How about this punishment to fit the crime?

I see where Spam King, Robert Alan Soloway is finally headed to court.

Now I know that he is innocent until proven guilty and all that and I know absolutely nothing about the merits of the case but I just can't help but suggest out loud that IF my old friend Jeff Sullivan manages to convict Mr. Soloway, the only possible punishment that would fit his crime would be to require him to spend the next several years on-line - spending his ill-gotten fortune buying penny stocks, Viagra substitutes, herbal penis-enlargement supplements and refinancing mortgages.

So much for whatever was left of the Magna Carta.

In an op-ed in the London Sunday Times, outgoing British Prime Minister Tony Blair takes his country's courts to task for impeding his war on terrorism. Blair suggests it is a "misjudgment" to put civil liberties first.

Blair is pushing legislation through Parliament that would give police "wartime powers." If this legislation passes, police will not need to suspect that a crime has taken place in order to require British citizens to stop and answer questions by police about “matters relevant” to terror investigations. According to a companion column in the Times, "If suspects fail to stop or refuse to answer questions, they could be charged with a criminal offence and fined up to £5,000."

Blair's government has been gradually curtailing many civil rights that have been around for centuries and which we, on this side of the pond, take for granted such as trial by jury and the double jeopardy bar to re-prosecution for the same offense.

So tell me Mr. Blair, when your society looks like theirs, who will have won the war?

Memorial Day (Repost)

Memorial Day emerged out of the grim shadows of the American Civil War. Before the close of the war, women began decorating the graves of soldiers who had died in battle in that conflict.

The practice quickly spread and a few years later, May 30, 1868 was designated as "Decoration Day" -A day for placing flowers on the graves of both Union and Confederate soldiers throughout the United States

In 1882, Decoration Day became known as Memorial Day and soldiers who died in other wars were also honored. Over the years, it has become a day when all loved ones who have died in war and peace are remembered. In 1971, the United States Congress declaired Memorial Day to be observed annually on the last Monday of May

On this Memorial Day, I remember my uncle and others who gave their lives for our country, but I also pray for those that continue to serve to keep America free, and especially those who currently stand in harm's way.

I hope you will join me.

Suggesting that the judge was shorted on her Happy Meal may not have been a good career move.

From David Lat at Above the Law comes this little snippet about William P. Smith -- a partner at McDermott Will & Emery (Chicago), and the head of its bankruptcy department -- actually told Bankruptcy Judge Laurel Isacoff that she was "a few French Fries short of a Happy Meal."

Judge Isacoff's response was a show cause order.

No wonder we are all obese.

Pushing a baby stroller on a Segway?

Hat tip to this Livejournal account.

How NOT to influence a jury.

Defendant Richard Glawson can forget about any sympathy from the jury at his next trial. According to this story in the Boston Herald, after the trial judge refused the prosecutor's request to have Glawson shackled, he sucker-punched an elderly juror, then had to be pulled off of him.

At the time, Glawson was on trial for home burglary, starting a shootout at a mall, carjacking a woman's car, breaking into another home, shooting a disabled man’s dog, carjacking two more vehicles, and shooting a police officer in the hand.

Apparently, incidents like this are not unusual in the Bay State. As the Herald article notes, "Chaos in Massachusetts courts, where the officers are unarmed, is becoming almost as common as jury duty."

It's Deja Vu all over again (with apologies to Yogi Berra).

I don't do politics but I do sometimes do history. It is in that context that I commend to your attention Professor James Grimmelmann's very interesting post over at PrawfsBlawg relating to the no confidence vote on Attorney General Gonzales currently being debated in Congress.

It seems that in 1886, Congressional Republicans passed a resolution censuring the then Attorney General, Augustus Garland, who had refused to turn over executive papers relating to his dismissal of a U.S. attorney from the southern district of Alabama.

Sound familiar?

RAW! Japanese style.

After watching this video, don't you feel foolish for ever doubting the reality of professional wrestling?

Think she can take John Cena?

Daily Mail: Lara Croft taken into custody. Roommate charged as an accomplice.

For you vintage PC gamers and movie buffs who may remember Lara Croft as the heroine of several pretty successful Tomb Raider games and a couple of mediocre Angelina Jolie movies, I have some bad news. According to Great Britain's Daily Mail, a life size Lara Croft mannequin has been impounded by Manchester police. It seems she refused to put down her toy guns after police spotted her through a window and then raided the house. Instead of apologizing for the misunderstanding, police charged her owner with a firearms offense and impounded Lara as evidence.

Talk to the hand arm.

Apparently as an effort at performance art, some "artist" named Stelarc convinced a surgeon to implant a cell-cultivated "ear" in his forearm. Future enhancements will apparently include implanting a microphone inside that will connect to a bluetooth transmitter, "so the ear can broadcast audio from the internet wirelessly."

I guess I must be a Neanderthal but this is just plain weird.

Via Boing Boing.

Personally, I'd call it "Survivor: Las Vegas."

This is just plain embarrassing to judges everywhere.

Let's see. We have a judge who is banned from her own courthouse by her colleagues for bypassing courthouse security for the two personal bodyguards she hired when none of the court bailiffs wanted to work for her. Apparently, she also locks herself in her office with those same two bodyguards, all amid allegations that she "degrades" court employees, reads their e-mail and steals a Rolodex.

I'm not sure if this is more like "Desperate Housewives", "As the World Turns" or "Survivor" but we are definitely talking TV series material here.

Hat Tips to How Appealing and Harmful Error.

Florida decides to discipline an appellate judge for his reasoning in an opinion.

Howard Bashman, the premier source of appellate news at his How Appealing blog, provides some spot on food for thought in his column at Law.com, where he discusses the State of Florida's decision to institute disciplinary proceedings against a judge (full disclosure, it isn't me) on that state's 1st District Court of Appeal. The judge's alleged sin was that he dared to write an opinion in which he suggested that a colleague should have recused himself.

I agree with Howard on this one all the way. Whatever the merits of that issue may be and irrespective of whether asserting such a view may be detrimental to the collegiality of the court, it is obvious to me that the procedural posture of how the case before the court should be decided and by whom, is fair game for a judicial opinion and not properly the subject of discipline.

Now that's what I call a succinct opinion!

Professor Shaun Martin of the University of San Diego School of Law concisely rewrites the 9th Circuit's recent decision in Nichols v. Birdsell.

Maybe the judges over at the 9th and their clerks should check out Evan Schaeffer's "Five Simple Rules."

"You can't arrest me because my Deity can kick your Deity's butt!"

I recently stumbled across this little gem of a case.

It seems that Mr. Robert G. Loudon, a God-fearing resident of Memphis, Tennessee, on a sunny day in June, 1990, was stopped by police for making an illegal left turn. When asked for his license, Mr. Loudon replied that it had expired. The officer then prepared a citation for the illegal turn, and for driving without a license, and presented it to Mr. Loudon for his signature. Mr. Loudon refused to sign, because (as the court explains):

"[Mr. Loudon] advised [the officer] that he could not be arrested because her God was not as big as his God. He referred to her as “an agent of the socialistic government and he felt that it was that type of government that was trying to brand him with this mark."

Mr. Loudon refused to renew his driver’s license because doing so would require him to provide his social security number to the DMV. In a letter to the Tennessee Department of Safety, Mr. Loudon declared that:

"[I]t is illegal for you or anyone else to deny me a renewal of my operator license because I neither have nor will get a Socialist Surveillance Number; and so to do will be a violation of Federal laws both civil and criminal, regardless of any 'Laws' you claim to be acting under color of...."

"I do not have a Social Security number because that number is now becoming the mark of the beast against which we are warned in the Bible at Revelation 13:16-18, 14:11, and other places. I have committed my life to follow the Lord Jesus, Christ, and I cannot permit myself to be defiled with your number, as it would surely defile me."

Alas for Mr. Loudon, the heathen courts of Tennessee weren't convinced. Risking the fire and brimstone of Loudon’s vengeful God and in the best "render unto Caesar" tradition, the Court of Appeals affirmed his conviction and sentence of a $108 fine and thirty days to serve at the Shelby County Correctional Center.

The case is Tennessee v. Loudon, 857 S.W.2d 878 (Tenn. Crim. App. 1993).

Perhaps they were just concentrating intently?

As the WSJ notes here, an Australian study conducted by Professor Ronald Grunstein indicates that "judicial sleepiness" is a cause for concern. The study's conclusion is that "Clearly, judicial sleepiness threatens the integrity of the judicial system." Grunstein reasons that "The frequently monotonous and passive aspects of judicial work would increase the propensity to fall asleep in judges exposed to sleep deprivation or who have sleep disorders."

Fortunately for me, I find that the deathless prose of the briefs and the scintillating arguments of counsel make it extremely unlikely that such a thing would ever ... zzzzzzzz.

Hat tip to How Appealing.

Breakfast for Nerds.

Designed as an art exhibit, this waffle iron turns out your morning carbs in the shape of a computer keyboard.

It looks pretty good to me. Now if I can get a poached egg mouse and maybe some bacon USB storage....

In Great Britain, they'll know where you are at all times.

In order to facilitate a new "congestion tax," the British Government is working on a plan to have static cameras, GPS, and "eye-in-the-sky satellites which will track the location of electronic transponders embedded in license plates. When fully implemented, the government will know the location of every vehicle in the country at all times.

If the words "Big Brother" come to mind, just remember that George Orwell was British.

It looks like Manhattan may be next.

Via Reuters.