Uncategorized

Subscribe to Uncategorized via RSS

Yoda Appropos of absolutely nothing that are the usual subjects of this blog is this decision and order, issued yesterday by the California Commission on Judicial Performance.

It’s totally off-topic, but a must-read. 

It’s about what happened when a San Diego Superior Court judge decided to use the courtroom as a venue to audition for a “Judge Judy”-ish television reality show. In deciding to impose public censure, the Commission concluded that among other things, the judge scheduled “her more interesting cases on the day of the filming” (p. 1), remarked to a defendant in a criminal case after placing him on probation “‘[w]hat this means is don’t come before the court on another case … ’cause you will definitely be screwed and we don’t offer Vaseline for that”’ (p. 4), and when an attorney asked for time to confer with his client, asked the audience whether “he need to…

Continue Reading Once You Start Down The Dark Path, Forever Will It Dominate Your Destiny. Consume You It Will.

Social.lawyers.net1 I’m going to deviate a bit from the usual blog topics to point you to a recently-published book about the use of social media by lawyers.

The book is social.lawyers: Transforming Business Development (West 2010), by legal marketing expert Jayne Navarre. It is available for purchase through West here.

First off, this will not be a full-blown book review. In the first chapter, Jayne was kind enough to include my experiences using social media as a legal marketing tool, so I’m not exactly objective about her book. I like it.

With that disclaimer, social.laywers is a worthy addition to the bookshelf of any lawyer who is interested in developing social media tools such as blogging, Twitter, Linkedin, Facebook, and JDSupra. She also covers podcasting and the use of on-line video.

Here’s how Chapter 1 starts:

Robert H. Thomas has been practicing land-use law in…

Continue Reading New Book – social.lawyers: Transforming Business Development (2010)

Happy Birthday to us: we uploaded our first posts on this blog four years ago this day. In lawblog years, that’s quite a while.

If you can’t already tell by the over 1,100 posts during this time, we enjoy doing this. Even even though it’s a lot of work, it’s rewarding. Mostly because of the readers, subscribers, and contributors whom this blog has allowed us to meet and get to know over the years.

Finally, we wouldn’t be much without our fellow-travelers — those other law bloggers who, like us, make the time to share thoughts about the legal issues of the day. Here’s a partial list:

…
Continue Reading Entering Our Fifth Year

IMG_1861 On Friday, at the ABA Annual Meeting in San Francisco, the Section of State and Local Government Law along with the Section of Real Property, Probate, and Trust Law co-sponsored a panel discussion of what was the most fascinating case of the Supreme Court’s recently-concluded term, Stop the Beach Renourishment, Inc. v. Florida Dep’t of Environmental Protection, No. 08-11 (June 17, 2010).

(Photo, from left to right: Dan Stengle, John Echeverria, James Burling, Richard Frank, and Robert Thomas; photo courtesy Dwight Merriam)

This Term, the Court dealt with corporate speech, guns, “crush videos,” process patents, and Sarbanes-Oxley, but in Stop the Beach Renourishment, the Court attempted to tackle the most metaphysical of questions: can a state supreme court decision “take” property by changing the law? In the case, the Court came tantalizingly close to holding that a state supreme court decision can run afoul of the…

Continue Reading Notes From The ABA Panel On The Judicial Takings Case (Stop The Beach Renourishment v. Florida Department of Environmental Protection

IMG_1861 On Friday, at the ABA Annual Meeting in San Francisco, the Section of State and Local Government Law along with the Section of Real Property, Probate, and Trust Law co-sponsored a panel discussion of what was the most fascinating case of the Supreme Court’s recently-concluded term, Stop the Beach Renourishment, Inc. v. Florida Dep’t of Environmental Protection, No. 08-11 (June 17, 2010).

(Photo, from left to right: Dan Stengle, John Echeverria, James Burling, Richard Frank, and Robert Thomas; photo courtesy Dwight Merriam)

This Term, the Court dealt with corporate speech, guns, “crush videos,” process patents, and Sarbanes-Oxley, but in Stop the Beach Renourishment, the Court attempted to tackle the most metaphysical of questions: can a state supreme court decision “take” property by changing the law? In the case, the Court came tantalizingly close to holding that a state supreme court decision can run afoul of the…

Continue Reading Notes From The ABA Panel On The Judicial Takings Case (Stop The Beach Renourishment v. Florida Department of Environmental Protection

On Friday, August, 13, 2010, Governor Lingle nominated Associate Justice Mark E. Recktenwald to be the next Chief Justice of the Hawaii Supreme Court. His appointment comes one week after the Hawaii Senate did not consent to the governor’s first appointment to the position, Intermediate Court of Appeals Judge Katherine Leonard.

Justice Recktenwald has served on the Hawaii Supreme Court since May 11, 2009. Prior to that he served as Chief Judge of the Intermediate Court of Appeal from April 30, 2007 until his confirmation to the Hawaii Supreme Court.

Here are our posts on the appointment:

We will be live-blogging the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Justice Recktenwald’s appointment, just as…

Continue Reading Chief Justice Of The Hawaii Supreme Court Appointments – Recktenwald and Leonard

Heads up to all those who will be attending the upcoming ABA annual meeting in San Francisco. Please mark your calendars for Thursday, August 5 from 5:30 – 7:00 pm at the Bingham McCutchen offices at Three Embarcadero Center for a panel discussion on Careers in State and Local Government Law, sponsored by the Section of State and Local Government Law.

Joining me on the panel will be Professor David Callies, Honolulu, HI;David Courreges, Austin, TX; Larry Hoyt, Boulder, CO; and NikelleMeade, Austin, TX. Donna Frazier, Shreveport, LA will  moderate. The panel discussion will be followed by a networking reception. Come and join us.

The State and Local Government Law Section is a diverse mix, and includes private practitioners, government lawyers, judges, and law professors. The subject matter covered in the Section is wide, and includes Land Use, Condemnation (my Committee), Public Finance, Homeland Security, Environmental, Education, First…

Continue Reading ABA Panel On “Careers In State & Local Goverment Law” (And Reception)

2010-06-22 12.55.09 Pasadena, California (June 23, 2010) – Even in the rarefied, academic atmosphere of an appellate court, an advocate must sometimes have a thick skin. Today’s Ninth Circuit en banc oral arguments in the rent control takings case, Guggenheim v. City of Goleta, was one where the two lawyers who argued the case certainly came away with a few callouses. 

Guggenheim is the appeal from an unsuccessful challenge to the City of Goleta’s mobile home rent control ordinance. The district court ruled against the mobile home park owners who asserted the ordinance worked a regulatory taking of their property.

In Guggenheim v. City of Goleta, 582 F.3d 996 (9th Cir., Sep. 28, 2009), a three-judge Ninth Circuit panel reversed, however, and held 2-1 that the challenge was ripe under Williamson County, and ruled the ordinance was a facial taking by applying the three-part Penn Central test. The…

Continue Reading Ninth Circuit Rent Control Taking Case (Guggenheim) En Banc Oral Argument Report