Recent Articles

Restarting this Blog

June 27, 2008 22:06

Due to overwhelming demand, we’d like to start this blog back up again. If you think you are the right person to be the Decision of the Day blogger, please email: alex (@) enotes.com. Thanks!Due to overwhelming demand, we’d like to start this blog back up again. If you think you are the...

Loblaw Has Left the Building

April 30, 2008 12:29

Decision of the Day began in October 2005, when I started stockpiling posts to see whether I could keep up the frenetic pace of blogging. I decided that I could and, for the most part, I did. The website went live in November 2005, and I never looked back. Sure, I took some breaks . . [...]Decision...

Another Reason To Say No To Drugs

April 29, 2008 15:42

Students for a Sensible Drug Policy v. Spellings, 07-1159 (8th Cir., April 29, 2008) Under a 1998 law, students who are convicted of possessing or selling drugs are ineligible for federal financial assistance. One strike buys a year or two of ineligibility and, depending on the offense, multiple...

Posner Gets A Big One Right

April 28, 2008 23:00

Crawford v. Marion County Election Board, 07-21 (Supreme Court, April 28, 2008) In January 2007, I reported on this Seventh Circuit decision, in which a divided panel upheld a controversial Indiana law that requires voters to show specific forms of identification at the polls. Advocates of the law ...

Finally, Some Questions about the Wisdom of RLUIPA

April 24, 2008 19:49

Koger v. Bryan, 05-1904 (7th Cir., April 24, 2008) Remember the Religious Freedom Restoration Act? That law, designed to protect religious practices from government interference, went on life support in 1997 when the Supreme Court declared that the statute was unconstitutional as applied to state...

Seventh Upholds Student’s Right to Wear “Be Happy, Not Gay” T-Shirt

April 24, 2008 03:39

Nuxoll v. Indian Prairie School District, 08-1050 (7th Cir., April 23, 2008) In a late-breaking school speech case, the Seventh Circuit has concluded that a high school sophomore is entitled to a preliminary injunction that allows him to wear a banned t-shirt opposing homosexuality. This case...

Seventh Chastises Ninth for Encouraging Mickey Mouse Law Suits

April 22, 2008 17:55

Springman v. AIG Marketing, Inc., 08-1019 (7th Cir., April 15, 2008) In a decision issued last week and amended today, the Seventh has deepened a circuit split under the Class Action Fairness Act. CAFA gave defendants a much-fought-for right to remove certain large class actions from state to...

Second Lets Whitman Off the Hook for Post-9/11 Liability

April 22, 2008 14:38

Benzman v. Whitman, 06-1166 (2nd Cir., April 22, 2008) In big Bivens news, a panel of the Second Circuit has rejected efforts to hold a government official personally liable for false reassurances about lower Manhattan’s air quality in the days after the September 11 attacks. The plaintiffs live, w...

Crossing the Border? Leave Your Laptop at Home

April 21, 2008 18:13

U.S. v. Arnold, 06-50581 (9th Cir., April 21, 2008) On the way back from a three-week vacation in the Philippines, defendant Michael Arnold was selected for secondary screening by Customs officials at Los Angeles airport. One officer asked Arnold to turn on his laptop to determine whether it was...

Fifth Circuit Divides Over How To Handle Sentencing Error

April 17, 2008 15:06

U.S. v. Bonilla, 06-40894 (5th Cir., April 16, 2008) With most eyes focused on a trio of major sentencing decisions issued yesterday by the Supreme Court, it was easy to miss this divided Fifth Circuit sentencing decision. But it is definitely worth a read. The defendant appeals his forty-one month...