On the Record

By: Danny Jacobs

With the Court of Appeals on its summer break, I will have no more chances for a while to keep tabs on the annotations in Judge Glenn T. Harrell’s opinions.

Fortunately, I was alerted by Assistant Legal Editor Christina Doran of a U.S. District Court judge in Philadelphia who picked up the slack. Judge Michael M. Baylson wrote an opinion last month in a lawsuit involving the Arena Football League’s Philadelphia Soul and a former employee.

The Soul are partially owned by Jon Bongiovi - better known as Jon Bon Jovi, better known as the lead singer of Bon Jovi. That led Baylson to reference five Bon Jovi songs and multiple football terms in his first two and last paragraphs of the opinion. Sample sentence: “[T]he Philadelphia Soul… rose in a ‘Blaze of Glory’ to win the 2008… Arena Bowl and then was ‘Shot Through The Heart’ when its 2009 season was canceled by the League due to financial problems.”

Baylson thanked his law clerk in a footnote for helping with the Bon Jovi song titles. It should be noted, however, that “Shot Through the Heart” is popularly misidentified as the title of a song actually called “You Give Love A Bad Name.”

“Have A Nice Day” (and holiday weekend!).

HT: QuizLaw (second post down from June 30).