A civil-rights lawsuit by 78-year-old Harold Lischner against the township of Upper Darby, Pennsylvania, has generated a couple of interesting motions in limine. It’s also now generated a blog post that may be the first document anywhere to use the…
A united conservative majority of the Supreme Court ruled today in Morse v. Frederick that there is no First Amendment protection for a student who unfurled a banner supporting “BONG HiTS 4 JESUS” across the street from his school. Writing…
A Vermont prosecutor has dropped dog-taunting charges against Jayna Hutchinson of Lebanon, New Hampshire, thus possibly averting a constitutional showdown over free expression. Hutchinson was arrested on July 31 after police responded to reports of a brawl going on at…
Adam Liptak of the New York Times writes today (March 7) about restaurants filing libel lawsuits against food critics. The lawsuits are not uncommon, although, as Liptak writes, they are virtually never successful. The most recent example is a new…
And is doing surprisingly well.
In September, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit reinstated a lawsuit brought by a Cleveland Indians fan, Jeffrey Swiecicki, who had been ejected from a game and later convicted of resisting arrest after he loudly referred to…
While the Ninth Circuit is often labeled as a "liberal" court that will accept virtually any civil-rights claim, don’t tell that to Ron Tutor, who is still unable to land his private jet at the airport in Hailey, Idaho. In…
Here’s a follow-up to the story from a couple of weeks ago about McHenry, Illinois, trying to ban costumed advertising mascots. The Ninth Circuit actually ruled this week that a Washington city’s similar attempt to ban "portable signs" violated the…
The latest proof that our traditional civil liberties are under siege came in mid-August, when the city council of McHenry, Illinois, passed an ordinance that bans the use of outdoor costumed business mascots. The councilmembers have apparently classified the mascots…
Judge Sidney Stein of the Southern District of New York dismissed a lawsuit last week alleging that police broke the law when they entered a man's Manhattan apartment without a warrant. The judge ruled that the situation, which involved "a…