Category Archives: Law: Everything Else

This case, pitting the fatal-paprika-allergy-warning dog vs. the co-worker with the serious allergy to canines has great facts and a knotty legal problem — surely it is coming to a moot court or mock trial near you?

Fearing a fatal encounter with paprika, Ms. Kysel’s parents and grandparents chipped in to buy her an allergy-detection dog, which works much like a narcotics-sniffing dog. After she had extensive talks with her employer, the City of Indianapolis, officials gave her permission to take the dog to work. The golden retriever, named Penny, cost her family $10,000 — it jumps up on Ms. Kysel whenever it detects paprika.

On the first day Ms. Kysel took Penny to work, one of her co-workers suffered an asthma attack because she is allergic to dogs. That afternoon Ms. Kysel was stunned when her boss told her that she could no longer take the dog to work, or if she felt she could not report to work without Penny, she could go on indefinite unpaid leave. She was ineligible for unemployment compensation because of the limbo she was put in.

Perfect.

It's pretty easy to get cynical about the law. Almost any recent volume of the Supreme Court Reporter can do it.

So here's a palate cleanser: Kentucky Supreme Court recognizes nonbio mom in stunning opinion.

I seriously considered writing an Administrative Law final exam question based on these facts, so I was delighted to see the publication of Eric E. Johnson's article, The Black Hole Case: The Injunction Against the End of the World, 76 Tenn. L. Rev. 819 (2009).

There's a handy summary at Technology Review: Blogs: arXiv blog: The Case of the Collider and the Great Black Hole.

Don't forget to check the RSS feed: Has the Large Hadron Collider destroyed the earth yet?

Category: Law: Everything Else. And I do mean Everything.

Bill would lower volume of loud TV commercials.

Do commercials get louder in recessions? In any case, while there are undoubtedly bigger fish for Congress to fry, this is a good idea for those not fast-forwarding on a DVR.

A group of law librarians at Stanford Law Library have drafted a very short petition directed at the Administrative Office of the US Courts to improve PACER (Public Access to Court Electronic Records), and you can see it (and sign it) at Improve PACER – The Petition Site:

We ask the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts to improve PACER by enhancing the authenticity, usability and availability of the system.

We the undersigned, urge the Administrative Office of the US Courts (AO) to make the following changes to the PACER system:

For verification and reliability, the AO should digitally sign every document put into PACER using readily available technology.

PACER needs to be much more readily accessible if it is to be usable for research, education, and the practice of law. Improved accessibility includes both lowering the costs for using PACER and enhancing the web interfaces.

Depository libraries should also have free access to PACER.

This is a great idea, and deserves support.

Via Dave Hoffman's I'll Pay You $1,000,000 if this Blog Post Is Wrong, a link to this casebook-ready complaint in a unilateral offer and acceptance case…with a criminal law angle. And the plaintiff is a law student.

Carlill v Carbolic Smoke Ball Company, anyone?