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The Latest Breaking News from Westlaw

Calling Girlfriend "Whore," "Slut," and "Bitch" Doesn't Fit Within "Fighting Words" Exception to First Amendment

From Judge Neeti Pawar's opinion in People v. Hughes (Colo. Ct. App.), joined by Judges Anthony Navarro and Sueanna Johnson (decided last month, but just posted to Westlaw recently): When Hughes returned from an overseas military deployment, his girlfriend, who lived in Virginia, A.B., met him in Colorado Springs. One…

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Protesting Outside School, Calling Principal a Racist, Is Protected by the First Amendment

From Johnson v. Knox County Bd. of Ed., decided Mar. 31 by Judge J. Ronnier Greer (E.D. Tenn.), but just recently posted on Westlaw; seems correct to me: Plaintiffs allege the following facts: On the afternoon of March 31, 2022, Rebekiah Johnson, and her young adult son Shaque Johnson went…

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Empty Threats to Sue Donors of Entity That Allegedly Defamed You Could Be Tortious

American Muckrakers PAC, Inc. v. Boebert (D. Colo. June 9, 2024) (just recently posted on Westlaw) stemmed from the PAC and journalist David Wheeler making various allegations about Rep. Lauren Boebert. Rep. Boebert said they were all lies, threatened to sue Wheeler (which she did), and also "threatened donors to…

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Banana Splits

I appreciate the replies from Orin, Will, and Sam. We have very different conceptions on what role a scholar should play and what role a judge should play. My writings in this area are both retrospective and prospective. I look backwards to see what qualifications a judge had at the…

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District Court Rejects Magistrate Judges' Gag Order on Publishing Name of Retroactively Pseudonymized Litigant

"Professor Volokh may not ... publicly disclose Plaintiff's name or personal identifying information in any future writings, speeches, or other public discourse."

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Why I Post About Pretrial Decisions (on Motions to Dismiss and Such)

A commenter on the Claim That Public School Employee Was Unconstitutionally Fired for Sharp Pro-COVID-Vaccine Post Can Go Forward thread wrote: Eugene Volokh likes to post about cases that can go forward because they survive some kind of summary judgement. Mostly it just seems to rile up the usual commenters…

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Judge Dismisses Lawsuit Against Universal Studios Based on Employee's Use of "OK" Gesture

From an order by Judge John Kralik of the L.A. Superior Court in McGee v. Universal City Studios, LLC, decided April 30 but just posted on Westlaw: Plaintiffs … allege that they were at Defendant Universal City Studios, LLC's theme park Universal Studios Hollywood. They allege that on July 18,…

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Secret Order Releasing Convicted Murderer

From State v. Price, decided Sept. 6 by the South Carolina Supreme Court but posted on Westlaw in just the last two weeks: Price was convicted of murder in 2003 and sentenced to thirty-five years in prison…. The parties inform us Price began serving his sentence on December 23, 2003,…

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Race-Based Refusal to Consider Questions at Employer Town Hall / Removal of Posts on Internal Forum May Be Illegal Discrimination

From Tyree B. v. Raimondo, decided by the EEOC on Oct. 18 but just posted to Westlaw last week: The Agency framed Complainant's claims [of, among other things, race discrimination based on his being white] as follows: Agency officials have ignored, dismissed, disregarded, suppressed, mischaracterized, and mislabeled Complainant's communications and…

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Agreement That Children "Shall Be Raised in the Orthodox Jewish Tradition" Is Unenforceable

In Connecticut Superior Court Judge Eddie Rodriguez's opinion in Breiner v. Breiner (handed down Sept. 15 but just posted on Westlaw), the dispute was about whether plaintiff mother had breached an agreed-to provision in a 2017 parenting plan, "The parties agree the children shall be raised in the Orthodox Jewish…

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Apparent Neo-Nazi Pleads Guilty to Trying to Burn Down Church That Was Hosting Drag Queen Story Hour

From a Justice Department press release dated Oct. 24, but just posted on Westlaw a few days ago: An Ohio man pleaded guilty yesterday to violating the Church Arson Prevention Act and to using fire and explosives to commit a felony, all in connection with his attempt to burn down…

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Singular "They" in Court

From D.C. v. Casa Ruby, Inc., decided May 1 by D.C. trial judge Danya A. Dayson, but just posted on Westlaw: Therefore, specifically, as to each Third-Party board member Defendant, there must be factual allegations sufficient to support an inference or conclusion that the board member either intentionally, rather than…

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Court Refuses to Block Indiana Law That Bans "Instruction … on Human Sexuality" to Public K-to-3rd Students

From Smiley v. Jenner, decided by Judge James Patrick Hanlon (S.D. Ind.) on July 28, but just posted on Westlaw: A new Indiana law prohibits public schools and their employees from providing instruction to students in prekindergarten through grade 3 on human sexuality. Kayla Smiley—a teacher who works for the…

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Nevada Magistrate Judge Recommends Rejecting Internet Preservation Challenge—And Why It's Wrong

The first opinion on Westlaw in response to a motion to suppress based on my model motion.

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Sanctions Issued in Case Where Lawyers Cited ChatGPT-Hallucinated Precedents

From today's opinion in Mata v. Avianca, Inc., by Judge Kevin Castel (S.D.N.Y.), which stems from an incident blogged about here last month (and see this follow-up): In researching and drafting court submissions, good lawyers appropriately obtain assistance from junior lawyers, law students, contract lawyers, legal encyclopedias and databases such…

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"Optimists Sometimes Do Not Fare Well When They Gloss over Problematic Facts"

From Basulto v. Netflix, Inc., decided May 25 by Magistrate Judge John Goodman, but just posted on Westlaw: In this defamation lawsuit against Defendant Netflix, Inc. and other Defendants, certain Defendants known as "the Foreign Defendants" filed a Motion to Dismiss for Lack of Jurisdiction…. As explained below, the Undersigned…

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Lawyer Explains How He Used ChatGPT to Produce Filing "Replete with Citations to Non-Existent Cases"

"Can you show me the courts opinion in Varghese v China Southern Airlines"? "Certainly! ... I hope that helps!"

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When AI poses an existential risk to your law license

Episode 459 of the Cyberlaw Podcast

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A Lawyer's Filing "Is Replete with Citations to Non-Existent Cases"—Thanks, ChatGPT?

The lawyer's colleague, who drafted the filing, says he relied on ChatGPT to draft the filing and provide the text of the cases, and neglected to check them.

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Court Refuses to Enforce United Arab Emirates Child Custody Decree That Disfavored Christian Parent

From Al Namani v. Watson, decided last year by Judge Daniel Klau (Conn. Super. Ct.), but just posted on Westlaw: General Statutes § 46b-115ii bars a Connecticut family court from enforcing a foreign court judgment that is "repugnant to the public policy of this state." Citing this statute, the respondent…

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I'd Like a Real Translation, Please

From ABC Corp. v. Partnerships & Unincorporated Ass'ns Identified on Schedule A (one of the many recently filed cases involving alleged mass copyright infringement by apparently off-shore businesses), decided Dec. 19 by Judge Joan Gottschall (N.D. Ill.) but just posted to Westlaw: Before the court is plaintiff's motion for leave…

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Court Reverses Denial of Unemployment Compensation to Employee Fired for Religious Objection to Vaccination

From Washa v. Actalent Scientific, LLC, decided two weeks ago by Minnesota Court of Appeals Chief Judge Susan Segal and Judges Peter Reyes and Randall Slieter, but just posted on Westlaw: Actalent Scientific employed Washa and placed him as a medical lab technician with North Memorial Clinics. On January 3,…

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Libel Lawsuit Against Case Law Repository for Its Not Noting That a Case Had Settled

Leagle.com publicly distributes a wide range of court opinions, precedential and nonprecedential, from all over the country. Unlike Westlaw, Lexis, and Google Scholar, it is Google-searchable, so when a party's name is Googled, any opinion mentioning the party is likely to come up. [1.] John D. Thomas had been involved…

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Roman Polanski Can't Block IMetPolanski.com Site

From the WIPO Arbitration & Mediation Center Administrative Panel Decision in Polanski v. Uziel (Arbitrators Brian J. Winterfeldt, Warwick A. Rothnie & Marie-Emmanuelle Haas), decided two weeks ago but just posted on Westlaw: In 1977, the Complainant [film director] was arrested in the United States and charged with unlawful sex…

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Private Employee's Claim That He Was Fired for Political Tweet Can Proceed Under California Statutes

In Surdak v. DXC Technology (decided Dec. 20 by Judge Stanley Blumenfeld, Jr. (C.D. Cal.), but just posted a few days ago on Westlaw), plaintiff claimed he was fired (1) because of his "complaints … that he was not being paid all his wages" and (2) "in retaliation for posting…

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