I’m a trial lawyer for injured people and businesses at The Beasley Firm. Founded in 1958, we have recovered over $2 billion for our clients through hundreds of verdicts and settlements in excess of $1 million. We’re listed in Super Lawyers, Best Lawyers in America, U.S. News’s Top Lawyers, [...]
Conservative Judicial Activists On The Federal Court of Appeals for D.C. Dismiss Abu Ghraib Lawsuit
In a stunning display of judicial activism, two conservative judges on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia re-wrote several recent Department of Defense regulations, a sixty-year-old Act of Congress, a basic principle of federalism upheld by dozens of Supreme Court opinions, and millenia of common law to dismiss the Saleh v. Titan Corporation and Ibrahim v. Titan Corporation lawsuits brought by more than a dozen Iraqis who "were beaten, electrocuted, raped, subjected to attacks by dogs, and otherwise abused by private contractors working as interpreters and interrogators at Abu Ghraib prison." Dissent op., p.1. The ... Continue Reading
Chamber of Commerce, Defense Lawyers, and ABA(!) vs. Everyone Else In Attorney-Client Privilege Case
[UPDATE: The Supreme Court issued its opinion in Mohawk Industries v. Carpenter, holding attorney-client privilege was not immediately appealable.] Last week, the Fulton County Daily Report noted: The Obama administration and a group of law professors and former federal judges are asking the U.S. Supreme Court to reject a Georgia company's plea for a change in the way many appellate courts deal with questions of attorney-client privilege. Earlier this year, a coalition of business interests and the American Bar Association filed amicus briefs joining carpet maker Mohawk Industries' argument that parties in federal cases should be allowed to immediately appeal lower ... Continue Reading
Is The Philadelphia Police Department Liable For Racist Posts On Domelights.com?
As The Philadelphia Inquirer reported on Friday: An association of black police officers has sued the Philadelphia Police Department in federal court for allowing its officers to post "blatantly racist . . . and offensive" content on a popular Web site devoted to law enforcement topics. The suit, filed Wednesday, says Domelights.com, which bills itself as "the voice of the good guys," was founded by a Philadelphia police sergeant who uses the screen name "McQ" and "encourages the racially offensive conduct." ... Guardian Civic League attorney Brian Mildenberg said that black officers had long reviled the site and that complaints ... Continue Reading
Department of Justice Implicitly Rejects John Yoo’s Constitutional Arguments
The WSJ Law Blog spots an interesting development: In June, as we blogged here, a San Francisco federal judge ruled that convicted terrorist Jose Padilla can sue Yoo, the Bush administration lawyer who authored some of the now famous war-on-terror memos, including one that opined the military can use “any means necessary” to hold suspected terrorists. ... Yoo has now turned for help to Miguel Estrada, the powerhouse Gibson Dunn appellate litigator who was nominated by Bush to serve on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. Estrada’s nomination was scuttled by Democrats, a point repeatedly harped on by Republican senators in ... Continue Reading
How The Valley Swim Club Racial Discrimination Lawsuit Will Go Down
[Update II -- Anne Marie Green of CBS3 (KYW) News Philadelphia also spoke with me about case, particularly the relief available to the day camp members. Video available here. Update -- Jon Elliott on San Diego 1700AM interviewed me on the incident and the law. List of their podcasts here (I'm "7/10/09 2nd Hour, 07/10/09 4:00pm"), direct link to 36MB MP3 here. Best part is when a spaceship lands in the middle of my interview.] You've probably heard by now about the Valley Swim Club / Creative Steps Day Camp incident, in which a Huntingdon Valley "private" swim club apparently refused to let 65 ... Continue Reading
Philadelphia Swim Club Refuses Black Children Because Of Their “Complexion”
[You may wish to see my follow-up post, How The Valley Swim Club Racial Discrimination Lawsuit Will Go Down] NBC Philadelphia says: More than 60 campers from Northeast Philadelphia were turned away from a private swim club and left to wonder if their race was the reason. "I heard this lady, she was like, 'Uh, what are all these black kids doing here?' She's like, 'I'm scared they might do something to my child,'" said camper Dymire Baylor. The Creative Steps Day Camp paid more than $1900 to The Valley Swim Club. The Valley Swim Club is a private club that ... Continue Reading
Round-Up On Safford United School District v. Redding, The Ibuprofen Strip-search Case
The American Constitution Society's blog reports: The Supreme Court ruled today that Arizona public school officials violated the constitutional rights of a teenage girl when they searched her for prescription-strength ibuprofen. "The issue here is whether a 13-year-old student's Fourth Amendment right was violated when she was subjected to a search of her bra and underpants by school officials acting on reasonable suspicion that she had brought forbidden prescription and over-the-counter drugs to school," Justice David Souter wrote for the 8-1 majority in Safford Unified School District v. Redding. "Because there were no reasons to suspect the drugs presented a ... Continue Reading
Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”) Requests: Ask, Ask and Ask Again
FYI: Cozen complains that Treasury has not supplied it with documents relating to entities that were listed on its request but were not designated until after the request was made. Treasury has no obligation to produce documents that were not responsive at the time the request was made. See Bonner v. U.S. Dep't of State, 289 U.S. App. D.C. 56, 928 F.2d 1148, 1152 (D.C. Cir. 1991). An agency does not have a continuing duty to update its previous response to a FOIA request. McGehee v. CIA, 225 U.S. App. D.C. 205, 697 F.2d 1095, 1103 (D.C. Cir. 1983). A ... Continue Reading
Another Day, More Proof That “Runaway Juries” Are A Myth: Chevron Human Rights Violation Edition
At the WSJ Law Blog: This just in: A federal jury on Monday cleared Chevron Corp. of responsibility for any human rights abuses during a violent protest on a company oil platform in Nigeria a decade ago. Click here for the recent AP story; here for a longer takeout on the case from the WSJ’s Russell Gold. Human rights groups had sued the company under the Alien Tort Claims Act, which allows foreigners to file lawsuits in U.S. courts alleging international law violations. I highlight these defense-verdict cases not because I think the jurors were right or wrong -- I have no idea ... Continue Reading
California Dives Into the Murky Waters of Repealing Constitutional Rights and Interpreting Ballot Referenda
California, intent on proving it has too much democracy, has bought itself some tricky legal questions. First, did the voters just revise or amend their constitution (and does that matter)? LATimes reports: Lawyers for same-sex couples argued that the anti-gay-marriage measure was an illegal constitutional revision -- not a more limited amendment, as backers maintained -- because it fundamentally altered the guarantee of equal protection. A constitutional revision, unlike an amendment, must be approved by the Legislature before going to voters. The state high court has twice before struck down ballot measures as illegal constitutional revisions, but those initiatives involved ... Continue Reading
