News & Media
Invasion of the Body Searchers
The New Zealand Herald discusses the TSA’s aggressive search of Amy Alkon at Los Angeles International Airport (“LAX”). Alkon publicly described her searcher’s extreme examination of her body, including pushing her hand into Alkon’s genitals, as “rape.” The TSA agent sent Alkon a threatening letter through counsel, warning of a defamation suit and offering to settle the dispute for $500,000.
Too Sexy for Crisp Skin?
By Tatiana von Tauber People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) thinks this chicken is just too sexy for anyone to see, “downright offensive” in fact. “When I saw it I just couldn’t believe that an editor of The New York Times would find it acceptable,” PETA’s founder and president Ingrid Newkirk told The Atlantic Wire. “It’s downright offensive,
Toilet Law School Files Feces Defamation Suit
By Marc J. Randazza I’m not much of a prestige whore, but I’m not blind to the reality that Thomas M. Cooley Law School is a standalone punchline within the legal profession. I’m familiar with its absurdly large class sizes, its questionable practice of culling the bottom few percent of its students each year to ensure high enough bar passage
5th Circuit Rules in Favor of Student Speech Rights
The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that students who handed out christian-centric materials to other students had a First Amendment right to do so. School principals who prohibited this student-to-student speech violated the students’ First Amendment rights, the Court held. “We hold that the First Amendment protects all students from viewpoint discrimination against private, non-disruptive, student-to-student speech,” Judge Jennifer
Texas Abortion Runs Afoul of the First Amendment
A Texas law designed to deter abortion will remain enjoined. U.S. District Judge Sam Sparks, of Austin, blocked enforcement of significant portions of the sonogram law on Aug. 30, until the case is resolved. Sparks found the law violates the First Amendment, ruling that requiring doctors to show a woman seeking an abortion the sonogram images, describe those images to
Sarah Palin Threatens a SLAPP Suit. Stupid? You Betcha!
By Marc Randazza Sarah Palin always seems to be talking about families. Despite bashing that door open, she takes such umbrage when anyone mentions her own. So, When writer Joe McGinniss starts digging for facts and sources to complete his book “The Rogue: Searching for the Real Sarah Palin,” what does Sarah do? She lawyers up and threatens to sue…
Righthaven on the small screen
By J. DeVoy I recently caught up with a college friend who does not work in law, who asked me about Righthaven since he had read several articles linked on this blog and on my facebook account. I explained the status of the approximately 18-month litigation campaign. After a few moments of confused silence, he told me it would be
Brazil denies reality, considers banning racy lingerie ad
By J. DeVoy It has not been a good week at Tom Brady’s house. First the Patriots lost to the Buffalo Bills, perennial failures and four-time consecutive Super Bowl losers, and now Brady’s better half, Gisele Bundchen, might have her ad for an intimate apparel company banned in Brazil. Sure, she probably got paid already, but it doesn’t auger well
Give it a rest already – Myths and Facts about mass copyright litigation
by Vaughn Greenwalt The latest criticism of mass-copyright litigation follows the same mantra of previously-pissed patrons: “I know I stole your porn but I’ll be embarrassed if anyone finds out so you can’t sue me!” Cut the crap already, “shame” is not a legal defense. Lets play fact or fiction with the latest misleading article which was, oddly enough, endorsed
Righthaven loses in Colorado
By J. DeVoy Yesterday, the District of Colorado dismissed Righthaven LLC’s copyright infringement lawsuit against Leland Wolf and the It Makes Sense Blog in Righthaven LLC v. Wolf et al., Case Number 1:11-cv-00830. The Wolf case was the only active matter in Righthaven’s 57 cases filed in the District of Colorado, as the more than 35 cases that were ongoing
The best parodies / derivative uses always involve muppets
By J. DeVoy This is the trailer for The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. It was a popular book, so naturally I neither read nor cared about it. Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails fame scored the movie, which includes a cover of Led Zepplin’s Immigrant Song, performed with Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVLvMg62RPA&w=560&h=315] Never to
Two chicks making out…
…is apparently not allowed on Southwest Airlines. (Source) It is allowed, and encouraged, on The Legal Satyricon. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6bpOd0Qn_0]
S.C. Public School Invites Christian Rapper to Perform
I understand why people want the government and the public schools to back up their religion. Here you have a bastardization of a 2000 years old cult. It is based upon lies, fairy tales, and superstition. How else are you going to perpetuate this set of beliefs without brainwashing impressionable young kids with it, or getting the government to stamp
University Pig Decides She Will Not Tolerate a Challenge to her Authoritah
A professor at University of Wiconsin – Stout, put up a poster from the sci fi series, Firefly. The poster had some macho shit on it about where and when the character would kill one of his enemies. Some worthless fuckhead in the school’s administration (Lisa Walter, the chief of police) lost her shit, and hadthe cops come tear down
Student Suspended for Saying Homosexuality is Wrong
A Texas teenager expressed his opinion that, since he is a “christian,” he believes that homosexuality is wrong. Makes sense. This magic space zombie jew created heaven and earth, but the thing that really makes him mad is if two guys’ dicks touch. His teacher wrote him up for expressing his opinion, and the school suspended him. I’m all for
The Saudis broke my irony meter
The Canadians have a TV ad that touts Canada’s “ethical oil.” This is in contrast to Middle Eastern oil, which comes from dirty piece of shit regimes run by lowlives who hang out with the Bush family. The Saudis are apparently threatening legal action, because they don’t want the Canadians reminding people of what Saudi Arabia really stands for. (source)
That's why we can't have nice things….
The City of Escondido, California, had to pay $20,000 to settle a First Amendment claim. The Center for Social Advocacy (CSA) used to have a contract with the city worth about $26,000 a year to provide fair housing services to Escondido. The organization published an opinion piece in its newsletter criticizing the city, so the city cancelled the contract. The
I.P. Links Loot and Righthaven Roundup
So apparently we are sick of China stealing our intellectual property. (source) Human rights abuses, meh, not our problem. You think you know from Intellectual Property? Bah. Beth Hutchens pwns you. (source) This guy could learn a bit from Hutchens. He thinks that he has a new business model of registering a common phrase and then demanding money from people
Email to an asshat about a free speech issue
I’m on a few list servs. I won’t say which one this originated on. But, lets just jump to what I said: 11 muslim students stood up to heckle the Israeli ambassador. Orange county prosecutor charged them with disrupting an event. While they may not have a right to disrupt the speech without being dragged out of the place, a
Shame in Irvine
Muslim students hating on Israel. No big story there. Eleven Muslim students decided to, one by one, stand up and interrupt the Israeli ambassador as he gave a speech at UC Irvine. The police escorted them out of the room for being disruptive. No big deal. Then, Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas filed criminal misdemeanor charges against them for