-
Justia columnist and U.C. Davis law professor Vikram Amar comments on legal journalist Jeffrey Toobin’s recent article in The New Yorker regarding the highly controversial Citizens United case, holding that not just persons, but also corporations, have a First Amendment right to spend money to advocate for or against candidates for election.
-
Denying the Failure of Austerity Policies by Claiming That They Were Never Enacted: Understanding the Last-Ditch Effort to Save a Disastrous Ideological Agenda
Justia columnist, George Washington law professor, and economist Neil Buchanan takes on the arguments of those who have advocated for austerity as a solution for America’s and other countries’ still-struggling economies.
First, Buchanan rebuts, in detail, the claim that government spending cuts will revitalize the economy by getting the government out of the way of the private sector. Then, he counters the argument that the reason austerity did not work was that it was never truly adopted in Ireland, the U.K., the U.S. or elsewhere.
-
Facebook faces a lawsuit by new shareholders in the social networking company, filed less than a week after its IPO. The shareholders allege that Facebook misled them by filing untrue statements in legal filings with the S.E.C., failed to prevent such statements from being misleading, and did not properly prepare the documents for prospective shareholders.…
-
NASDAQ Sued Over Facebook IPO Trading Foul-Ups
That didn’t take long. A class action lawsuit was filed yesterday against NASDAQ by an individual investor accusing the stock exchange of botching his Facebook stock (FB) orders on the day of the IPO. Plaintiff Phillip Goldberg alleges that he “placed purchase and cancellation orders for Facebook’s stock that NASDAQ failed to promptly and accurately execute” last Friday, May 18,…
-
Ending Prison Rape
Justia columnist and Hunter College Human Rights Program Director Joanne Mariner describes America’s very slow progress toward ending prison rape. Mariner chronicles developments in this area from the 70s to today. She focuses especially on early empirical studies; a landmark 2001 Human Rights Watch Report; and the subsequent legislation the report helped trigger, The Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA), which was passed in 2003.
-
Facebook’s IPO on Friday brought with it problems for NASDAQ. The exchange’s CEO Robert Greifeld acknowledged that NASDAQ had a host of trading glitches on the day of the IPO, including a foul-up with the trading system’s ability to handle order cancellations.
Now, NASDAQ’s admission of its Facebook faux pas prompted an S.E.C. inquiry, and securities class action lawyers are prospecting for clients. …
-
Justia columnist and U. Washington law professor Anita Ramasastry comments on a recent First Amendment/Internet law ruling from a Utah-based federal judge.
As Ramasastry explains, the ruling struck down the second part of a Utah law that (1) criminalized knowingly or intentionally disseminating harmful content to minors over the Internet, and (2) required website operators to tag or label such content in such a way that the tags or labels can be picked up by search engines.
-
How the Debate Following the Massive JPMorgan Chase Trading Loss Reveals the Laissez-Faire Ideology of Contemporary American Conservatism
With the huge JPMorgan Chase trading loss receiving much coverage in the news lately, Justia columnist and Cornell law professor Michael Dorf argues that the loss is evidence that conservatives’ laissez-faire approach to the market is untenable.
-
A new class-action lawsuit accuses Apple of raining on iCloud users’ service, charging that the company’s promise that “migrating from MobileMe to iCould would be ‘effortless’ was one of many “misrepresentations” to consumers. The lawsuit alleges that Apple duped MobileMe customers into believing that they would get a newer, improved service, but that “their forced migration to the iCloud platform”…
-
Denying Clemency for Draconian Sentencing Based on Bad Information: The Clarence Aaron Case
Justia columnist and former counsel to the president John Dean comments on the criminal case of Clarence Aaron in which he argues that a deeply unjust sentence was handed down.
Dean contends that it is high time for presidential clemency for the prisoner.
-
The Truth About the Philadelphia Archdiocese, Child Sex Abuse by Its Priests, and Its Latest Missteps
Justia columnist and Cardozo law professor Marci Hamilton comments on recent events regarding the Philadelphia Archdiocese and clergy child sex abuse.
She praises former Philadelphia D.A. Lynne Abraham and current Philadelphia D.A. Seth Williams for their courage and hard work in pursuing the matter, and establishing not only crimes, but also a cover-up.
-
Apple, iOS app makers faces patent lawsuit over window display rotation
A new patent infringement lawsuit accuses Apple, Electronic Arts, Target, Whole Foods, and other companies of violating a U.S. patent “for selectively rotating windows on a computer display.”
The lawsuit by Rotatable Technologies, LLC, a non-practicing entity (NPE), alleges that Apple iPhones and iPads violate U.S. Patent No. 6,326,978 for letting users rotate their device displays using the patent’s method.
-
Iowa Passes an “Ag-gag” Law: The Power and Limits of Free Speech
Justia columnist and Cornell law professor Sherry Colb comments on “ag-gag” laws, which prohibit people from gaining entry into, or employment in, an agricultural production facility, including an animal agriculture facility, under false pretenses.
Colb notes that Iowa recently passed such a law, and that North Dakota, Montana, and Kansas also have such laws. Colb argues that the laws are aimed at concealing the true facts about how animals are treated in such facilities, because of the fear that if consumers knew the truth of the cruelty that is perpetrated there, they might change their eating habits.
-
ustia columnist and Hofstra law professor Joanna Grossman comments on a recent important decision from the Connecticut Supreme Court.
As Grossman explains, the case arose when a manufacturing company failed to take action to stop the ceaseless name-calling that the plaintiff endured in his workplace regarding his sexual orientation.
Even worse than the slurs themselves, some of the plaintiff’s tormentors would say the slurs while standing right behind the plaintiff while he was operating heavy machinery.
-
Does the First Amendment Provide Protection for Facebook “Likes”? A Federal Judge Wrongly Says No
Justia columnist and attorney Julie Hilden comments on a recent decision from an Eastern District of Virginia federal judge, who effectively held that the use of the “Like” icon on Facebook is not protected by the First Amendment. The case arose when the employees of a sheriff who was up for re-election decided to “Like” his opponent’s Facebook page. Once the sheriff was re-elected, he fired those employees (as well as others). But the fired employees who had used the “Like” icon sued, arguing that the sheriff had illegally fired them for the exercise of their First Amendment rights.
