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Jeremy Byellin wrote a new blog post: Today in 1954: The Supreme Court decides Brown v. Board of Education 3 days, 23 hours ago · View
In our “Today in Legal History” series, we cover a wide variety of historical legal events. Some, such as last week’s Nix v. Hedden Supreme Court case ruling that tomatoes are vegetables, not fruits, are somewhat amusing. Others, such as March’s Minor v. Happersett Supreme Court case ruling that women have no constitutional right to vote (before the ratification of the [...] -
Jeremy Byellin wrote a new blog post: Hot Docs: Class action lawsuit alleges Apple knew about “latent defect” in iPhone power button 4 days, 23 hours ago · View
If you own an iPhone 4, and it’s older than 18 months in age, chances are that your phone’s power button has stopped working, at least according to a new class action lawsuit. The suit , filed last Friday, claims that the iPhone 4 suffers (and has always suffered) from a latent defect in a flex cable that [...] -
Jeremy Byellin wrote a new blog post: Effective management of client expectations ensures happier clients 5 days, 23 hours ago · View
Last week , I described two different categories of methods for getting your information out to potential clients: referral and non-referral. “Non-referral” is when a client finds your information on his or her own through some publicly accessible medium (Internet, phonebook, advertisement, etc). “Referral” is just that: someone with whom you’ve had previous dealings gives your name [...] -
Jeremy Byellin wrote a new blog post: SCOTUS rules that farmers can’t plant any patented seeds without permission 6 days, 21 hours ago · View
Earlier this year, the Supreme Court issued a landmark ruling on the “first sale” doctrine. “First sale” is a principle of copyright law that allows the end user to sell or otherwise dispose of a legally purchased copyrighted work without permission from the copyright owner. The case, Kirtsaeng v. John Wiley & Sons , involved a consumer (Supap Kirtsaeng) [...] -
Jeremy Byellin wrote a new blog post: Today in 1893: The Supreme Court rules that tomatoes are vegetables, not fruits 1 week, 3 days ago · View
The Supreme Court has the final say on the laws of the land. As the ultimate arbiter on interpreting federal laws – including the U.S. Constitution – the Court has a significant amount of power to determine the course that the rest of the country will follow. It does this by answering momentous questions that often bitterly [...] -
Jeremy Byellin wrote a new blog post: Hot Docs: Court upholds kidnapping lawsuit of whistleblower executive against billionaire Koch 1 week, 4 days ago · View
Being fired from your job is never a pleasant experience. Aside from facing the prospect of being unemployed and having to find new work, one has to face the humiliation of being forced to leave his or her job. The ordeal undergone by Kirby Martensen, however, is a bit beyond your typical firing. Martensen was employed [...] -
Jeremy Byellin wrote a new blog post: Connecting with clients through your website 1 week, 5 days ago · View
Last week’s post discussed the importance of maintaining consistent telephone and email communication channels. This consistency is important because, once your contact information enters the worldwide information network, it’s very difficult to update, should your information change. However, a related, perhaps more important, issue that attorneys are concerned with is getting your information out there to begin [...] -
Jeremy Byellin wrote a new blog post: Kansas’ new “Second Amendment Protection” law: Is it constitutional? 1 week, 6 days ago · View
Last week, Kansas Governor Sam Brownback received a letter from U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder. The letter was written over Kansas’ recently enacted law entitled the “ Second Amendment Protection Act. ” The law has three purposes, according to the Kansas legislature . First, the law excludes from federal regulation any personal firearm or ammunition manufactured and owned exclusively within [...] -
Jeremy Byellin wrote a new blog post: Who are the three classmates of the Boston bombing suspect, and what did they do? 2 weeks, 3 days ago · View
On Wednesday, three men were charged with obstruction of justice in relation to the federal investigation of the Boston Marathon bombings. The three men, Azamat Tazhayakov, Dias Kadyrbayev, and Robel Phillipos, are all 19 year old schoolmates of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, one of the attack’s prime suspects (and the only one still alive). Who are these men and what [...] -
Jeremy Byellin wrote a new blog post: Today in 1954: The Supreme Court rules that “race” doesn’t only mean “black” and “white” 2 weeks, 3 days ago · View
Two weeks ago marked the 19 year anniversary of J.E.B. v. Alabama ex rel. T. B. , a Supreme Court ruling that prohibited the state from striking jurors solely based on their sex. The 1994 ruling was an extension of a 1986 decision, Batson v. Kentucky , with a similar holding: that the state may not strike jurors based solely [...] -
Jeremy Byellin wrote a new blog post: Hot Docs: Threats to report criminal activity in demand letter is extortion, rules CA court 2 weeks, 4 days ago · View
As an attorney, there are plenty of ethical pitfalls to beware, some of them with potentially disastrous consequences. A new ruling out of California provides an example of such a trap. In Mendoza v. Hamzeh , decided on April 22, 2013, the California Court of Appeals ruled that an attorney’s demand letter containing threats to report the recipient’s [...] -
Jeremy Byellin wrote a new blog post: The importance of ensuring that potential clients can contact you 2 weeks, 5 days ago · View
Last month , we discussed going to court and what to expect. In March , we discussed various technological issues related to the law, with a few topics relating specifically to the practice of law. Although practical legal knowledge is very important to your practice of law, your practical knowledge isn’t going to see much use without clients. And, perhaps more importantly, [...] -
Jeremy Byellin wrote a new blog post: Today in 1995: The Supreme Court begins new era of curtailing Commerce Clause reach 3 weeks, 3 days ago · View
Two weeks ago marked the 77 th anniversary of NLRB v. Jones & Laughlin Steel Corporation . Jones marked the beginning of a new era in Supreme Court Commerce Clause jurisprudence, one that saw the high court sanctioning Congress’ invocation of the clause for the authority that had seemingly little to do with regulating “interstate commerce,” to which the powers [...] -
Jeremy Byellin wrote a new blog post: Hot Docs: SCOTUS scolds government in immigration/drug conviction ruling 3 weeks, 4 days ago · View
On Tuesday, the Supreme Court announced its decision in Moncrieffe v. Holder , in which the Court held that the defendant alien’s state law drug conviction did not require a “mandatory deportation.” The defendant, Adrian Moncrieffe, came to the U.S. legally in 1984 when he was three years old. During a 2007 traffic stop, police found 1.3 grams [...] -
Jeremy Byellin wrote a new blog post: How your court experience differs for different types of law, and how to deal with it 3 weeks, 5 days ago · View
All month, we’ve been dealing with preparing to go to court: what to do beforehand and how to deal with those you’ll interact with while you’re there. However, “going to court” is not a universally defined experience; it can vary based on the appearance’s type, the attitudes of the parties involved, or even on the preferences of [...] -
Jeremy Byellin wrote a new blog post: Is it constitutional for the FBI to forgo Tsarnaev’s Miranda warnings? 4 weeks ago · View
Last week, Boston underwent quite an ordeal that started with the terrorist attack at the Boston Marathon and was followed by the dangerous manhunt for the individuals responsible. The entire chain of events dominated the media. Now that the dust has finally settled, the questions remaining are primarily legal in nature. First, was it constitutional for [...] -
Jeremy Byellin wrote a new blog post: Today in 1994: The Supreme Court rules that jurors cannot be stricken because of their gender 1 month ago · View
Over the past few months, we’ve seen quite a few gender equality topics in our Today in Legal History weekly series. For example, on January 25, 2013, we had a post on the forty-second anniversary of the Supreme Court’s first Title VII sex discrimination ruling. On February 15, 2013, we marked the one-hundred thirty-fourth anniversary of female attorneys being [...] -
Jeremy Byellin wrote a new blog post: Hot Docs: Parents sue Wal-Mart after drop-side crib suffocates seven month old son 1 month ago · View
On December 28, 2010, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) issued a new rule relating to requirements on cribs. Among these new requirements were prohibitions against the manufacture or sale (including resale) of drop-side rail cribs, effective June 28, 2011. According to the CPSC , there were 32 infant and toddler fatalities related to drop-side cribs from 2001 [...] -
Jeremy Byellin wrote a new blog post: The types of judges you’ll meet in court and how to deal with them 1 month ago · View
Last week, we covered the different types of attorneys that you’re likely to encounter in court. The opposing attorney (or attorneys) really only make up part of the “human interaction” equation of going to court. The other, perhaps more significant component is the judge. Like attorneys, there are several types of judges, and hopefully, understanding them will [...] -
Jeremy Byellin wrote a new blog post: FantasySCOTUS: Are human genes patentable? 1 month ago · View
It’s always interesting when the Supreme Court takes intellectual property cases, partly because the ideological divide isn’t so clearly defined on these issues. In addition, since the Court rarely hears such cases, it’s also interesting because the bulk of this body of law has been developed by other courts and government agencies. In spite of this, [...] - Load More

