JD Scoop

This month's Hot Documents span the practice and the country. If you have commentary about any of these newsworthy cases, email us at news@jdsupra.com and we'll add it to the mix:

Balzaga v. Fox News (Hannity & Colmes)

 Appellant's opening brief in suit against Fox News, which allegedly published a "wanted poster" created by a notorious minuteman, John Monti, containing the faces of all seven day laborers and claiming they were the subjects of a criminal "manhunt at the border." Contributor: Mitchell & Gilleon           

Scott G. Wolfe, Jr. v. Louisiana Attorney Disciplinary Board

Suit in federal court challenging the constitutionality of Louisiana's new rules governing lawyer advertising, alleged to infringe on the free speech rights of attorneys to engage in online activities such as blogging and online Q&A's. Contributor: Wolfe Law Group

• Commentary: Blogging is Speaking & Likelihood of Confusion, 

EPIC v. Department of Justice; ACLU v. Department of Justice (Consolidated Cases)

Court Order for the DOJ to disclose legal memos authored by government lawyers relating to government wiretapping .Contributor: Electronic Privacy Information Center

Federal Trade Commission v. Cyberspy Software, LLC et al.

Federal court order that CyberSpy Software stop selling malicious computer software. Contributor: Electronic Privacy Information Center

• Commentary: Jolt Digest (companion to the Harvard Journal of Law & Technology)

Union Square Partnership, Inc. v. Savitri Durkee

Answer and counterclaim in suit by Union Square Partnership seeking to shut down parody website pursuant to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act,  asserting that the parody site infringes USP's copyright.  Contributor: EFF

• Commentary: TechDirt; The Daily Online Examiner; The Fortress of Jason Grote

LUPE, et al. v. FEMA

Suit against the FEMA for denying assistance to the poor following Hurricane Dolly. Contributor: Texas RioGrande Legal Aid

• Commentary: Tort Deform; The Daily Texan.

In Re Bernard L. Bilski and Rand A. Warsaw

Decision holding that business processes can be patented only if they are implemented by a machine or transformed something into a new or different thing. Contributor: EFF

• Commentary: The Patentability of Processes; PatentlyO; Wall Street Journal Law Blog, Groklaw; Coderights (Will Bilksi Keep the Federal Circuit in the Driver's Seat?) and Coderights (Bilski's First Victim? In re Halligan)

Got commentary? Email news@jdsupra.com - we'll link to it.

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- Hot Docs: More Info

JD Supra's Hot Docs features noteworthy filings, decisions, articles, and alerts recently uploaded by our contributors. Involved in a newsworthy case or issue that merits (or is already receiving) extra attention? Designate your documents "Hot Docs" when you post them.

Not yet publishing your legal work on JD Supra? Join now: showcase your expertise to a wide online audience.

Here's an introduction to some of the latest lawyers, law firms, and legal professionals to be publishing their great work on JD Supra. We're thrilled to have them on board:

	Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP - representing a sophisticated client base in a range of industries including healthcare, financial services, entertainment, media and advertising, real estate, technology, energy and natural resources, consumer goods and services and transportation...
	Jonathan Rosenfeld - represents people injured in nursing homes and long-term care facilities. Jonathan has represented victims of nursing home abuse and neglect throughout Illinois and across the country. Jonathan has built a reputation as an aggressive advocate for the rights of the injured...
	Rick Horowitz - criminal defense attorney who handles juvenile cases, including Behavioral Court, as well as adult cases... Practices in both state and federal courts in Fresno, and has done a significant amount of appellate work, including state and federal appeals and writs.
	Spencer Law Firm - provides focused legal assistance and professional consultant work to individuals, families, businesses, attorneys and accountants. Practicing solely in the field of trusts, estates, and tax law, the firm combines a comprehensive knowledge of estate planning, administration and taxation with the use of state-of-the-art technology...
	Robert Holland - litigation partner at Sidley Austin, LLP in Los Angeles. Specializes in appellate and complex commercial litigation...
	Fenwick & West LLP - a national law firm that provides comprehensive legal services to technology and life sciences clients of national and international prominence.  The firm has approximately 300 attorneys, with offices in Silicon Valley, San Francisco, Seattle and Boise...
	Ronald Coleman - Commercial litigation and counseling in New York and New Jersey, specializing in trademarks, copyrights and unfair competition, especially with respect to the use of intellectual property on the Internet...
	Texas RioGrande Legal Aid -  provides free legal services to low-income and disadvantaged clients in a 68-county service area that covers the southwestern third of the state, including the entire Texas-Mexico border region. TRLA's mission is to promote the dignity, self-sufficiency, safety and stability of low-income Texans by providing high quality legal services and related educational services...
	Allen Matkins Leck Gamble Mallory & Natsis LLP - a California-based law firm with approximately 240 attorneys. The firm's broad areas of practice include real estate, construction, real estate finance, land use, business litigation, environmental, corporate, taxation, bankruptcy and creditors' rights, and employment and labor law....   Erik Magraken - senior associate with the British Columbia personal injury law-firm MacIsaac & Company. He restricts his practice exclusively to plaintiff-only personal injury claims with a particular emphasis on claims involving orthopaedic injuries, complex soft tissue injuries. brain injuries and spinal cord injuries.     Ravich & Roy - dedicated to vindicating the rights and expectations of consumers injured at home, work, or play. The firm's lawyers specialize in injuries arising from automobile accidents, from defective products and machines, medical malpractice, work related accidents, and slip and fall accidents...    Jason Woodward - extensive experience in tax, estate planning and financial planning, with offices in Lowell, Mass. ...

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Looking for an effective way to showcase your expertise to an online audience? Join JD Supra, build a professional profile, and start posting your legal documents today.

We're pleased to announce the arrival of a new tool - JD Supra Docs - that automatically streams your legal documents and professional information from JD Supra to Facebook!

JD Supra to Facebook: Connect What You Know to Who You Know

JD Supra Docs allows any lawyer or legal professional with a portfolio on JD Supra to showcase their documents and professional qualifications in Facebook.

The application "installs instantly" (contributor Ron Coleman's words). Once done, your professional profile and all documents archived in your JD Supra profile are available - and easily viewable by your contacts - on Facebook.

Every time you post a new document on JD Supra it automatically streams to your Facebook profile. Every new doc also appears in your news feed and is announced in your friends' news feeds. From Doug Cornelius' news feed:

Full Feed, Mini Feed, Both?

The application allows you to choose how to present your documents to your connections on Facebook.

The full feed appears as a stand-alone tab on the Facebook profile, titled "Documents." Anyone who clicks the tab sees a complete archive of documents you have posted on JD Supra. Also available on this tab: the information you maintain in your JD Supra "Professional Profile." See examples on Ron Coleman's Facebook profile:

The mini feed - streaming the last three docs you've uploaded - installs either on your "Wall" and "Info" tabs/pages, or within your "Boxes" tab. Your choice. Nicole Black's mini feed:

We recommend installing both feeds - consider the mini box a place to announce your latest uploads, and the full feed tab as your complete archive.

The application also works on Facebook Business Pages.

(Update: we are seeing more and more lawyers and firms connecting their work to business pages in Facebook. Examples: Wolfe Law Group, Bankruptcy Filings, State Bar of Texas, Compliance Building, and ICBC Injury Claims Lawyer Erik Magraken, among others.)

JD Supra Docs is free; it only requires a presence on both JD Supra and Facebook. If you're already  publishing on JD Supra, simply install the app and your accounts will be tethered. The next time you share legal work on JD Supra, it will automatically stream to Facebook.

If you don't yet have a JD Supra account, sign up now. And then connect your portfolio to Facebook.

GIve Content. Get Noticed.

Written work is one of your best examples of expertise and experience in field of practice.

This tool is the latest in a series of offerings that execute on our promise to distribute your work widely online, and allow you to showcase your talent not only to who you know, but also who you might know next...

For examples of the application in use, please connect with any of following JD Supra contributors; they've been kindly testing for us over the last few days. Thanks to: Nicole Black, Adrianos Facchetti, Rick Horowitz, Martha Sperry, Steve Silverberg, Elizabeth Lewis, Ron Coleman, Steve Matthews, Doug Cornelius, D. Todd Smith, David Leffler, Marc Stern, Lisa Solomon, and Josh Gilliland. (Simply search on their names in Facebook to connect.)

 JD Supra Docs Facebook application. Install it now!

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Further reading

- You Should Be on Facebook. Here's Why (and How).

- JD Supra Launches Facebook App (Robert Ambrogi's LawSites)

- Give Content. Get Noticed. Facebook Style. (Martha Sperry, Advocate's Studio)

- JD Supra Facebook App Launches! (Steve Matthews, Stem Legal)

- JD Supra Launches Facebook App (Connie Crosby, Law Librarian/Info Diva)

- JD Supra Expands Its Reach to Facebook and Twitter (Doug Cornelius, KM Space)

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Related

- Legal Documents on Twitter

- Expand Your Online Reach With RSS & Widgets

- JD Supra Digest: Legal Documents by Email

- Legal News on Facebook (app that streams all legal docs by subject)

- Showcase Your Expertise: Publish Your Legal Work on JD Supra

Here is a list of subject-based legal news feeds on Twitter. These accounts stream news, articles, and other legal documents posted to JD Supra by lawyers, law firms, and legal professionals. [Updated 8.16.09]

 Legal News Feeds on Twitter:

- Legal Alerts - general feed: briefs, newsletters, articles, and alerts covering all legal subjects...

- Legal News: Hot Cases - a stream of court filings and legal documents from new and noteworthy cases...

- Technology & Media - analysis & alerts covering legislation and developments in technology, media, and communications law...

- Environment & Energy - analysis & alerts covering legislation and developments in the areas of environment and energy, including the latest green-tech legal consderations...

- E-Discovery - articles, alerts, newsletters, and related documents by leading professionals covering all aspects of e-Discovery...

- The Global Financial Crisis - analysis and legal perspective to do with all aspects of the current financial crisis...

- Obama Administration - legal analysis and articles covering various aspects of the Obama administration, wide ranging...

- Trusts & Estates - legal documents from attorneys and law firms covering all aspects of Wills, Trusts, & Estates law...

- Family Law - legal documents and other publications covering all aspects of Family Law...

- Criminal Law - filings, decisions, articles, & other legal documents relating to all aspects of Criminal Law...

- Commercial Law - general feed: analysis & alerts covering developments in all aspects of Commercial law - securities, taxation, banking, antitrust, bankruptcy, and much more:

- Labor & Employment - legal alerts, articles, newsletters, filings, and other documents from attorneys and law firms covering all aspects of Labor & Employment law...

- Banking & Finance - alerts, articles, filings, and legal documents covering all aspects of Banking & Finance law...

- Antitrust & Trade Regulation - alerts, articles, filings, and legal documents from lawyers and law firms practicing in antitrust & trade regulation, and related fields...

- Mergers & Acquisitions - analysis, alerts, and legal documents covering all aspects of Mergers & Acquisitions law...

- Tax Alerts - alerts, articles, briefs, filings, legal documents by lawyers and firms covering all aspects of Tax law, Taxes, and Taxation in general...

- Immigration Law - legal documents covering all aspects of Immigration law...

- Health Law - articles, news, and documents covering all aspects of Health Law...

- Insurance Law - alerts, articles, filings, newsletters, briefs, and other legal documents covering the Insurance field...

- Real Estate Law - articles, alerts, filings, brieds, and other legal documents from lawyers and firms covering all issues in Real Estate...

- Construction Law - alerts, articles, filings, newsletters from lawyers and firms in practicing in the Construction Law field...

- SecuritiesLaw - alerts, articles, briefs, filings, and other legal documents to do with Securities law, Securities litigation, and related matters - published on JD Supra by attorneys and law firms...

- Bankruptcy Law - filings, articles, alerts, briefs, and other legal docs covering all aspects of Bankruptcy law...

- International Law & Trade - alerts, articles, newsletters, and other legal documents covering all aspects of International Law & Trade...

- IP Law Alerts - alerts, articles, filings, and other legal documents to do with IP, Patent law, and related legal matters...

- Tech Law- legal news and articles covering all aspects of Science and Technology Law...

- Consumer Law - legal documents, wide ranging, covering all aspects of Consumer law...

- Personal Injury Law - law documents covering personal injury and products liability law...

- Law Practice - newsletters, articles, and thought-pieces published by legal professionals about issues, products, and services in legal practice...

- Law Firm Marketing - Legal Marketing articles provided by many leaders in the profession...

...

Some of these news feeds are, at time of writing, newly created. Check back soon for the next round, covering an even wider array of subjects and practice fields. (Many are also available in RSS and/or widget form.)

Lawyers and legal professionals, if you have work that fits the feed, post it now:

Join JD Supra: showcase your expertise by publishing your written work widely online.

And everyone: follow the feeds!

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- Related:

Legal News Feeds on Twitter

Expanding Your Online Reach with RSS and Widgets

Lawyers and Legal Professionals on Twitter

Legal News on Facebook (app)

(Follow the @jdsupra Twitter account - or connect with me @jdtwitt ...)

[Editor's note - guest post: the following was written by JD Supra contributor Adrianos Facchetti; we're pleased to be sharing it here.]

 Why Should You Post to JD Supra?

"If you would convince a man that he does wrong, do right. But do not convince him. Men will believe what they see. Let them see." - Henry David Thoreau

My partner, a brilliant attorney in his 70s, didn't believe me when I told him that I could fax him a document from my computer. In fact, he bet me a steak dinner that I couldn't do it. We sat in his office as I hit the send button. About a minute later, when the fax came out of his machine he was totally amazed You should have seen his face.

The point of the story is that I can't convince you of anything. You have to see it to believe it. The same is true of JD Supra.

I stumbled across JD Supra about a couple of months ago. I didn't really know what it was at first, or how it could help me promote my law practice (my first thought was of a multi-headed water snake that lived in a swamp near Lerna in the land of Argos). But somehow I knew it was a good thing and so I gave it a shot. I posted a couple of documents to the site. I also set up an RSS feed of my documents from JD Supra to my blog. Less then a week later, a prospective client told me: "I like the fact that you have samples of your work on your blog. It gave me a chance to look at your work firsthand before I talked to you."

I got it at the moment. The client wanted to see my work before he hired me. Clients like transparency. They like to see things before they buy them, even if they have no idea what the words on the page mean. Just like my partner, he couldn't understand the value of something until he saw it with his own eyes.

You should give JD Supra a try as well. Upload some documents and see what happens. You'll learn as I did, that clients will hire you if you just "let them see."

- Adrianos Facchetti

[Adrianos Facchetti is based in Los Angeles; he publishes the California Defamation Law Blog. His legal practice also covers commercial, real estate, and land use litigation; unfair business practices; nuisance law; and appellate work. You'll also find Adrianos engaging his colleagues and friends on Twitter, easily living up to the proclamation in his JD Supra profile that he is "a really nice guy." Agreed.

We frequently ask JD Supra contributors if they're interested to write guests entries on JD Scoop. We have a number of such posts in the works, and are pleased to start with this one. Disclaimer: I asked Adrianos to write on any subject - and no money changed hands. Therefore, the blame for these kind words sits squarely with his new client...]

Lawyers, law firms, legal professionals: we want to see your work. We're building a new section on JD Supra: a collection of analysis and perspective covering all legal aspects of the incoming Obama administration. We'd like you to participate.

What is your particular legal insight into the Obama administration's plans?

Are your sharing this information with your clients? Now publish it on JD Supra. We'll include your work in our upcoming resource: "Legal Analysis: The Obama Administration."

If you have a tax, bankruptcy, commercial finance, manufacturing, immigration, labor & employment, or other practice area that will be impacted by the new administration's policies, share your work with us now.

[See Legal Analysis: Financial Crisis for an example of how we treat the information.]

Historic Times

We have an incoming administration that intends to address the many historic crises we face, in large part, through major government reforms and intervention (aka legislation and regulation).

More people than ever (from CEOs to consumers to stay-at-home moms) are paying attention, looking for plain-English explanations about what the government is doing and how it might impact their lives and businesses.

Opportunity for the legal community to showcase expertise

Here is an opportunity to demonstrate value and expertise beyond the confines of a particular transaction or case.

Many legal marketers already recognize this. Their firms have been prolific producing up-to-the-minute analysis of, for example, the financial crisis as it relates to their fields of expertise. (And, there's an audience hungry for this information. Legal analysis to do with the financial crisis is so popular that we created a separate section on JD Supra to collect and feature it.)

Now we are doing the same with legal analysis and perspective to do with the Obama administration. All aspects.

In advance of the recent election, we received many insightful articles about the implications of either a McCain or Obama victory, which we listed in a blog post: Legal Perspectives: The US Election. Now, our contributors are starting to share some excellent, forward-looking analysis. For example:

• Obama Presidential Election Victory Could Lead to Dramatic Increase in Unionization of Employers in the U.S.
• New Administration Not Likely to Change Immigration Enforcement Strategy
• Preparing for Employment-Related Issues in a Down Economy and Under a Labor-Friendly Administration

And so begins our coverage of an historic turn of events around which legal professionals have much to offer. 

This is a golden opportunity to get noticed - don't let it pass you by.

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Related:

- Legal Analysis: The Global Financial Crisis

- Legal Perspective: U.S. Election

- Legal Marketing: Five Things to Know About Content

- Showcase Your Expertise: Publish Your Legal Docs on JD Supra

- Read All About It: JD Supra Unveils Comprehensive Repository...

File under: "Joe the Plumber," meet "Citizen the Voter."

No matter your name or occupation, we hope you'll find this roundup of legal analysis relating to the election worthy of review:

- A Taxing Election: Analyzing the Tax Policies of a McCain versus an Obama Administration, by OberlKaler - key analysis of the candidates' federal tax policies and their potential impact on your finances. Joe the Plumber should have read this one before his national debut.

- Pending Legislation - What the Elections Could Mean for Your Workplace, by Ford & Harrison - reviews pending legislation that could have a significant impact on the workplace, and be impacted by the candidate and Congress to take office after the elections.

- Election Law Primer, by Todd Corne - Outlines what every voter should know about Federal and State election laws, including Constitutional provisions and Congressional enactments which protect and expand voter's rights. Includes a plethora of pertinent and informative links.

- It's My Party--Or Is It? First Amendment Problems Arising from the Mixed Role of Political Parties in Elections, from the Cato Institute - An in-depth look at two recent Supreme Court decisions in 1st Amendment cases and a resulting discussion of the intimate relationship between our "private" political parties and the "public" elections process.  Is our 1st Amendment right being diminished by the very elections process we vote by? 

- The Voting Rights Act at 40, from William Walls of Helium, Inc. - There is still work to be done.  Read an analysis of the history of the Voting Rights Act and draw your own conclusions as to the provisions coming up for renewal. 

- Can a Bumper Sticker Get You Bumped? NLRB's General Counsel Issues Guidelines on Political Advocacy, from Littler Mendelson  - What constitutes "going too far?"  Political Advocacy in the work place: Guidelines for employers and employees alike.

Also of interest - analysis of specific legislation that includes Obama's and McCain's positions:

- Bush Announces Five-Year Interest Rate Freeze Agreement, by Lane Powell

- Employer Mandated Wellness Initiatives. The Continuum from Voluntary to Mandatory Plans, by Littler Mendelson

- "Say on Pay" Shareholder Proposals Gain Momentum In 2007 by Pryor Cashman

- Section 529 Plans: A Smart Way to Save for College by OberlKaler

- The Employee Free Choice Act: A Critical Analysis by Littler Mendelson

- The New York State Fiscal Crisis and Special Legislative Session by Manatt, Phelps & Phillips

The documents in this 2008 U.S. election reading list were published on JD Supra by a diverse mix of leading lawyers and law firms.

Got something to add? Join JD Supra and now - start showcasing your expertise to a wide online audience.

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Further:

- Legal Analysis: The Global Financial Crisis (comprehensive reading guide)

- Please Digg this list if you dig it.