Moritz Legal Information Blog

Supreme Court watchers have recently noted errors in opinions by two Justices, errors the Court has corrected.  The  Wall Street Journal reported that Justice Scalia mischaracterized a prior case. And the Washington Times reported that Justice Kagan made a historical error. These individual mistakes and the subsequent changes may seem minor -- they do not necessarily impact the outcome of the cases.  But it appears, as the New York Times reports, that the Supreme Court often edits opinions -- not always announcing these changes.  This New York Times interactive graphic illustrates several edits. A new task for the legal researcher:  look for alternative versions of SCOTUS opinions!

Coming from Michigan, I was surprised the first time I went to an Ohio wine tasting and found that I had to pay for the tasting samples.  But thanks to a new law, some beer and wine retailers will soon be able to hold free tastings. As always, you can check out every version of the new legislation (set to take effect on July 10th of this year) at the Ohio Legislature website : SB 173 (As Introduced) Fiscal Notes and Local Impact Statement Status Report And news coverage: WBNS-10TV Dayton Daily News

X-Men: Days of Future Past  is released in theaters tomorrow. The film's plot is based off of the 1981 Uncanny X-Men story arc of the same title. In both, an X-Men team member must travel back in time in order to change history to prevent the eventual arrival of an anti-mutant future. Law and the Multiverse (a legal blog first mentioned here by Matt Cooper ) provides an analysis of the legal atmosphere of the comic book's story. Very pertinent to the Days of Future Past story, time travel is also covered in questions of double jeopardy and the statute of limitations . If you are curious about law in relation to superheroes, you can find more from the authors of Law and the Multiverse in their book The Law of Superheroes . (Someone at the circulation desk can get it out of the display case for you.) If you have further questions about X-Men lore, you can see Matt Watson at the circulation desk.

You may be familiar with a recent ward of page and screen, Lisbeth Salander, a.k.a. the girl with the dragon tattoo.    Salander suffered at the hands of an abusive and controlling guardian, drawing attention to an often overlooked area of law. This week, the Columbus Dispatch shines a light on legal guardianship in a series entitled Unguarded , exposing a system in need of reform.   For example: “ A Dispatch analysis of more than 700 Franklin County guardianship cases opened during a three-year span beginning in 2007 found that in more than a third of the cases, a medical or mental-health professional determined that a patient was incompetent in less than 30 minutes. More than 1 in 5 of them had never before seen the patient.” If you’d like to learn more about Ohio’s guardian ad litem law, the Supreme Court of Ohio offers an Ohio Guardian ad Litem Education Program , and the Ohio Bar Association offers this basic explanation . If you are a local attorney

From Reuters , The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday revived a copyright lawsuit against movie studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. concerning an early screenplay for what became the iconic boxing movie "Raging Bull." The court held on a 6-3 vote that Paula Petrella, daughter of deceased screenwriter Frank Petrella, could pursue a lawsuit against MGM for infringing the copyright of a 1963 screenplay upon which she says the movie was based. The case has been remanded for further action, and the Los Angeles Times has a bit more explanation. Care to read the slip opinion ? Check out SCOTUSblog for more updates as they develop.

What's the difference between correlation and causation when it comes to statistics? If you're relying on statistics to prove your point in court, it's a question you must understand. According to stats.org ,  an action or occurrence can cause another (such as smoking causes lung cancer), or it can correlate with another (such as smoking is correlated with alcoholism). If one action causes another, then they are most certainly correlated. But just because two things occur together does not mean that one caused the other, even if it seems to make sense. Unfortunately, our intuition can lead us astray when it comes to distinguishing between causality and correlation. For example, eating breakfast has long been correlated with success in school for elementary school children. It would be easy to conclude that eating breakfast causes students to be better learners. It turns out, however, that those who don’t eat breakfast are also more likely to be absent or tardy — and

The incredible fall-like weather had made Columbus's Bike to Work Day lovely. Last year's weather  wasn't too shabby: a high of 80 degrees and a low of 55 degrees. (Bookmark that historical weather page if you ever have a trial question come up about weather conditions during a particular incident (e.g., a car crash).) In honor of the day, here are two of our historical posts about bicycling (including one about a possible career path).