Moritz Legal Information Blog

Looking for a Supreme Court case with deep relevance for law students? Look no further: "The U.S. Supreme Court has sided with a former California grad student who purchased books cheaply overseas and then resold them on eBay for a profit" says the ABA Journal . Read the opinion here  and analysis here . An economic analysis of the case was written by our own Professor Rub and can be found here .

In 2010, a Chicago attorney purchased the domain name www.popefrancis.com  "since it gave the then-nonexistent pope the name of one of his favorite saints." Only recently, the Catholic Church appointed a new pope who took the name Francis, and the attorney is hoping to donate the domain name to the Church. My first thought: what's the state of trademark rights and domain names? I studied it in law school, but that was a few years back. Enter the American Law Reports (ALR), a handy secondary source that provides extensive detail on unique subjects. While not entirely comprehensive, if your subject is in the ALR, you'll find everything you need. We have the ALR in the library , and it's also available on Westlaw and Lexis . If you're curious about trademark law and domain names, check out Lanham Act Infringement Actions in Internet and Website Context .

Ever wonder just how accurate police sketches are? Well, it depends, but one source says a police sketch can increase apprehension of a suspect by up to 15 percent. Those are not great odds, and it might be particularly troublesome if your client is arrested based on an awful sketch . Consequently, you may want to challenge the admissibility of eye-witness testimony from which the sketch was drawn. To learn more about the admissibility of evidence, and forensic evidence in particular, search the library catalog for these subjects: Forensic Sciences Evidence Admissible Evidence

Some states allow jurors to ask (pre-approved) questions of a witness at trial.  This is the case in Arizona, where Jodi Arias is on trial in Arizona for the 2008 killing of her ex-boyfriend.  The questions are submitted by jurors and asked by the judge. Lowering the Bar Huffington Post ABC News Maricopa County: Juror FAQ

The six-month warning period for the new Ohio texting-while-driving law ended on March 1.  Ohio is now officially on the list of states with texting-while-driving bans, joining 38 other states and the District of Columbia. Huffington Post And Ohio may soon have company: check out these stories about proposed distracted driving laws on other states. Florida Texas Also: Interactive map of the United States with distracted driving laws Pennsylvania texting ban is one year old Kentucky texting ban is two years old Akron passes texting legislation

It should come as no surprise that the Harlem Shake lawsuits are queuing up. Australian miners are contemplating a wrongful termination lawsuit after they were fired for their Harlem Shake video, which their employer states raises safety concerns for mining operations. I've been surprised no one has filed suit yet for copyright infringement for the use of the song in the videos posted by the score. Interestingly, the first major suit was announced, and it's against the DJ who remixed the current version of the song. Think mash-ups and remixes are legal? Think again .

One day you may be a judge. You can either rely on your law clerk to write well for you, in which case you should plan on being a good editor. Or you can work on those legal writing skills now. Who knows? You just might be memorialized forever for your creativity, spunk, humor, or hipsterism. Judicial Humor , including parody and verse in judicial opinions Bons Mots, Buffoonery, and the Bench : The Role of Humor in Judicial Opinions Slow-Played Benchslap Order Just Keeps Getting Better In Some Courts, Dylan Rules [Insert Song Lyrics Here]: The Uses and Misuses of Popular Music Lyrics in Legal Writing Judicial Opinions that Entertain