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Documents Legal, Laws, and Regs

Pssst: The law is for everyone

I confess here and now: I am a PACER junkie. For the uninitiated, PACER is the federal court online system.

I rarely go a day without looking for new court filings in the many court cases I follow. When a new motion is submitted, I’m in alt. Think how science fiction fans react to a new Doctor Who episode, and you get the idea.

There seems to be a misconception about legal filings, and the law. Contrary to popular myth, neither are for lawyers, only. Yes, you have to be a lawyer to practice law, but you don’t have to be a lawyer to be interested in the law or legal documents. You don’t have to be a lawyer to have an opinion on laws, or legal documents, either. You may misunderstand a decision, or misstate the importance of a case, but doing so is no different than misunderstanding any other decision, or misstating the importance of any other event. The art of law is no different than the art of philosophy, geology, history, or computer programming.

What happens in the courts has a profound impact on all of us. If Congress passes laws, and the Executive Branch implements these laws, it is the Courts that refine the laws—ensuring that the laws are applied consistently, and adhere to basic principles on which the nation is formed.

Think of law as a statue. Congress, acting on its own or based on the demands of the populace, decides it wants a new statue. If enough members of Congress agree, it writes up a specification for the statue, and provides funding to create it.

The Executive Branch of the government, via its agencies, takes these specifications and formulates a plan for creating the statue. Once the first draft of the plan is complete, the relevant agency submits the plan to the master architect/bean counter, otherwise known as the Office of Management and Budget. The OMB checks that the statue implementation plan is cost effective, and won’t piss off the master sculpture (i.e. the President). If the plan passes muster, the agency submits it to the people for comment. Commentary flows in that ranges from the sublime to the inane. How much impact the commentary has depends on any number of factors, including the impetus of creation, and which raw resource dealer has the best lobbyist. Eventually, the agency finalizes the plan and sends it and the raw materials off to the minions to create the statue.

Lo, and behold, here is the statue.

The law is art, and art is always in the eye of the beholder. The people may not agree with how the statue looks. One person may think its too crude; another may think it varies from the specifications too much; a third may deem it blasphemous and demand it be taken out into a field and blown up with dynamite. If one or more people are personally impacted by the creation of the statue, they may take their artistic disdain to the Courts.

The Courts take up the tools of the legal trade—a dainty chisel and fine sandpaper here, a blow torch there. They’ll hear the arguments of the people and the creators, look at the specifications provided by Congress and the finished work of the agencies, and within the boundaries that constrain their own activities (because it does no one any good to have a Mad Artist suddenly take a sledge hammer to a great piece of art), they’ll decide if the people are wrong, and the work is fine. Or they may decide that the people are correct, and the piece needs work.

It is the Courts, then, who refine the statue. Over time, they brush away the imperfections. Sometimes they may go a little too far, and a repair is necessary. Other times the Courts may disagree on artistic interpretation, or the people may disagree with the Courts, and a higher Court will either confirm an interpretation, or reverse it before any irrevocable action has taken place. Put that blow torch down, and back away slowly.

As time goes by, the statue—the law and its regulations and rules—becomes more rigid and less amenable to change. The legal people call it ‘precedent’ but we can think of it as Monkey Christ. If we sit around, twiddling our thumbs, waiting for some legal mind to suggest we might want to be concerned about this new law, regulation, or court decision, we may lose the opportunity to have input, and get stuck with a really ugly piece of work.

So I’m a PACER pusher, as well as junkie. I created a Documents at Burningbird web site to share my legal and other documents with you. I hope to get you hooked, too.

Categories
Documents Legal, Laws, and Regs

Initial Complaints from the Cantaloupe Listeria Outbreak Court cases courtesy Marler Clark

Bill Marler, of Marler Clark, has posted links to court complaints the law firm has filed because of the Cantaloupe Listeria outbreak in 2011. This was one of the most significant food illness outbreaks of modern times.

I could wish more law firms would post their legal filings, especially those at the state level that are difficult to access outside the state. Yes, most of the documents are legalese, but many court filings are plain, factual descriptions of events of importance—without embellishment and opinion. Many court documents reflect historically important decisions that can have a significant impact on our society.

Court documents can also contain subtle humor, eloquence, as well as brilliant examples of wit and logic.

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Documents Legal, Laws, and Regs

USA v. John Kiriakou: Selected Case Files

In the news is a letter written by John Kiriakou to Edward Snowden. John Kiriakou is currently serving 30 months in prison for exposing the name of a CIA operative, and his association with a covert CIA operation.

If you want to know more about the Kiriakou trial, the Federation of American Scientists has kindly made copies of selected case files from the Kiriakous court case available for free and easy access.

This type of web page with access to court documents is invaluable. My appreciations to the Federation of American Scientists.

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Legal, Laws, and Regs

ASPCA et al vs. Feld Entertainment Inc

I finally managed to get all of the ASPCA et al vs. Feld Entertainment court documents I have downloaded, linked to copies of the court dockets for your viewing pleasure.

Over 600 separate filings, many with multiple documents, each with hundreds of pages. I don’t have all the court documents, but I have most, including attachments and court exhibits. I typically didn’t download any court document that was a duplicate of a previous filing or had to do with court mechanics.

I also have uploaded the court documents for the associated RICO court case. Eventually, I’ll finish by uploading the appeal documents, as well as documents for peripheral court cases.

In addition to the court documents, the main index page includes links to many of the videos that were played during the trial.

Of the videos, the one that bothered Judge Sullivan the most is a young elephant, gently exploring a bike rack with her trunk. Ringling employee Troy Metzler casually walks up to her and strikes her trunk with a bullhook. An elephant’s trunk is very sensitive, and the young elephant is both startled, and in pain. Before the video clip ends, another older elephant reaches out, seemingly to comfort the younger.

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Critters Documents Legal, Laws, and Regs

Feld Entertainment Inc vs. AWI et al RICO case court documents available

I converted a static copy of the Feld Entertainment Inc vs. AWI et al RICO case docket sheet into a web page with links to court documents I’ve downloaded from PACER.

This case is the second covered in my upcoming book, “Ringling Brothers: The Greatest Show in Court”. Feld Entertainment Inc, parent company for the Ringling Brothers circus, is suing several animal welfare groups under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) act. This was in response to an earlier, multi-year court case, ASPCA (now AWI) et al vs. Feld Entertainment Inc, where the groups sued Feld under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). There are over 600 separate entries and thousands of documents for the ESA case, so it’s going to take me some time before I have the docket page and documents posted for it.

I have most of the documents for both cases, other than those having to do with day to day business, such as a lawyer being added or being terminated, orders that only reflect what’s written in a memorandum, and so on. Both cases are still ongoing and I’ll update my copy of the dockets as I download new court documents.