…in the sonar-marine mammal litigation before the Supreme Court, which we’ve covered a lot over the years. (Althouse, WSJ law blog).
Plus, the ultimate in post titles for the case: “Habeas Porpoise“.
Author Archive
“Narcissists with Big Egos Lead Many Law Firms, Consultant Says”
The things you learn about by reading the ABA Journal.
Speaking at UNC today
A reminder to readers in the Raleigh-Durham area that I’ll be speaking at lunchtime today to the Federalist Society chapter at the law school in Chapel Hill, room 4082.
While on the subject of North Carolina, it seems the state’s most famous current politician has started his PR rehab with a talk at Indiana U..
Dog awarded Baylor law degree
Guide dog Skeeter Jones, who has loyally served a student during her time at the school, is the lucky canine. I understand Fark.com claims credit for being first to observe that the honoree may already have genuine ambulance-chasing experience. (LegalBlogWatch, Nov. 11).
Microblog 2008-11-11
- Christopher Hitchens: once utopian electoral buzz wears off, nation’ll face pretty much same set of problems as before [Slate] #
- Business preparing to play defense in D.C. on 3 big battlefronts: labor/empt law, arbitration, preemption [NLJ] #
- Pretty neat, Google Reader now translates foreign-language blogs for you [SearchEngineLand h/t @mike_elgan] #
- @gideonstrumpet it’s one of the “laws” of blogging — very hard to predict beforehand which posts’ll draw the biggest traffic #
- “Lawyer Hausfeld Learned of Firing as Chairman From Note on Seat” [Securities Docket] #
- If transcript “is held face down and shaken, thousands of confusion flakes will drift to the ground like snowflakes” [Lowering the Bar] #
- Jamie Gorelick, mentioned as possible AG pick, would bring baggage [Althouse] #
- GM-Chrysler merger = idea that pair of boozers can fix drinking problem by getting married to each other [McArdle] #
Naked Cowboy vs. Mars suit settles
Ron Coleman has the report. We covered the case in June.
Drug company sues NIH investigator
“Pharmaceutical company Biopure Corp.’s defamation and trade libel case against a National Institutes of Health official for his statements in an article co-authored for the Journal of the American Medical Association raises concerns about the litigation risks of scientific discourse.” (Sheri Qualters, “Suit Against Scientific Journal Raises Litigation Issues”, National Law Journal, Oct. 31; MassHighTech; Pharmalot).
Rahm Emanuel and compulsory universal service
We said something relatively nice yesterday about the president-elect’s incoming chief of staff, but there’s no way to sugar-coat one of the less appealing items on the Illinois congressman’s record: his vocal advocacy of mandatory national service. From his 2006 book The Plan: Big Ideas for America, co-authored with Bruce Reed, currently the #1 selling book in several political categories at Amazon and #91 overall:
It’s time for a real Patriot Act that brings out the patriot in all of us. We propose universal civilian service for every young American. Under this plan, All Americans between the ages of eighteen and twenty-five will be asked to serve their country by going through three months of basic training, civil defense preparation and community service.
(J.D. Tuccille, “Obama’s chief of staff choice favors compulsory universal service”, Examiner, Nov. 6).
Some think we’re being alarmist in wanting to know more about the episode late last week (blogged here, here, and here) in which the Obama transition site posted (and soon thereafter silently retracted by alteration) a policy statement indicating that its plan would require participation in community service. After all, pointed out one correspondent, the issue had come up repeatedly before the election, and the Obama campaign had given assurances then its plan wasn’t going to be compulsory. What were the odds it would introduce a major policy change so quickly and stealthily after winning? Unfortunately, that doesn’t put an end to the issue. As everyone knows, all winning candidates pay concessionary lip service during campaigns to views that their key people may not share in private (cf. Goolsbee and NAFTA). Those discrepancies often foreshadow later deviations of policy from the line taken during the campaign. We may hope last week’s web posting reflected nothing more than a staff mix-up, quickly corrected, as opposed to some staffer’s relaying in all innocence a view of the issue formed by listening to internal campaign discussions. But wouldn’t it be better if the transition itself went public with such a reassurance?
Batman — a city in Turkey — to sue Dark Knight director
Turns out there’s a city in southeastern Turkey by the name of Batman. And its mayor wants royalties. “‘The royalty of the name “Batman” belongs to us … 
Microblog 2008-11-10
- Mark Lilla: pick either faux populism or intellectual conservatism, you can’t have both [WSJ] #
- P.J. O’Rourke on where conservatives went wrong [Weekly Standard] #
- And how exactly did those mountain goats get up there without wings? [Flickr “Roger 80” h/t @coolpics] #
- Scotland authorities trawl social networking sites, then slap teen with £200 fine for posing with sword on Bebo [Massie] #
- “Victims’ rights” sound like lovely idea but can undermine fairness and practicality of criminal justice system [Greenfield] #
- Bizarre Czech case: driver hits, then tries to murder pedestrian, victim survives only to be sued by car’s owner [Feral Child] #
- Auto bailout would leave Big 3 in interest-group coils, bankruptcy could cut the knots [Bainbridge h/t @erwiest] #
- ACORN as the gang that couldn’t intimidate straight [PoL] #
- “Talked about in CivPro” I hope favorably [@sqfreak] #
- More public stirrings against traffic cameras [Jeff Nolan] #