Category Archives: Legal matters

Sorry, citizens of Lubbock. You can’t play in poker tournaments that offer cash prizes. LUBBOCK — Do bar and restaurant card tournaments requiring entry fees and promising prize money violate state gambling laws? District Attorney Bill Sowder says they do. … Continue reading → Continue reading →

This is welcome news. A federal appeals court upheld the government’s do-not-call registry Tuesday, dismissing telemarketers’ claims that it violates free speech rights and is unfair because it doesn’t apply to charities and political solicitations. The 10th U.S. Circuit Court … Continue reading → Continue reading →

You’ve probably read about the Texas Clemency Memos, in which we learned about the extremely casual way that Alberto Gonzales advised then-Governor Bush about the death penalty clemency process. What you probably didn’t know (I sure didn’t) was that one … Continue reading → Continue reading →

This is somewhat unusual, but I’m willing to try this out once and see what happens. I received the following email from a reader: Do you know who (attorneys) are all involved beyond the ones you listed in your June … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Jonathan Ichikawa points out the case of tax loony Irwin Schiff, who was recently hit with a restraining order that forbids him from distributing his latest tome, Federal Mafia: How the Government Illegally Imposes and Unlawfully Collects Income Taxes, from … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Argh! Just when Congress was moving to fix the problems in the original legislation that created the national Do Not Call list, another federal judge has put the kibosh on it by ruling it in violation of the First Amendment … Continue reading → Continue reading →

This is annoying – a federal judge has ruled that the FTC lacks the authority to enforce the national do-not-call registry. FTC chairman Timothy Muris said the agency disputed the court decision, arguing that the do-not-call registry was created as … Continue reading → Continue reading →

The debate over the evil tort reform measure Proposition 12 is still heating up, as seen in this article which covers a debate between State Rep. Joe Nixon, the sponsor of the bill that led to Prop 12, and former … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Here’s one for Charles Dodgson’s files on how private entities can limit one’s rights as much as, if not more than, any government entities: Many consumer contracts now come with restrictive and expensive mandatory arbitration clauses. [E]very day, consumers sign … Continue reading → Continue reading →

RealityChecker suggests a way to help curb the scourge of frivolous lawsuits filed by corporate law firms: Public embarrassment of the firms responsible, much like Bill “Roll ’em!” Bennett’s suggestion of same for unwed mothers. You can help by linking … Continue reading → Continue reading →

From today’s Chronicle: DON’T YOU just hate it when it costs more to stuff your MasterCard card into someone’s G-string than if you slipped the dancer cash? Well, apparently Houston-area resident Paul Brian Meekey has had enough. He is the … Continue reading → Continue reading →

The Chron finishes off a four-part look at Proposition 12, which would encode a cap on non-economic damages in medical malpractice cases in the state Constitution. Part one looks at the players involved, part two examines the case against Prop … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Last year I criticized another blogger for publicly asking how he could get out of jury duty. According to today’s paper, all he really had to do was not show up. Many of the empty chairs can be attributed to … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Back in April I noted a story about possible “hostile workplace environment” ramifications of unwanted pornographic email. I quoted a part of the story in which Hans Bader, an attorney for the Center for Individual Rights, said the following: “It’s … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Michael Schattman is a former state district judge. He was nominated to the federal bench by Bill Clinton, but his nomination was blocked by Republicans. He’s also Catholic, and he has some pretty strong words for the current Republican ploy … Continue reading → Continue reading →

I see that Sen. Bill Frist has his panties in a bunch over the SCOTUS ruling in Lawrence v. Texas: The Senate majority leader said Sunday he supported a proposed constitutional amendment to ban homosexual marriage in the United States. … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Bloggers Gain Libel Protection – cool! The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled last Tuesday that Web loggers, website operators and e-mail list editors can’t be held responsible for libel for information they republish, extending crucial First Amendment protections to … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Ginger has some words about the local angle to the Lawrence v. Texas decision, about which Chron coverage is here, a local reaction story is here, an unsigned editorial praising the ruling here, and analysis of DA Chuck Rosenthal’s inept … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Fox News is suing an Austin-based novelty shop that sells Faux News T-shirts and other similar things. So far, this has been a boon for the retailer, boosting their daily page views tenfold, but as is often the case, they … Continue reading → Continue reading →

About damn time: WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court struck down Texas’ ban on gay sex today, ruling that the arrest of two Houston-area men having sex in their bedroom was an unconstitutional violation of privacy. The 6-3 ruling reverses course … Continue reading → Continue reading →

I hadn’t realized that the lawsuit filed by Michael “Savage” Weiner included Take Back The Media – for some reason, I just thought he was going after parody sites like Savage Stupidity and Michael Savage Sucks. TBTM has some sharp … Continue reading → Continue reading →

The good news is that our Lege is attempting to deal with the fact that as many as 26% of drivers in Texas are uninsured. The bad news is that they’ve picked a dumb way to do it. [Sen. Teel … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Via Howard Bashman comes this article about the possible “hostile work environment” ramifications of unwanted pornographic email. “You have to provide a workplace that’s free of sexual harassment. That right is so clearly established that no employer could say, ‘I … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Just one thing before I call it a night. I see that our very own District Attorney Chuck Rosenthal has been arguing the state’s case in the sodomy case that’s before the Supreme Court. Apparently, he didn’t do a very … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Brian Linse has been following the federal lawsuit that the NAACP has filed against gun manufacturers, and he’s got another update today. The case is especially interesting because of the involvement of Robert Ricker, a former lobbyist for the firearms … Continue reading → Continue reading →

It’s an anti-abortion/pro-tort reform smackdown! Historically, social conservatives have stood beside business interests pushing what proponents call tort reform — damage caps and other limitations on lawsuits. Tort reform advocates say ambulance-chasing lawyers have fed a growth in frivolous lawsuits, … Continue reading → Continue reading →

As April 15 draws near, you will inevitably hear about all kinds of hare-brained tax avoidance schemes. Many of them, like those mentioned in this article, are scams being proffered by con artists. Quite a few of them rest on … Continue reading → Continue reading →

A Chicago teacher has filed a class action lawsuit against Loews Cineplex for all those damn ads they now show before the movie: [The lawsuit] claims the theater circuit’s policy of playing pre-film product commercials amounts to a deceptive business … Continue reading → Continue reading →

From today’s Chron, via the AP wire: In the days after his stepdaughter’s murder, Tim Remsburg funneled his fury into phone calls to anyone he thought might help explain her death. “At two o’clock in the morning, I was trying … Continue reading → Continue reading →

The Willamette Week, a weekly rag from Portland, OR, recently rifled through the garbage of some high-profile Portlanders and printed the results. They did so after Portland police had found evidence of drug use in the garbage of Portland police … Continue reading → Continue reading →

According to the Chron, “the rate of alcohol-related traffic deaths in Texas has declined 63 percent in the last 20 years”, from 2.24 per 100 million vehicle miles travelled to 0.83. That’s good news, right? Not if you’re MADD: “The … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Probably the most curious thing about Dahlia Lithwick’s overview of Scheidler v. NOW is seeing who’s on what side. The case involves the use of RICO statutes against anti-abortion activists who engage in violent protest. NOW originally sued the Pro-Life … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Nathan Newman and Sam Heldman have a good debate going about whether or not the Supreme Court’s review of the Texas sodomy law is a boon or a curse for progressives. Start with Nathan’s opening statement that progressives are better … Continue reading → Continue reading →

The Supremes are set to hear a case that originated in Houston concerning Texas’ sodomy law: The justices will review the prosecution of two men under a 28-year-old Texas law making it a crime to engage in same-sex intercourse. The … Continue reading → Continue reading →