Should Teen "Sexting" be Criminalized?

Last winter, a 14-year old from Olympia, WA wanted to send her boyfriend a special momento.  In an exercise of judgment she would come to profoundly regret, she snapped a full-on frontal nude with her cell phone.She then attached the pic to her boyfriend Isaiah's number and pushed send, sealing her fate.For his part, Isaiah was coaxed by another girl he thought was good friends with his girlfriend into forwarding the pic.  Actually, the other girl was a rival for Isaiah's affections with an epic episode of cyber-bullying on her mind. Annotating the pic with a disparaging comment, the rival did a global attach, publishing it to all her contacts.  From there, it went viral within hours.Before school started the next day, parents...

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Posted in: child pornography,distributing child sexually abusive material,felony,lawyer,Megan Fox,misdemeanor,Motorola,Olympia,sexting,texting

"First and Ten": New Teen Driving Law

The new driving law that takes effect Wednesday is known as "First and Ten".  Teens must stop adding (non-family) passengers under age-21 after the first one; and back in the driveway by ten o'clock pm.The present curfew is midnight, without any passenger restrictions.  The Michigan State Police website has an excellent summary of the new restrictions.The new law applies to all level 2, or "intermediate" drivers in Michigan's Graduated Driver Licensing (GDL) program.  These are drivers who are at least 16-years of age who have also completed their coursework and road test.Statistics published by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety provided the impetus for the new law.  These stats show that in...

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Posted in: First and Ten law,Graduated Driver Licensing,Institute for Highway Safety,lawyer,Michigan Motor Vehicle Code,Michigan State Police,teenage driver

Dr. Dre Successfully Defends Privacy Suit Brought By Detroit Officials

The case has percolated up and down Michigan's legal system for a decade.  Today, the Michigan Supreme Court handed Dr. Dre a long-sought win over former Detroit officials who tried to sue the rapper and a host of promoters on a tort-based eavesdropping theory.In reversing the Michigan Court of Appeals, the High Court adopted the rationale of dissenting judge Chris Murray who concluded that no reasonable juror could conclude that the city officials had a reasonable expectation of privacy in their heated back-stage discussions with Dre's crew at the Joe Louis Arena in the summer of 2000.Considering that MTV was in the house with their camras rolling, I agree with Judge Murray.The dispute concerned how Detroit officials dealt...

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Posted in: Dr. Dre,Herschel Fink,Judge Chris Murray,Michigan Supreme Court

Home Run King Faces Federal Perjury Charges in San Fransisco

Barry BondsAssociated PressBarry Bonds, formerly of the Pittsburgh Pirates and San Fransisco Giants, is the defendant in a federal perjury case that began today; the case was charged back in 2007.Bonds holds several major league baseball records, including most home runs in a career (762), and in a single season (73).  He is the son of former all-star Bobby Bonds.  Son Barry has been named league MVP more than any other player, taking that award 4 straight years at the height of his career.Unfortunately, he ended his career under the cloud of the federal indictment that is now unfolding in a San Fransisco trial.  The charges allege Bonds testified falsely to a federal grand jury on the subject of his use...

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Posted in: Barry Bonds,Bobby Bonds,federal court,grand jury,Greg Anderson,indictment,MVP,Pittsburgh,San Fransisco

In the Future, Everyone Will Be a Lawyer for Fifteen Minutes

It had to finally happen.  This blog has posted on the problems facing post-Great Recession law graduates: gigantic non-dischargeable student loans; a glut of newly minted lawyers; and few law-related job prospects.According to the Law School Admissions Council, over the past year, law school admissions have dropped by over 11% to their lowest levels in a decade; perhaps due to the factors listed above.The profession will no doubt rebound.  But not before more pain is inflicted.  Some in the industry predict that law school applications will continue to fall off over the next two years as the U.S. economy tries to mount a sustained recovery.  And any newly minted lawyer can tell you how difficult it has been to become engaged...

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Posted in: Great Recession,law school,Law School Admissions Council,lawyer,Michigan Supreme Court Learning Center

The Right to be a Millionaire

The NFL team owners, a tony group, just announced an official lock-out of their players.  For their part, the players have dissolved their union and several super-stars have filed a high profile class action law suit against the owners.Football is America's most popular sport and has grown into a billion dollar industry over the past decade.  With the lock-out and the law suit, however, looks like the 2011 season is in jeopardy.The super-star quarterbacks' lawsuit, formally known as Brady vs NFL, was filed in the U.S. District Court in Minneapolis, MN and asserts an antitrust claim against the storied league while seeking an injunction to terminate the lockout.The quarterbacks are represented in Minneapolis by the Berens Miller law...

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Posted in: attorneys,collective bargaining,Judge Richard Posner,Justice Antonin Scalia,NFL,players union,U.S. District Court

SCOTUS Erodes Witness Confrontation Requirement

This case was straight out of Detroit.  Anthony Covington was lying next to his car at a gas station, shot in the stomach, bleeding out, but still alive and speaking with the Detroit Police.Just before he died, he identified Rick Bryant as his shooter.  Bryant's subsequent conviction, based largely on the dying man's identification, went all the way to the SCOTUS and was decided last month.Conviction affirmed; and in the process, one of the many exceptions to the hearsay rule is broadly expanded at the expense of accused persons everywhere. The 6-2 decision in Michigan v Bryant erodes the confrontation clause of the Sixth Amendment requiring that all witnesses against an accused be brought to court.  Surprisingly, Justice Sotomayor...

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Posted in: confrontation clause,Detroit,Detroit Police Department,evidence,hearsay evidence,Justice Antonin Scalia,Justice Sonia Sotomayor,SCOTUS,Sixth Amendment,statement,witness

Does the MERS Corporation Own Your Home?

The signs have been piling-up for more than a year now. Mortgage foreclosures have careened out-of-control. The chief question in courts of law is: who owns the subject property, and can they prove it by producing a mortgage note? Increasingly, the respective answers are: “Don’t know” and “No.”In 2010, the Arkansas Supreme Court ruled that MERS (Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems) Corporation was prohibited from filing foreclosures in that state.A federal bankruptcy judge in Long Island ruled just last week that MERS could not act as the “agent” of the mortgage note owner. Judge Robert Grossman acknowledged in a case called In re: Agard, that MERS may be involved with up to 50% of all home foreclosures nationwide, and that his decision...

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Posted in: Consumer Financial Protection Bureau,David J. Stern,foreclosure,Green Path Debt Solutions,MERS,Oakland County,Oakland County Foreclosure Prevention Initiative,R K Arnold,Robert Grossman

The Cost of Free Speech

"For the past 20-years, the congregation of the Westboro Baptist Church has picketed military funerals to communicate its belief that God hates the United States for its tolerance of homosexuality, particularly in America's military."  So reads the first line of today's 8-1 SCOTUS decision in the Snyder v Phelps case.By now, the story is familiar to all of us: Albert Snyder's son, Marine Lance Corporal Matthew Snyder, was killed in action in Iraq.  Nearby Corporal Matthew's funeral, members of the Westboro Baptist Church protested, with many members of the congregation carrying anti-gay and anti-america signs.Albert Snyder sued in federal court (pursuant to diversity of citizenship jurisdiction - when each party is...

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Posted in: Albert Snyder,constitutional law,First Amendment,Fred Phelps,free speech,Matthew Snyder,SCOTUS

SBM's Judicial Crossroads Task Force Recommends Streamlining State Courts

Former Oakland Circuit Judge Barry Howard (left) andAttorney Edward Pappas co-chaired the task force.The lawyers saw it coming long ago.  With waves of deep budget cuts crashing down upon the public sector, how could the judiciary keep-up with the ever higher demand for its high-quality service we have come to expect?  Judicial reform.At the direction of the Michigan Supreme Court, the State Bar of Michigan selected a task force of attorneys and judges from across the state back in early-2009.  The task force met for a full-day each month from September 2009 through last May, gathering ideas, discussing problems and suggested solutions, and debating various cost-cutting strategies.Last week, the task force announced its findings...

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Posted in: attorneys,Barry Howard,Edward Pappas,judges,judicial reform,MAACS,Michigan Appellate Assigned Counsel System,Michigan Supreme Court,State Bar of Michigan