The Latest Breaking News from Second Circuit

"There is no question that inaccurate statements were made by the government as part of these proceedings—to both Judge Schroeder and the undersigned"—but it appears that the details of this alleged misconduct remain sealed.

Overgrown grass, recording the police, and lying officers who lie and ruin people's lives and get away with it.

[This month, I'm serializing my 2003 Harvard Law Review article, The Mechanisms of the Slippery Slope.] Multi-peaked slippery slopes can happen when a significant group of people prefers both extremes to the compromise position. One such situation is when A without B seems unfairly discriminatory. Consider the following example: Position…

Interstate wine shipping, illegal traffic fines, and internet-ordained preachers.

From Vengalattore v. Cornell Univ., decided yesterday by the Second Circuit (Judge Amalya Kearse, joined by Judges José Cabranes and Rosemary Pooler): Vengalattore is a male of Indian descent. He became a tenure-track Assistant Professor of Physics … in 2009…. One [of his laboratory assistants], a graduate student—called "Jane Roe"…

Citizenship, machine guns, and bigamy

From Hermes Int'l v. Rothschild, an opinion issued today by Judge Jed Rakoff (S.D.N.Y.): Around December 2021, defendant Mason Rothschild created digital images of faux-fur-covered versions of the luxury Birkin handbags of plaintiffs Hermes International and Hermes of Paris, Inc. (collectively, "Hermes"). Rothschild titled these images "MetaBirkins" and sold them…

Plasma, prisons, and political parties

Prosecutor-induced perjury, a satirical arrest (and prosecution), and an unraised winning argument.