Government

NY to Rewrite Calorie-Posting Rule

New York’s health department will go back to the drawing board to craft a regulation able to withstand judicial scrutiny that will require restaurants to post calorie counts. At the same time the city is considering an appeal of a federal judge’s ruling on Tuesday that the regulation conflicted with…

Sep 13, 2007 6:52 PM CDT

Embarrassing Singers Get 3rd Circuit Attention

Appeals judges yesterday grilled a Justice Department attorney defending the government’s decision to fine CBS $550,000 for Janet Jackson’s halftime Superbowl performance in which she briefly exposed her breast. DOJ lawyer Eric Miller said CBS was responsible for Jackson’s actions under the legal theory of respondeat superior, which imposes liability…

Sep 12, 2007 12:43 PM CDT

Miles, Pints Remain Legal UK Measures

In a reprieve for reluctant adopters of the metric system of measurement that is common throughout Europe and the rest of the world (except in the U.S.), the European Union has amended a previous plan. Britain and Ireland can retain beloved imperial measurements, such as the mile—and the pint—that date…

Sep 11, 2007 9:17 PM CDT

Judge Tosses Calorie-Posting Rule

A federal judge has ruled New York City did not have the authority to require fast-food restaurants to post calorie information. The New York regulation, which applied to restaurants that had already voluntarily disclosed calorie information, required them to make it more accessible by measures such as posting it on…

Sep 11, 2007 6:02 PM CDT

LA ‘Health Zoning’ Would Limit Fast Food

Los Angeles is considering a two-year ban on new fast food restaurants in part of the city, in order to encourage residents to eat better food. The approach, which the Los Angeles Times terms “health zoning,” is far from the first attempt to ban fast-food restaurants by municipal legislation, the…

Sep 10, 2007 11:58 PM CDT

1940s Justice Influences Terrorism Cases

A justice of the U.S. Supreme Court in the 1940s has had a major influence in several recent opinions, thanks to one of his former clerks—U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens. Stevens has relied on World War II-era opinions written by Justice Wiley B. Rutledge, who served on the…

Sep 8, 2007 1:53 PM CDT

Explicit Web Site Justifies Cop Firing, Court Rules

The First Amendment does not protect an Arizona police officer fired for posting sexually explicit videos on a Web site, a federal appeals court has ruled. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals held that the city of Chandler was not liable for firing policeman Ronald Dible, the Arizona Daily…

Sep 7, 2007 1:58 PM CDT

Law Prof Battled Bush at the White House

What many contend was an excessive use of executive power by President George W. Bush is suddenly the topic of the month. An insider who happens to be a law professor has written something of a tell-all book on the subject, and major publications are vying to offer the most…

Sep 6, 2007 12:29 AM CDT

FL County Fires Attorney Over Land Deal

A longtime attorney for a county on Florida’s Gulf Coast has lost her job over her involvement as a legal adviser in a controversial land deal between Pinellas County and its property appraiser. Susan Churuti, 52, admitted at a meeting today that she could have better handled the matter—in which…

Sep 5, 2007 12:21 AM CDT

Defense Lawyers Give Terror Effort a D+

In an article that has sparked lively debate on the Internet, the ABA Journal discusses the results of a poll of 50 defense lawyers about the legal system’s response to the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. Their answers weren’t confidence-inspiring. Although the defense lawyers felt that the judicial branch has…

Sep 4, 2007 10:47 PM CDT

Accounting for Lives

The 9/11 victim compensation fund worked. But what about the next time?

Sep 1, 2007 5:30 AM CDT

2 Men Wed, Then Iowa Ruling Suspended

Two gay men in Iowa persuaded a judge to approve an expedited wedding, paid an extra $5 fee and were married today, apparently becoming the first same-sex couple to wed in state history. But then the judge who approved same-sex Polk County marriages yesterday, saying that a previous legal ban…

Aug 31, 2007 11:10 PM CDT

Law Grad Wins Case, Keeps on Truckin’

A would-be lawyer with a green pickup has succeeded in overturning a Florida city ordinance that barred him from parking overnight in residential areas. Lowell Kuvin, who is waiting for bar exam results after graduating from Miami’s University of St. Thomas School of Law, won his case last week before…

Aug 31, 2007 2:40 PM CDT

$307 K Fee Is Price of Foot-Dragging

California has been burned by a “scorched-earth” approach to litigation over pay policies for inmates who work for private employers on prison grounds. A California appeals court affirmed an award of $307,000 in attorney fees, in addition to nearly $1.5 million already awarded, for litigation over the state’s failure to…

Aug 31, 2007 12:10 PM CDT

Same-Sex Iowa Couples Can Marry

The judge’s ruling was so recent that one man was listed as the groom and the other was listed as the bride on their Polk County, Iowa, marriage license application. But what was important to Gary Allen Seronko, 51, and David Curtis Rethmeier, 29, was that the license application was…

Aug 30, 2007 11:52 PM CDT