, Google’s public relations team and a slew of other hysterics flew into a tizzy — the sky was, yet

RLG just got a summary judgment order in Tobinick v. Novella. In that case, we first got an Anti-SLAPP order against a California plaintiff who filed a SLAPP suit in Florida (perhaps hoping that Florida’s courts wouldn’t realize that a CA plaintiff can’t run away from his anti SLAPP law). (Order here) However, the Plaintiff maintained that our client’s articles on a medical practice were actually “commercial speech.” Court slapped that down today. (Order here) Since there is a little more to do in the case, I’m not going to comment further. But, the Order should go in any First

The Federal Trade Commission has come after the lovely Roca Labs, Don Juravin, and George C. Whiting.  Complaint here. Entire docket here.

by Jay Marshall Wolman, CIPP/US I hate to admit it, but I first learned the term “Denali” when reading the Twilight series.  My wife and I had taken a vacation to the Pacific Northwest and visited the Olympic peninsula.  Edward and Bella references were everywhere, and we had no clue what it was all about.  So, I read the books.  And I have a problem with leaving a series unfinished (I’m looking at you George R.R. Martin). This past Friday, with formal announcement yesterday, the Secretary of the Interior renamed Mt. McKinley, “Denali”.  Apparently, we have something called a U.S.

by Jay Marshall Wolman, CIPP/US Recently, this blog has published posts on a new Connecticut law and a 7th Circuit ruling on data breach, both of address the issue of standing in class action data breach suits.  Standing, in plain terms, means having a legal right to sue based on an injury to you.  The Sierra Club may have standing to sue for environmental damages because its members are specifically harmed; even if many of those members also belonged to Susan Boyle Fans International, Inc., the fan club would not have standing because the organization as a whole is not

by Jay Marshall Wolman, CIPP/US Shameless self-promotion: Today, I had the privilege of presenting “Knowing Employee Legal Rights” to a Cornell Alumni Leadership Lunch and Learn along with Prof. David Sherwyn. Video is here: https://vod.video.cornell.edu/media/Leadership+Lunch+and+Learn+Knowing+Employee+Legal+Rights/1_lymufsk9 Downloadable slideshow here:    http://alumni.cornell.edu/caco/documents/CornellLunchandLearn-KnowingEmployeeLegalRights.pdf Enjoy!

by Brent Tuttle, CIPP/US, E* Recently, the 7th Circuit handed down a ruling in a data breach case that has class action plaintiffs’ attorneys poppin’ bottles. The case is Remijas v. Neiman Marcus Grp., LLC, No. 14-3122, 2015 WL 4394814 (7th Cir. July 20, 2015). Background: Between July 16, 2013 and October 13, 2013, malware found its way onto the Neiman Marcus computer systems. This potentially exposed 350,000 credit cards, 9,200 of which were known to have been used fraudulently. (The Court of Appeal noted that all 9,200 fraudulent charges were subsequently reimbursed.) The company discovered this breach January 1,

by Jay Marshall Wolman In addition to my usual lawyerly activities, I am also a Vice Chair of the Workers’ Compensation and Employers’ Liability Law Committee of the American Bar Association’s Tort Trial and Insurance Practice Section.  Probably the longest line on my resume. The Committee’s Spring 2015 Newsletter is out.  I contributed an article on updates on the Federal Employers Liability Act (FELA), 45 U.S.C. sec. 51, et seq.  In short, before general workers’ compensation laws existed, the U.S. Congress established a liability and compensation framework for railroad employees.  That framework continues to govern on-the-job injuries to railroad employees.

by Jay Marshall Wolman Revenge porn is bad, and this blog has been active in fighting it.  As a moral matter, it is a pretty easy thing to address.  As a legal matter, it is not. More and more states have been passing laws against revenge porn.  California, for example, in 2013, added Penal Code Section 647(j)(4),   The meat is in sub-subsection (A), which states: Any person who intentionally distributes the image of the intimate body part or parts of another identifiable person, or an image of the person depicted engaged in an act of sexual intercourse, sodomy, oral copulation, sexual penetration, or