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Cablevision Sys. Corp. v. FCC, No. 07-1425, concerned a petition for review of the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) decision to extend for five years a statutory prohibition against exclusive contracts between cable operators and cable affiliated programming networks. The court of appeals denied the petition, holding that: 1) petitioners failed to make a specific, as-applied First Amendment challenge in their briefing and thus waived the issue; and 2) conclusions based on FCC’s predictive judgment and technical analysis are just the type of conclusions that warrant deference....

Wednesday’s proposed California budget cuts didn’t get a warm welcome from the newly appointed Chief Justice of the California Supreme Court. Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye called the massive California budget cuts a “blow against justice,” reports the Los Angeles Times. The budget cuts were pushed through the California legislature earlier this week. Reports are now saying that California Governor Jerry Brown vetoed the proposed budget, but courts aren’t breathing sighs of relief just yet....

Big pimpin is illegal, says the California Supreme Court. Well, specifically, California’s pandering law, essentially a prostitution law, applies to the “pimping industry,” including unsucessful “wannabe” pimps, the California Supreme Court ruled earlier this week. This means that it is forbidden, under California’s pandering law, for a pimp to try to recruit a current prostitute to join his employ. The question at issue was this: If someone is already a prositute, is a pimp really in violation of the pandering laws in trying to solicit the prostitute to work for him?...

Politico proclaims that there’s a “showdown on the D.C. Circuit.” The Washington Post editorial board calls it the “Republicans’ D.C. Circuit barricade.” After four years of unfilled vacancies on the nation’s so-called second-highest court, the media is finally giving this confirmation crisis the Pay-Per-View boxing-worthy buzz it deserves. In case you don’t follow the federal judicial vacancies like we do, there are four spots to be filled on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals....

In a negligence action, trial court judgment for defendant is reversed where the court erred in refusing to give a res ipsa loquitur instruction to the jury, as defendant is a common carrier and substantial evidence supported a conclusion that plaintiff’s injury was the result of defendant’s operation of the bus. Read Diaz v. LA County Metro. Transportation Authority, No. B206259 in PDF Read Diaz v. LA County Metro. Transportation Authority, No....

It’s no secret that law schools are struggling. Top students aren’t attending, new grads aren’t passing the bar, and pretty much no one is able to pay back their debt. But that crisis isn’t confined to the Florida Coastal School of Law; it’s reached even the upper crusts. It seems Harvard and Yale, for all their tea, crumpets, and Supreme Court clerkships, can’t get students to enroll, even as they shrink their law school class sizes....

A former cheerleader for the Baltimore Ravens has been arrested and charged with the rape of a 15-year-old boy. Molly Shattuck, 47, is accused of having a sexual relationship with a 15-year-old boy who attended the same Maryland school as one of her three children, ABC News reports. According to police, the relationship between Shattuck and the boy began in Maryland, but Shattuck is being charged in Delaware where the more serious allegations took place....

Welcome to “First Week at the Firm,” a new FindLaw feature for beginning associates, focused on helping you navigate the transition into firm life. We hope you’ll enjoy this new series and come back regularly for more insider tips. There’s no way around it. You are going to embarrass yourself at work. Whether it’s something simple, like forgetting a name, or something more significant, like botching a client meeting, embarrassment is bound to get you sooner or later....

It’s a delicate thing to tell someone he’s overweight – especially if it’s your boss. But if you really care about that person – like you don’t want him to get heart disease, diabetes, or a stroke – you have to get him away from the McNuggets. At least take him to the salad bar. That’s how it is when you are general counsel and you have to tell the chief executive officer to really change corporate culture....

Baseball legend Jose Canseco tweeted Wednesday that he’s been accused of rape. He also disclosed the name, picture, and phone number of the alleged victim – a move that may soon regret. After being visited at his home by Las Vegas police, Canseco posted on Twitter about the woman who accused him of rape, reports Business Insider. Most of those tweets were quickly deleted. This antagonistic move may not only be cretinous, but it could also potentially land Canseco in even more legal hot water....

It’s not every day that a judge sues somebody. It’s even more rare when a judge sues another judge, but a Fort Worth jurist claims a supervising judicial officer retaliated against her. Although the suit says it’s about politics, it’s a lot more personal. Judge Diane Scott Haddock claims Judge Patricia Baca-Bennett told her to “get her husband under control” to stop his political activity. That allegedly created a hostile work environment of Texas proportions....

Can circumcision rob you of your, uh, “sexual prowess”? A South Dakota man thinks so, which is why he has filed a federal circumcision lawsuit against the hospital where he was born. He claims he only recently learned of his missing foreskin, and that doctors misled his mother into believing the procedure was medically necessary. It gets better. His name is Dean Cochrun. And he’s asking for $1,000 and free reattachment surgery....

Relatives of a Georgia man who died during a three-way sex tryst will get $3 million from the man’s doctor in a medical-malpractice case. The reason: The doctor failed to warn the man, who complained of chest pains, not to engage in physical activity prior to a medical test scheduled for the next day, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports. William Martinez, 31, a married father of two from Lawrenceville, Ga., died in 2009 during a threesome with a friend and a woman who was not his wife, according to the paper....

Some people are really good at lying. But even the best ones have a tough time when the truth is open for the world to see. An Idaho man learned this the hard way when he tried to give police a fake name despite having his real last name tattooed on his forearm. Dylan Edward Contreras, 19, identified himself as Emiliano Velesco to an officer in Twin Falls, Idaho. But when the cop couldn’t find the pseudonym in a police database, the officer ran the name he saw tattooed on Contreras’ forearm, the Associated Press reports....

No, this is not a new Naked Gun movie, nor is it the plot to the newest refresh of Dragnet, Police Squad, Hot Fuzz, Super Troopers, or Team America. NYPD officer extraordinaire, James Frascatore, has likely been living in a personal hell since, arguably, making the biggest mistake of his career: tackling and cuffing international tennis star James Blake. However, now that Frascatore has hopefully been thoroughly made to regret his actions, he is filing a defamation lawsuit against the celebrity tennis star he tackled, the publisher of Blake’s latest book, the city of New York, the NYPD, and others....

Conviction and sentencing of a defendant to an indeterminate life term plus 10 years for forcible lewd conduct on a child under the age of 14 and related sexual assault is affirmed where: 1) there is sufficient evidence to uphold defendant’s convictions for forcible lewd conduct and aggravated sexual assault; 2) defendant’s sentence is modified to comport with section 654; and 3) all other aspects of trial court’s judgment is affirmed, as considering the entire record of defendant’s prior conviction, there is substantial evidence from which the trial court could find the conviction involved assault with a deadly weapon and therefore constituted a serious felony under the Three Strikes law....

The founder and former CEO of Insys Therapeutics Inc., John Kapoor, has been charged with bribing doctors with illegal kickbacks for prescribing Subsys, his company’s powerful opioid drug. Subsys is a fentanyl-based opioid pain drug that comes in a spray bottle and was designed for cancer patients. To date, Kapoor is the highest ranking pharma exec charged in an opioid-related crime. Kapoor is alleged to have bribed doctors to prescribe the pain med to those who did not truly need it (i....

Unscrupulous judges’ shenanigans are typically the domain of television shows: payoffs, ex parte hearings, and favoritism make for great entertainment. So what if the federal judge presiding over your case decides that life should imitate art? Congress, anticipating this possibility, instituted a judicial misconduct reporting procedure in 1980. Under the Judicial Conduct and Disability Act, anyone can file a complaint in court to report a federal judge’s bad behavior. But before you file a complaint, remember that you need evidence....

Last year, Airbnb, the tech company that allows users to rent out their spare rooms or empty apartments to travelers, launched its first business travel venture. The tech company claims that using Airbnb instead of a traditional hotel will help business travelers feel more at home when they’re abroad, while simultaneously allowing them to be inspired by their unique surroundings. As lawyers, we’re skeptical. While Airbnb can give you a native’s perspective of a city, it also lacks many of the amenities of a hotel service, the kinds that you most desperately need when you’re traveling for business....

Horace Greeley reportedly said, “Go West, young man, go West. There is health in the country, and room away from our crowds of idlers and imbeciles.” That was 1883. Pay you? Subsidies? Communism be damned, that sounds wonderful, doesn’t it? South Dakota is the first state in the Union to pass such a law for attorneys. It provides a $12,000 annual subsidy in exchange for a five year commitment to start your own full-time practice in a county with less than 10,000 residents....