By the LASIS Staff

The U.S. Supreme Court has decided to hear a case that could constitute the largest discrimination class action in history if allowed to go forward. The lawsuit, Wal-Mart v. Dukes, alleges gender bias against the national retail giant in both pay and promotions, and could involve as many as 1.5 million current and former Wal-Mart female employees. It is on the docket for the spring.

When Wal-Mart first petitioned the Supreme Court, LASIS writer Tara Krieger wrote about the issues involved in bringing such a monstrous class action to trial.   These are the very issues the Supreme Court will be reviewing and deciding.

Take a look.

By the LASIS Staff

Monday’s New York Times reported that John Ditullio goes on trial for murder today, and that his Nazi-imaged tattoos will be covered by a cosmetician, so the  jury is not unfairly unbiased against him.

Last year, we wrote about the legal reasons why the taxpayer would be footing the bill for this coverup.

Read it here.

By Dara Poltrock

With Thanksgiving behind us we are officially in the middle of the holiday season.  There’s an endless stream of holiday music on the radio, Christmas lights on almost every house, and people scrambling to make plans for New Year’s Eve.  Another thing to look forward to during the holidays: the movies.   Elf, The Holiday, Home Alone, and Love Actually—just a few favorites that were released during a recent holiday season.  A simple pleasure we can all look forward to, right?

On December 1 The Associated Press reported that deaf moviegoers in Berkeley, California are suing Cinemark, a movie theater chain, claiming that the chain is denying them access to films by refusing to install closed captioning devices.  Disability Rights Advocates filed the class action November 30 on behalf of two plaintiffs and the Association of Late-Deafened Adults.  Plaintiffs are requesting damages and an order requiring the chain to install the captioning devices.

We can all sympathize with the hearing impaired folks who want to be able to go to the movies, but is Cinemark legally required to install the captioning system?  The Associated Press did not explore the applicable law or the standards that disability laws require movie theaters to meet.

We did. Read more »

By Trevor Timm

Democrats and Republicans in the United States Senate seemingly disagree on every issue these days except one: Wikileaks, after its much publicized release of State Department diplomatic cables, should be charged with espionage.

From the Huffington Post:

In Washington, the top Democrat and Republican at the Senate Intelligence Committee called on Attorney General Eric Holder to prosecute Assange for espionage. Committee chairwoman Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and vice chairman Sen. Kit Bond, R-Mo., said in a letter Thursday that they believe Assange’s behavior falls under the Espionage Act, which makes it a crime to willfully pass on defense information that could hurt the U.S.

Yet legal analysis from many media organizations in the last few days, including Reuters and NPR, has largely confirmed Legal as She is Spoke’s analysis of the Espionage Act as it relates to Wikileaks posted more than three weeks ago: a conviction under the Espionage Act would be both unprecedented and close to impossible.

That doesn’t mean the government isn’t going to try. Read more »

By Trevor Timm

Another campaign season has come and gone, which means it’s time for the annual suggestion by newspaper and magazine columnists that a viable third party candidate will run for president, and maybe even win. These columns inevitably generate many hits for the writers and even more publicity for their chosen third party candidates.

A prime example of this trend could be found in recent piece in The New Yorker by Beth McGrath, who wrote about how political pundits are abuzz with the prospect of an independent candidate running for President in 2012. Surveying a political landscape awash with widespread dissatisfaction in the two main political parties, the collective mood of the electorate is supposedly summed up by political consultant Joe Trippi, who said, “I would put the odds of an independent candidacy for President in 2012 or 2016 at probably sixty to seventy per cent.”

As the column progresses, the only serious questions asked are 1) who will it be?, and 2) where will the money come from? Read more »