On the Record

Happy Monday!

• Gregory Kane weighs in on alleged child-killer Dante Parrish, whom the Maryland Innocence Project helped free last year in an unrelated case. In other Parrish news, Peter Hermann’s a got a letter from the teacher of Parrish’s alleged victim. (HT on the letter: Baltimore Crime.)
• John Allen Muhammad’s stand-by lawyer, Baltimore’s J. Wyndal Gordon will write a book about the case.
• Is the Obama administration taking its time on judicial nominees?
• The Lakota Sioux are suing to get authorities to prosecute the guy whose sweat lodge self-help ceremony allegedly killed three people.
• I don’t know, I sorta like this law firm ad.

Happy Monday!

• The cigarette makers don’t have to keep paying tobacco growers in Maryland.
• John Bratt’s technique would save those who confuse Alito and Scalia on the bench.
• The Supreme Court’s opposition to cameras in the courtroom doesn’t carry a lot of weight when the justices are on TV so much, argues Arlen Specter.
• The 250 biggest law firms in the country suffered the worst headcount decline this year since the National Law Journal began tracking those numbers.
• How will the accused Fort Hood gunman be prosecuted?

Happy Monday!

• The Sun’s doing a little exchange program, prompted by The Wire, where their crime reporter goes to London and The Independent’s crime reporter comes here. Check out the blog set up for the project.
• A moving billboard driving around D.C. on Friday accused DLA Piper of having “blood on [its] hands.”
• How do you handle a depressed client?
• A Kansas lawyer is in hot water for helping a reporter get into a women’s prison to write about illegal sex there. HT: The Crime Report.
• Is there ever a good reason to file 5,415 pages of briefing material and exhibits for a single summary judgment motion?

There’s just too much good law-related stuff out there this morning to tell you all about! Here’s a special, miniature (fun size, if you will) law round-up:

• John Bratt of the Baltimore Injury Lawyer Blog says he’s glad he doesn’t work for Doug Gansler. Bratt noted my colleague Steve Lash’s report that assistant attorney general Brian Kleinbord is the attorney of record for Maryland v. Shatzer, which Gansler argued in the Supreme Court yesterday. “You know what that means?” Bratt writes. “It means that Kleinbord and the other lawyers wrote the briefs and did all the work. Now that it is time for argument, the guy at the top of the letterhead is swooping in to take advantage of all of the attention, and the glory if he wins.”
• The guy who wants the military to combat proselytizing of soldiers and cadets is suing to get a former Navy chaplain to “stop asking Jesus to plunder my fields… seize my assets, kill me and my family then wipe away our descendants for 10 generations.” The former chaplain says he was just quoting Scripture and never incited violence against Mikey Weinstein, though he said he “pray[s] the Psalm that his days are few.”
• This line from The National Law Journal’s account of the opening day of the Supreme Court term yesterday is hilarious: “Justices Breyer and Clarence Thomas spent several minutes during arguments peering at the marble friezes of lawgivers on the walls of the Court high above them, apparently noticing new features they hadn’t seen before from their earlier vantage points.” I really can’t add anything to that.

Happy Monday! Here are a few law links to start your week off:

•  U.S. Attorney Rod Rosenstein probably isn’t going anywhere, MainJustice.com says. The prediction comes in an article about how a third of the country’s U.S. Attorney’s offices are still run by Bush-appointed prosecutors.
• Page Croyder applauds The Sun for coming down hard on Pat Jessamy’s office.
• Slate reports that female judges tend to be less qualified than male judges by traditional measures (they went to lower-ranked colleges and law schools, had less prestigious clerkships and spent less time in private practice) but are just as good at actually judging.
• Happy opening day of the SCOTUS term! Sandra Day O’Connor says she’s “disappointed” at the changes in the court and feels some of her decisions “are being dismantled.”
• It’s unclear where this video, “The Streetwalking Lawyers of Aurora Avenue,” comes from, and it appears to be old, but it’s new to me and very funny.

Happy Monday!

—     Jim Gross writes about how going through a divorce is like haggling for a grandfather clock.

—     This must be one of Jean Marbella’s “Ah, Baltimore” moments. (HT: Baltimore Crime.)

—     “Some rumors should rest untested,” writes an appellate judge in Minnesota.

—     Does a British grocery store discriminate against Jedi?

—     Would another execution attempt violate Ohio prisoner’s civil rights? (HT: How Appealing.)

Happy Monday! High of 85 today–now that’s the way I remember September in Baltimore. Here are a few law links to start your week:

• A dispute over the Pasadena-based National Breast & Ovarian Cancer Connection’s name could lead to the organization going under.
• Work in a law firm first, consider going to school at night, be aware that your law school will lie to you, and other advice for prospective lawyers from John Bratt.
• For lawyers, free speech has its limits.
• Law firms are gay-friendly places to work, says the Human Rights Campaign. HT: ABA Journal.
• “Victim impact statements have received such widespread support because they promote justice without interfering with any legitimate interests of criminal defendants,” writes law prof Paul Cassell in “In Defense of Victim Impact Statements.” HT: The Crime Report.

Happy start-of-a-four-day-week! Here are some law links to start your Tuesday:

• The following sentence should give readers a pretty good idea of the result of his most recent trial, John Bratt writes: “I just finished a two-day jury trial in the Circuit Court for Cecil County.”
• A Baltimore man imprisoned for armed robbery was pardoned years ago but can’t get his conviction expunged, the Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project writes.
• How long do you give it before these T-shirts are considered fashionable? Hey, at least this Ohio judge is making his statement without using duct tape. HT: Above the Law.
• Don’t groan when you get up, don’t call women “gals,” and other advice for the older job-seeker.
• “Power of attorney” does not equal attorney.

Happy Monday!

• Collaborative divorce isn’t so great, Dawn Bowie says.
• Is this gender-stereotyping discrimination, or is it sexual-orientation discrimination? “Prowel says he was harassed because he talked in a high voice, walked effeminately, was very well-groomed, liked to talk about art and interior design, and pushed the buttons on a work machine ‘with pizzazz.’”
• The woman whose online harassment of a 13-year-old girl arguably led the girl to commit suicide has had her misdemeanor conviction officially overturned.
• Anti-abortion groups can’t challenge over-the-counter emergency contraception.
• “Your Honor, Megan’s Law made me drive drunk.”

Happy Monday! Enjoy these law links:

• Miles & Stockbridge keeps its associates informed about firm finances.
• Fired Public Defender Nancy Forster was “totally selfless, devoted, and delightful” when Jon Katz worked with her on an appeal, he writes.
• The Washington Post has a story this morning about an absolutely crazy lawsuit. (HT: Above the Law.)
• Remember the case where the judge referred to a drug defendant’s girlfriend as his “baby mama”? It’s heading to Wisconsin’s top court after another appellate court held that the judge’s comments could create a reasonable perception that the defendant’s sentence had something to do with race.
• What should a law professor wear on the first day of class? Readers, do you remember any profs from your own law school days who made interesting sartorial choices?