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Parody, especially of public figures, is protected speech under the First Amendment. Parody Twitter accounts are a fact of life, as ubiquitous on that platform as fake news is on Facebook. There are over 50 parody Donald Trump accounts alone. While most people don’t take parody accounts too seriously, most people are not the Miami Beach Police Department. Officers from that department arrested Ernesto Orsetti after they discovered he was behind a parody Twitter account impersonating MBPD spokesperson Ernesto Rodriguez....

David Otunga has had an uh, interesting career since leaving Sidley Austin in 2007. He first took a turn as “Punk,” a man trying to woo the star of VH1’s I Love New York. He then joined the WWE, where he ditched the lame nickname for something even worse. But when his “A-List” personality couldn’t quite cut it, he fell back on his J.D. He was drafted as legal counsel to RAW general manager, John Laurinaitis....

Dear future barristers, scholars, and “never mind, I’m going to med school” types, Now that the test is over, we’d advise you to do one thing tonight (after bookmarking this post for tomorrow, and beyond): have a beer or and relax. It’s too late to apply for fall, so you have plenty of time to get OCD about applications. Now, on to the the questions you are pondering: Should I cancel my score?...

With video of the arrest in, the jury is already out in the case of a naked Harvard student who was subdued by police on the streets of Cambridge. No actual trial has started – against the mathematics student or the local police – but the graphic video includes voice-overs from bystanders who have already rendered their verdict in the court of public opinion. “Hey, stop f****** punching him,” says one of several people who condemned the cops at the scene....

Three former high school football players have sued their school’s head coach, saying they were kicked off the varsity team after standing up to the head coach’s bullying. The three star players and former co-captains of the team also allege the school’s principal told them that while bullying is prohibited in the classroom, it is permissible on the football field. “The public policy point we’re trying to make is that this conduct is as prohibited on the athletic field as it is in the classroom,” the boys’ attorney told the Reno Gazette-Journal....

Girl Scout cookies are delicious, but are they worth a $740 lawsuit? Tad Osborn of Fort Collins, Colorado, wrote the Girl Scouts at $42 check for several boxes of cookies last year. It seemed like everything was sweet – until he received a notice from a debt collection agency telling him that his check had bounced, reports ABC News. Osborn claims that the Girl Scouts didn’t notify him before they sent the problematic check to a debt collection agency....

Any self-respecting beer geek will tell you: Blue Moon is not craft beer. Blue Moon’s parent company, MillerCoors, would like to tell you different. Now a San Diego home brewer and hero is suing MillerCoors to stop them from marketing Blue Moon as a craft beer. As Evan Parent told San Diego’s NBC7, “What this case is really about is people think they’re buying craft beer and they’re actually buying crafty marketing....

With nearly 300 decisions, Judge Brett Kavanaugh had a productive run at the DC Circuit Court of Appeals. But no good deed goes unpunished, and some of those decisions may become stumbling blocks when the Senate reviews his record during the confirmation process. It’s not like any one will prove to be his undoing, however. As most pundits have predicted, he will become the next justice of the U.S. Supreme Court....

Hair is serious business. When schools start regulating students’ hair styles, they should tread carefully or risk receiving a federal civil rights complaint. Late last year, five-year-old Jalyn Broussard happily went to school with a new haircut. His new style was innocent enough. He had a “fade” which was short on the sides and longer on the top. According to his school, this haircut was a distraction to other students, so they sent him home....

A lawyer makes almost half a million dollars representing indigent clients. What is wrong with this picture? Nothing, really, because a contingency fee lawyer can make millions on single case for one indigent client. But that’s not what we’re talking about. Marc Fratter, a criminal defense attorney, made more than $460,000 last year as appointed counsel for indigent clients. That has become a problem in Collin County, Texas. Indigent Defense To the general public, Fratter’s paycheck might look like way too much for defending people who have no money....

Suit Against Bureau of Prisons Regarding Inmate Photos In Maydak v. US, No. 07-5352, an action by prisoners against the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) claiming that (1) the BOP’s charges for and uses of duplicate inmate photos for security-related purposes violated the terms of the Inmate Trust Fund and (2) BOP’s undisclosed retention of duplicate prints violated various provisions of the Privacy Act, the court affirmed in part summary judgment for defendants where, even assuming that BOP’s review and retention of duplicate photos created a “system of records” triggering Privacy Act protections, civil remedies were only available if plaintiffs could show “that the agency acted in a manner which was intentional or willful....

The Federal Circuit today reminded us all that judges are not clairvoyant, and if a party wants to make an assertion, it must back it up with actual facts and not “conclusory and generalized sentences.” In a quick and easy opinion (that is, for a patent case), the Federal Circuit affirmed the findings of the administrative law judge, and the International Trade Commission, and held that Motorola violated the Tariff Act of 1930 by importing goods that violated a Microsoft patent....

The legal system incentivizes plea bargaining. A defendant typically gets a lighter sentence for accepting responsibility for his actions. But a recent decision from the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals could make plea bargains much more specific. In 2009, David Duvall was arrested and indicted for conspiracy to distribute crack cocaine. Duvall pleaded guilty pursuant to a Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 11(c)(1)(C) plea agreement. A Rule 11(c)(1)(C) plea agreement generally specifies an agreed-upon sentence or sentencing range....

Trial court’s finding that defendant was subject to mandatory registration as a sex offender under Penal Code section 290 based on a sodomy conviction is reversed and remanded as an order imposing mandatory sex offender registration on defendant due to his conviction for a mutually voluntary act of sodomy with a 17-year-old minor violates his right to equal protection, as guaranteed by the federal and California Constitutions. Read People v. Thompson, No....

The Colorado Supreme Court released a decision Monday allowing Colorado lawyers to provide legal services to marijuana businesses. Since the Rocky Mountain State opened its first retail pot shop in January, lawyers have been antsy about whether taking on “green” clients would rub up against the state’s ethical rules. More than three months later, the Colorado High Court (cough) reported lawyers “may counsel clients regarding the validity, scope, and meaning” of the state’s pot laws, reports Reuters....

A mayor sends an email to a state senator through his official government email account. The California Public Records Act applies, and this email is subject to public disclosure. A mayor sends an email via a free webmail service, such as Gmail, to that same senator, and per this court decision, it is not subject to public disclosure. Note to Leland Yee: sign up for Gmail. Is there a good solution here?...

What does the upper crust at Disney World look like? According to the New York Post, they’re rich Manhattan moms who hire disabled tour guides so that they (and their non-handicapped children) can cut in line. To be a part of the elite 1% who get to feel nauseous after a whirl on the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party or get delightfully drenched on Splash Mountain without waiting in line for hours, these “black-market tour guides” cost about $130 an hour, or more than $1,000 for an eight-hour day....

The Satanic Temple of Seattle has requested permission to lead a satanic invocation on the field after a high school football game, all because an assistant coach refused to stop leading post-game midfield prayer sessions. If allowed, members of the group will wear ceremonial robes, carry an incense burner, and lead a seven-minute ceremony, including reading of a proclamation, punctuating the end of each sentence by banging a gong. The Bremerton School District had warned Coach Joe Kennedy to stop leading public Christian prayers on the 50-yard line after games, but Kennedy pushed back, saying the prayers happen after the game, so at that point it is no longer an official school function....

First, they came for our never-ending supply of breakfast cocktails … Yes, the bottomless mimosa, that staple of brunch from sea to drunken sea, is apparently illegal in the Lone Star state. How is this even possible? To what beverage shall we now turn when our hangovers need nursing? The Bloody Mary? The gasp Michelada? Oh, the humanity!! If you’re looking for someone to blame, it’s probably the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission, whose rules for on-premise promotions prohibit the sale of “an undetermined quantity of alcoholic beverages for a fixed price or ‘all you can drink’ basis....

Sentence for Cocaine Distribution Affirmed In US v. Tate, No. 09-3052, the court affirmed defendants’ sentences for unlawful distribution of five grams or more of cocaine base where 1) defendant’s criminal conduct, as revealed in his record, constituted a “case specific aggravating factor which justifies opposition to variance,” and did not warrant the requested variance from the Guidelines; 2) the district court, in reviewing the 18 U.S.C. section 3553(a) factors, recognized that it had discretion to vary below the Guidelines range; and 3) the district court’s conclusion that defendant’s stipulation to the government’s factual allegations in the plea proffer was neither candid nor complete was not clearly erroneous and its denial of safety-valve sentencing was properly accorded deference....