Featured Articles

Sixth Circuit: Vatican Can Be Sued for Sexual Abuse

Dan Slater
November 25, 2008 19:53

Getty Images VATICAN CITY - NOVEMBER 24: Pope Benedict XVI sits in the Vatican, which can be sued for sexual assaults under a ruling Monday. (Photo by Stefano Dal Pozzolo-Vatican Pool/ Getty Images) The sexual-abuse litigation that has raged for years against the Catholic church just got a lot...

U.N. Hands Rwanda Genocide Mastermind Life in Prison

Dan Slater
December 18, 2008 15:06

Theoneste Bagosora reacts as he sits in the court at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, in Arusha, Tanzania, Thursday, Dec. 18, 2008, where he was found guilty of genocide and crimes against humanity. (AP/ICTR) In March, we noted that the United Nations war crimes court upheld the...

John Yoo: The Bete Noire of Berkeley?

Dan Slater
December 05, 2008 15:34

Getty Images Former Department of Justice official John Yoo testifies before the House Judiciary committee during a hearing on the administration’s interrogation policy on June 26, 2008 in Washington, D.C. John Yoo’s got tenure at UC Berkeley’s Boalt Hall School of Law. We wonder...

Former SG Paul Clement to Return to King & Spalding

Dan Slater
November 20, 2008 13:07

Breaking news from Jess Bravin, the Journal’s Scotus ace in Washington: Former Solicitor General Paul Clement’s long job search is finally over; his old firm, King & Spalding, has agreed to take him back. Okay, perhaps it wasn’t so hard for Clement to find employment. Service...

Scalia Joins Texas Lawyer Hunting Party

Dan Slater
November 17, 2008 20:32

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia is escorted through the Jackson International Airport by U.S. Marshalls and an Airport Police Officer, April 3, 1997. Scalia bagged a 20-pound turkey while hunting with friends near Hattiesburg, Miss. (AP/Clarion-Ledger) Apologies, Law Blog Readers....

“Enron Was a Gnat Compared to What’s Going On”

Dan Slater
October 28, 2008 13:14

In his Tuesday column, the WSJ’s Dennis Berman writes that “the post-Enron crackdown appears not only to have failed to stop flagrant corporate risk-taking, but to have lulled Washington to sleep.” But, he writes, those looking for retribution against the execs of failed companies...

Same-Sex Adoption Debate Rages on in Sunshine State

Dan Slater
December 29, 2008 14:58

Florida, according to Florida’s News-Press, is the only state with an outright ban on gay people adopting children. But the state’s Supreme Court could change that. Last month, a Miami-Dade judge declared that Florida’s 1977 law violated equal protection rights. “It is clear...

Nobody Puts Rebecca in the Corner — Dirty Dancing & the Law

Dan Slater
November 14, 2008 22:03

We’ve covered pole dancing and the law. Now let’s address dirty dancing. In 2005, an appeals court concluded that a Supreme Court case Dallas v. Stanglin closed the door on Rebecca Willis’s claim that her Depot-dancing was constitutionally protected expressive activity. The...

Garcia Defends Decision Not to Charge Spitzer

Dan Slater
November 18, 2008 13:44

U.S. Attorney Michael Garcia comments on the indictment of former New York City police Commissioner Bernard Kerik, who pleaded not guilty to federal corruption charges, Nov. 9, 2007. (AP/Julie Jacobson) Michael J. Garcia, who yesterday resigned from his post as the U.S. Attorney for the...

Will a Mongol Give You the Jacket Off His Back?

Dan Slater
October 23, 2008 13:52

Thomas O’Brien, the U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California, has a reputation for aggressiveness. Now he’s taking on the Mongols, a West Coast motorcycle gang whose Web site, depicting a skull smoking a cigarette, sends chills down our spine. A Mongols’ motorcycle...