U.S. Supreme Court
High Court Is Set to Tackle Profound Federalism Issues
By Erwin Chemerinsky
The Supreme Court is set to decide three particularly important cases regarding federalism, writes Erwin Chemerinsky. - Forum ...
In his book "Federal Judges Revealed," William Domnarski explores how political connections and presidential pals can mean eve...
Appellate Practice, California Courts of Appeal
Sex, Lies and Remittiturs
By Benjamin G. Shatz
A recent 6th District case reveals that relief may be granted to those harmed by attorney misconduct in appellate cases.
A Win-at-All-Costs Prosecution
By Wajahat Ali
For two years, attorneys for rock superstars Led Zeppelin and the Grateful Dead waged a legal war against a Minnesota entrepre...
A recent 9th Circuit case addresses federal appellate jurisdiction in the tricky area of voluntary dismissals, write Benjamin ...
Ghosts of the Past, Visions of the Future
By Joseph H. Cooper
Prison inmates who read Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" as part of an outreach class began to recall some of their own gh...
Model trains, toy soldiers -- perhaps the season's tendency toward minitiaturization reveals something deeper. ...
Amid recent reports of political corruption, budget deficits and ineffective financial regulation, the Air Resources Board's i...
The Supreme Court's latest go-round with a case against Philip Morris leaves the laws regarding punitive damages in flux.
The dispute between the Los Angeles city attorney and the city controller might seem like inside baseball, but it is actually ...
Civil Rights
Protecting the Disabled Will Carry the Civil Rights Torch Even Further
By Michael Waterstone
Among his many challenges, President-elect Barack Obama should work to ensure access and civil rights protections for the disa...
Mediation Confidential
If it's not broke.
Constitutional Law, Government
Can Obama Bring Us Back From the Dark Side?
By Erwin Chemerinsky
One of President-elect Barack Obama’s first actions must be to change course and to repudiate the Bush administration’s polici...
Careful practitioners should calculate appellate deadlines arising from all possible scenarios or interpretations and file at ...
Civil Rights, Constitutional Law, U.S. Supreme Court
Crossing Out Rights
By Robert L. Bastian Jr.
It remains a legal mystery why church doctrine or authority should ever shade an individual's fundamental right. ...
The appointments of federal judges are what most define a president and represent his most enduring contribution — either good...
Our accumulated economic history of the past half century has subtle, but significant consequences for labels in law.
Con Jobs
By Joseph H. Cooper
For those recently or about-to-be released from prison, job opportunities increase the will to resist the temptations — and av...
Corporate, Securities
The SEC Sheds Light on Enforcement Procedures
By Thomas A. Zaccaro
The Securities and Exchange Commission, the federal agency that regulates corporate transparency, now has provided some transp...
Civil Litigation
Keeping the Courthouse Door Open to Everyone - This Time
By Rochelle Bobroff, Ian Millhiser
By applying one standard to low-income families, and another to the Republican Party, the 6th Circuit employed an unconscionab...
Two recent cases will make some judges think at least twice before granting an insurer's summary motion, let alone a demurrer.
An upcoming case on the Supreme Court's docket potentially provides the court with the occasion to bring First Amendment law c...
This election's candidates who are trained as lawyers have better used their skills to appropriately define issues and marshal...
Criminal
Do Government-Backed Prosecutors Really Represent 'the People'?
By Konrad Moore
Permitting the prosecution to adopt a label that rightfully includes those very "people" charged with deciding the case risks ...
California Supreme Court, Environmental & Energy
A Public Trust Renaissance
By Richard M. Frank
The public trust doctrine, a cornerstone of modern environmental law in California, has been relatively quiescent in recent ye...
The state Supreme Court had an easy opportunity to set a high standard for attorney conduct, and muffed it badly.
Guns and Guantanamo are so last term. Here's what's on the horizon for the U.S. Supreme Court's October 2008 term.
Administrative/Regulatory, Government
Lawyers Were Never the Problem
By Robert L. Bastian Jr.
Entirely unregulated markets have resulted in a form of big-government socialism beyond would-be regulators' wildest dreams. T...
The Supreme Court is clearly giving little weight to its oft-stated presumption against finding pre-emption, writes Erwin Chem...
Since over 90 percent of all family law cases eventually settle, there is something to be said for trying to get it right the ...