Small towner rooting for small towns on Monday

I'm planning to be in the audience to observe the oral argument Monday morning in the Missouri Municipal telecommunications case on appeal from the Eighth Circuit, where the issue before the Supreme Court is mostly whether local governments are included in the phrase "any entity" as it appears in the Telecommunications Act (and, indeed, as Judge Jones of the W.D. Va. so held).

A business reporter called my office today inquiring about an amicus brief that I filed - I e-mailed him the URL for this page, where mostly all the briefs can be found, and the name and phone number of someone else he could call if he wanted to talk with a real live human.

The mention of the reporter's call reminds me of the story that one Lee County lawyer supposedly was quoted in the Kingsport paper some years ago in reference to the complexity of the matter before some court as saying that it was "one booger of a case." I've been unable to track down that precise quote in the online archives.

My favorite places to eat in the D.C. area

We're going up to D.C. area this weekend, so I can watch the argument before the Supreme Court on Monday, but also so my wife can see her old stomping grounds, as she lived in that area until I lured her to Southwest Virginia. One thing we have been talking about is where to eat.

I spent a lot of the time in the D.C. area between 1988 and 1998 but never really got past the stage of being a 20-something tourist, so the places where I liked to go were basically casual, touristy, good time places, and I'd go back to all of these:

Blackie's , 22nd St., N.W., D.C. (in the old days, we ate prime rib there, and crackers with blue cheese)
Clyde's (Tyson's and Georgetown) (chili, and whatever else)
Fish Market, Alexandria (about the only place I ever ordered a fried fish sandwich)
Hard Times Cafe, Alexandria (chili and cornbread)
Ilija's International Gourmet, MacArthur Blvd., N.W., D.C. (gyros when they had them)
Layalina, Arlington
The Market Inn, E Street, S.W., D.C. (soup sampler - three soups, best restaurant idea ever, especially when one of the soups is she-crab soup)
Peking Gourmet, Falls Church (spring chicken)
Three Pigs Barbecue, McLean

Reporter for The Nation comments on Claude Allen nomination

According to this commentary from the website of The Nation, one of several "horrors in the pipeline" among the federal judicial nominees is Claude Allen, whom President Bush has nominated to sit on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. The author explains that "Allen has supported antichoice statutes and regulations; urged sexual abstinence as the solution to AIDS and teen pregnancy; and opposed expanded health insurance for poor children."

Somehow, that reminds me of the conservative critics of the Lawrence decision, who argued that the spread of disease was one good reason why sodomy should be illegal.

Sen. Deeds weighs run for Virginia AG

This article ("Bath County's Deeds eyes run at attorney general," 1/8/2004) from the Kingsport paper (registration required) says that Senator R. Creigh Deeds from Bath County might seek win nomination as the Democratic candidate for Virginia Attorney General in 2005. Former U.S. Attorney John Edwards from Roanoke is among the oft-mentioned candidates for the Democrats.

National Review on the Fourth Circuit's NRA camp t-shirt opinion

NRO columnist Dave Kopel has this favorable commentary on the Fourth Circuit's opinion in the Newsom v. Albemarle County School Board case, and the article says one thing I didn't know, which was that both the ACLU and the Virginia Attorney General's office filed briefs against the School Board's position in the case, which I guess leaves nothing but aspiring school board lawyers to sympathize with the losing side of the appeal.

Ben takes on W&M President Tim Sullivan again

In this post, Ben Domenech says that the president of the College of William & Mary has sent some strange e-mails to critics of limitations on campus speech at the College. Not just Ben, but the Volokh Conspiracy has a link to this post with the same subject matter, and the Conspiracy's own post makes it sound like this is reason enough to NOT GO to the law school at William & Mary (where Sullivan is on the faculty and used to be dean). There is also this post from Discrimination on the same subject.

The comments attributed to President Sullivan are very troubling, but what I always wanted to have investigated is whether President Sullivan (seen here) was actually Captain Kangaroo (shown here) back when I was a kid. (As to Captain Kangaroo, it says here that he did not really fight the Japanese on Iwo Jima as Lee Marvin's sergeant in the Marines.)

Should law clerks talk to lawyers

Ernie the Attorney, in his ongoing law clerk chronicles, concludes here that it was a good thing that he was not allowed to talk to the lawyers when he was a law clerk.

Well, I was allowed to talk to the lawyers when I was a law clerk in the W.D. Va., but the lawyers didn't really want to talk to me, because they knew and I knew that I didn't know anything and couldn't do anything. Now, down in the Eastern District of Tennessee, they've got these permanent law clerks, and it is imperative that lawyers get to know them and pick their brains at every opportunity.

No qualified immunity for state bar official picketed at his house by plaintiff

Via this How Appealing post, in the case of Dean v. Byerly, the Sixth Circuit in an opinion by Judge Moore, with Judge Daughtrey concurring, held that the defendant, a lawyer for the State Bar of Michigan, was not even entitled to qualified immunity on claims that he violated the constitutional rights of the plaintiff, a frustrated applicant for admission to the bar, who had engaged in picketing outside the front lawn of the defendant's house. Judge Sutton dissented, and I think he has the right of the thing, when he wrote that "it becomes difficult to understand why Mr. Dean ought to be allowed to make a $2 million federal case out of this incident."

Now if I can just get one of those audita querela cases

As a civil procedure buff, I enjoyed this How Appealing post, which describes this Sixth Circuit opinion, as holding that the prohibition in the rules against the writ of audita querela does not mean what it says.

The opinion, quoting AmJur, says that "The common-law writ of audita querela is a remedy granted in favor of one against whom execution has issued or is about to issue on a judgment the enforcement of which would be contrary to justice, either because of matters arising subsequent to its rendition, or because of prior existing defenses that were not available to the judgment debtor in the original action because of the judgment creditor’s fraudulent conduct or through circumstances over which the judgment debtor had no control.” Well, ok, then. The case involved a woman about to be deported to Nigeria.

State board to consider easing test score requirements for teachers

The Norfolk paper reports here ("Proposals would ease teacher testing standards," 1/7/2004) that the State Board of Education is considering a proposal to reduce the test scores required for new teachers in Virginia, or even to accept their SAT scores instead, noting that some states accept SAT scores of over 1,000.

Hokies, Wahoos, and Tribe want to set own rates

This report ("Cash-starved Va. colleges want power to raise tuition," 1/7/2004) from the Norfolk paper says that the College of William & Mary, the University of Virginia, and Virginia Tech are seeking to become free of legislative limits on tuition, since they don't get much money from the Commonwealth anyhow.

Danville City Council, irate at Adelphia, might consider municipal cable service

The Danville paper reports in this story ("Council approves cable contract," 1/7/2004) that the City Council there is unhappy with its renewed franchise with Adelphia and might consider its own cable network.

Proposal would ban nude summer camps for teens in Virginia

The AP has this story on a legislative proposal to ban nude summer camps for teens in Virginia.

Proposal would allow court action against local school officials over unaccredited schools

The AP has this story on a legislative proposal that would allow local circuit courts to make school officials answer for failure to comply with state rules for schools.

More on motions in the Pocahontas murder case

The Bluefield paper has this article ("Triple homicide case back in court," 1/6/2004) on pre-trial motions heard in the murder case against defendants Gilmore and Church.

AG Kilgore opines on application of FOIA to party caucuses of legislators

This report ("Kilgore opinion letter leaves issue of closed caucus meetings hazy," 1/7/2004) in the Roanoke paper and this report ("Kilgore offers opinion on caucus meetings," 1/6/2004) in the Charlottesville paper describe the limited opinion of Attorney General Kilgore's office on the question of whether open meeting requirements of the Freedom of Information Act applies to party caucuses of legislators.

Maybe under AG Kilgore's FOIA proposals from earlier in the week, the caucuses would have to start making audio or video recordings of their closed sessions.

Burrow indicted again in D-Day memorial fundraising case

According to this article ("Burrow again indicted, faces 12 new counts," 1/7/2004) in the Roanoke paper, W.D. Va. prosecutors have obtained a new and improved indictment against Richard Burrow for fraud in fundraising for the D-Day Monument, whose previous trial ended with the jury unable to reach a verdict.

On the spoken word in Southwest Virginia

Fers is the word for "fellows" in Southwest Virginia, according to this report, which reminds of Patti Church's explanation that she lived in Wise County for a while before she camed to understand that the word pronounced "herkin" meant "Hurricane."

Using waste oil as fuel

This article from the Knoxville paper describes a Northeast Tennessee business that sells heaters that run on waste oil as the fuel source for heat.

I think my '94 Saturn (made in Tennessee by Tennesseans) has been running on waste oil for some years.

Fourth Circuit upholds ruling for government in Judicial Watch FOIA case

In Judicial Watch, Inc. v. U.S., the Fourth Circuit in a per curiam opinion for the panel of Judges Niemeyer, Luttig, and Motz affirmed the district court's decision that the Internal Revenue Service did not improperly redact portions of the records requested by the Judicial Watch group, which had asked for IRS records on Judicial Watch itself.