Nope - that is not a typo. Apparently, since the President's term ends tomorrow according to the 20th Amendment (personally, my favorite is the 3rd), and since President Obama will be swon in at Noon, and Vice President Biden will be sworn in at 8:00am - this means:
that from 8:00 am to 12pm - it will be President Biden to you! Josh Blackman has the exact details plus some really neat historical background on the last time there was a pretender to the throne for a day.
Since 2011, in response to what it says has been a growing problem of poorly done returns, the IRS has sought to impose a series of new regulations on tax preparers. That included a requirement to pass a qualifying exam, paying an annual application fee, and taking 15 hours annually of continuing-education courses.
Attorneys and certified public accountants would have been exempt from the regulations. (emphasis added)
The Institute for Justice argued that the IRS lacked the statutory authority to impose the regulations and said they would put tens of thousands of mom-and-pop tax preparers out of business, because the regulations were onerous and create a competitive disadvantage to the attorneys and CPAs who were exempt.
When is a boat not a boat? The US Supreme Court ruled when it is a houseboat, of course. Of course, all this talk about houseboats should be music to Simpsons' fans' ears:
Sometimes, an RV is not considered a home for fourth amendment (search and seizure) purposes. But all Breaking Bad fans know how to protect their RVs:
A woman, her brother, and another man were executed for a murder-for-hire scheme. The woman also, it turns out, was having an affair a county school superintendent.
What makes this story really interesting, however, is that the superintendent was none other than future United States Senator Strom Thurmond. The story gets better:
What makes the story even more interesting is that before Logue was to be executed, Thurmond rode with her from the Columbia women’s penitentiary to the prison which housed Death Row, and even managed to “get it in” one last time before his mistress was executed.
A court held that a corporation is not a person. Boy that was news to me. Then, I read that the case involved the following scenario: A man is driving a car alone in the carpool lane. He gets pulled over. He hands his company's incorporation papers over arguing that the papers represent his corporation, and hence he has a second passenger. Needless to say the traffic court judge did not agree. I say, needless to say, because traffic court judges don't usually accept novel arguments. That is what appellate courts are for, an avenue the driver will pursue - needless to say.
2. Then today, Justice Clarence Thomas of the United States Supreme Court spoke after seven years of silence. What did he say? No one knows. The laughter overshadowed it. We can't even discuss whether there was something deeply personal the way we can discuss Jodie Foster's speech, because the transcriber couldn't catch what was said!
Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) is already being mentioned as presidential material. He is an eloquent appellate litigator who graduated from Harvard and clerked for the late CJ Rehnquist.
Here is one canuck who says to Sen. Cruz, you are a Canadian by birth - and we would gladly welcome you back here. After all, the current PM is from Calgary (though born in Toronto), and Jose Canseco is running for Mayor of Toronto.
If the government bails out a company in such a manner that effectively makes it the sole shareholder, has the government expropriated or engaged in a takings? AIG thinks so. Stay tuned to see if this has any legal merit.
Does the right to feed one's self mean that one can have a vegetable garden in their fornt yard in violation of a municipal code? One Florida couple will find out soon.
I recall in law school, my first amendment professor explaining how non-verbal gestures can be speech. So does giving the middle finger fall into this category? This lawsuit that has lasted six years, so far, seems to suggest that the answer is yes.
Professor of Mathematics (Emeritus) James Muldowney was kind enough to circulate the following news that was recently in the news.
Fred Martin was named to the Order of Canada. Mr. Martin grew up in a Mennonite family in Holden, Alberta. He completed his Bachelor of Science in Mathematics from the University of Alberta. Then he completed his MSc in mathematics, also from the UofA. After being accepted to the PhD program, it seems that his life took a different turn.
For five years, beginning in '63, he criss-crossed the south from Mississippi to Alabama, Georgia and Florida fighting for basic rights. He gave up a career in mathematics for a life of rallies and voter drives, of FBI files, and tear gas and county cops with pistols pointed at his head.
Later he went to Bella Coola BC where he worked as an Aboriginal Band Manager. He became convinced that he would not be effective in working with governments without legal training and completed a Law degree here.
So he completed his law degree at UofA and has devoted his whole life to working for disadvantaged people and civil rights. His whole life was one of quiet passionate commitment to fairness and doing the right thing. He practised in Edmonton specialising in aboriginal and land use issues, especially establishing a legal status for the Metis in Alberta.
In terms of his interaction with our faculty, he contributed a chapter to Forging Alberta's Constitutional Framework, edited by Richard Connors and my colleague Vice Dean John Law. He also did much work in the area of utilities (disclaimer: I never met or dealt with Mr. Martin while I was at the AUC).
Here, in this clip, he speaks about the interaction between aboriginal issues and utility law:
One of the main differences in the way criminal law is practiced in Canada and the United States has to do with disclosure. Disclosure may be the single most important item in the criminal procedure that allows for a fair trial. In the United States, where criminal law is practiced at the state level with varying degrees of procedural fairness, only after the state remedies are exhausted can the defendant seek some redress at the federal level though the habeas process. That only guarantees that some level of uniformity is applied, but barely.
One area, however, where federal courts have been developing some notions of fair-play is law of disclousre. Consider this recent case from Virginia where a federal trial judge has not only thrown out a conviction, but enjoined the state from re-trying the case.
You may think the title of this post is incorrect. Because after all, the state has been telling us for years that we should have fuel-efficient cars and that it needs to tax gasoline as an environmental and efficiency-enhancing measure.
It turns out that in Oregon where their green-loving citizens are indeed enhancing their efficiency, consumption of fuel has been falling. What is the problem, you say? Tax revenues are down.
American Chief Justice Jon Roberts filed his year-end report, and Josh Blackman has some highlights. As Josh points out, the CJ's "prose is amazing." To give you a flavor, here is how it starts:
Imagine a young seaman, two hundred years ago, standing night watch at the rail of an American frigate. Just one generation removed from the war for independence, he finds his Nation once again squaring off in battle with Great Britain, the world’s preeminent sea power. The sailor has ample reason to be anxious. Britain’s Royal Navy includes 115 ships of the line and 126 frigates, while the United States Navy consists of only 17 vessels. Perhaps the seaman musters confidence from the name of his ship: USS Constitution.
From the archive, Thomas Sowell presents his views supporting the unsuccessful nomination of the late Judge Robert Bork. After his formal presentation, he presents some interesting observations on the role of the state and how that has impacted minorities in the US. A short clip is below:
The full presentation can be seen in this longer clip (which starts at minute 56):
If you have the time, watching the entire 2 hours in this previous clip is quite instructive. Many of today's legal controversies are addressed by the various presenters.
Judge Robert Bork, whose nomination to the Supreme Court was rejected by the Senate, and forever on lent his name to the term 'Borked' passed away yesterday. The tributes are all over the web.
We all have unique speech patterns, it seems. So if you set up an anonymous twitter account to start commenting on an ongoing case, you should be wary of those forensic linguists who can put two and two together. Case in point:
A typical New Orleans scandal involving a landfill and federal allegations of bribery completely imploded recently, when a forensic linguist analyzed a series of online comments. The longest-serving U.S. Attorney in the Department of Justice has resigned, and a federal investigator has rushed to Louisiana to investigate a case with a final plot turn worthy of Guy de Maupassant.
Benchslap is a great term! It refers to judges gone wild - that is with their language. Mostly, it is in writing but sometimes orally. Josh Blackman reviews the top 8 benchslaps of 2012.
On another note, Judge Kozinski who features in Josh's list, is interviewed in this ATL post.
In other news, apropos of nothing related to this post's title, consider the following scenario. A judge retires in Texas and decides he would love to go to Hawaii and help other judges with their caseload? Sounds like everyone's dream. Living here in cold Edmonton, I always wonder if they need a law professor to teach contracts in Hawaii. So, it is very admirable when a judge retired in Hawaii and decided to move to Texas to help out! (h/t How Appealing).
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