Really interesting oral argument in the Second Circuit yesterday about whether baseball's alleged tolerance of electronic sign stealing creates a claim for fantasy baseball players. The appellate panel is ... skeptical.
the Yankees' team President, who is a lawyer, argued personally that the district judge erred in deciding to make a letter about the Yankees public (this was a side issue). He was... too casual, but ok. His position is going to lose however.
OK, I had held off commenting on the New York "symbols of hate" statute, which purports to ban "symbols of hate" in some circumstances. As everyone else has noted, it is obviously unconstitutional. But I hadn't seen the text, which is bananas. 1/
Problem 1: symbols of hate isn't properly defined. Note where it says "not be limited to" in 146(2). So, in the hands of extremists of one type or another, the following could suddenly become such: the christian cross, a muslim crescent, a BLM sign, whatever PETA's logo is.
This problem, in my preliminary view, renders even Section 146(1) (which mostly is about the Government's own speech) pretty suspect. I'd need to think about it further. /3
I try not to be (too) cruel, but I have rather enjoyed the meltdown of people complaining that the bookies paid out on the Biden bets and took the pro-Trump money.
Also, please let there be litigation - it would be a live-tweeting bonanza.
My favorite so far is this fellow with the top hat. He seems upset.
I'm a lawyer that reads nearly every Supreme Court opinion, and yet I would have told you "River Master" was made up before I listened to this case. docs.google.com/viewer?url=htt…
Disappointingly, the River Master does not appear to have the power to make horses appear in the river's froth and wash away Nazgul.
Here's the deal. There are in fact cases - cases where the Supreme Court law is against you - where your only job is to lose in the lower courts as fast as possible. That's because you can only win on the facts if you get *new law* made. And only SCOTUS can reverse itself. But!
Powell's various cases and Trump's cases are not like that. Their problem is not really some SCOTUS law they're trying to change. Their problem is that their claims fail in every way: the facts are made up, the law is against them on every ground, they're litigated badly /2
There's no "circuit split" in these cases, for example - that is, Trump isn't challenging some law where the lower courts have disagreed, or where people have been agitating to reverse SCOTUS precedent for years. There's literally not a single indicator of a SCOTUS case. /3