The LAW & LAWYERS Blog

Sometimes you come across stories that leave you asking this question above. Here are two such examples:

• Wisconsin Law Allows Parents To Pray Rather Than Call A Doctor; and

• Library Aide Fired For Reporting Child Pornography Suspect.

Via Techdirt, a CNet report/update on Real ID, the humdinger of an ID solution that’s supposed to be “anti-terrorism,” according to the Department of Homeland Security.  But with 45 states requesting waivers and the other 5 just not complying, DHS might have found the limit at which citizens will refuse to exchange civil rights for national security.  DHS touts the 45 states requesting waivers as progress, but it sounds more like they’re just biding time.

To refresh, the Real ID not only has bar-coded information like SSN and birth information on it, but it also connects to a single citizen database to cross-reference for suspected terrorists.  A lot of people think it sounds like one-stop shopping for identity thieves, which has cooled DHS’s enthusiasm.  The states could lead on this one, and it sounds like they’re firmly against it.

More on REAL ID at Total Lawyers.

In Tennessee, it is apparently becoming harder and harder to seat a jury. Under state law, jurors must be sober, and that seems to be one of the problems.

Anyone who is a habitual drunkard or who has been recently intoxicated is exempted from jury duty, and courts are finding that this is excluding many people and causing the jury pools to become tiny.

So now lawmakers in Tennesse are considering the possibility of maybe letting drunks serve on juries after all. This should turn out well, don’t you think?

You can read more about the drunk jurors in Tennessee in the legal articles section, right here at Total Lawyers.

I thought that would get your attention…

Officials in the city of Duncanville, Texas have moved to ban parties at the home of one of Duncanville’s residents, one Jim Trulock, for a host of complaints lodged by neighbors against the traffic and noise that these soirees generate. Currently, the town has a ban on sex clubs in residential areas, and has defined Trulock’s regular gathering as a “live sex business.”

Why, you might ask? The group naked activities that take place there, of course. Trulock has sued the city, claiming that they are unconstitutionally targeting his lifestyle and his right to be naked with dozens of his friends.

Read more about your constitutional right to play Naked Twister, only at Total Lawyers!

Former CU Head Football Coach Gary Barnett Still Clueless

The University of Colorado recently settled a historic Title IX lawsuit in which two women had claimed that they had been raped at a party for football recruits and that the school had previously ignored a similar claim with the school’s football recruiting program.

In addition to these disturbing claims, the lawsuit spurred many other scandalous headlines, such as:

• CU football recruits being enticed with strippers, drugs and sex;

• evidence backing the woman’s claims that CU encouraged the policy of showing recruits a “good time”; and

• then-CU Head Football Coach Gary Barnett having very little sensitivity or tact on the matter.

Review the Colorado football recruiting scandal and read more about the 2.85 million settlement in the following article:

University of Colorado Reaches Settlement on Historic Title IX Lawsuit.

A Fort Collins, CO couple has a drug problem.

Specifically, their marijuana plants that were seized by the Fort Collins police were returned dead earlier this month, according to denverpost.com.

Here’s the background: James and Lisa Masters had more than 36 marijana plants at their home. Police confiscated them in a raid and sent the couple to jail, where they spent a little more than a day. Apparently, the couple’s plans to grow, use and sell marijuana for medical purposes were thwarted by one small problem: they were not on the state’s medical marijuana registry.

The Masters have claimed that they were unable to afford a license to use and sell the pot before the police raid, but since their stint behind bars have secured a license with help from friends. Since their return home, the police have given the plants back. But, of course, they’re no longer living.

The controversy here comes over the issue of whether this is a medical marijuana case or not. If it is, the police should not have harmed the pot plants in any way, and could be found at fault in court. If it’s not considered a medical marijuana case–which is possible, since the couple didn’t join the registry until after their arrest–the police will likely be found to have no liability.

A judge has already dismissed the original charges against the Masters, ruling that the police search of their home and seizure of the pot plants were illegal. The issue of the dead pot, though, remains to be solved.

Former NYPD counterterrorism detective Anthony Chiofalo has filed a lawsuit in an attempt to get his job back after being fired.

Chiofalo was fired in August from the New York Police department after he failed a random drug screening. He denied using drugs and demanded a hearing and investigation.

During the investigation, Chiofalo’s wife was questioned. She confessed that she wanted for her husband to retire so badly, that in July 2005 she secretly put enough marijuana for about six cigarettes into meatballs that she fed her husband. She had hoped that he would fail a drug test and it would force him to retire.

Well, Chifalo, a 22-year veteran, isn’t ready to retire. He is asking the court to find that his firing was unreasonable and unconstitutional and he wants to be reinstated. He says that the hair sample that got him fired was improperly taken. His lawsuit also seeks back pay with interest, benefits and his seniority back.

According to court documents, Chifalo and his wife have both taken polygraph tests which concluded that they were telling the truth about the marijuana-spiked meatballs.

Chifalo says that his wife had used marijuana to relieve nausea caused by pain medication that she was taking.

Chifalo has support. An administrative judge has recommended that he be reinstated, however, police Commissioner Raymond Kelly rejected the recommendation and a department spokesman said “The officer’s excuse was not credible.”

Here at Total Lawyers, we’ve recently reported on possible constitutional rights violations perpetrated by public servants in the welfare industry in San Diego. Consider also the recent disclosure that NYC firefighters have been trained by the Department of Homeland Security in anti-terrorist tactics, some of which includes racial profiling and all of which can be described as “spying.”

But now we’ve got EMTs on the lookout for terrorists? A recent Conde Nast Traveler blog post by a New York state EMT named Stephan Wilkinson offers an overview and a sound opinion on the matter. And you can find the original article to which he is referring online.

Isn’t this all getting a little out of hand? What’s next, elementary school teachers handing over names of students who draw stick figures with guns? Oh yeah, I forgot.

Well, this question is a little bit tricky because the kicker was a martial arts instructor, and the kickee was a student who had accepted a challenge from the instructor.

Susan Bateman, 47, of Hampton, Virginia is accused of kicking one of her 11-year-old martial arts students in the abdomen more than 200 times, causing the child internal injuries and possibly a broken rib. Bateman was arrested and charged with one count of felony child endangerment.

Police say that on November 7, Bateman issued a challenge to her students to see which one of them could endure the most kicks to the abdomen. The students got into the push-up position and Bateman kicked until they either let their knees touch the floor or gave up and told her to stop.

The 11-year-old boy and one other student in the class reportedly were kicked by Bateman over 200 times. The injured child did not tell his parents about the incident until he needed medical attention.

So was Bateman abusing her students, or is this a routine exercise in martial arts instruction? Is she a felon child kicker or simply someone who used extremely poor judgment when dealing with her students?

That question will, almost certainly, be up to a jury to decide.

A woman in Alaska slipped on ice in a parking lot.  You’d have to imagine this kind of thing happens a lot, right?  It’s cold in Alaska and a reasonable person might expect ice.  You either be careful, or you could fall.

Well, this woman sued.  And to my surprise, a U.S. Court of Appeals ruled that she can sue the federal government for failing to remove the snow and ice.  In Alaska.  Where she fell and sustained a personal injury.

Carol Bolt fell outside her U.S. Army apartment at Fort Wainwright, Alaska in April, 1999.  She broke her ankle in the fall and has been permanently disabled ever since.

Lawyers for the federal government have argued that they are not liable, because the U.S. Army base has the has the same status as all other Alaskan municipalities.  Towns and cities in Alaska can not be sued for failing to remove snow and ice that naturally accumulates because, you know, it’s Alaska.

The three judge appeals panel disagreed and ruled that the federal government is basically the landlord in Alaska and therefore they should be required to keep common areas free of the ice and snow there.   Therefore, Bolt’s lawsuit againt the federal government can go forward.