Law Links ~ Apocalypse Law

BuzzFeed: Conservative Pundit Dana Loesch Sues Breitbart.com

St. Louis talk radio host Dana Loesch, also a frequent guest on CNN, alleges in the suit filed in federal district court in St. Louis that the site is refusing to publish her work while "sabotag[ing] her attempts to labor in a similar fashion elsewhere through public misstatements and private threats to sue those who would otherwise employ Loesch."
Loesch is seeking her freedom from the company and at least $75,000 in damages.
Breitbart.com is "binding Loesch to what amounts to an indentured servitude in limbo," she charges in the suit, which was first reported by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
The lawsuit also hints at broader woes for the site, whose leaders now include an old friend of Breitbarts, a pair of his young proteges, and filmmaker Steven Bannon, who is best known for a film defending Sarah Palin.

Bloomberg: Judge Tosses Legal Filibuster Challenge

U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan in Washington ...ruled that the lawsuit, filed by the public interest group Common Cause, members of the House of Representatives and undocumented aliens who would have benefited from passage of the so-called Dream Act, represented an unwarranted intrusion into the Senate’s right operate as it sees fit.
. . . Other plaintiffs include four Democratic members of the U.S. House of Representatives: John Lewis, of Georgia; Michael Michaud, of Maine; Hank Johnson, of Georgia; and Keith Ellison, of Minnesota; and three Mexican-born U.S. residents who alleged they were denied the benefits of immigration law changes in the House-passed Dream Act because it was blocked by Senate filibuster.
The suit was filed against Vice President Joseph Biden in his capacity as Senate President, and other Senate officers.
The case is Common Cause v. Biden, 12-cv-775, U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia (Washington).

Reuters: Bernie Madoff's Younger Brother Sentenced in Ponzi Scheme

The younger brother of Bernard Madoff will serve 10 years in prison for his role in his brother's Ponzi scheme that stole billions of dollars from investors, a U.S. judge said on Thursday.
Peter Madoff, 67, pleaded guilty in June to criminal charges including conspiracy to commit securities fraud for falsifying the books and records of the investment advisory company founded by his brother.
U.S. District Court Judge Laura Taylor Swain adopted prosecutors' recommendations and sentenced Madoff to 10 years in prison. She also ordered him to forfeit what she called a "draconian" $143.1 billion, which she said would seal his "financial ruination."

Chicago Tribune: Robert Bork Dies

Robert Bork, a symbol of the U.S. conservative legal movement and a failed nominee for the U.S. Supreme Court, died on Wednesday . . . Bork, 85, died in a northern Virginia hospital where he had been treated for an infection.
. . . "To bork" was added to the Oxford English Dictionary in 2002 with the definition, "To defame or vilify (a person) systematically, especially in the mass media, usually with the aim of preventing his or her appointment to public office; to obstruct or thwart (a person) in this way."
. . . After a fierce confirmation fight, the Senate rejected Bork 58-42, the largest margin of defeat for any Supreme Court nominee and a big defeat for Reagan.
Bork remained bitter for years and conservatives regarded him as a martyr to liberal activism and unreason, and used him as a rallying cry in subsequent battles.

CBS: Texas State Troopers Suspended for Body Cavity Search

A Texas State Trooper who was thrust into the spotlight Tuesday after dash camera video showing her giving body cavity searches to two women became public has been suspended.
Trooper Kelly Helleson was suspended Wednesday, the day after the two women she searched as part of a traffic stop earlier this year sued her and another trooper for what they called a violation of their privacy.
. . . The two women 38-year-old Angel Dobbs and her niece, 24-year-old Ashley Dobbs, were pulled over in Irving on their way to Oklahoma by a male trooper after the trooper noticed the women tossing cigarette butts out the window of their car. That trooper, David Farrell, claimed to smell marijuana coming from the vehicle and requested the search by a female trooper.
Farrell remains on active duty.