Perry v. Schwarzenegger
Judge strikes down California's same-sex marriage ban, finding that "Moral disapproval alone is an improper basis on which to deny rights to gay men and lesbians."
U.S. v. Arizona
Arizona judge enjoins enforcement of a new immigration law's requirement that police determine the immigration status of
every person who is arrested.
McGuire v. United Airlines
Michigan woman says a United Express flight crew locked her in a plane for nearly four hours after it landed because they failed to ensure that all passengers had disembarked.
R.H. v. Schenectady Sch. Dist.
Middle school student says he was suspended for wearing rosary beads because the rosary "is considered a gang-related symbol" and cannot be worn in school.
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• Parents of a 10-year-old boy who witnessed a killer whale's fatal attack on a trainer sue Sea World Orlando for infliction of emotional distress. "Without question, it was reasonably foreseeable and in fact predictable that an attack such as this one by a killer whale with the tendencies of Tilikum was inevitable." Connell v. Sea World

• Denver judge dismisses Oklahoma City bomber Terry Nichols's civil rights claims against prison officials for denying him a high-fiber diet.
Nichols v. Federal Bureau of Prisons

• Illinois teenager with cerebral palsy sues the Special Olympics for refusing to let her play basketball with the help of a service dog.
Youngwith v. Special Olympics

• Montana judge sets aside a government decision removing protections for the northern Rocky Mountain gray wolf. The Endangered Species Act "was not intended to sow the dragon's teeth of strife or to plant the seeds of future conflicts that have given rise to this case."
Defenders of Wildlife v. Salazar

• San Francisco judge dismisses a cereal consumer's false advertising suit. "[T]here is nothing in the packaging or marketing of Cap’n Crunch that would in any way deceive a reasonable consumer into believing that the cereal contains or derives nutritional value from real fruit." Werbel v. PepsiCo

• Iowa judge says a sheriff denied the applications of a father and son for concealed weapons permits in retaliation for their political activism. "This is a great reminder that the First Amendment protects the sole individual who may be a gadfly, kook, weirdo, nut job, whacko, and spook, with the same force of protection as folks with more majoritarian and popular views." Dorr v. Weber

• 5th Circuit rules that a school district violated the religious freedom of a Native American boy by requiring him to wear his long hair in a bun on top of his head or in a braid tucked into his shirt. The boy "has a sincere religious belief in wearing his hair uncut and in plain view."
A.A. v. Needville Ind. Sch. Dist.

• 11th Circuit denies a challenge to an ordinance restricting handouts of food to the homeless in Orlando parks. "[W]e are unpersuaded that the conduct of simply feeding people ... is expressive for First Amendment purposes."
First Vagabonds Church v. City of Orlando




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Injury Claims

Police Dog Sued for Biting Woman on Butt Print

If Inez Starks goes to trial in her lawsuit against Warren, Mich., police officers, the judge may have to order one of the defendants not to bark in the courtroom.

Starks, 55, is suing over a dog bite she received during an altercation with police in April 2007. The suit names 10 individual defendants -- nine human officers, plus Liberty, the canine officer who injured her right buttock, allegedly leaving her with nerve damage.

“The K9 went out of control and viciously and brutally bit Inez Stark's [sic] right buttocks cheek, as well as biting Warren Police Officer [Scott] Taylor's leg,” the complaint, filed last month in Macomb County Circuit Court, says.

Preposterous as it may seem, this is not the only case of its kind. In November 2005, a convicted marijuana dealer sued an Athens County, Ohio, sheriff's department dog for illegally searching his furniture business.

The court docket in that case shows that "Canine Andi" was served with the complaint and was represented by the same counsel as the county sheriff. The dog was still listed as a defendant when the case was voluntarily dismissed in March 2006.

Starks attorney Lawrence N. Radden of Detroit says Liberty, a German shepherd who has worked for the City of Warren since 2002, is a legitimate defendant because it is a licensed police officer. But he admits that for the most part, he included the dog in the suit “to make people aware that this dog is vicious.”

“There's something wrong with this dog,” Radden insists, noting its alleged assault on Taylor.

The suit alleges a statutory dog bite claim against only the City of Warren and Liberty's handler, Officer Randy Baird. Liberty is accused with Baird, Taylor and the other police officers of assault and battery and gross negligence.

Starks says she was bitten outside the home of her daughter where police had gone on a truancy complaint. “She got a little loud, a little angry,” Radden told the Macomb Daily. “She was concerned for her daughter, and I think the police were out of line.”

The dog bite allegedly damaged Starks's sacroiliac nerve, impairing her ability to walk. “Ms. Stark also sustained severe and permanent injury and is forced to take Vicodin and other pain medications,” the suit says.

Whether or not the case proceeds with Liberty as a defendant, it faces the severe obstacle of the city's governmental immunity from tort liability. Radden is hoping the immunity will not apply to the strict liability dog bite claim, but a Michigan appeals court ruled in Tate v. City of Grand Rapids, 671 N.W.2d 84 (2003), that such a claim is “still a tort action seeking to impose tort liability.”

Gross negligence, though not subject to the immunity shield, requires Starks to prove that the defendants' conduct was “so reckless as to demonstrate a substantial lack of concern for whether an injury results.”

UPDATE

  • A Macomb County Circuit Court dismissed Starks' claims against the dog as frivolous and ordered her to pay $500 in sanctions for frivolously naming it as a defendant.


  • By Matthew Heller
    9/4/08


     
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