Wisconsin Judge overturns Wisconsin Union Rights Limiting Law

ABC is reporting that a Dane County Circuit Judge has ruled that the law violates both the state and U.S. Constitution and is null and void. The ruling applies to all local public workers affected by the law, including teachers and city and county government employees, but not those who work for the state. They were not a party to the lawsuit, which was brought by a Madison teachers union and a Milwaukee public workers union.

This ruling means that local Wisconsin government and schools now must once again bargain over those issues. The state Supreme Court in June 2011 ruled that the law was constitutional after it had been blocked by a different Dane County judge on a challenge over its passage being a violation of open meetings law. Anger over the law's passage led to an effort to recall Walker from office. More than 930,000 signatures were collected triggering the June recall election. Walker won and became the first governor in U.S. history to survive a recall.

Supreme Court To Hear Race-Based College Admissions Case

MSNBC is reporting that the Supreme Court will once again confront the issue of race in university admissions in an appeal brought by a white student denied a spot at the flagship campus of the University of Texas. The court said Tuesday it will return to the issue of affirmative action in higher education for the first time since its 2003 decision endorsing the use of race as a factor in freshmen admissions. I wrote about this potential danger regarding Historically Black Colleges and Universities while I was in law school. This time around, however, a more conservative court is being asked to jettison that ruling and outlaw affirmative action in the university setting. Stay tuned.

The Private Defenders Trial Lawyer of The Year

I'm humbled and honored to have been chosen as one of the Trial Lawyers of The Year by The Private Defenders Criminal Bar Association for 2012. I and Dennis Wilson were chosen for our work on the David Green double homicide death penalty case, which resulted in a hung jury.

Advocacy group sues Brawley Elementary School District over firing of Ron Garcia

Here is an interesting article on a writ of mandate lawsuit that my firm filed in Brawley California on behalf of The Institute For Socio-Economic Justice.

The writ of mandate that we filed was against the Brawley Elementary School District. It demands that the district reinstate former superintendent Ron Garcia and declare the school board's decision to fire Garcia null and void. In firing Garcia, the school board violated a plethora of provisions under the Brown Act and the California Government Code. Stay tuned...

Press Conference For John Horton

Here was some interesting press coverage that we got on our lawsuit against the Los Angeles County Sheriff Dept. for the senseless death of John Horton while at the Men's Central jail. John was found dead under suspicious circumstances while in solitary confinement. Trial is currently set for September of this year.

An Interesting Way To Fight The Death Penalty

The sole U.S. maker of the anesthetic used in executions announced Friday it would stop manufacturing sodium thiopental to prevent its product from being used to put prisoners to death.

I am unequivocally against the death penalty, particularly since is racially disparate in its application and I see it's unfortunate application in my criminal practice. It's no secret that even though blacks and whites are murder victims in nearly equal numbers of crimes, 80% of people executed since the death penalty was reinstated have been executed for murders involving white victims. It's also no secret that more than 20% of black defendants who have been executed were convicted by all-white juries.

Before we can even get to the moral argument, this point has never been addressed by proponents of the death penalty. Additionally, now that Hospiria, Inc. has said that it will not be a tool for state sanctioned murder anymore, maybe our educated nation will now go back to stoning, hanging and firing squad to morally teach us it's wrong to kill.

Jury Orders SAP to pay Oracle 1.3 Billion.

What a Thanksgiving. Today, a jury verdict ordered SAP to pay Oracle $1.3 billion for stealing customer-suppport documents and software in a scheme to siphon off customers. SAP, which is based in Waldorf, Germany, came into the trial ready to lose something. They admitted a subsidiary stole the documents and argued that it owed just $40 million. Obviously, a jury thought otherwise.