
• Boston judge refuses to require Massachusetts to include materials that deny the Armenian genocide in the public school curriculum. "[T]he decision as to what to teach about ... the Armenian genocide must be made by elected officials, educators, and teachers rather than by federal judges." Griswold v. Driscoll
• Kentucky Court of Appeals upholds a $3.7 million jury award against a school board for ignoring a student's complaints that several teachers had molested her. Plaintiff Lynne Maner "presented sufficient evidence that the Board was deliberately indifferen[t] in its failure to act." Maner v. Fayette County Board of Education
• 6th Circuit revives the racial bias case of an African-American couple who sued a hotel for refusing to host their wedding reception. "There is a genuine issue of material fact in this case as to whether ... the Hotel denied them the right to enter into a contract because of their race." Keck v. Graham Hotel Systems
• San Francisco judge rules that a city did not violate a hiker's rights by failing to protect her from an attack on public land by a rancher's cattle. "[P]laintiffs have not alleged facts supporting a claim that the City was deliberately indifferent to a known or obvious danger" to Jo Dee Schmidt. Schmidt v. Hoover
• Divided New York appellate court says a golfer is not liable for striking another golfer in the eye with an errant drive. The defendant's failure to yell "Fore" before hitting the ball "does not rise to the level of creating a dangerous condition over and above the usual dangers inherent in participating in the sport of golf." Anand v. Kapoor
• Sioux tribal members file a class action seeking their share of as much as $900 million held in trust by the federal government as compensation for the "taking" of the Black Hills of South Dakota. The plaintiffs have split from other Sioux who refuse to take the money, insisting on the return of the land. Different Horse v. Salazar
• Texas Court of Appeals says a gas station owner is not liable for the negligence of an attendant who accidentally shot a customer while showing him a gun. The attendant's "actions were not merely a misuse of his authority; they were utterly unrelated to his duties." Glass v. Williams
• San Francisco judge denies Chevron Corp.'s request for $485,159 in court costs from impoverished Nigerian villagers who sued the company for human rights violations. "The economic disparity between plaintiffs, who are Nigerian villagers, and defendants, international oil companies, cannot be more stark." Bowoto v. Chevron

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Actress Blames Fear of Fan Attacks on Web Site |
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Eriko Tamura
A Japanese actress is stretching privacy law too far by claiming that the danger of harassment by “aggressive and overzealous fans” makes the Internet Movie Database liable for publishing her real name and date of birth.
Eriko Tamura, who now lives in Los Angeles, sued IMDB this month under the tort of public disclosure of private facts, which is in tension with the First Amendment because it involves the publication of truthful information. The published material must be of a kind that is “highly offensive to a reasonable person” and “not of legitimate concern to the public.”
On its much-trafficked Web site, IMDB has posted an entry for Eriko Sakamoto, Tamura's real name, and also gives her date of birth in the separate entry for Eriko Tamura. Neither of the entries identifies Sakamoto and Tamura as the same person.
But in her complaint, Tamura alleges those facts are private and she has kept them “completely private” because they could be used by “third parties to track down her residence.” Before moving to L.A. to pursue an acting career, she was a teen-idol pop star in Japan who was compared to Britney Spears.
Fans who had access to that information have previously broken into her apartment, the suit says, and IMDB's disclosure
has placed Plaintiff in grave danger of aggressive and overzealous fans that can use the information to locate and harass Plaintiff and her family members.
Tamura, 34, filed the case in Nevada, where IMDB is incorporated and the state Supreme Court ruled in 1983 that a newspaper article which disclosed a man's conviction in a hit-and-run accident 20 years earlier was “of legitimate public concern.”
The balance between the free press and an individual's right to privacy “should be weighted in favor of free speech when the publication involves public facts which have been spread upon a public record,” the court said in Montesano v. Donrey Media Group, 668 P.2d 1081.
There is absolutely nothing in Tamura's complaint that tips the balance toward her privacy rights. While she claims her given name and birth date do “not bear any logical relationship to the newsworthy subject of Plaintiff's professional career and filmography,” IMDB did not cross the line into the “morbid and sensational prying” that is not protected under the First Amendment.
Movie databases and other sources, of course, routinely publish similar biographical facts about other actors. Some Websites even specialize in listing the addresses of celebrities.
As for Tamura's overzealous fans, holding IMDB liable for the potential criminal acts of third parties over which it has no control would set the most chilling of precedents for the media.
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UPDATE ... Tamura dismissed her case April 5.
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By Matthew Heller 3/20/07
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No Prayer Now for Preacher's Suit Over "Religulous"
Less than three weeks after being sued for defrauding two former parishioners of $600,000, a Florida preacher dropped his $50 million lawsuit alleging the Bill Maher documentary “Religulous” falsely portrayed him as a charlatan, On Point has learned.
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Man Burned at Burning Man Assumed Risk
Get too close to the Burning Man fire and you assume the “obvious and inherent” risk of being burned, a California appeals court has ruled in dismissing a personal injury lawsuit against the operators of the iconic countercultural arts festival.
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Lawyer's 'Prove Me Wrong' Offer No Joke to Student
A Texas law student may have taken a $1 million “prove me wrong” challenge seriously, but the criminal defense lawyer who made the challenge on a TV news show appears to have done so with enough tongue in cheek to avoid liability for not paying up.
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Jury Chills Rights in Strip Search Case
A jury has reached a chilling decision in the civil rights case of a Southampton, N.Y., woman, clearing four police officers in the exclusive resort community of liability for performing a strip search on her after a minor marijuana bust.
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Toxic Bra Suits Won't be Combined in Ohio
A rash of lawsuits against Victoria's Secret alleging defectively manufactured underwear is continuing with eight new cases filed in the past two months. But in a setback for plaintiffs, a judicial panel has refused to consolidate all the litigation in Ohio.
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Wedding Fiasco Suit Really Takes Cake
Sandra Newsom's wedding disaster lawsuit may -– literally –- take the cake. The New York woman has sued a cruise ship operator for ruining her wedding reception by serving a coconut-containing cake to which she had an allergic reaction.
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Woody Allen Got $5M After Judge Shredded Defense
A week before American Apparel agreed to pay Woody Allen $5 million for misappropriating his image, a judge had shredded the clothing company's First Amendment defense based on its CEO's “mental processes,” On Point has learned.
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Capitol Records v. Thomas Court: USDC, Minn. Subject: Digital music downloading Verdict: $1.92 million
ASPCA v. Ringling Bros. Court: USDC, D. Col. Subject: Illegal "taking" of elephants by circus
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Howard K. Stern v. Rita Cosby Date: 7/7/09 Court: USDC, S. N.Y. Hearing: Motions for summary judgment in defamation case.
Goldberg v. Paris Hilton Entertainment Date: 7/9/09 Court: USDC, S. Fla. Hearing: Jury trial in breach-of-contract case.
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