Law in Popular Culture

Supreme Court approval rating peaks among Democrats, hits low point among Republicans

The public approval rating for the U.S. Supreme Court has become more polarized along party lines than at any point in 15 years of Gallup polling. The approval rating among Republicans plummeted to a 15-year low of 18 percent, a drop of 33 percentage points since last summer, according to…

Jul 17, 2015 6:15 AM CDT

ABA to honor Silver Gavel Award winners, including ‘Serial’ podcast and an HBO doc on Prop 8

An HBO documentary about the fight against California’s same-sex marriage ban. A hugely popular NPR podcast that re-examined an old murder case. An uncompromising expose of America’s juvenile detention centers. A series of investigatory newspaper articles about domestic violence in South Carolina. The American Bar Association has named these four…

Jul 16, 2015 1:15 PM CDT

Law prof’s contrarian views about Atticus Finch are vindicated

Legal ethics expert Monroe Freedman wasn’t taken in by Atticus Finch. The noble lawyer in To Kill a Mockingbird who defended a black man falsely accused of raping a white woman is no role model for lawyers, Freedman wrote in a 1992 column (PDF) for Legal Times. Finch took the…

Jul 16, 2015 5:45 AM CDT

Lawyer’s account of discovery of Harper Lee’s ‘Watchman’ book differs from that of sued agent

Harper Lee’s estate trustee and lawyer, Tonya Carter, explains how she found the author’s second book in a newspaper commentary that has failed to dispel questions surrounding the discovery. One person who differs with Carter’s account is Harper Lee’s former literary agent, Samuel Pinkus, who was sued by Lee in…

Jul 14, 2015 8:30 AM CDT

Et tu, Atticus Finch? He’s a changed and racist man in Harper Lee’s new book

This is Atticus Finch? In To Kill a Mockingbird, Atticus Finch stood for justice and truth in his defense a black man accused of the rape of white women. He has been a longtime inspiration and role model for lawyers. But the Atticus Finch in Harper Lee’s novel Go Set…

Jul 13, 2015 7:04 AM CDT

Operagoers may be able to spot the real Justice Ginsburg at opera that gives her second billing

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg will be in the audience on Saturday for the premiere of Scalia/Ginsburg, the opera based on her ideological differences and friendship with Justice Antonin Scalia. Scalia is in Rome and won’t be able to attend the opera by Derrick Wang, Ginsburg tells the Washington Post in…

Jul 10, 2015 10:27 AM CDT

Meet Scout as ‘a reasonable facsimile of a human being’ in first chapter of Harper Lee’s new book

Readers eager to catch up with Scout and other characters of To Kill a Mockingbird can read the first chapter of Harper Lee’s newly published novel, Go Set a Watchman. In Watchman, Scout goes by her real name, Jean Louise; is in her 20s; and has “turned into a reasonable…

Jul 10, 2015 8:04 AM CDT

Zombie Walk: San Diego is a dead event after accident last year

A year after an encounter between a California driver and lurching, blood-covered, corpse-like individuals participating in Zombie Walk: San Diego resulted in a traffic accident, litigation over the incident is still ongoing. So the event has been placed on indefinite hiatus, a Facebook post says, as liability issues are sorted…

Jul 8, 2015 4:55 PM CDT

Harper Lee appears ‘breezily self-assured’ about book release; when was manuscript discovered?

Harper Lee was given a finished copy of her soon to be released novel, Go Set a Watchman, at a private lunch last week as her hometown prepared for a celebration to mark the occasion. Lee appeared “breezily self-assured” about the book’s release, the New York Times reported, basing its…

Jul 8, 2015 9:54 AM CDT

Upcoming release of Harper Lee’s second book boosts ‘Mockingbird’ sales

Sales of Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird are rising in advance of the planned release of her second book–one she wrote before Mockingbird that features Scout as an adult. Lee’s Go Set a Watchman will be released on July 14, putting Mockingbird back on best-seller lists, the Wall Street…

Jun 26, 2015 6:45 AM CDT

Patent royalty superpowers have expired for inventor of Spider-Man toy, Supreme Court rules

The U.S. Supreme Court refused to overturn precedent in a 6-3 ruling for Marvel Entertainment on Monday in a dispute over patent royalties for a Spider-Man toy. The majority decision (PDF) by Justice Elena Kagan found that Marvel did not have to pay promised royalties to the inventor of a…

Jun 22, 2015 12:38 PM CDT

As man’s YouTube post helps clarify, it’s legal to carry a loaded assault rifle at Atlanta’s airport

Openly carrying a loaded assault rifle is legal in Georgia. So, although the authorities had some questions for Jim Cooley when he went to an Atlanta airport recently with a AR-15 semi-automatic assault rifle and a 100-round ammunition drum, they conceded he was doing nothing wrong under state law, reports…

Jun 4, 2015 4:30 PM CDT

Vintage store operator says threat of social-media shaming is best way to deter shoplifting

Some might think calling police on those who shoplift would be the best way to deter other potential thieves. But the operator of a Philadelphia vintage store says she has found a better way, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports. Betsy Bassel put up signs at Scout Salvage and Vintage Rescue warning…

May 29, 2015 4:15 PM CDT

Bicyclist’s helmet cam video persuades police officer to ticket driver in road-rage incident

Admittedly, flipping the bird—more than once—at the driver of the blue pickup that repeatedly passed close to him on a Georgia roadway one Saturday last month was not the best idea, bicyclist Alan Crocker now says. But his road-rage story has a somewhat happy ending because of the helmet cam…

May 14, 2015 3:05 PM CDT

Lawyer uses $200K in legal fees to make movie about trial win in nursing home med-mal case

Bill Lundy had never made a movie before. But, inspired by one of the difficult cases he had ever worked on, the Georgia trial lawyer used $200,000 in legal fees from winning a nursing home medical malpractice case to film A Larger Life, recounts the Daily Report (sub. req.). The…

May 5, 2015 11:30 AM CDT