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The decision that kept Mississippi’s only remaining abortion clinic open, despite a state law requiring the doctors working there to have admitting privileges at nearby hospitals (which were unwilling to extend such privileges), was so unusual that we gave it the double-post treatment. We first talked about the Fifth Circuit panel’s majority opinion, which relied upon an ancient, and some might say, inapplicable school segregation case to block the Mississippi law – a decision that was especially curious considering a substantively identical law out of Texas was approved by this same court barely a few months prior....

Contracts are critical instruments for keeping lawsuits at bay. Wouldn’t it be nice to have a lawyer’s thesaurus laying around during those times when we just can’t think of another synonym to “person”? The Perfect Term for Your Contract As transactional attorneys know, contracts have a tendency to get more and more complicated the higher and higher the stakes get. In more innocent times, there was not much debate as to what the word “person” meant, or whether a business entity could be considered a person for some purposes, but not for others....

Imagine being called into a jury and then being asked to submit your fingerprints or social security for your jury background check. Who…me? Is this an government overreach for people merely serving on a jury? The federal prosecutors against notorious ex-mobster James “Whitey” Bulger don’t think so. They want juror background checks to be done. Will juror background checks be the new norm? They don’t seem necessary since we already use voir dire....

Obviously, there’s a bit of dissonance between the two laws. SORNA requires identification and registration, as well as semi-regular appearances for photos. FJDA requires that a juvenile’s record be sealed unless he is tried as an adult, as the legal system does not wish to have the crimes of a minor follow him for life. Unsurprisingly, the public policy of protecting potential victims and notifying neighbors of a sex offender’s presence trumps the forgive-and-forget of the juvenile system....

Michael Woods is in tax trouble. He allegedly pulled identities and Social Security Numbers off of a computer at his day job (at the Veteran’s Administration), and used those identities to claim nonexistent dependents on clients’ returns. Woods, who represented himself and testified on his own behalf, was convicted by a jury and sentenced to 132 months’ imprisonment, three years of supervised release, and restitution in the amount of $464,599. He appealed....

Matthew Stiegler is an experienced appellate lawyer, but what’s more important is that he is on Twitter. That may be a misstatement of his career accomplishments. However, he probably knows more about using Twitter than the average appellate practitioner. More than 1,093 followers can’t be wrong, unless of course you take his advice. He says you probably don’t want to be on Twitter. Good News, Bad News Stiegler said he started a Twitter account the day his blog crashed....

Defendants’ drug conspiracy sentences are vacated, where the Court of Appeals in a prior opinion instructed the District Court not to defer to the jury on credibility issues with respect to the drug quantity at issue for sentencing purposes, but the District Court nonetheless did so. Read US v. Correy, No. 06-2029. Appellate Information: APPEALS FROM THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF PUERTO RICO. Hon. Héctor M. Laffitte, U....

Sentencing of a defendant convicted of various drug-trafficking is affirmed where: 1) as long as defendant’s sentence comes within the maximum established by the jury’s verdict, a sentencing court’s preponderance-of-the-evidence factfinding on the issue of drug quantity, even though it may pave the way for a stiffer sentence within that maximum, does not violate the Apprendi principle, and thus not constitutionally improvident; 2) the district court did not commit clear error in determining the quantity of drugs attributable to the defendant as it is supported by a sensible view of the record and rested on permissible approximations....

Electronic signatures have quickly become the predominant means of closing a deal, although it would be a mistake to believe that all digital signatures are made the same. Under basic application of business contract and evidence rules, one could say that electronic signatures are really not that “toothier” than their paper counter-parts. At least this is the current law under Federal ESIGN and state UETA laws. In basic jargon, both the federal ESIGN law and the state UETA laws essentially give a nod to electronic signatures by recognizing that they are even signatures....

Aereo’s tiny little personal antennas have had television broadcasters up in arms, but today the Supreme Court handed the broadcasters a win. Back in March, Aereo founder Chet Kanojia was so confident in his position that he defiantly proclaimed that he has no Plan B should the Court rule against his company. Today, he issued a statement calling the Court’s decision “a massive setback for the American consumer.” He added, “We are disappointed in the outcome, but our work is not done....

The Senate confirmed Justice Department lawyer Caroline Krass as the new general counsel of the Central Intelligence Agency. Krass’s confirmation process had a few hiccups along the way, as senators held off on her nomination amid concerns that the CIA was not cooperating in an on-going investigation into Bush-era interrogation tactics, The Associated Press reports. Krass is entering the legal fray at a time of extreme tension between the CIA and Congress....

For a long, long while, we’ve wondered what was up with the Fifth Circuit’s longstanding vacancies. In fact, just last week, I was speculating about the cause of the vacancies (a Democratic president versus two Republican senators) on FindLaw’s Strategist blog. Looks like I’m not the only one wondering what’s up: A blog post on the Thomson Reuters Legal Solutions blog goes into detail on the vacancies, as well as possible upcoming vacancies that could drastically change the court....

The civil rights case of a man alleging a violation of his right to privacy against Verizon is notable for a couple reasons. But the Alexander v. Verizon matter might not be getting as much attention for the substantive part of the case, but rather for an interesting footnote. First off, there is actually an interesting legal case that involves not-so-emerging technology and how it is now used by law enforcement, and whether service providers can be liable for bad police work....

What if somebody texted reminders to clients to appear in court – and to keep them out of jail? That’s the idea behind a software program running in various counties and cities, where defendants receive text messages to avoid a “failure to appear.” One program, which costs about $20,000, promises to save a lot more in warrants and jail time. So far, half a dozen cities or counties are using text-message systems....

FindLaw columnist Eric Sinrod writes regularly in this section on legal developments surrounding technology and the Internet. Practically every aspect of life now takes place in cyberspace in addition to in the traditional world we know. While at first blush that generally may sound like a good thing, warfare now also takes place online as part of real conflicts, and not just in the realm of computer games. As The Wall Street Journal has reported, U....

Harold LaFlamme’s very first case turned into a murder trial. He didn’t freak out, and his client was not executed. But LaFlamme, who passed away last year, was like that: a fearless courtroom champion. Of course, his first career as an arms dealer probably had something to do with it. Everybody else, on the other hand, should be afraid of taking a case that is way over their head. Bigger Than Life Every lawyer knows Rule 1....

Rap is a boastful and often fictional genre. Rick Ross built an entire career on his past as a drug dealer, a false identity appropriated from an inmate, and which was recently labeled by an appeals court as “fair use.” Heck, the most “gangster” rapper of all time, Tupac, attended a ballet school before he adopted his “Thug Life” persona and became a rap legend. The genre glorifies violence and gang affiliations, necessitating the above rappers’ curation of a darker persona....

Dramamine and rubber-soled shoes are critical when sailing. The open sea, though relaxing, is full of threats: stingrays, icebergs, 15-foot swells, barnacles, Carib shortages, and very slippery floors. Perhaps that’s where today’s Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals plaintiff, Lydia Rosenfeld, erred: She didn’t anticipate the slippery floor on her cruise ship. But according to Rosenfeld, Oceania Cruises should have known that the floor was dangerous. To prove her case, Rosenfeld offered the expert testimony of Peter Vournechis, an Australian floor-safety specialist who performed various coefficient-of-friction tests to determine the slip resistance of the M/V Nautica’s flooring surfaces....

I think, therefore I am regulated? The majority’s 207-page objection to the individual mandate can be summed up in one sentence: “The government’s position amounts to an argument that the mere fact of an individual’s existence substantially affects interstate commerce, and therefore Congress may regulate them at every point of their life.” Thomas More Law Center v. Obama (Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals)Obamacare Lawsuits: The 6th Circuit Court of Appeals Story (FindLaw’s Sixth Circuit blog)Round 1 in Appeals of Healthcare Overhaul Goes to Obama (The New York Times)Five Things to Know About the Supreme Court Healthcare Appeal (FindLaw’s Supreme Court blog)Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals (US Courts) You Don’t Have To Solve This on Your Own – Get a Lawyer’s Help Civil Rights Block on Trump’s Asylum Ban Upheld by Supreme Court...

“You know what would be a great idea? Like, LinkedIn, but for only lawyers man.” “Totally man. Like lawyers and social media and stuff.” Damn it, damn it, damn it. Why didn’t I think of this? Oh wait, that’s right, because it has been been done – repeatedly: (deep breath) EsqSocial, Foxwordy, EsqSpot, LegallyMinded, Lawford, MyPractice, Lawyer-Link, HubSTREET, PivotalDiscovery, ESQchat, Martindale-Hubbel Connected, LegalOnRamp, Lawyrs, LawLink, jdOasis, wirelawyer, and of course, the AboveTheLaw comments section....