Here is the decision in the New Hampshire COPSLIE license plate case, Montenegro v. N.H. Div. of Motor Vehicles (N.H. May 7, 2014).
David Montenegro may have won his case, but doesn’t he fear that cops will illegally pull him over in violation of his Fourth Amendment rights merely because they dislike his license plate, only to lie about their reasons in court?
He should have gotten a license plate like this:
According to this article, a 16-year-old teen is facing child pornography charges after tweeting a nude picture of herself. Next teens will be facing child molestation charges for masturbating.
You may have read about the Dr. Bronner’s Soap case here. Well, here is another case of the cops mistaking soap for hard-core drugs: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/12/16/charges-dropped-for-ny-pair-after-a-month-in-jail-when-cocaine-proves-to-be-soap/
It is almost never a good idea to consent to a search. And friends don’t let friends drive with an open container of soap.
Here’s the Complaint filed by GoldieBlox, Inc.
Complaint GoldieBlox v Beastie Boys
Update: GoldieBlox has dropped the lawsuit. They had a fairly strong Fair Use argument since their song was an obvious parody of the Beastie Boys song, and in fact is more of a critique than most parodies that are protected by the First Amendment. We’ll never know.
Based on some PACER-ing (Public Access to Court Electronic Records), it looks like this story about Sophia Stewart winning her lawsuit regarding the Matrix is indeed a hoax:
Order Granting Attorneys’ Fees Matrix
Susannah Breslin, who is a contributor at Forbes.com, has posted her interview with Dan Kapelovitz, who is currently a criminal-law attorney but previously worked at Hustler magazine. See “How A Porn Magazine Editor Became A Criminal Law Attorney,” Forbes.com (Apr. 17, 2003).
According to this, that magazine has articles in it, and Kapelovitz worked as an editor/writer of said articles. He says he frequently wrote about criminal-law topics, and ultimately decided to go to law school. “It turned out that I loved law school,” he says, “and the writing and editing training I received at Hustler was extremely helpful.”
You should read the whole interview, which has many great quotes in it. I will just borrow one more:
What’s the difference between being a porn magazine editor and being a criminal law attorney?
Not much…. [I]n both jobs, you spend hours and hours researching and writing something that very few people are going to actually read.
April 18, 2013 in Law Schools & Students, Legal Profession, The, Legal Writing | Permalink
If you are ever visiting someone in the Los Angeles County jail system, try to not to become a hostage. Pursuant to the California Code of Regulations, “hostages will not be recognized for bargaining purposes” during attempted escapes by inmates. (See Section 3304, California Code of Regulations, Title 15, Division 3, Chapter 1.)
In other words, you are doomed.
http://www.cdcr.ca.gov/Regulations/Adult_Operations/docs/Title15-2013.pdf
by Dan Kapelovitz
On April 4, 2007, Don Bolles, the once and current drummer of the Germs, was arrested for possession of a controlled substance. The substance? Dr. Bronner’s Soap. Peppermint, to be exact. Bolles, 50, was driving himself and his 21-year-old girlfriend, Cat Scandal, through the clean streets of Newport Beach to an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting when he was pulled over for a faulty tail-light.
When the cops discovered a bottle of organic liquid soap, they separated Don and his girlfriend and asked them independently what the product was. They both said it was soap. Unconvinced, the police performed a field test on the substance, and it tested positive for the so-called date-rape drug GHB (gamma-Hydroxybutyric acid).
Many people who know Bolles and his personal hygiene habits (or lack thereof) couldn’t believe that he actual used soap, much less carried it on his person at all times.
“I don’t bathe that often,” Bolles admits, “but when I do, I use Dr. Bronner’s. I’ve been using it for 35 years. I brush my teeth with it, I do my laundry it, and wash my face with it.”
Bolles spent four days in various Orange County detention facilities.
“I got thrown into a cell with a guy who smelled like the most evil barf,” recalls Bolles. “He was a porcupine of evil barf smell, just spewing these barbs of evil barf.”
Bolles was also charged with contempt of court and for violating a protective/stay away order.
Bolles claims that he and Cat have an “amicable restraining order” where the two can see each other if they so please. “In this post-O. J. world, everyone has to sign a restraining order,” says Bolles. “We have a full-contact restraining order. It’s full-service. We get to live together, get to have sodomy of all different sorts and varieties. We can do any kind of hideous evil sex act to each other–animals, things alive and dead of all descriptions and some with none, and certain nuns too. We just can’t annoy, harass or date-rape each other with GHB.”
The contempt of court charge was based on the felony drug charge itself; if Don actually had been possessing GHB, then he would have been in violation of his probation.
Nora Keyes, a band member with Don in the Fancy Space People, organized a web campaign via MySpace to raise bail, and Giddle Partridge, a former Bolles bandmate, called Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soaps headquarters and contacted Michael Bronner, Vice-President and grandson of the original Dr. Bronner. Bronner offered to post bail, but by that time, enough small donations had been raised to bail Bolles out of jail.
Bronner then offered to pay Bolles’s legal fees and hired Bolles an attorney.
Of the field tests, a lawyer working on the case said, “I don’t think a test that is that inaccurate should be used by the police, who are taking people’s liberties away.”
When the authorities tested the soap in a real lab, it tested negative for GHB. An Orange County DA spokesperson has said that all charges have been dropped, but according Laschley-Haynes, the DA wants to test the soap yet another time.
Bolles believes he was pulled over and subsequently searched for “driving while weird.”
Laschley-Haynes agrees: “If you look out of the norm, especially if you are somewhere in Orange County, you get profiled, unfortunately. If it were me in my suit, driving my decent car, I highly doubt they ever would have tested soap in my purse. The sad thing is that things like this happen all of the time. His case just happened to get some attention because of his musical background.”
Attention it has gotten. Bolles’s arrest started a mini-media frenzy. Don was quoted extensively in the press as crediting the soap with giving him the complexion of a 15-year-old girl, an assertion mocked by Jimmy Kimmel on national television.
“He is actually a pretty good spokesperson,” says David Bronner, President of Dr. Bronner’s.
Bolles visited Dr. Bronner’s distribution center in Escondido, where he learned that Internet sales have skyrocketed since his arrest. He was asked by Dr. Bronner’s employees to sign bottles of the soap. “They were in a real lather about it,” punned Bolles.
The Bronners bought drug-test kits of the kind used on Bolles’s soap and tried it on various other soaps, including Neutrogena and Tom’s of Maine, which also tested positive for GHB.
Either something’s amiss with these police field drug-testing kits or someone is trying to date-rape America by dosing our soap supply.
There is talk of a possible civil suit, and Dr. Bronner’s is considering sponsoring some of Don’s artistic endeavors. Don may actually profit from his misfortune. But when it is suggested that this may be the best thing that ever happened to him, Bolles responds, “If this is the best thing that ever happened to me, I’ve had a pretty shitty life.”
If you or someone you care about has been arrested for possession of soap, call the Radical Law Center today!
The California Civil Code enumerates the following maxims of jurisprudence:*
3510. When the reason of a rule ceases, so should the rule itself.
3511. Where the reason is the same, the rule should be the same.
3512. One must not change his purpose to the injury of another.
3513. Any one may waive the advantage of a law intended solely for his benefit. But a law established for a public reason cannot be contravened by a private agreement.
3514. One must so use his own rights as not to infringe upon the rights of another.
3515. He who consents to an act is not wronged by it.
3516. Acquiescence in error takes away the right of objecting to it.
3517. No one can take advantage of his own wrong.
3518. He who has fraudulently dispossessed himself of a thing may be treated as if he still had possession.
3519. He who can and does not forbid that which is done on his behalf, is deemed to have bidden it.
3520. No one should suffer by the act of another.
3521. He who takes the benefit must bear the burden.
3522. One who grants a thing is presumed to grant also whatever is essential to its use.
3523. For every wrong there is a remedy.
3524. Between those who are equally in the right, or equally in the
wrong, the law does not interpose.
3525. Between rights otherwise equal, the earliest is preferred.
3526. No man is responsible for that which no man can control.
3527. The law helps the vigilant, before those who sleep on their rights.
3528. The law respects form less than substance.
3529. That which ought to have been done is to be regarded as done, in favor of him to whom, and against him from whom, performance is due.
3530. That which does not appear to exist is to be regarded as if it did not exist.
3531. The law never requires impossibilities.
3532. The law neither does nor requires idle acts.
3533. The law disregards trifles.
3534. Particular expressions qualify those which are general.
3535. Contemporaneous exposition is in general the best.
3536. The greater contains the less.
3537. Superfluity does not vitiate.
3538. That is certain which can be made certain.
3539. Time does not confirm a void act.
3540. The incident follows the principal, and not the principal the incident.
3541. An interpretation which gives effect is preferred to one which makes void.
3542. Interpretation must be reasonable.
3543. Where one of two innocent persons must suffer by the act of a
third, he, by whose negligence it happened, must be the sufferer.
3545. Private transactions are fair and regular.
3546. Things happen according to the ordinary course of nature and the ordinary habits of life.
3547. A thing continues to exist as long as is usual with things of that nature.
3548. The law has been obeyed.
*WARNING: The maxims set forth above “are intended not to qualify any of the foregoing provisions of this Code, but to aid in their just application.” Cal. Civ. Code § 3509.
The California Health and Safety Code defines “controlled substances” thusly:
11053. The controlled substances listed or to be listed in the schedules in this chapter are included by whatever official, common, usual, chemical, or trade name designated.
11054. (a) The controlled substances listed in this section are included in Schedule I.
(b) Opiates. Unless specifically excepted or unless listed in another schedule, any of the following opiates, including their isomers, esters, ethers, salts, and salts of isomers, esters, and ethers whenever the existence of those isomers, esters, ethers, and salts is possible within the specific chemical designation:
(c) Opium derivatives. Unless specifically excepted or unless listed in another schedule, any of the following opium derivatives, its salts, isomers, and salts of isomers whenever the existence of those salts, isomers, and salts of isomers is possible within the specific chemical designation:
(d) Hallucinogenic substances. Unless specifically excepted or unless listed in another schedule, any material, compound, mixture, or preparation, which contains any quantity of the following hallucinogenic substances, or which contains any of its salts, isomers, and salts of isomers whenever the existence of those salts, isomers, and salts of isomers is possible within the specific chemical designation (for purposes of this subdivision only, the term “isomer” includes the optical, position, and geometric isomers):
(e) Depressants. Unless specifically excepted or unless listed in another schedule, any material, compound, mixture, or preparation which contains any quantity of the following substances having a depressant effect on the central nervous system, including its salts, isomers, and salts of isomers whenever the existence of those salts, isomers, and salts of isomers is possible within the specific chemical designation:
(f) Unless specifically excepted or unless listed in another schedule, any material, compound, mixture, or preparation which contains any quantity of the following substances having a stimulant effect on the central nervous system, including its isomers:
11055. (a) The controlled substances listed in this section are included in Schedule II.
(b) Any of the following substances, except those narcotic drugs listed in other schedules, whether produced directly or indirectly by extraction from substances of vegetable origin, or independently by means of chemical synthesis, or by combination of extraction and chemical synthesis:
(c) Opiates. Unless specifically excepted or unless in another schedule, any of the following opiates, including its isomers, esters, ethers, salts, and salts of isomers, esters, and ethers whenever the existence of those isomers, esters, ethers, and salts is possible within the specific chemical designation, dextrorphan and levopropoxyphene excepted:
(d) Stimulants. Unless specifically excepted or unless listed in another schedule, any material, compound, mixture, or preparation which contains any quantity of the following substances having a stimulant effect on the central nervous system:
(e) Depressants. Unless specifically excepted or unless listed in another schedule, any material, compound, mixture, or preparation which contains any quantity of the following substances having a depressant effect on the central nervous system, including its salts, isomers, and salts of isomers whenever the existence of those salts, isomers, and salts of isomers is possible within the specific chemical designation:
(f) Immediate precursors. Unless specifically excepted or unless listed in another schedule, any material, compound, mixture, or preparation which contains any quantity of the following substances:
11056. (a) The controlled substances listed in this section are included in Schedule III.
(b) Stimulants. Unless specifically excepted or unless listed in another schedule, any material, compound, mixture, or preparation which contains any quantity of the following substances having a stimulant effect on the central nervous system, including its salts, isomers (whether optical, position, or geometric), and salts of those isomers whenever the existence of those salts, isomers, and salts of isomers is possible within the specific chemical designation:
(c) Depressants. Unless specifically excepted or unless listed in another schedule, any material, compound, mixture, or preparation which contains any quantity of the following substances having a depressant effect on the central nervous system:
(d) Nalorphine.
(e) Narcotic drugs. Unless specifically excepted or unless listed in another schedule, any material, compound, mixture, or preparation containing any of the following narcotic drugs, or their salts calculated as the free anhydrous base or alkaloid, in limited quantities as set forth below:
(f) Anabolic steroids and chorionic gonadotropin. Any material, compound, mixture, or preparation containing chorionic gonadotropin or an anabolic steroid (excluding anabolic steroid products listed in the “Table of Exempt Anabolic Steroid Products” (Section 1308.34 of Title 21 of the Code of Federal Regulations), as exempt from the federal Controlled Substances Act (Section 801 and following of Title 21 of the United States Code)), including, but not limited to, the following:
(g) Ketamine. Any material, compound, mixture, or preparation containing ketamine.
(h) Hallucinogenic substances. Any of the following hallucinogenic substances: dronabinol (synthetic) in sesame oil and encapsulated in a soft gelatin capsule in a drug product approved by the federal Food and Drug Administration.
11057. (a) The controlled substances listed in this section are included in Schedule IV.
(b) Schedule IV shall consist of the drugs and other substances, by whatever official name, common or usual name, chemical name, or brand name designated, listed in this section.
(c) Narcotic drugs. Unless specifically excepted or unless listed in another schedule, any material, compound, mixture, or preparation containing any of the following narcotic drugs, or their salts calculated as the free anhydrous base or alkaloid, in limited quantities as set forth below:
(d) Depressants. Unless specifically excepted or unless listed in another schedule, any material, compound, mixture, or preparation which contains any quantity of the following substances, including its salts, isomers, and salts of isomers whenever the existence of those salts, isomers, and salts of isomers is possible within the specific chemical designation:
(e) Fenfluramine. Any material, compound, mixture, or preparation which contains any quantity of the following substances, including its salts, isomers (whether optical, position, or geometric), and salts of those isomers, whenever the existence of those salts, isomers, and salts of isomers is possible:
(f) Stimulants. Unless specifically excepted or unless listed in another schedule, any material, compound, mixture, or preparation which contains any quantity of the following substances having a stimulant effect on the central nervous system, including its salts, isomers (whether optical, position, or geometric), and salts of those isomers is possible within the specific chemical designation:
(g) Other substances. Unless specifically excepted or unless listed in another schedule, any material, compound, mixture or preparation which contains any quantity of pentazocine, including its salts.
11058. (a) The controlled substances listed in this section are included in Schedule V.
(b) Schedule V shall consist of the drugs and other substances, by whatever official name, common or usual name, chemical name, or brand name designated, listed in this section.
(c) Narcotic drugs containing nonnarcotic active medicinal ingredients. Any compound, mixture, or preparation containing any of the following narcotic drugs, or their salts calculated as the free anhydrous base or alkaloid, in limited quantities as set forth below, which shall include one or more nonnarcotic active medicinal ingredients in sufficient proportion to confer upon the compound, mixture, or preparation valuable medicinal qualities other than those possessed by narcotic drugs alone:
(d) Buprenorphine.
This list is current as of October 13, 2013, and is subject to change. The legislature may add drugs to this list as they are discovered (likely) or subtract drugs from this list as they are legalized (not so likely).