Slim pickings today.
Two published opinions from each tribunal. One Ninth Circuit opinion about dolphin-safe tuna and a dispute regarding exactly how safe we're talking. One opinion from the Ninth Circuit about a three-strikes habeas case that reads a little weirdly -- in particular, like the opinion is written by a senior district court judge from Connecticut. Which it is. Different lingo. Then one (belatedly published) opinion by Justice Rothschild that affirms the grant of summary judgment against a firefighter who lost part of his leg in a work-related injury and then alleged that he was discriminated against on the basis of his injury.
The unifying theme of all the cases today is sadness. Dying dolphins. A firefighter who lost his lower leg. An 82-year old man sentenced to 25 years in prison under the Three Strikes law for shoplifting $100 worth of tools from Home Depot.
And then, in this case, a dot-com winner -- David Hayden -- who founded an e-mail ISP (Critical Path), went public, rode the bubble, had shares worth $200+ million, and then saw the shebang pop when he lost his money, his wife, and ultimately incurred a $28 million+ judgment brought by his former brokerage firm. That's now affirmed by the Court of Appeal.
I guess if you want an uplifting story, neither the evening news nor the advance sheets are the place to go.
