Mom's facebook message to Dad not sufficient notice about adoption, court rules

A pregnant unwed mother can’t use Facebook alone to notify the father about the baby before putting the child up for adoption, Oklahoma’s highest civil court has ruled.


The case was the latest to test the legal weight of communication through Facebook and other social media. Previously, for instance, courts have debated whether a plaintiff in a lawsuit could use Facebook to serve legal papers — such as summonses or hearing notices — on a defendant.

Article here.  (via Wall Street Journal law blog).

When should a judge recuse herself? Justice Ginsberg puts her role in debate.

Recusal is when a judge "sits out" on a case that she would otherwise have heard. It can happen voluntarily - she decides that her interest in a case client would injure her impartiality, or involuntarily -- when an attorney for a party motions the court to recuse. It's part of due process, which means that a case should be heard by a fair an impartial judge.

Comments made by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in a magazine interview have reignited a long-simmering ethical debate confronting the Supreme Court over when a justice ought to sit out a case.

In a New Republic interview published Sunday, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was asked by legal scholar Jeffrey Rosen if state lawmakers could be trusted to safeguard abortion rights.

Article here.  (via WSJ lawblog).

 

Should courthouses be "off limits" to immigration authorities?

Rosario Socope, a Guatemalan immigrant in the country illegally, had an unwelcome surprise waiting for her when she attended a pretrial hearing on a felony charge at a courthouse in Brooklyn this month. As she stepped out of the courtroom into a public hallway, she was approached by immigration agents seeking to deport her.

Article here (via WSJ Law Blog).