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Denial of Petition for Review of Renewable Fuel Volume Requirements In Nat’l Petrochemical & Refiners Ass’n v. EPA, No. 10-1070, the court denied a petition for review of the EPA’s volume requirements for renewable fuel and volume requirements for advanced biofuels, biomass-based diesel, and cellulosic biofuel where 1) where there are less drastic remedies available for an agency’s failure to meet a statutory deadline, courts should not assume Congress intended for the agency to lose its power to act; and 2) to the extent the rules at issue may be retroactive, the EPA did not exceed its authority under the Energy Independence and Security Act....

Pocket-dialing isn’t just embarrassing. As Matthew Dollarhide learned, it can also help police in a drug bust. Dollarhide accidentally pocket-dialed 911 in January and dispatchers heard his conversation. He was talking to two other people about selling drugs, so the dispatchers alerted local deputies in Orange City, New Jersey. Not only could dispatchers hear what Dollarhide was saying, they pinpointed his location and sent deputies to find him. And find him, they did....

Trial court’s order vacating an ordinance and disallowing reenactment pending an environmental impact report is affirmed as an environmental impact report must be prepared given that it can be fairly argued on substantial evidence in the record that the ordinance may have a significant environmental impact. Read Save the Plastic Bag Coalition v. City of Manhattan Beach, No. B215788 [HTML] Read Save the Plastic Bag Coalition v. City of Manhattan Beach, No....

Earlier this week, our own Willie Peacock explained why – “despite the hysteria” – it’s a great time to apply to law school. In some ways he’s correct. Demand is in flux, but the supply is static: Law school applications have taken a nosedive, but most schools aren’t cutting their class sizes. Applicants arguably have a better shot of getting into a better school. But we need talk to talk about employment prospects after school, because you need a job to pay off law school loans....

Summer bar exams are set to commence. Years of hard work and preparation all come down to a two- or three-day gauntlet that determines who finally gets to put their legal education to practice. (If they can actually find a legal job, that is.) But bar studies aside, how will you actually go about taking the test? Take it from those of us who’ve been there: At any sitting in any state, you’ll find but a handful of common bar-examinee personality types....

Tennessee law enforcement sprung into action when 48-year-old Joy Lounders called to report a robbery and shooting at her home. While waiting for a Lifestar flight, she told investigators that she had been attacked by a white male with grey hair. The man had entered her home, prompting her to grab her .38 handgun. A struggle followed, and she ended up with bullets through her leg and back. This was all a lie....

The massive lawyer-led illegal download of pornography scam masterminded by Prenda Law is back in the news. And as you might expect, one of the attorneys disbarred and criminally charged in the Prenda fallout has finally taken a guilty plea. If you were thinking in 2017: “Thank goodness, it’s finally over.” You were wrong. That guilty plea was entered on the condition that an appeal can still be filed as to whether the case should have been dismissed by the district court....

While it sure ’tis the season, for law students, ’tcan feel like ’tis torture! Why, oh just why, must holiday parties and final exams be in such close proximity? ‘Tis like some sort of reasonably prudent person hell: The choice between a fun night out with your peers and studying for your contracts final two weeks away is as sketchy a decision as that darned Carbolic Smoke Ball case. If you’re as confused as the UCC, you might benefit from a break, but is a holiday party what you need?...

A South Carolina boy and his mother are suing the state’s DMV over his right to wear his “everyday” makeup in his driver’s license photo. Teresa Culpepper has sued the state and local directors of South Carolina’s Department of Motor Vehicles after her 16-year-old son was refused a driver’s license photo in June while wearing foundation, mascara, eye shadow, and lip gloss, reports Courthouse News Service. Can South Carolina’s DMV legally tell a boy to take off his mascara for a license photo?...

Marsha Fox had only one option when the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board refused to register her trademark for a custom-candy line: Pray that the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals would have a sense of humor. Sadly, it didn’t. This week, the Federal Circuit agreed that Fox’s mark was unregistrable because it creates a clearly vulgar double entendre. So what turn of phrase was too offensive to trademark? “Cock Sucker.”...

Apparently IT worker Raymond Foley’s No. 1 favorite after-work activity was to look up cute co-workers’ photos – and then urinate on their office chairs. Surveillance video shows Foley, 59, unleashing an alleged crime “spray” by using four female co-workers’ office chairs as urinals, the Des Moines Register reports. Foley’s managers at Farm Bureau Financial Services fired him and called police. Foley’s arrest seems to answer the mystery of who’s been staining Farm Bureau office chairs since October 2011, the Register reports....

The Appeals Court for the Federal Circuit has decided to cool its jets with regards to multi-billion dollar case Mellon University v. Marvell Tech, waiting for SCOTUS to make its decision in Halo and several other big-ticket infringement cases. A Pennsylvania District Court had awarded the University a cool $1.54 billion dollars based on a finding of willful infringement on the part of Marvell. However, the Federal Circuit panel reduced that award, pointing to a number of factors including a finding by the circuit that Marvell had a, objectively reasonable defense to Mellon’s claims, and the potential removal of foreign sales based on where sales contracts were executed....

So another judge goes down for driving drunk to the courthouse… No big deal, right? Some pilots smell of alcohol all the time, and it’s not like judges are that important. But what really reeks is how this New York judge got a raise while the court system figured out what to do with her. That bites, as in tax bites. Bad Judge Judge Leticia Astacio was convicted of drunk driving two years ago....

Alternative Title: AT&T Can Ban Union ‘Inmate’ Shirt, D.C. Circuit Rules It can be hard to organize workers and wage a successful grassroots labor campaign. Sometimes, theatrics are called for. That’s what motivates carpenters to inflate giant rats outside non-union construction sites and museum workers to ‘bomb’ the Guggenheim with protest fliers. That might also be the impetus behind AT&T Connecticut employees donning shirts that said “Inmate” and “Prisoner of AT$T” when interacting with customers....

The third time was a charm for PayPal’s most recent class action settlement over the company’s account closure procedures. After having twice rejected settlements in the class action litigation, Judge Saundra Brown Armstrong was finally satisfied, approving a $4 million deal last Thursday. The settlement ends long-running litigation over PayPal’s practice of putting accounts on hold or reserve without notice, hanging on to users’ money but not compensating them for any interest earned during those periods....

In a fascinating but doomed appeal, a pilot found to have flown with marijuana chocolates in his possession challenged the revocation of his private pilot’s license and lost. The story may seem like an open and shut case, and not just because the three pot chocolate bars were found after an emergency landing, but mostly because under federal law, which covers nearly everything related to aviation, marijuana is illegal, and transporting it in a plane is even more illegal....

In Res. Conservation Group, LLC v. US, No. 09-5091, the Federal Circuit dealt with plaintiff’s suit against the United States for breach of an implied contract of fair and honest consideration and violation of the APA, seeking recovery of bid preparation costs and fees for the breach, arising from a solicitation of offers to lease government-owned land. In construing 28 U.S.C. section 1491(b)(1), the new jurisdictional provision enacted by the ADRA, the court concluded that the Court of Federal Claims correctly held that plaintiff’s claim does not fall within the jurisdiction under the statute as “procurement contract” is defined as “a government contract with a manufacturer of supplier of goods or machinery or services under the terms of which a sale or service is made to the government....

So, somebody sent me this earlier this week. I’m not sure how we missed this last year – I try to never miss an opportunity to mock a “fix law school” or “reinvent law school” proposal – but somehow, some way, it got lost in the stack. Anyway, if you’re interested in a four-year hybrid online-offline law school that costs the same as traditional law school, you have only a couple of months left to apply to the William Mitchell Hybrid Program....

It wasn’t really a snowball that got a Jets defensive end into trouble with the NFL, and now into a lawsuit. It was really more of a snow boulder, or as the NFL spokesman put it, a “chunk” of snow. Regardless, the renown Sean Ellis snowball fight led to his being fined $10,000 by the NFL and now to a suit filed last week in a Washington state superior court....

New Year’s revelers (of varying degrees of sobriety) provide ample fodder for this week’s edition of T.G.I.FindLaw! So while you may have already recovered from your New Year’s hangover, for these folks the legal headaches are just beginning… Lounge-party lawsuit Bouncers at a Miami nightclub may have messed with the wrong patron. Clubgoer Alex Rubin, who’s also an attorney, claims he and 11 friends were blocked from entering a New Year’s bash – despite having paid $60 apiece for tickets....