In the recent Feller decision, the Supreme Court struck down a fairly long-standing gun ban in the District of Columbia, holding that the 2nd Amendment in the Bill of Rights of the U.S. Constitution protects an individual right to keep and bear arms of a sort in general common use.

Over at responsivedocuments.com, I have an excerpt of a Daily Record article on a privilege waiver by inadvertent or negligent document privilege review policies in a federal case in Baltimore. In short, sloppy rules and procedures for preventing an inadvertent release of privileged documents resulted in both the release of such documents and a ruling that the release effected a waiver of privilege, notwithstanding an attempt to allow a "clawback" of privileged material.

Baltimore Sun, May 14, 2008:

The state's highest court suspended a Baltimore County judge ... for making profane and uncivil comments from the bench, issuing the harshest punishment for a Maryland judge in more than two decades and, observers said, sending a message to judges to watch their behavior.

The Court of Appeals found that District Judge Bruce S. Lamdin violated the state's judicial code of conduct. It accepted a judicial commission's recommendation that the judge be suspended for 30 days without pay.

I am pleased to announce that Crab Media now operates responsivedocuments.com, which will serve at the home for all Crab Media document review content, links, information and jobs listings. I must admit my continued surprise that the domain name has remained open to this date; the term "responsive documents" is central to most litigation or transactional document reviews and it is a pretty decent tradename in itself for a document review placement agency or software vendor. Now Crab Media owns it, and new content will appear there once the server in Hong Kong or Boston, whichever, processes the new domain (about 24 hours or so.)

The "More Like This" tag above applies to the Maryland Conservatarian who has administered a well-timed, well-aimed scolding to those who, with lameness overflowing, have challenged the natural-born citizenship of Senator John McCain, who was born in the Canal Zone in a military hospital back when the Canal Zone was unambiguously U.S. territory.

Austin American-Statesman, February 13, 2008:

A federal appeals court has struck down a seldom-enforced Texas law making it a crime to promote or sell sex toys.

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, ruling in a case originally filed in federal court in Austin, found that the ban in the Texas penal code on selling or promoting obscene devices violates the right to privacy under the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

...

"Whatever one might think or believe about the use of these devices, government interference with their personal and private use violates the Constitution," said the opinion in the case considered by a three-judge panel of the New Orleans-based court.

Vulgar editorial comments at end of video of unidentified sourcing.

What Andrew said. Why Mikulski is voting to undercut both the rights of bona fide claimants against the telecommunication companies who have betrayed their customers' privacy AND her party's position on the matter is beyond me. There already is immunity for judicially warranted searches; if the executive branch violated the civil rights of customers by leaning without warrants on telecom companies, the federal budget should per Arlen Specter's proposal indemnify, not immunize, those companies.

I say give her Al Wynn's phone number and hope that when she feels the heat, she sees the light.