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General Law and Lawsuits

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Re: General Law and Lawsuits

#326

Post by Tiredretiredlawyer »

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/we ... uxbndlbing
West Memphis Three member asks court to allow for new DNA testing

This January, Echols’ attorneys filed the petition for new DNA testing, saying it “might serve to identify the killer(s)” and bring justice to the case. Echols’ petition asks the judge to approve testing done with an M-Vac wet vacuum system. Such testing was not available previous times the evidence was tested.

Keith Chrestman, the prosecuting attorney for the 2nd Judicial District of Arkansas, argued in a court document that finding someone else’s DNA on the evidence would not prove Echols innocent given other evidence shown in trial.

Chrestman also argued the new technology, “rather than preserving physical evidence – (it) is a one-shot deal that forever alters it.”

On the M-Vac website, the company says: “It is a sterile wet-vacuum. Collection solution is sprayed onto the surface while simultaneously being vacuumed off of the surface.” DNA material is collected in a bottle.

Baldwin and Misskelley are not party to the petition.

“If (Echols’) request is granted and the physical evidence is tested, the remaining defendants could be prejudiced,” the prosecutor argued. “If the testing reveals nothing worthwhile, the physical evidence would still be forever altered. And – with neither notice nor an opportunity to be heard – the remaining defendants would be denied future Act 1780 habeas corpus relief.”

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Re: General Law and Lawsuits

#327

Post by RTH10260 »

Court: Harvard can be sued for distress over slave photos
Lanier’s attorney said Thursday’s ruling marks one of the first times a court has said descendants of enslaved people can seek accountability for what their ancestors endured.

June 25, 2022, 1:54 PM CEST / Source: Associated Press
By Associated Press

A Connecticut woman who says she’s descended from slaves who are portrayed in widely published, historical photos owned by Harvard University can sue the school for emotional distress, Massachusetts’ highest court ruled Thursday.

The state’s Supreme Judicial Court partly vacated a lower court ruling that dismissed a complaint from Tamara Lanier over photos she says depict her enslaved ancestors. The images are considered some of the earliest that show enslaved people in the U.S.

The court concluded the Norwich resident and her family can plausibly make a case for suffering “negligent and indeed reckless infliction of emotional distress” from Harvard and remanded that part of their claim to the state Superior Court.

The judges said the university failed to contact Lanier when it used one of the images on a book cover and prominently featured it in materials for a campus conference — even after she’d reached out about her ancestral ties.

“In sum, despite its duty of care to her, Harvard cavalierly dismissed her ancestral claims and disregarded her requests, despite its own representations that it would keep her informed of further developments,” the ruling states.

But the high court upheld the lower court’s ruling that the photos are the property of the photographer who took them and not the subject themselves.

“A descendant of someone whose likeness is reproduced in a daguerreotype would not therefore inherit any property right to that daguerreotype,” the high court wrote in its ruling.

Lanier’s attorney said Thursday’s ruling was a “historic win” that marks one of the first times a court has ruled that descendants of enslaved people can seek accountability for what their ancestors endured.

“Harvard is not the rightful owner of these photos and should not profit from them,” Josh Koskoff said in a statement. “As Tamara Lanier and her family have said for years, it is time for Harvard to let Renty and Delia come home.”

Harvard spokesperson Rachael Dane said the university is reviewing the decision. She also stressed the original daguerreotypes are in archival storage and not on display, nor have they been lent out to other museums for more than 15 years, because of their fragility.




https://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/cou ... -rcna35029
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Re: General Law and Lawsuits

#328

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Re: General Law and Lawsuits

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Re: General Law and Lawsuits

#330

Post by RTH10260 »

76 Fake Charities Shared a Mailbox. The I.R.S. Approved Them All.
The tax agency is the gatekeeper for America’s charity system, but reduced vetting has opened the door to scams.

By David A. Fahrenthold, Troy Closson and Julie Tate
July 3, 2022

The “American Cancer Society of Michigan,” state authorities say, was a fake charity. And not even a good fake.

It was not in Michigan, for one thing. When the group applied to the Internal Revenue Service to become a tax-exempt nonprofit in 2020, it listed its address as a rented mailbox on Staten Island. It was not the American Cancer Society, either: In fact, the real American Cancer Society had already warned the I.R.S. that the leader of the sound-alike group, Ian Hosang, was running a fraud.

The I.R.S. approved the group anyway. Soon after, it also approved another operation run by Mr. Hosang: “the United Way of Ohio,” which was also registered to the Staten Island address.

Mr. Hosang, 63, is now accused by prosecutors in New York of operating a long-running charity fraud that has astounded nonprofit regulators and watchdogs — and raised concerns about the I.R.S.’s ability to serve as gatekeeper for the American charity system.

Not because the alleged scheme was so good.

Because it was terrible. And it worked.

Mr. Hosang — a convicted stock-market fraudster once accused of dangling a man out of a building — got the I.R.S. to approve 76 nonprofits, often despite glaring red flags of potential fraud. His operations stole the names of better-known charities. They claimed to be located where they obviously were not.

But the I.R.S. kept saying yes. And in doing so, the agency has attracted scrutiny of its new fast-track system for approving charities — an innovation implemented to deal with backlogs and budget cuts that now denies only one application in 2,400, according to agency statistics.




https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/03/us/p ... ities.html
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Re: General Law and Lawsuits

#331

Post by Slim Cognito »

IIRC, Republicans, or congress in general(?) has been cutting back on IRS funding for years, sooooo, wasn't that the point?
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Re: General Law and Lawsuits

#332

Post by MN-Skeptic »

We probably had a Roy Moore thread on the Old Fogbow, but I'll drop this here -

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Re: General Law and Lawsuits

#333

Post by bob »

MN-Skeptic wrote: Thu Jul 07, 2022 2:08 pm We probably had a Roy Moore thread on the Old Fogbow
We did; Moore's been relegated to the Klayman thread (and occasionally the designated birfer thread).
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Re: General Law and Lawsuits

#334

Post by RTH10260 »

Not a law suit but police work

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Re: General Law and Lawsuits

#335

Post by RTH10260 »

I just came accross a news item from March 2022 about the ruling on Trump campaign NDAs

original noted in the formers guys thread at https://thefogbow.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=9092#p9092
Jessica Denson Wins Major Victory Over Trump Campaign
March 30, 2021

Federal Court Rules Trump Campaign’s Form NDA Is Invalid

NEW YORK, NY – Today, a federal court held that the standard form non-disclosure agreement (Form NDA) the Trump campaign required its workers to sign is invalid and unenforceable. The ruling is the result of a class action lawsuit brought by Jessica Denson, a former Trump campaign staffer, represented by Protect Democracy, Bowles & Johnson PLLC, and Ballard Spahr LLP. The court’s ruling can be found here.

:snippity:

“The court’s decision underscores the limited purposes for which NDAs may be used in New York,” said Joe Slaughter, an attorney at Ballard Spahr LLP. “Organizations can use NDAs to protect legitimate trade secrets and confidential commercial information. They cannot use unlimited NDAs to silence employees from ever uttering anything an employer dislikes.”




https://protectdemocracy.org/update/jes ... -campaign/
note 2nd highlighted snippet limiting the use of NDAs
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Re: General Law and Lawsuits

#336

Post by keith »

RTH10260 wrote: Mon Jul 11, 2022 2:18 am I just came accross a news item from March 2022 about the ruling on Trump campaign NDAs

original noted in the formers guys thread at https://thefogbow.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=9092#p9092
Jessica Denson Wins Major Victory Over Trump Campaign
March 30, 2021

Federal Court Rules Trump Campaign’s Form NDA Is Invalid

NEW YORK, NY – Today, a federal court held that the standard form non-disclosure agreement (Form NDA) the Trump campaign required its workers to sign is invalid and unenforceable. The ruling is the result of a class action lawsuit brought by Jessica Denson, a former Trump campaign staffer, represented by Protect Democracy, Bowles & Johnson PLLC, and Ballard Spahr LLP. The court’s ruling can be found here.

:snippity:

“The court’s decision underscores the limited purposes for which NDAs may be used in New York,” said Joe Slaughter, an attorney at Ballard Spahr LLP. “Organizations can use NDAs to protect legitimate trade secrets and confidential commercial information. They cannot use unlimited NDAs to silence employees from ever uttering anything an employer dislikes.”




https://protectdemocracy.org/update/jes ... -campaign/
note 2nd highlighted snippet limiting the use of NDAs
Yeahbutt. "Lying, Cheating, Bribery, Extortion"(™). These ARE Trump trade secrets.
Has everybody heard about the bird?
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Re: General Law and Lawsuits

#337

Post by Slim Cognito »

Well played, sir.
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Re: General Law and Lawsuits

#338

Post by bill_g »

RTH10260 wrote: Sun Jul 10, 2022 2:51 am Not a law suit but police work

https: //youtu.be/ilGBzfLYenc
This reminded me of a neighborhood incident a few months ago. There were at least three county sheriff's cars outside a neighbor's house which had all the lookiloos out. I was interested, but waited until later to ask about it.

Someone lost their Apple earpods, and the sheriff tracked them to this house. !?!?

Really? They can do that? The Apply phone wireless earphones can be tracked with such accuracy a LEO can drive to a specific home to recover them?

Well, no.

The person that lost them did not live anywhere around here, but their tracking app showed their EXACT LOCATION (insert image of crazy person stabbing their finger at their phone repeatedly). Apparently the sheriff's app agreed, took the report, and responded with several officers only to come up empty handed. The neighbors have plain old Samsung phones, they don't keep a playlist, and they have no need for earpods. But, it still took the sheriff's deputies several embarrassing hours to come to the conclusion that the earpods were not where the app claimed.

It seems to me the cost of the response was greater than the earpods. It woulda been cheaper to give the person filing the report a gift card to the Apple Store. Of course, we don't want to open that box.
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Re: General Law and Lawsuits

#339

Post by raison de arizona »

So lawyers, I understand this is a particularly Bad Thing...
not your lawyer @schizesq wrote: In court this morning, a pro se plaintiff testified that he paid his Georgetown law student nephew a $200 gift card for legal advice to help file his small claims action.

Law students: please do not accept any form of compensation for “legal advice.” I’m begging you.
not your lawyer

(and fwiw, the pro se plaintiff lost)
► Show Spoiler
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Re: General Law and Lawsuits

#340

Post by neonzx »

raison de arizona wrote: Mon Jul 11, 2022 12:40 pm So lawyers, I understand this is a particularly Bad Thing...
In court this morning, a pro se plaintiff testified that he paid his Georgetown law student nephew a $200 gift card for legal advice to help file his small claims action.

Law students: please do not accept any form of compensation for “legal advice.” I’m begging you.
not your lawyer

(and fwiw, the pro se plaintiff lost)
► Show Spoiler
[/quote]

What compelled him to say that? I've taken off-book legal advice many times. :confuzzled: Admit to attaching it to a gift card? wtf?
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Re: General Law and Lawsuits

#341

Post by RTH10260 »

Federal judge blocks Arizona's 'personhood' abortion law

BOB CHRISTIE
Tue, July 12, 2022 at 2:53 AM

PHOENIX (AP) — A federal judge in Phoenix on Monday blocked a 2021 state “personhood” law that gives all legal rights to unborn children and that abortion rights groups said put providers at risk of prosecution for a variety of crimes.

U.S. District Judge Douglas Rayes said in his written ruling that the groups that sued to block the law are right — it is “anyone's guess,” as the state acknowledged, what criminal laws abortion providers may be breaking if they perform otherwise-legal abortions.

“And that is the problem,” Rayes wrote. “When the punitive and regulatory weight of the entire Arizona code is involved, Plaintiffs should not have to guess at whether their conduct is on the right or the wrong side of the law.”

Rayes agreed with the challengers that the law appears to be unconstitutionally vague.

At least four other states have similar “personhood” laws in effect, including Missouri, Kansas, Georgia and Alabama.

It is unclear if abortions that have been halted in Arizona since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled last month that women do not have a constitutional right to abortion would restart. Abortion providers stopped virtually all procedures because a pre-1901 banning all abortions that may be in effect and other laws created too much risk.




https://www.yahoo.com/news/federal-judg ... 41743.html
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Re: General Law and Lawsuits

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Tech CEO Arrested in 1992 Mountain View Cold Case Slaying After DNA Breakthrough

AJ McDougall
Tue, July 12, 2022 at 5:10 AM

On Sept. 5, 1992, computer engineer Laurie Houts, 25, was found fatally strangled in her car near a California garbage dump. Her boyfriend’s roommate was arrested in connection with the case, but two trials—and two hung juries—later, a judge dismissed the case. The roommate moved to the Netherlands soon afterward.

Over the weekend, the roommate—now the chief executive of a small software company—was arrested as he landed at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City, according to the Santa Clara County Office of the District Attorney.

John Woodward, the 58-year-old CEO and president of ReadyTech, is expected to be extradited to Santa Clara County by the end of the month, District Attorney Jeff Rosen said Monday. Once there, Woodward will be arraigned for the third time in Houts’ murder by strangulation.

Forensic science at the time was able to match Woodward to fingerprints found outside the car, but investigators could not prove that he had been inside the vehicle.
:snippity:
But advances in DNA technology allowed detectives to link Woodward to the rope around Houts’ neck for the first time last year, Rosen’s statement said. Investigators in both the Santa Clara County Crime Lab and Mountain View Police Department matched both Woodward’s genetic material and fibers on his sweatpants to “the murder weapon,” police said.

Woodward was arrested after federal agents alerted local authorities to his imminent arrival from Amsterdam. Dutch authorities, the district attorney said, had also obtained a warrant and had seized a number of electronic devices from his home and business.




https://www.yahoo.com/news/tech-ceo-arr ... 48332.html
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Re: General Law and Lawsuits

#343

Post by pipistrelle »

I don't see this one mentioned.

https://www.popsci.com/technology/inter ... e-lawsuit/
A copyright lawsuit threatens to kill free access to Internet Archive’s library of books
Four corporate publishers claim that the non-profit online library violates copyright. Internet Archive says what it's doing is fair use.

Internet Archive was sued by a suite of four corporate publishers in 2020 over copyright controversies—with one side saying that what Internet Archive does is preservation, and the other saying that it’s piracy, since it freely distributes books as image files without compensating the author.

Last week, the ongoing case entered a new chapter as the nonprofit organization filed a motion for summary judgment, asking a federal judge to put a stop to the lawsuit, arguing that their Controlled Digital Lending program “is a lawful fair use that preserves traditional library lending in the digital world” since “each book loaned via CDL has already been bought and paid for.” On Friday, Creative Commons issued a statement supporting Internet Archive’s motion.
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Re: General Law and Lawsuits

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Post by Slim Cognito »

Woah! Normally, I'd not be too worried about this stuff but that was pre-trump SCOTUS. Now I wouldn't be surprised for them to make libraries illegal for the same argument.
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Re: General Law and Lawsuits

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Post by raison de arizona »

JFC. Information wants to be free.
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Re: General Law and Lawsuits

#346

Post by Tiredretiredlawyer »

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperi ... key-trial/
MONKEY TRIAL | TIMELINE
Timeline: Monkey Trial


1859
Charles Darwin's Origin of Species is published. Its revolutionary theory of natural selection will have profound effects on both the scientific world and society at large.

1922
January: William Jennings Bryan begins his anti-evolution crusade in Kentucky, speaking out against the Darwinian "law of hate" and calling for a return to the Biblical "law of love." His campaign catches fire in Tennessee.

1925
March 21: Tennessee governor Austin Peay signs into law the Butler bill, outlawing the teaching of "any theory that denies the divine creation of man and teaches instead that man has descended from a lower order of animals."

May 4: Newspapers throughout Tennessee carry a small notice from the ACLU offering to pay court costs for any Tennessee teacher willing to test the anti-evolution law in the courts.


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Re: General Law and Lawsuits

#347

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Re: General Law and Lawsuits

#348

Post by raison de arizona »

Great thread on the IA, thx :thumbsup: learned a lot.
The NYPD accidentally shot a fellow officer. A Queens man may spend life in prison for his death
BY JAKE OFFENHARTZ
PUBLISHED JULY 15, 2022 AT 2:01 A.M.

:snippity:
Earlier that evening, Freeman’s associate, Christopher Ransom, had walked into a T-Mobile store in the Richmond Hill section of Queens, carrying an imitation pistol and demanding cash and merchandise. Freeman, a lanky 25-year-old from Jamaica, Queens, stood on the corner across the street, unarmed.

The police arrived to find the robbery in progress. As they surrounded the store, Ransom charged forward with the fake gun, prompting officers to fire more than 40 shots in 11 seconds. The flurry of police bullets struck NYPD Detective Brian Simonsen, killing him.

Sergeant Matthew Gorman was also wounded, as was Ransom, who was subsequently taken into custody. When the shots rang out, Freeman left the scene, not yet a suspect.

He went to the mall with his 3-year-old daughter and then checked back into the Jamaica hotel he had been staying at part time – the same location, prosecutors would later note, from which he and Ransom had split a cab to the T-Mobile store.

As he scrolled through online advice that night, Freeman learned of a contentious legal loophole – one that puts New York at odds with nearly all of its progressive neighbors. Although he hadn’t carried a weapon or set foot in the store where the crime was committed, he could still be liable for the officer’s death.

Following a lengthy trial, Freeman was convicted of second degree murder last month. He was sentenced last week to 30 years to life in prison by Supreme Court Judge Kenneth Holder.
:snippity:
https://gothamist.com/news/the-nypd-acc ... -his-death
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Re: General Law and Lawsuits

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Re: General Law and Lawsuits

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Lawsuit Claims Trump’s Lawyer Called AG ‘That Black B*tch’
Donald Trump’s favorite New Jersey criminal defense lawyer is in hot water after allegedly repeatedly singing the N-word while listening to rap. And there’s more.

Jose Pagliery Political Investigations Reporter
Updated Jul. 21, 2022 11:28AM ET Published Jul. 20, 2022 10:31PM ET


Donald Trump’s favorite New Jersey defense lawyer, Alina Habba, was sued Tuesday by a Black former legal assistant who claims she was tormented by her boss loudly and repeatedly singing the N-word while listening to rap.

And the lawsuit alleges that Habba earlier this year lost her cool when she suffered a legal defeat to New York Attorney General Letitia James, who is Black—angrily shouting, “I hate that Black bitch!”

A tipster alerted The Daily Beast to the lawsuit Wednesday evening, and we confirmed that the lawsuit was filed in New Jersey’s Middlesex County.

Reached Thursday morning, Habba sounded hurt and disappointed.

“Na’Syia is someone we love and care about and have for years. Na’Syia had never made a single complaint to anyone until she had decided to quit and ask for an exorbitant amount of money in return. I am disappointed by this lawsuit and the allegations which are simply not true,” she said.




https://www.thedailybeast.com/donald-tr ... d?ref=home
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