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US Foreign-cubed securities debate explained | Morrison & Foerster LLP – JDSupra

April 15, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Last month, the United States Supreme Court heard oral argument on whether foreign-cubed securities class actions may be litigated in the United States.

The extraterritorial reach of the federal securities laws is the central focus of Morrison v National Australia Bank. Morrison is the third in a series of fairly recent Supreme Court cases reviewing the extraterritorial application of federal statutes, following the Court’s consideration of the reach of antitrust law in F Hoffmann-LaRoche v Empagran and patent law in Microsoft v AT&T Corp. In the former (a unanimous decision) and Microsoft (an 8-1 decision), the Court concluded that the extraterritorial scope of the federal antitrust and patent statutes was a matter for Congress to decide. In the face of statutes that were ambiguous or silent on the issue, the Court applied a presumption that United States law governs domestically but does not rule the world.”

via US Foreign-cubed securities debate explained | Morrison & Foerster LLP – JDSupra.

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‘Sexting,’ Texting and EDD Before High Court | Law.com

March 24, 2010 By

While stories of “sexting” and cheating husbands are common fare in tabloid magazines, such salacious facts are a relative rarity in U.S. Supreme Court cases. It is equally unusual for the Supreme Court to issue opinions with the potential to touch upon aspects of electronic discovery. A perfect storm is brewing in the form of City of Ontario v. Quon, No. 08-1332, in which the Supreme Court will address a government employee’s expectation of privacy in text messages sent from his employer-issued device — including spicy text messages sent to his wife and alleged mistress. Although Quon involves a public employer, the Court’s ruling potentially could have far-reaching implications for workplace best practices in the private sector as well. In addition, Quon has the potential to extend its reach to other forms of electronic communication beyond text messages, including other types of “outlier” electronically stored information.

Text messages are just one form of outlier ESI, data that parties are more likely to overlook during the discovery process given that it may exist “out of sight” and/or “out of mind.” Common sources of outlier ESI include cellphones and personal digital assistants, voice mail systems, instant messaging systems, chat rooms and web sites. Few court decisions have addressed the preservation and production requirements of outlier ESI in litigation. Under certain circumstances, however, failure to preserve and produce outlier ESI has been held to constitute spoliation and resulted in sanctions such as an adverse inference.

via ‘Sexting,’ Texting and EDD Before High Court.

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Supreme Court Unveils New Web Site Design | Law.com

March 19, 2010 By

The Supreme Court’s long-awaited Web site redesign was unveiled Thursday at supremecourt.gov, bringing the site into the 21st century only a few years late.

The new site is visually appealing, with a rotating series of photos of the Court building, and iconography drawn from the Court’s architectural features. It has an easy search function on its main page, which also displays the Court's oral argument calendar. Several important pieces of information about the Court that used to take several clicks to get to are now brought forward, for easier access.

The Court’s 10-year-old Web site had been criticized as clunky and outdated by the Sunlight Foundation and others, especially in comparison to the high courts of other nations that have Web sites with virtual tours and material for students, among other updated features. From a quick survey, it does not appear that the Supreme Court’s new site has much new or different content, but what is there is more accessible and reader-friendly. The Court’s announcement of the new site, made by public information officer Kathy Arberg, also indicates the site is a work in progress, with new features to be added over time. We’ll have more on the redesign later.

via Law.com – Supreme Court Unveils New Web Site Design.

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Electronic Privacy and the Supreme Court

February 9, 2010 By Leave a Comment

The Supreme Court will soon weigh in for the first time on the permissible scope of employer monitoring of employees electronic communications. Such monitoring activity raises many issues that remain the subject of uncertainty in this developing area of the law.The case under consideration by the Court, Ontario v. Quon, arises in the context of government employees, who are protected from unreasonable searches by the Fourth Amendment. Private-sector employees have no such constitutional protection. Nonetheless, the Supreme Courts forthcoming ruling will likely have implications for private employers who face employee claims alleging an invasion of their common-law privacy rights.

via Law.com – Electronic Privacy and the Supreme Court.

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Life Sentence for Former Chinese Supreme Court Justice

January 19, 2010 By Leave a Comment

A former Chinese Supreme Court judge was sentenced to life in prison Tuesday following his conviction for embezzlement and receiving more than half a million dollars in bribes.

Huang Songyou, the court’s former vice president, is the first judicial official of his stature to be tried and convicted on such charges, part of a continuing battle by the Communist Party against deep-seated corruption.

Formally known as the Supreme People’s Court, the body is the highest judicial panel in China with wide-ranging powers including overseeing lower courts and reviewing death sentences. The court has 13 members, with its grand justice also sitting on the party’s decision-making Central Committee.

Huang’s entire property also was confiscated as part of the ruling, according to a brief report by the official China News Service.

Huang, 52, was accused of taking 3.9 million yuan ($574,000) in bribes from a law firm in return for favorable rulings on cases between 2005 and 2008.

He was also charged with embezzling 1.2 million yuan ($176,000) in government funds while serving as president of a city level court in the southern province of Guangdong in 1997.

Huang was fired and kicked out of the party in August and went on trial last Thursday at the Langfang Municipal Intermediate Court in Hebei province just outside Beijing. Calls to the court rang unanswered on Tuesday.

The official Xinhua News Agency said Huang had confessed to the charges during the investigation stage and most of the bribes and embezzled funds had been recovered.

“But as a chief justice, Huang knowingly violated the law by trading power for money and taking a hefty sum of bribes, which has produced a bad impact on the society, and should be punished severely,” Xinhua said, citing the verdict.

via Life Sentence for Former Chinese Supreme Court Justice.

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