If a mime is a terrible thing to waste (I’m not responsible for that joke), so is a living statue. Meet Bruce Peck a/k/a Stephen Chance a/k/a The Golden Cowboy. As the plaintiff in this case, Mr. Peck has challenged the City of Boston’s recent effort to corral and pen street performers at historic Faneuil Hall. Mr. Peck is no [...]
Beer, Bikes & Bans
October 11, 2010 By Leave a Comment
What has 16 passengers, pedals, a bar and loud music? Answer: a bierbike, a pedal-and-alcohol-fuelled contraption which can often be seen swerving along the streets of German cities. But now a court has banned the party wagons amid fears that inebriated passengers could tumble onto the road. That’s the opening to this article from Spielgel [...]
More States Allowing Guns in Bars
October 8, 2010 By Leave a Comment
That’s the title to this provocative article (written by Malcolm Gay) appearing in The New York Times this week. He writes: Happy-hour beers were going for $5 at Past Perfect, a cavernous bar just off this city’s strip of honky-tonks and tourist shops when Adam Ringenberg walked in with a loaded 9-millimeter pistol in the [...]
Slavery & Lawn Maintenance
October 7, 2010 By 2 Comments
In May 2009, the City of Riverdale, Georgia ticketed “Linda Gasses for violating [a] local ordinance when she failed to cut the high grass on the portion of her property adjacent to a public right-of-way.” (The ordinance, in case you’re wondering, makes “[i]t is unlawful for either the occupant or the owner of property… to have… [...]
The Hubbub with StubHub!
September 29, 2010 By 1 Comment
The resale of tickets to sports, concerts, and other events usually is illegal in Illinois, if the tickets fetch more than the original price. 720 ILCS 375/1.5(a). Resale at a premium is called scalping, and rules that forbid it even when the events’ promoters are content to allow resale have puzzled economists. That is how Chief [...]
The Seventh Circuit hears Annex Books (again)
September 21, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Yesterday the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals entertained argument in Annex Books, Inc. v. City of Indianapolis. (I’ve mentioned the case before.) The City appealed from an order granting a preliminary injunction to the bookstores. The panel, which included Chief Judge Easterbrook and Judge Rovner, did not tip its hand. But I don’t think that the City will unravel [...]
I Heart ___!
September 9, 2010 By Leave a Comment
That’s a template for a tattoo. If your id prevails, you can get tattooed somewhere in Hermosa Beach (beautiful, as I recall). How do I know? Because the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals told us so: We address a question of first impression in our circuit: whether a municipal ban on tattoo parlors violates the [...]
Porn Lawyer
July 26, 2010 By 1 Comment
Do I have your attention? A new drama series from CBS, “The Defenders,” begins this fall. Billed by CBS as “an irreverent new legal drama about two fiery and charismatic Las Vegas defense attorneys,” the show will star Jerry O’Connell and Jim Belushi. But those actors aren’t who have me interested: [T]he character that apparently will be responsible for [...]
Don’t tread on my hops & grapes.
July 21, 2010 By Leave a Comment
“Alcohol Bill Means ‘Happy Hour’ for Lobbyists” is the title of this article by Carrie Levine, appearing on Law.com today. She writes: Trade associations and lobbyists for alcohol manufacturers such as MillerCoors, Anheuser-Busch, Heineken and Diageo are brawling with their wholesale distributors over a bill that would strengthen states’ ability to regulate alcohol and make it [...]
It’s just business …
June 25, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Today the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals issued this opinion. The case, styled Flava Works, Inc. v. City of Miami, concerns “CocoDorm.com, which operates an internet-based website of the same name. The CocoDorm website transmits images, via webcam, of the residents of 503 Northeast 27th Street, Miami, Florida, over the internet.” The question is whether Flava [...]
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