On the Record

By: Caryn Tamber

Happy Monday!

• Paul Mark Sandler asks if it’s time to rethink the standard voir dire questions now that it’s apparently routine for jurors to look up cases on the Internet.
• Check out this blog post about the failings of a breath test device.
• Which past cases or positions from the various SCOTUS short-listers could hurt their chances of confirmation?
• Conservatives should stop their phony outrage over Obama’s desire for a justice with empathy, says Dahlia Lithwick. HT: How Appealing.
• This blog post is titled, “Solo, The Last Refuge of Incompetence?” Yeah, I’m thinking it’ll stir people up.

By: Steve Lash

Prince George’s County officials argued in vain to U.S. District Judge Marvin J. Garbis that alcohol and exotic dancers shouldn’t mix. The combination leads to gun violence and other crimes, the county said.

Garbis on Wednesday struck down as unconstitutional a law calling for the revocation of liquor licenses to bars that feature exotic dancing. The judge, who sits in Baltimore, said the broadly worded law effectively banned the controversial dancing and infringed on the First Amendment freedom of expression.

County officials tried to defend the law as “narrowly tailored” to achieve the “substantial” governmental goal of preventing criminal activity that they said exotic dancing — mixed with alcohol — attracts. But Garbis rejected the argument, stating in his opinion that the county had failed to provide sufficient evidence of these alleged “harmful secondary effects” of what used to be called gentlemen’s clubs.

Meanwhile, the county this year has endured violence near bars, some which feature exotic dancing and some that do not.

Bernard Irvin was stabbed to death Jan. 31 at the Legend Night Club in Temple Mills, which has the dancing and successfully challenged the law, Gazette.Net reported.

On Tuesday night, a day before Garbis’ decision, a vigil was held near the Tradewinds nightclub. Family and friends of Darryl Robinson II gathered across the street from the Temple Mills establishment, near where the 28-year-old was shot and killed on Jan. 31, Gazette.Net added.

According to Gazette.Net:

Robinson’s death was among several in recent years near county entertainment hotspots. In March 2007, nine nightclubs were shut down after 11 people were killed in only 11 days. Former Police Chief Melvin High was granted the authority to shut down any venues he saw as an “imminent danger.”

The article also mentions the March death of a Bowie man at The Sideline Bar and Grill, the Largo sports bar owned by former Redskins linebacker LaVar Arrington.

In light of these deaths, should Garbis have taken judicial notice of the county’s asserted link among alcohol, exotic dancing and violence and upheld the law as a justified restriction on the First Amendment?

By: jackie.sauter

Shane McQuillan told a Wisconsin police officer he had been drinking and was “just being stupid” in March when he crashed his car into a gate at wastewater treatment plant in Eau Claire.

Now, as a punishment, McQuillan has opted to tell the whole neighborhood about his dumb decision. The 22-year-old, instead of spending time in jail, will stand outside the treatment plant for a day wearing an “I Was Stupid” sign.

Judge Paul Lenz of Eau Claire County (Wis.) Circuit Court found McQuillan guilty earlier this week of criminal damage of property. The judge then gave McQuillan a choice between a stay behind bars or becoming a human billboard.

Lenz, in an interview with a local TV station, said the punishment means one less non-violent offender in jail, saving the county money.

Public embarrassment is also a good deterrent both for the sign-wearer and sign-viewers, he added.

“It’s a difficult thing to do if you think about it for yourself. It’s basically a public acknowledgment that what you did was wrong and that’s difficult for people to do,” the judge said. “It’s also for others who might think about doing that type of behavior to think about.”

It also means, should I ever visit Eau Claire and meet Shane McQuillan, I have a legitimate reason to wear my “I’m With Stupid” t-shirt.

DANNY JACOBS, Legal Affairs Writer

By: jackie.sauter

As a whiskey drinker, and more specifically, an enthusiastic drinker of Maryland whiskeys (which means, in effect, rye whiskeys), I was thrilled when a friend linked me to whiskipedia, launched on the first of the year.

It’s pretty self-explanatory: an online, open-source encyclopedia of whiskey. But unfortunately, whiskipedia, even though it’s mostly written by “well-known whisky author” Gavin Smith, falls way too short.

I typed in “Maryland,” expecting to read a treatise on Maryland’s glorious history as the rye whiskey capital of the world, but instead found only one reference to the tidewater state, shamefully after Pennsylvania, in the entry about rye.

Baltimore yields 0 results, and Pikesville, the glorious, once-Baltimore-based rye that is my cheap whiskey of choice, is mentioned only once, in the rye article. Absurdly, there is no entry at all for the Whiskey Rebellion, a turning point in whiskey history, as all good hooch-swillers know, that took place in no small part in Maryland.

Frustrated, I typed in the name of my favorite scotch, an Orkney Isles poison called Highland Park, figuring hey, maybe rye just isn’t their thing!

No results.

Until whiskipedia gets it together, I’ll stick to wikipedia, which actually lists the brands of rye available under an extensive rye whiskey entry, and whiskygrotto.com.

ROBBIE WHELAN, Business Writer

By: jackie.sauter

Our Maryland Business Friday feature story today highlights The Leffler Agency’s 400-person holiday soiree - one of Baltimore’s annual traditions.

I was struck by a quote from one attendee:

“I literally changed my vacation plans because I’ve missed the party for the last three years,” said Roy Deutschman, an account executive for WERQ–FM 92.3 and WOLB-AM 1010 in Baltimore who rescheduled a trip to Italy just so he could party down with Leffler and friends.

Now, I’m sure the party spared no expense - but rescheduling a trip to Italy? It’s hard for me to imagine that. If I hadn’t attended The Daily Record’s, I would have missed out on a great buffet, an open bar, and a few memorable karaoke performances. But I don’t think it could hold a candle to a trip to Italy.

Did your holiday party offer up a truly can’t-miss opportunity? (Remember, you don’t need to provide your name to comment here).

Maybe something as regrettable as this YouTube clip?

[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/GfbLnjQgVBM" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]

JACKIE SAUTER, Multimedia Editor

By: jackie.sauter

Well, it could have been better, but it could have been worse. Baltimore is the 46th safest drunken city in a recent survey by Men’s Health magazine. Not bad out of 100.

The survey, which is being reported by KNBC in Los Angeles, looked at drunken driving, liver disease, and other alcohol-induced crimes. But seriously folks, I have never felt that Baltimore is a city that drinks to excess, though we are prone to a certain type of brew.

However, some of our neighbors are more extreme examples from the survey. Richmond, Va. was the ninth best, while Washington was the eighth-worst.

So what do you think? Is Baltimore really that much safer than Washington when it comes to alcohol consumption?

ANDY ROSEN, Business Writer

By: jackie.sauter

The attorneys general of Maryland and 29 other places have asked federal regulators to crack down on companies that sell alcohol-and-caffeine blends, claiming their ads target young people and make questionable health claims. (AP, “Attorneys general target drinks that mix alcohol with caffeine”; The Daily Record, Aug. 22).

The companies are using popular nonalcoholic “energy drinks” as a springboard to their alcohol-containing products, one AG claims. “Beverage companies are unconscionably appealing to young drinkers with claims about the stimulating properties of alcoholic energy drinks,” Oregon Attorney General Hardy Myers said.

The companies say the products — Miller Brewing Co.’s Sparks and Sparks Plus; Anheuser-Busch’s Bud Extra; and Charge Beverages’ Liquid Charge and Liquid Core drinks — are simply malt beverages with caffeine, which comply with all federal requirements.

Is the beverage industry preying on under-age drinkers, holding out the promise of a beer buzz with an edge? Is an ad that replaces a nuclear power plant’s tower with a can of Liquid Charge making a health claim? Are imbibers of any age likely to think that adding caffeine to alcohol turns it into a health drink?

What do you think?

-BARBARA GRZINCIC, Managing Editor, Law