Author: Ted Folkman

  • Elephant Habeas Case: Connecticut Appellate Court Holds Elephants Are Not Persons

    It will surprise no one except Steven Wise that in today’s case, Nonhuman Rights Project, Inc. v. R.W. Commerford & Sons, Inc. (Conn. App. Ct. 2019), the court affirmed dismissal of a habeas corpus petition brought on behalf of three elephants in a zoo on jurisdictional grounds, as the elephants are not persons with standing……

  • Observation of the Day: Prosecutorial Discretion At The Lowest and Highest Levels

    Here in Boston we were reluctant hosts to a ridiculous straight pride parade, and the somewhat less ridiculous but surely inevitable counterprotests. As we have seen in several other cities, the counterprotesters scuffled with the police, and some were arrested for crimes such as disorderly conduct or resisting arrest.

  • Case of the Day: Vista Peak Ventures v. GiantPlus Technology

    The case of the day is Vista Peak Ventures, LLC v. GiantPlus Technology Co., Ltd. (E.D. Tex. 2019). The claim against GiantPlus, a Taiwanese company, was for patent infringement. Vista Peak asked the clerk to send the summons and complaint by registered mail, return receipt requested, to GiantPlus in Taipei. So far so good. A……

  • William Dodge and Ingrid Wuerth on the Assa Case

    William S. Dodge and Ingrid Wuerth have published a post at Just Security on United States v. Assa Co., a Second Circuit FSIA case I noted recently. Assa is the case holding that the FSIA does not forbid a court from exercising jurisdiction in rem over property of a foreign sovereign in a civil forfeiture……

  • Space Opera of the Day: The Anne McClain Case

    The New York Times reported last week that Summer Worden, a former Air Force intelligence officer, suspected that her spouse—they were going through a divorce—was accessing her online bank account. She looked into it and discovered that the account had been accessed by someone using a computer whose IP address belonged to NASA. And since……