Rominger Legal Reports

Beware the Middle Tranche of March (and mortgage backed securities)

2009-03-15T22:13:00.006-05:00

William Safire in a piece called Animal Spirits in the New York Times Magazine, this day, pointed out that the Ides in the Ides of March is one of three tranches the Romans used to divide a month...

And so it can only be fitting then to consider the irony of a firm warning attached to a tranche, something known to the ancients, and lost on US only until recently...

Tune in next week when we revive our animal spirits with a fix of Himbeergeist

Does the Wall Street Bail Out Contain a Bill of Attainder?

2008-09-28T21:03:00.003-05:00

The text of the Constitution, Article I, Section 9; Clause 3 is:
No Bill of Attainder or ex post facto Law shall be passed.

Does the proposed bailout require the ex post facto disgorgement of profits or pay to "the fat cat CEOs"? If so, you can bet they and their lawyers will argue the Congress's actions are unlawful.

Stay tuned for more....

White House Briefed On Potential For Mars Life

2008-08-03T23:20:00.003-05:00

"The White House has been alerted by NASA about plans to make an announcement soon on major new Phoenix lander discoveries concerning the "potential for life" on Mars, scientists tell Aviation Week & Space Technology...."

This did not come as a surprise to Brian De Palma

Cloverfield and the Red Badge of Courage

2008-01-22T00:00:00.000-05:00

I loved the movie Cloverfield. In fact I had my Slusho T-Shirt on when I went. If you don't know what slusho is, than you are not as lame as our programmer Jimmy. You probably get dates.

That said, many people are hailing the first person narrative, as being on the ground, in the heart of battle, lacking details and a precise understanding of the events by the narrator and viewer. It is heralded as innovative, fresh, new, and story telling for the modern ages / U-tube generation.

Couldn't help but think that is what they said about Stephen Crane's protagonist in The Red Badge of Courage. There we follow Henry Fleming, a lowly private as he traverses the battlefield, without ever knowing the true bigger picture. His travels and what the reader knows from the narrators perspective are equally opaque.

Of course that book was written in 1895. What is old is new again. That's why I have bell bottoms.

Pruneyard Revisited - Free Speech trumps common decency. - Law Students Shrug

2008-01-08T06:47:00.000-05:00

The California Supremes said:

We granted the request of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to decide whether, under California law, a shopping mall may enforce a rule prohibiting persons from urging customers to boycott a store in the mall. For the reasons that follow, we hold that the right to free speech granted by article I, section 2 of the California Constitution includes the right to urge customers in a shopping mall to boycott one of the stores in the mall.

FASHION VALLEY MALL, LLC, v. NATION LABOR RELATIONS BOARD
D.C. Cir.Ct.App. No. 04-1411

Now the blogs are a buzz that this was surprising. See for example: LAW BLOG WSJ

But if you read Pruneyard in property class, you know this isn't a shocking extension of California Free Speech Jurisprudence. - primer on Pruneyard

Of course it is shocking is that by choosing to locate in a mall, you can't exclude naysayers from the front door of your store. It is just not new or surprising.

Missing CIA tapes...

2007-12-07T00:38:00.000-05:00

I still can't believe my government has resorted to waterboarding. Is this the "freedom" we fight for? Is this what we stand for? I say not.

According to the NY Times:

It has been widely reported that Mr. Zubaydah was subjected to several tough physical tactics, including waterboarding, which involves near-suffocation. But C.I.A. officers judged that the release of photos or videos would nonetheless provoke a strong reaction.

“People know what happened, but to see it in living color would have far greater power,” the official said.

Representative Rush Holt of New Jersey, a Democratic member of the House Intelligence Committee, has been pushing legislation in Congress to have all detainee interrogations videotaped so officials can refer to the tapes multiple times to glean better information.

Mr. Holt said he had been told many times that the C.I.A. does not record the interrogation of detainees. “When I would ask them whether they had reviewed the tapes to better understand the intelligence, they said ‘What tapes?’,” he said.

FULL STORY

NIMBY

2007-11-06T22:34:00.000-05:00

My friend who wants to sell or lease his land for a windmill (a really big windmill), said "Some people say not in my backyard, well I say, then build it in my front yard."

If you have a large wind energy farm in mind, let me know, and I'll give you his name.

Petition or Motion - Any difference?

2007-10-17T05:46:00.000-05:00

I was recently at a bench / bar conference where the judges involved talked about the difference between a petition and a motion. They quite clearly said they were different, and required different procedures and notice to file. Asked for examples, things broke down from there. 100 lawyers and a few Judges couldn't pin it down.

So I looked around on the web, and I find myself concurring with the North Carolina Court of Appeals, who in their FAQ, say :

Motion. A written application requesting the Court to make a specific ruling or order. The requirements for a motion are set out in Rule 224.

Petition. A written application requesting the Court to make a specific ruling or order. There is no practical difference between a petition and a motion.

----BUT----

Of course according to the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals in In re: Rory Allen Gregory 1999 FED App. 0227P (6th Cir.) - No. 99-5602, there is a distinction to be found:

"The difference between a § 2255 motion and a petition under § 2241 is important for jurisdictional purposes. The former must be filed in the district court which sentenced the movant, whereas a petition for habeas corpus under § 2241 may be filed in the district court having jurisdiction over the petitioner’s custodian. See In re Hanserd, 123 F.3d 922, 925 (6th Cir. 1997); United States v. Jalili, 925 F.2d 889, 893-94 (6th Cir. 1991); Cohen v. United States, 593 F.2d 766, 770-71 (6th Cir. 1979); Wright v. United States Board of Parole, 557 F.2d 74, 77 (6th Cir. 1977)."

There the inmate had styled it one way, and it was treated another. ut did the style of the pleading matter? Or just the applicable section? That fact is lost to posterity.

If you have any ideas on the difference between a motion and a petition, let me know!

A few reasons to hold onto your britches

2007-10-15T20:50:00.000-05:00

And all this from google news on just October 15, 2007 10:00 PM Eastern.... Notice the first item, can you hear the cash being sucked out of the economy?

First Baby Boomer Files For Social Security FOX News - WASHINGTON - Kathleen Casey-Kirschling filed for early retirement Monday, becoming the first baby boomer to start collecting Social Security.

China’s Leader Closes Door to Reform New York Times - By JOSEPH KAHN BEIJING, Oct. 15 - Chinese President Hu Jintao promised to address social fissures, a degraded environment and rampant corruption during his second term as China’s top leader, but he all but ruled out more than cosmetic political reform

Russia's Putin emerges from Iran plot 'like a hero' Reuters - By Conor Sweeney MOSCOW, Oct 15 (Reuters) - Commentators were both amused and intrigued at the heroic light thrown on Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday when he defied what he said were security service warnings of a plot to kill him in Iran.

Bernanke Says Housing to Remain `Drag' on US Growth (Update3) Bloomberg - By Craig Torres and Scott Lanman Oct. 15 (Bloomberg) -- Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said the housing slump will be a ``significant drag'' on US growth into next year, though evidence of a broader impact on spending is limited.

DMV Chief in New York Defends Plan to Give Illegal Immigrants Licenses New York Times - By DANNY HAKIM ALBANY, Oct. 15— In a hearing punctuated by angry exchanges about terrorism, Senate Republicans grilled the commissioner of the Department of Motor Vehicles on Monday, pressing him to defend Gov.

We were right about Harry Potter!

2007-07-25T05:30:00.000-05:00

Whew, we've been reading like crazy, and now that we finished The Deathly Hallows, we're proud to announce that Harry Potter was in fact the Seventh Horcrux. Which of course we had predicted way back in December, 2006. - SEE OUR PREDICTION

See page. 709 - " You were the Seventh Horcrux...."

Squirrel Attacks, part III

2007-06-18T04:55:00.000-05:00

In our never ending quest to document dementia in squirrels, we are once again compelled to bring you the following:

Blow From Crutch Ends Squirrel's Rampage - AP

BERLIN (June 14) - An unusually aggressive squirrel bit three people in a German town before its last victim finished it off with a crutch, police said.

The rodent jumped through a living-room window in Passau, on the Austrian border, on Tuesday and bit its first victim. With the squirrel hanging on by its teeth, the woman ran out into the street, where she managed to shake the animal off.

The squirrel then bit a construction worker before running into a nearby garden, where it bit a 72-year-old man who eventually killed it with a crutch, police said...

Past Squirrel Issues - We warned you about Squirrels & Russian Squirrels

The Last Comic Standing

2007-06-17T21:09:00.000-05:00

We thought we should pass the word; if you're wondering what to watch this summer, try The Last Comic Standing. It's very funny.

Supreme Court ruling fallout: fewer patents, more litigation?

2007-05-02T20:46:00.000-05:00

by Chris Murphy

This week's Supreme Court ruling on patents is sure to affect companies in software and other areas of IT, where some of the most controversial patents have been issued and litigated in recent years.

Patent attorneys are predicting it will be harder to protect inventions after the ruling in KSR vs. Teleflex, that there will be more litigation to contest patents, and that even existing patents could become less valuable. "It's going to be much harder to get patent protection on everything, including software," said Steven Rubin, an intellectual property attorney with the firm WolfBlock, in an interview.

Vonage on Tuesday used the ruling to ask the U.S. Court of Appeals to toss out the ruling that it infringed on patented Verizon technology. That ruling put Vonage's viability in jeopardy ...READ MORE

Please return my grandfather's hat

2007-04-25T21:01:00.000-05:00

Did you see Idol gives back? Phil Stacy has my grandfather's hat.

Please return it. -the editors

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2007-04-10T21:56:00.000-05:00

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Google adds paper version to Gmail, IP to toilet

2007-04-02T05:58:00.000-05:00

For those of you who slept yesterday, Google, Inc. was up to their usual April fools day humor. This year they lent a page from Adam Sandler and went with potty humor on their main page, proclaiming they could provide free Internet through your toilet bowl.

A more highbrow prank was reserved for Gmail users, whereby the log in screen for Gmail was offering paper versions of your e-mail sent to your door. The user testimonials proffered should have been a good tell for anyone who was roused to excitement, that they would not soon be receiving Gmail by Snail mail.

Remember to note your Google Calendar for April 1, 2008 with an appropriate notation such as, "All Google Beta Apps are for Fools"

Jury throws Libby under the bus.

2007-03-06T13:10:00.000-05:00

WASHINGTON -- An 11 person jury found Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff guilty on four counts in the investigation into whether a CIA operative's name was intentionally leaked to the news media.

Libby was acquitted on one count of lying to the FBI.

Well, so much for the aquital. That said, the appeals process lies ahead. It worked for Arthur Anderson.

Scooting Along - Defense goes it with 11 Jurors

2007-02-26T14:21:00.000-05:00

Feb. 26 (Bloomberg) -- A juror in the perjury case of Lewis ``Scooter'' Libby was dismissed after receiving out-of-court information about the case. The judge decided deliberations would continue with the 11 remaining jury members.

The female juror came in contact with information about the case by accident, U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton said after discussing the situation with her, the jury foreperson and lawyers. The judge ruled that the juror, an art historian, couldn't remain on the panel.

Walton told the remaining seven women and four men on the jury to resume deliberations. Defense lawyer Ted Wells told the judge that adding an alternate to return the panel to 12 members would require it to start over, which he said wouldn't be fair to Libby. (emphasis added)

We think the defense must like the jury. If you thought a loss was likely, you would never keep the jury, or fight the loss of the juror to preserve error on appeal. The prosecutor agrees; he wants 12. BTW - this was not the same woman who refused to wear the valentines t-shirt, and so some rancor might still be at play.

And trust us, a mistrial by hung jury is not only considered a win (and good for the lawyer's bottom line), but it's likely to discourage the prosecution from attempting the trial twice. With so many politically juicy tidbits making the circuit from the first go around, their might be an administration clamor to cry uncle.

Rats take over Taco Bell

2007-02-24T20:07:00.000-05:00

Wow we were shocked!

The Daily Beat - Juror Bonding - T-Shirt time... Scooter Libby

2007-02-14T21:55:00.000-05:00

Before the 14 jurors departed for a long break this afternoon, they filed into the courtroom, with all but one wearing bright red T-shirts with a white valentine heart over their clothes, to the uncertain laughter of many in the courtroom.

But as one juror, a retired North Carolina schoolteacher, rose to speak aloud, Judge Walton became visibly anxious that the juror might say something inappropriate that would threaten the trial. Jurors are not supposed to speak during court sessions and are supposed to make any concerns known through notes to the bench.

The juror said that they were wearing the T-shirts to express their fondness for the judge and the court staff on Valentine’s Day. He then added, to the judge’s growing discomfort, that they were unanimous in this sentiment, but they would all be independent in judging the evidence. - READ MORE

I've seen this before.. usually a good sign for the defense. - Stay posted

Oiled prisoner slips out of jail - NYC bans vegetable oil.

2007-01-07T17:35:00.000-05:00

Oiled Prisoner Slips Out of Norwegian Jail

OSLO, Norway (Jan. 3) - A Lithuanian held on suspicion of theft in an Arctic Norway jail slipped out of custody - literally - by stripping naked, smearing himself with vegetable oil and sliding through the prison bars, police said Wednesday.

"He slipped through the bars on Christmas Eve," said Svein-Erik Jacobsen, operation leader for the Oest-Finnmark Police District. The unusual escape made national news in Norway on Wednesday.

Another Lithuanian, held as an accomplice in the same cell, also used the technique to try to slip out of a window of the Vadsoe Jail, but failed, apparently because he was too big. The men had managed to bend the bars slightly to gain more space.

"It was a good effort," Jacobsen said. "But all he did was get his head and part of his shoulder through the bars." - FULL STORY

The New York City Council promptly placed a provisional ban on vegetable oil, siting public safety concerns. The existing ban on trans fats has caused restaurateurs to scramble to purchase lard for cooking. Citywide shortages have forced lard to be imported from nearby Pennsylvania.

Some experts predict a ripple effect on the Pennsylvania potato chip industry, which proudly depends upon local lard to make chips which have a favorable mouth feel and taste. As lard prices rise, chip makers there may be forced to raise prices.

Massachusetts Lawyer Performs 'Home Based, Will-Signing Parties'

2007-01-03T07:46:00.000-05:00

We think offering divorces at the party might spice things up a bit, especially if there is a taker...

Move Over Tupperware: Massachusetts Lawyer Performs 'Home Based, Will-Signing Parties'
Jan 2, 2007 - PR Newswire
BILLERICA, Mass., Jan. 2 /PRNewswire/ -- Resolving to finally write a Will in 2007? Attorney James Haroutunian performs Home Based, Will- Signing Parties through a unique, new concept named: Have Kids, Will-Party. The process is simple: 1) Party hosts receive a free basic family estate plan when they refer five couples and host a Will-Signing Party. 2) Guest couples are interviewed directly by Attorney Haroutunian over the telephone or via email prior to the Will-Signing Party. 3) Documents are prepared and reviewed by the clients in advance, to ensure their needs are fully addressed. 4) At the Will-Signing Party, couples sign and receive their original estate plans. - FULL STORY

Of course, imagine hosting a DUI offender party... Social Host Liability per se.

The Miracle of Recycling

2006-12-25T15:22:00.000-05:00

Pitching in and doing our part, we've decided to recycle. Last year at this time we wrote.

Harry Potter is the 7th Horcrux

2006-12-03T19:26:00.000-05:00

Or so I think. While discussing the matter at Thanksgiving with some other Harry Potter fans (my nephew and my brother), I opined as such. So there you go.

Now if you don't know what a Horcrux is, you'd better do your homework and read the series. If you do know what a Horcrux (sometime written as Horicrux on some web sites) is, here is my thinking...

It would explain the special "psychic" connection between Harry and Voldermort.

And despite Voldermort's statements in that Harry's Mother sacrificed her life to save Harry, ("old magic" he calls it) see p. 652 - 653 The Goblet of Fire, First American Edition July, 2000, this is consistent; either because Voldermort himself thinks he was creating a Horcrux in another object present, or because, as evil Wizards often are, he was being intentionally misleading when he spoke to the circle of Death Eaters in the graveyard.

BONUS - like Potter? But you are almost 43? Try reading Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell

Thanksgiving History

2006-11-23T13:51:00.000-05:00

"The Pilgrims did not hold a true Thanksgiving until 1623, when it followed a drought, prayers for rain, and a subsequent rain shower. Irregular Thanksgivings continued after favorable events and days of fasting after unfavorable ones. In the Plymouth tradition, a thanksgiving day was a church observance, rather than a feast day.

Gradually, an annual Thanksgiving after the harvest developed in the mid-17th century. This did not occur on any set day or necessarily on the same day in different colonies in America."

READ MORE at Wikipedia

BONUS: US President George W Bush granted a pardon to two Thanksgiving turkeys. We noticed Abramoff wasn't one of them.