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Score one for organized labor. On Thursday, the California Supreme Court upheld state labor laws granting union members the right to picket in front of privately owned businesses. The ruling reverses a 2010 decision by Sacramento’s 3rd District Court of Appeal that found the laws unconstitutional. By 2008, Ralphs, the owner of the store, had reached its breaking point and went to court to try to remove the picketers. The trial court denied Ralph’s motion for a preliminary injunction, finding that “[t]he evidence did not establish that the Union had committed any unlawful act, or that it had threatened to do so....

Some choose to outline religiously. Others don’t. If you’re a 1L, however, your best bet is to stick with the tried-and-true methods, at least until you burn out in the beginning of your second year of law school. That means, it’s outlining time. (And no, we’re not suffering under the delusion that you are one of those good students that have been outlining all along. Thank goodness for Thanksgiving “Break,” right?...

Being a law clerk in the Supreme Court is a prestigious enough job in itself but it seems that clerks are set after their term ends as well. To woo this elite group, Big Law firms are shelling out top salaries plus hiring bonuses. Each year there aren’t many clerks to go around which means firms that want them need to fight even harder to get them in the door....

A New York woman and her boyfriend are facing criminal charges after the woman’s 2-year-old daughter dialed 911 a whopping 15 times in one month. The 23-year-old mother and her 33-year-old boyfriend reportedly tried to keep their cell phones away from the little girl, but she kept managing to find the phones to dial 911, The Associated Press reports. The lesson for parents: Your kid’s little fingers can cause big legal problems....

In United States’ challenge to the Court of International Trade’s (CIT) jurisdiction to hear the Commerce’s refusal to undertake a second changed circumstances review involving an antidumping duty order covering extruded rubber thread from Malaysia, judgment of the CIT is affirmed in part, reversed in part, and vacated in part where: 1) the CIT had jurisdiction over North American Rubber Thread’s (NART) challenge but not the foreign industry’s challenge; and 2) NART was judicially estopped from challenging an October 1, 1995 effective date, given its earlier argument to Commerce that a revocation date of October 1, 1995 was inappropriate....

When Yahoo disclosed last year that hackers had compromised 1.5 billion email accounts, Verizon saw a silver lining in the cloud over its offer to buy the company. Let’s make that about $350 million worth of silver lining. Verizon had offered to pay $4.8 billion for Yahoo’s core internet business before the data breaches were discovered, but now the parties have agreed to $4.48 billion. According to reports, the deal will go to shareholders for approval in April....

Vermont Law School has enough problems, but now it has become a poster child in a caustic debate about the value of a legal education. On one side, you have attorney/lecturer Mark A. Cohen. He wrote a piece for Forbes, knocking the law school for an “unsustainable” business model. In the other corner, you have professor David Herzig, who took a swing at Cohen’s analysis on Twitter. At law schools everywhere, somebody has to be asking: “Can we all just get along?...

Wedding bells won’t be ringing anytime soon for Nikoleta Karoly. Especially after she allegedly tried to choke her boyfriend for refusing to marry her. Sheriff’s deputies in Collier County, Fla., arrested Karoly, 24, after a fight with her boyfriend at her home, the Naples Daily News reports. Though the dispute was mainly over the wedding Karoly was hoping for, her drive to get married wasn’t entirely motivated by love. It was more about getting a new immigration visa, a sheriff’s arrest report states....

Former Houston Texans and Philadelphia Eagles linebacker DeMeco Ryans had carved out a nice NFL career from 2006 and 2014. Ryans was the AP NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year in 2006, made the Pro Bowl in 2007 and 2009, served as a captain in Houston and racked up racked up 939 tackles, 13.5 sacks, and 7 interceptions in his career. Ryans even led the Eagles in tackles his last two seasons....

Butt chugging? That’s what the kids are calling it. Alcohol enemas are the new big thing on college campuses and frats, and apparently the practice is very dangerous. Not sure that I get the appeal of sitting around with a bunch of guys and sticking rubber tubing… up there. But hey, whatever floats your boat fellas. Anyway, the practice of alcohol enemas is disturbing to college administrators despite it being very gross, as it poses a serious health risk....

A lawyer who represented Casey Anthony was sentenced to federal prison earlier this week after he pleaded guilty to charges of fraud. The Rancho Santa Fe PI attorney pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud earlier this year. He also admitted that he forged client signatures, and used notary stamps to convince investors to advance him millions of dollars, reports the Patch. Court papers state that Macaluso entered into “funding agreements” with investors by which they would receive a portion of his clients’ recoveries in the future....

Let’s say that you have a client who, for whatever reason, flipped out and started smashing stuff. Stuff that wasn’t his. More than $400 worth of stuff. You know your client is going to be fighting a felony vandalism charge. But wait – could there be a loophole? If the destroyed stuff belonged to different people, and the damage to each individual’s stuff didn’t exceed $400, could your client walk away with misdemeanor vandalism?...

Flashy glass towers, sprawling lawn, elaborate decorations – the Crystal Cathedral megachurch is quite a tourist attraction. Now it looks like those in charge of Orange County’s Crystal Cathedral may be answering to a different type of higher power – bankruptcy court. MSNBC.com reports that the church owes close to $7.5 million to unsecured creditors and a total of $55 million in debt. Crystal Cathedral, which was founded by television evangelist Robert Schuller, has over 10,000 members....

It is often said that patent law is the sport of kings. O.k., it’s not, but it should be. Patent attorneys cost a great deal more than ordinary counsel, as they typically hold degrees in both law and a science. For small time inventors, this often results in a cost benefit analysis when it comes to patent enforcement. It also begs the question: what good is a patent if you can’t afford to enforce it?...

A battle over the “Johnny Football” trademark was lost by a Texas-based investment firm, which hoped to poach the mark from Texas A&M’s star quarterback Johnny Manziel. The Kenneth R. Reynolds Family Investments’ trademark registration was rejected by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, with the reviewing attorney writing that “Johnny Football” referred to a “particular living individual,” reports ESPN. That individual is apparently Johnny Manziel, and the firm may not be able to obtain a trademark without Manziel’s permission....

If you ever ask the cops, “What are you going to do, take me to jail?” you pretty much know the answer. And when you’re raising hell in a bar at 2 a.m. because your songs didn’t come on the jukebox, you’re not leaving the cops much choice in the matter. Florida man Michael Grzech got his answer in handcuffs after bartenders tried to close the bar before Grzech’s selections seared the speakers at The Jetty Lounge in Fort Pierce....

If the name Leaford George Cameron rings a bell, that’s probably because you’ve seen it before in connection with criminal convictions against him for scamming people by pretending to be a lawyer. His victims have faced real consequences including deportation and losing a home, as a result of his fake lawyering. Luckily for legal consumers, Cameron may not ever be dispensing legal advice again as he is looking at a potential maximum sentence of 75 years after being convicted in a nationwide fake lawyering scandal....

A federal appeals court pressed rewind for Hulu and other streaming companies, which means the shows will go on. The Patent Trial and Appeal Board had ruled against the companies last year over a technology for users to transfer streaming sessions from one device to another. The board found in favor of a research firm that had sued the companies for infringing on its patent to the technology. But in CRFD Research, Inc....

The North Carolina Innocence Inquiry Commission is tasked with investigating criminal convictions and making sure they’re correct. And they may be investigating one of their own soon. Commission chairman and Superior Court Judge Arnold Ogden Jones II is accused of trying to bribe an FBI agent with “a couple of cases of beer.” Judge Jones was allegedly trying to get text messages between family members. Now he might be getting a few decades in prison....

Judge Sandra L. McLaughlin has a problem controlling her words. For years, the Kentucky judge has been known as the worst in Louisville because of her inappropriate remarks from the bench. Maybe she thinks she’s funny, but nobody’s laughing. Now an ethics commission has reprimanded McLaughlin for comments she made on social media. She deleted the post, but not fast enough. No More Commentary, Please McLaughlin shared a news story about a pending case on her Facebook page....