SBM Blog

Calculating The Price of Pizza By The Pound

Per the Blog of the Legal Times, Senators Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) and Angus King (I-Maine) have sponsored The Common Sense Nutrition Disclosure Act to exempt retailers who get less than half their revenue from food meant for immediate consumption from proposed FDA regulations requiring food retailers with at least 20 locations to reveal the number of calories in their products. Their bill would let pizzerias use an average or range in posting calorie information. Let the consumer figure out the difference between a marinara veggie pizza and a super-meat-lovers special with double cheese?

Does Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction And Enforcement Act Apply To Pregnant Women?

The legal question is whether the Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act gives courts authority to determine the custody, or jurisdiction of custody cases, based on the location of the pregnant mother. The tabloid question is who gets to raise baby Samuel Bode Miller-McKenna -- son of Olympic downhill ski legend Bode Miller and a former Marine he met through a "high-end" match-making service -- and where. The New York Times covers the story in "Custody Battle Raises Questions About the Rights of Women."

The child's mother, Sara McKenna, moved from California to New York City while pregnant to enroll at Columbia University. After the baby was born last February she filed in New York courts for temporary custody and was denied by a referee who said that while McKenna had not engaged in abduction, “her appropriation of the child while in utero was irresponsible, reprehensible.” An appeals court panel reversed the decision this month, writing that “putative fathers have neither the right nor the ability to restrict a pregnant woman from her constitutionally protected liberty.”

Where Lawyers Fall In The ACT "World Of Work"

Conglomerate Blog's Christine Hurt and her daughter are in the college search phase of life, which has brought Hurt into contact with the ACT "World of Work" map. While acknowledging the value of legal practice to people in general, she questions the decision to locate the practice of law entirely within the "working with people" wedge of the wheel:

Of course, the practice of law is a helping profession, but if your instincts tell you that you would like to work closely with individuals to help them, then law school is a pretty expensive way to do that.  Yes, some lawyers do work one-on-one with individual clients to solve daily problems, and there is great satisfaction in those jobs.  And, lawyers have the tools to help in ways that social workers can't.  But if you go to law school to do that, you may find yourself in a job very far removed from that in order to recoup your investment. 

I think she's exactly right. One advantage of a law degree is that legal practice accommodates many combinations and variations of aptitudes,inclinations, satisfactions. The work of an appellate lawyer, a transactional lawyer, a criminal defense lawyer, and a commercial litigator, for example, should each be located in different locations on the map. Nice try, ACT. But try again.

Independent Judging: Amen To This

SCOTUSBlog has an 8-part interview with 4th Circuit federal judge J. Harvie Wilkinson, III, who has established a sturdy reputation as a "conservative" judge, but nails what the mindset of a judge needs to be:

I think when judges sit on the bench — this applies at all levels — we don’t really think about ourselves as ‘conservative’ or ‘liberal.’ Those are labels that people apply to us. And . . . I understand why they do because you have to use short-hand. But, the interesting thing is, I don’t think most judges conceive of themselves as conservative or liberal. We think of ourselves as judges first and foremost and that the judicial calling is such an honorable calling. And when we get on the bench, you know, you’re just so focused on that one case. I mean, you don’t think, ‘Is this a conservative result?’ or ‘Is this a liberal result’ or ‘Which way is the law as a whole moving?’ You’re just thinking about those people before you and how much the case means to them. And our mindset when we go on the bench is, ‘this case is a universe unto itself.’

Amen. But another Wilkinson observation strikes me as puzzling. He says that the core of judging is "the sense of independence and the sense to express your own convictions." My own observation from my experience as an appellate law clerk is that some cases require judges, admirably, to subordinate their personal convictions to the requirements of the law. Perhaps I misapprehend Judge Wilkinson's meaning.

Cool Job At The U.S. Supreme Court. (You Didn't Get It).

From the Blog of Legal Times, the U.S. Supreme Court has just hired a new legal counsel, replacing the old legal counsel who had served for 11 years until he was appointed the new clerk of the court on September 1. The position of legal counsel was created by Chief Justice Warren Burger 40 years ago. The duties include helping justices with circuit duties, original jurisdiction cases and emergency applications, working with the Department of Justice on lawsuits filed against the court and serving as a consultant on ethics questions.

Breaking: Limited Filibuster Nuclear Option Detonated On Senate Floor

The process to limit filibustering of judicial nominations other than for the Supreme Court is underway in the U.S. Senate. Read the Washington Post live blog here. Done.

Did Apple Lawyer "Appeal To Race" In Closing Arguments Defending iPhone Patents?

Here is the language from Apple's closing argument to the jury that Samsung's lawyer said was "a direct appeal to racial bias":

When I was young, I used to watch television on televisions that were made in the United States. (He then named several U.S. manufacturers.) But they didn’t protect their intellectual property. There are no American TV manufacturers today.

In arguing for a mistrial, Samsung's lawyer said “we all thought the same thing” about the remark -- that it was a warning that Apple could lose to Asian competitors.  Judge Lucy Koh denied the motion.  "Actually, I’m Asian and I didn’t think the same thing."  She did, however, call the jury back to reread the instruction that they must not be influenced by prejudices or sympathy.

IDG News Service, Bloomberg News, and CNET covered the story.

Photo: U.S. DistrictJudge Lucy Koh

 

Opening Doors: Explicit and Implicit Messages About Diversity

Indiana Law Blog calls attention to what can happen when you put your mind to diversity and inclusion, and when you don't.

Rumor Eruption On "Going Nuclear" On Judicial Nomination Filibuster

Suddenly the political blogosphere thinks a change to filibuster rules for all federal judicial offices other than Supreme Court may be a real possibility:

• Washington Post: "Harry Reid is set to go nuclear"
• Politico.com: "Harry Reid: Actively weighing 'nuclear option"
• Huffington Post: "Key Senate Democrats Flip, Now Ready For Filibuster Reform Via 'Nuclear Option"
• The Hill: "Reid threatens to go nuclear"

And the PBS Newshour weighed in on Tuesday with "How judicial gridlock impacts the federal courts."

Conservative Criticizes Citizens United Reasoning

A highly respected conservative constitutional scholar, MSU grad Michael McConnell, says in a newly published piece in the Yale Law Journal that the Supreme Court got to the right result in Citizens United but used the wrong clause of the First Amendment. He says a better analysis would have treated Citizens United as a free press case, not a free speech case.  Read it here.