1. Right and Left Join to Challenge U.S. on Criminal Justice 17 hours ago   permalink

Right and Left Join to Challenge U.S. on Criminal Justice
Www.nytimes.com

WASHINGTON — In the next several months, the Supreme Court will decide at least a half-dozen cases about the rights of people accused of crimes involving drugs, sex and corruption. Civil liberties groups and associations of defense lawyers have lined up on the side of the accused.

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Hosted.ap.org
"Justice a unique voice on high court" Court: NY can seize property for new NJ Nets arena   —  ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) -- New York's top court says the state can use eminent domain to force homeowners and businesses to sell their properties for a massive development in Brooklyn that includes a new arena for the New Jersey Nets.

Volokh.com
Conservatives Discover Criminal Defendants   —  The NYT reports on increasing involvement by conservative organizations and business groups on behalf of criminal defendants.  While libertarians have long complained about “overcriminalization” and excessive federalization of criminal law, such concerns have gained increasing currency in more traditional conservative circles.  This is a ...

2. The Distraction of Transparency: an ACTA news Roundup 4 hours ago   permalink

Danny / EFF.org Updates

Alerted in part by your letters and calls , Senators have begun to express concern over the secrecy and content of ACTA , while the MPAA , RIAA and other established groups rush to reassure them that ACTA — while of course they know nothing of its actual content — will be good for business and that "transparency is a distraction" . ...

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Michael Geist / Michael Geist Blog
The Distraction of Transparency: an ACTA news Roundup Library Content Alliance on ACTA   —  The Library Content Alliance has produced an issue brief on ACTA demonstrating specific concerns to the library community.

3. Barkley: Dobbs would be ‘perfect’ IP Party candidate for prez 6 hours ago   permalink

Barkley: Dobbs would be ‘perfect’ IP Party candidate for prez
Minnesotaindependent.com

Could “Mr. Independent” — as Lou Dobbs promotes himself — become “Mr. Independence Party”? A Politico piece this morning ponders news that the illegal-immigration foe, Birther and former CNN anchor is considering a run for president in 2012. What’s not clear is what banner he might run under. Minnesota&# ...

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Richard / Ballot Access News
Covenant Party Appears to Win Gubernatorial Election in Northern Mariana Islands   —  On November 23, the Northern Mariana Islands, a U.S. Commonwealth in the western Pacific, held a run-off gubernatorial election. The Covenant Party nominee, incumbent Benigno Filial, appears to have defeated the Republican Party nominee, Heinz Hofschneider, by a margin of 52%-48%. See this story.

4. EFF Launches New "Terms of Use" Page 8 hours ago   permalink

Ed Bayley / EFF.org Updates

One cannot go online today without eventually being asked to accept a set of so-called Terms of Service (or TOS). Such TOS agreements have become ubiquitous to websites and other online services in the same way End User License Agreements (EULAs) have become the mainstay of the software industry. Yet while we are often aware that such Terms of ...

5. Did Petters Do Well Enough at Trial to Save Himself? 8 hours ago   permalink

Did Petters Do Well Enough at Trial to Save Himself?
Ashby Jones / WSJ.com

The fate of Minnesota businessman Tom Petters is now in the hands of a federal jury in St. Paul. To find out how he did, we checked in with the dean of the law school at Hamline University in St. Paul.

6. Fitial leads in gubernatorial runoff: CNMI election outcome pending absentee votes 9 hours ago   permalink

Fitial leads in gubernatorial runoff: CNMI election outcome pending absentee votes
Www.guampdn.com

SAIPAN -- Incumbent Gov. Benigno R. Fitial is narrowly leading a runoff election to serve a five-year term as governor of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.

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7. SOC: Tempest in the Back of Your TV 9 hours ago   permalink

Larry Downes / Stanford Center for Internet and Society

I've spent all day on what I thought would be a short blog post. The MPAA wants a waiver from the FCC rule that prohibits disabling analog interfaces on the back of your TV. That sounds dangerous, but it turns out the problem is a lot more complicated than I wanted it to be! The MPAA has asked the FCC for a waiver to allow studios to broadcast ...

8. New York Court of Appeals Upholds Atlantic Yards Condemnations 10 hours ago   permalink

Ilya Somin / The Volokh Conspiracy

The New York Court of Appeals has issued its opinion in Goldstein v. New York State Urban Development Corporation, an important property rights case. The 6–1 decision upholds the condemnation of numerous properties in the Atlantic Yards area for the purpose of transferring them to powerful developer Bruce Ratner, who plans to use most of [...]

9. Originalism and the Sixth Amendment Right “to have the Assistance of Counsel” 10 hours ago   permalink

Orin Kerr / The Volokh Conspiracy

The briefs filed in McDonald v. City of Chicago have raised a lot of questions here about the role of originalism versus stare decisis in constitutional interpretation. Some have argued that stare decisis must give way to correctness on these issues as a matter of constitutional purity: We should always follow the original public [...]

10. Rajaratnam Mixes In a Little “O” with His “D” 10 hours ago   permalink

Rajaratnam Mixes In a Little “O” with His “D”
Ashby Jones / WSJ.com

In his response to the SEC complaint lodged against him last month, Raj Rajaratnam defended himself, denying that that he received or traded on material, nonpublic information about Google or Hilton or other companies. But he also played offense, criticizing the government's tactics.

11. A Post About Beer, Golf, Pot, Hollywood and Canadian Tort Law 12 hours ago   permalink

A Post About Beer, Golf, Pot, Hollywood and Canadian Tort Law
Ashby Jones / WSJ.com

The Law Blog writes about a strange case from Canada involving beer, golf, pot, Hollywood and tort law.

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Fred / EFF.org Updates
DVD Customers are Not DVD Pirates   —  I've published an op-ed over at The Wrap, a leading blog for Hollywood insiders. It makes the point that Hollywood's attacks on DVD innovators ( RealDVD , Kaleidescape , Redbox ) amount to an attack on legitimate DVD customers who are trying to pay for content that they could almost as easily download for free from unauthorized sources. So, when ...

12. Groves: Profitable Philanthropy and Investment Incentives 13 hours ago   permalink

Groves: Profitable Philanthropy and Investment Incentives
Paul Caron / TaxProf Blog

Roger M. Groves (Florida Coastal) has published More Private Equity, Less Governmental Subsidy, and More Tax Efficiency in Urban Revitalization: Modeling Profitable Philanthropy and Investment Incentives, 8 Fla. St. U. Bus. L. Rev. 93 (2009). Here is the abstract: In hopes of revitalizing depressed urban areas, US tax policy has...

13. Ryan increases his workload - NorthJersey.com 16 hours ago   permalink

IP Newsflash

These headlines do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the patent law firm v. Kreisler Selting Werner. Please also review the disclaimer

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IP Newsflash
CPTC Gives Updated Information on Latest Patent Actions - TransWorldNews   —  These headlines do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the patent law firm v. Kreisler Selting Werner. Please also review the disclaimer

IP Newsflash
After success in Korea and Japan, Ericsson withdraws its complaint with the ... - CNNMoney.com   —  These headlines do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the patent law firm v. Kreisler Selting Werner. Please also review the disclaimer

14. Apple Asks for Permanent Injunction Against Psystar 15 hours ago   permalink

Apple Asks for Permanent Injunction Against Psystar
Groklaw

Apple has filed a motion asking for a permanent injunction against Psystar, statutory damages, and attorneys' fees and costs. Unless Psystar is permanently enjoined, Apple says, it won't stop. And by stop, Apple means Snow Leopard too. It plans to file a motion of transfer in Florida to bring that matter to California. It wants the injunction to ...

15. "Political consultant charged with impersonating opposing campaign's chief of staff on ... 15 hours ago   permalink

Rick Hasen / Election Law

Newsroom New Jersey reports....

16. CA Gov. Nominates "Top Two" Advocate Abel Moldonado for Lt. Gov. 15 hours ago   permalink

Rick Hasen / Election Law

The story is here. Blog readers will recall that putting the top two primary on next spring's CA ballot was the price to get Maldonado's vote for a package of budget reforms (a package that the voters later voted down,...

17. Many Good Government Organizations Plan to File an Amicus in North Carolina Ballot Access Case 15 hours ago   permalink

Richard / Ballot Access News

Several prestigious good-government organizations have tentatively decided to file an amicus curiae brief with the North Carolina Supreme Court, in the pending ballot access case filed in 2005 by the Libertarian Party. The Green Party had joined somewhat later as a co-plaintiff. The North Carolina State Court of Appeals had recently upheld all [...

18. "California Court Re-Affirms Tentative Decision; Keeps Public Funding Measure on Ballot " 15 hours ago   permalink

Rick Hasen / Election Law

Richard Winger reports....

19. Sandy Levinson on Tom Friedman on Gerrymandering Etc. 15 hours ago   permalink

Rick Hasen / Election Law

Here, at Balkinization....

20. Connecting the Dots 16 hours ago   permalink

David Friedman / PrawfsBlawg

"Connecting the dots," is a weighty metaphor. Oliver Stone abused the concept. The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, emphasized the gravity of doing so competently. With the information that comes to us in our profession, floods over the transom, we need to take shortcuts. I rely on the pithy e-mail that lands ...

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Www.abajournal.com
Law Firm Price Wars Break Out as Some Try ‘Loss Leader’ Bids for Work   —  Desperate to bring in new business, some firms are offering “loss leader” bids that may turn out to be unsustainable, according to managers of 15 large law firms responding to a survey summarized at the Legal Business Development blog.
David Friedman / PrawfsBlawg :    Connecting the Dots