The Merchant of Venice, 1596. Portia speaks: The quality of mercy is not strain’d, It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven Upon the place beneath: it is twice blest; It blesseth him that gives and him that takes: ‘Tis mightiest in the mightiest: it becomes The throned monarch better than his crown; That being [...]

In March 2009, President Barack Obama removed restrictions on embryonic research that were put in place by President George W. Bush. But Drs. James Sherley and Theresa Deisher and the Christian Medical Association, sued the Department of Health and Human Services last year to block the application of the new guidelines on human stem cell [...]

From the NY Times, March 21, 2010 The Supreme Court ruled that lawyers for people thinking of pleading guilty to a crime must advise their clients who are not citizens about the possibility that they will be deported. “It is our responsibility under the Constitution to ensure that no criminal defendant — whether a citizen [...]

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge James Peck in New York ruled for La Toya Jackson on Aug. 5 in rejecting a motion to reopen her Chapter 11 case. Jackson filed in 1995 and emerged from bankruptcy in 1999. A trust representing four unsecured creditors who were receiving monthly royalty payments from Jackson had not received any of [...]

Ahmad Khaifan Ghailani spent five years in prison waiting for his trial. No big deal according to Southern District of New York Judge Lewis A. Kaplan. Kaplan, obviously not the father of Ghailani, said “The government is entitled to attempt to hold Ghailani accountable in a court of law for his alleged complicity in the [...]

Yup, the American way. Self-acclaimed greatest country in the world. Here is a fine example of American injustice at work. This article is reprinted from the NY Review of Books. Written by David Cole. On Monday, June 14, the Supreme Court declined to hear Maher Arar’s case, conclusively shutting the door on the Canadian citizen’s [...]

Teachers helping students to cheat: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/11/education/11cheat.html?src=me&ref=general Throwing whistle blowers in jail: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/12/us/politics/12leak.html?nl=&emc=aua1 Elena Kagan battles against affirmative action: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/12/us/politics/12kagan.html?nl=&emc=aua1 Pope begs for forgiveness because priests are humping children: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/12/world/europe/12pope.html?ref=world

The Supreme Court just ruled that teenagers may not be locked up for life WITHOUT CHANCE OF PAROLE if they haven’t killed anyone. Unsurprisingly, there were four dissenters – you know who they are – Alito, Roberts, Scalia and Thomas. In 2005, Kennedy said for a majority that people under 18 are less responsible for [...]

Arizona has passed a law called “Support Our Law Enforcement And Safe Neighborhoods Act.” The essence of it is to deprive Mexicans of their rights as human beings. The law allows police to stop people on the streets for no reason and demand they give proof of their citizenship or residency. The police will, of [...]

Orly Taitz who, against, all odds is a dentist and a lawyer, lost again. Orly makes a career out of filing stupid lawsuits. She will probably sue me for saying this, if she ever learns about it. Chief Judge Royce Lamberth of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia threw out Orly’s “quo [...]

MISSION STATEMENT – The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is an independent US Government agency responsible for providing national security intelligence to senior US policymakers. HISTORY OF THE CIA – President Truman recognized the need for a postwar, centralized intelligence organization. To make a fully functional intelligence office, Truman signed the National Security Act of 1947 [...]

In 1984, John Thompson was found guilty of armed robbery and, in an unrelated case, of murder. Thompson’s lawyers later learned that prosecutors withheld exculpatory evidence in the robbery trial that the perpetrator had a different blood type from Thompson’s. He was found guilty of robbery and did not testify at his murder trial. Thompson’s [...]

The U.S. Supreme Court in its infinite, collective wisdom has finally ruled prisoners have a constitutional protection against cruel and unusual punishment by prison guards and other specialists in inhumanity. This ruling is consistent with previous rulings but not with the previous ideas of Justices Scalia and Thomas. Dissenting from a vicious treatment case in [...]

Everybody already knows or should know that 95% of what passes for national security is only national embarrassment. Obama’s hacks and henchmen, led by Eric Holder, the Attorney General, know this and have filed a motion to bar the public from a court hearing Jan. 7 in the Blackwater criminal case in federal district court [...]

National Law Journal picks the most important law stories of the last ten years. For fuller accounts, please CLICK HERE. 1. War on terror tests the limits of law 2. Accounting scandals flood the courts 3. Court splits on race and gender 4. Prosecutors behaving badly 5. The ruling that picked a president 6. Death [...]

Sonia Sotomayor is now a member of the U.S. Supreme Court or, at least, will be as soon as the formality of the swearing-in process is completed. The vote was 68-31. Every Democrat voted for her, including Spector, along with the following Republicans: Alexander, Tenessee……Bond, Missouri. Collins, Maine…..Graham, South Carolina Gregg, New Hampshire…..Lugar, Indiana Martinez, [...]

U.S. taxpayers have given 50 billion to rescue General Motors, but the company says it should not have to pay a penny to people harmed by known defects in its vehicles. Obama agrees. It is necessary to preserve this great company even as it breaks up into separate divisions. It will, ahem, “restructure.” Thanks a [...]

The Supreme Court law clerk hiring season has begun. It is a pricey mating dance in which hiring bonuses for the much-prized clerks have escalated rapidly, reaching $250,000 last year. What do these ex-clerks for Supreme Ct. justices do that makes them that valuable? Right, you are, if you guessed “absolutely nothing”. Just 5 years [...]

Big shot attorney James McDonald, former FBI agent and one-time federal prosecutor, has taken on the case of convicted former FBI agent John Connolly, who is currently in prison for convictions stemming from his relationship with mobsters Whitey Bulger, Steve Flemmi and Boston’s Winter Hill Gang. McDonald won’t get a red cent for his work [...]

A Wisconsin judge has struck down Milwaukee’s sick leave law, a fledgling ordinance that never really took off since voters approved it last fall. Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Thomas R. Cooper on Friday held that the ordinance, which would have required local businesses to provide employees with paid sick days, was unconstitutional and invalidly [...]

The U.S. Supreme Ct. has now heard arguments on a major case that tests our understanding of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. White firefighters in New haven, Ct., are suing the city because the city threw out the test scores of all applicants, Whites, Latinos, and Blacks alike on the grounds that not [...]

What would we do without lawyers? The worst thing about sending them all off to outer space is that we would deprive ourselves of belly laughs they give us daily. 1. Conn. Lawyer Sentenced to 5 Years for Running Child Porn Web Site The Connecticut Law Tribune A Connecticut lawyer has been sentenced to 5 [...]

“…a unanimous three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit [Thursday] declared unconstitutional … a federal statute intended to allow the federal government to place in indefinite civil commitment ‘sexually dangerous’ persons who have completed serving their federal prison sentences.” “After carefully considering the Government’s arguments, we conclude, for the reasons [...]

A federal judge Tuesday set aside the conviction of former Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens. He also initiated criminal contempt proceedings against the government lawyers who prosecuted Stevens. He appointed an independent, nongovernment attorney to investigate the matter. “Until recently, my faith in the criminal justice system was unwavering. But what some members of this prosecution [...]