Once again, I am faced with the daunting task of summarizing the best and most noteworthy in the legal blogosphere for the gentle readers of LawCrossing. I am inclined to just post a link to Blawg Review and be done with it, but I am told that I will not be paid unless I offer my expert analysis as well. Because I am saving up to buy a new boat, I will play along…for now.
Last week, everybody was blogging about Google's battle with the Attorney General over surrendering search-result records. Google is still the talk of the law blogosphere; but this week, Google's acquiescence to censorship from the Chinese government is the topic of discussion. This comes on the heels of Microsoft's decision to allow Chinese blogs banned by the Chinese government to be viewed outside of China. While we can all agree that good, old-fashioned censorship is American as apple pie, a little bit goes a long way. A great example of Chinese censorship of Google has been passed from blog to blog. I first saw it here on the Crime & Federalism blog.
The implications of the Attorney General potentially getting his hands on Google's search records have not yet been forgotten. The Video Game Law Blog posed an interesting question here Could your innocent search queries bring you unwanted attention from the federal government? In this case, the blogger wonders if his search for video game weaponry could be mistaken for a genuine attempt to purchase weapons. I'd recommend not worrying about it. Guantanamo Bay is supposed to be lovely this time of year.
My favorite blogworthy event of late is the commencement of the Enron trial. Ken Lay, Richard A. Causey, and Jeffrey K. Skilling stand accused of a whole host of white-collar offenses stemming from the collapse of energy giant Enron. The Enron: Trialwatch blog and the Enron: Legal Commentary blog are particularly great, as cameras have been barred from the courtroom. The Enron trial is shaping up to be better than the Michael Jackson and O.J. trials mashed together with a dollop of Bush v. Gore on top. I'm hoping these guys are found not guilty. They have the perfect qualifications to head the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Of course, this week, as every week, the most talked-about issue was blogging itself. The chief purpose of any blog is to offer a forum to anyone who wants to gripe about the minutiae of their lives, which no one would let them complain about anywhere else. Such navel-gazing brought a few noteworthy subjects to light this week. Solo practitioner Carolyn Elefant wrote about the invisible associate syndrome at her blog My Shingle. More specifically, she examined the trend of big law firms forcing associates to blog without allowing them to take credit for their efforts. The topic was kicked over to trial attorney Evan Schaeffer's Legal Underground, where Schaeffer argued that the hefty salaries offered by big firms lessen the sting of toiling away anonymously in the dark.
Bloggers Blog dug up an amusing blogo-news story. In response to a libel suit brought against an anonymous blogger, the Delaware Supreme Court opted to protect the privacy of the blogger and recommended that the plaintiff start his own blog to get even. This decision was rendered prior to federal legislation that could put a maximum two-year prison sentence on being "annoying" while online. This could be bad news for Ann Coulter.
In other blogly news, celebrity law blogger David Lat, formerly known as Article III Groupie of Underneath Their Robes, has returned to blogdom as the co-editor of the satirical political blog Wonkette. It's not easy for a blogger to attain stardom. One route is to publicly unmask your anonymous online persona, like Lat. Another popular method is to publish a blook, or an anthology your blogs. The easiest way is to coin a phrase combining blog with another word, like "blawg" (blog + law) or "blogerati" (blog + literati). I'm trying to popularize "blabbage" (blog + cabbage) and "blawnde" (blawg + blonde). Tell a friend.
Finally, it is worth mentioning that Samuel Alito has taken his place on the U.S. Supreme Court, much to the consternation of Senator John Kerry. Kerry used political blog The Daily Kos to announce his intentions to block the Senate vote for Alito by filibuster. Of interest to anyone concerned about the future of the Supreme Court are law professor Sandy Levinson's comments on Supreme Court term limits, which she posted on the blog Balkinization. Levinson identifies senility and political gaming as reasons to encourage Supreme Court term limits. I'm prepared to take this proposal one step further and present my Logan's Run Proposal, whereby every citizen over the age of 30 must report to the Homeland Security Department for disintegration, preferably by some kind of laser.
Write your Congressperson and, please, register for mandatory disintegration today.
Jeff is a writer from Los Angeles, CA. Currently, he is the moderator of the message boards at Judged.com, the largest insider source of law firm information.
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