Free Republic

A well-known California atheist says he and 17 others, plus atheist and humanist organizations, will file suit Tuesday in D.C.'s District Court to strip all references to God and religion from President-elect Barack Obama's January inauguration ceremony. Michael Newdow, of Sacramento, Calif., says he wants to remove the phrase "so help me God" from the oath of office, plus axe the invocation prayer from Pastor Rick Warren, already under fire from the left for his opposition to gay marriage. According to Newdow, any reference to God or religion violates the Constitution. "Equality is important to me," Newdow told The Examiner....

A former flight attendant for Continental Airlines who was fired for inappropriate behavior on a flight in 2002 has lost an attempt to sue the company for age discrimination. In a ruling released Monday, a state appeals court upheld a lower court ruling dismissing the lawsuit filed by Melissa Mersmann and ordering her to pay $2,500 in attorneys' fees to Continental. The lawsuit stemmed from events in early 2002, when Mersmann was fired for her conduct during a Feb. 17 flight from Aruba to Newark. In court filings, the company claimed Mersmann "as a result of being intoxicated, engaged in...

What started as a minor case over a pair of scratch marks less than 6 inches long on a Toyota RAV4 in Palo Alto has turned into a three-year legal odyssey involving a private investigator, an expert witness flown in at a cost of several thousand dollars and appeals all the way to the state Supreme Court. The $653 misdemeanor vandalism case of the People vs. Howard Herships began in 2005 when Steve Kirsch, a Silicon Valley tech millionaire and anti-junk fax crusader, took a woman to small claims court in Santa Clara County for sending him multiple unsolicited faxes....

The Bambu rolling-paper company is smoking mad at a Barack Obama-loving artist for using its iconic packaging on T-shirts that show the president-elect smoking a joint. Seamus McGovern and his "Love Fatigues" Web business were hit with a trademark-infringement suit for putting Obama's name and face on the beige and white cover of "the world's finest rolling papers." The Manhattan federal court case claims the $22 "Obambu" shirts expose Bambu to "criticism and scorn" because they show Obama smoking weed, and could "confuse the consuming public" into believing they came from the company.

Despite the fact that the film Obsession contains no political content and was made well before the 2008 election cycle began, CAIR, those paragons of Islamic moderation and honesty, would now have you believe that the national distribution of the DVD was an Israeli plot to elect John McCain. This is a very revealing action for CAIR to take. It reveals in particular two key aspects of CAIR's mindset: 1. It shows that CAIR is fully aware that the jihad against Israel is an integral part of the global jihad, and is not just a struggle to recover Palestinian "stolen...

Dan Rather's $70 million lawsuit against CBS is getting whittled down like a redwood at an Alabama beaver party. A Manhattan judge yesterday threw out two more of Rather's claims against the network, including his charge that his former bosses committed fraud by falsely promising to help restore his reputation after he became a "scapegoat" for a discredited story about President Bush's military career. "We are extremely gratified that the court has now dismissed the vast majority of Mr. Rather's claims," CBS said in a statement. Rather's lawyer, Martin Gold, said that despite Judicial Hearing Officer Ira Gammerman's ruling striking...

Christian publisher Zondervan is facing a $60 million federal lawsuit filed by a man who claims he and other homosexuals have suffered based on what the suit claims is a misinterpretation of the Bible.

The ABC network said on Monday it will go ahead with plans to air an episode of its new legal drama "Eli Stone" despite objections from pediatricians who say the show may discourage parents from having their children immunized. The debut episode features the show's title character and hero, a trial lawyer for big corporations who decides to fight for the little guy, convincing a jury that a mercury-based preservative in a vaccine caused a child's autism. On the show, a jury awards the boy's mother $5.2 million in damages after it is revealed the CEO of the vaccine maker...

IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF PENNSYLVANIA   DON ADAMS, ET AL.,     PLAINTIFFS        v.   TEAMSTERS LOCAL 115, ET AL.,     DEFENDANTS   CIVIL ACTIONNO. 99-CV-4910   JUDGMENT AND NOW, this 4th day of Sept., 2007, judgment is hereby rendered in favor of defendant Teamsters Local 115 and against plaintiffs Don Adams and Theresa Adams in the amount of $450.10.   William H. Yohn, Jr., Judge IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF PENNSYLVANIA   DON ADAMS, ET AL.,     PLAINTIFFS        v.   TEAMSTERS LOCAL 115, ET AL.,     DEFENDANTS   CIVIL ACTIONNO. 99-CV-4910  ...

A Morgantown man, his mother and his friend are suing McDonald's for $10 million. The man says he bit into a hamburger and had a severe allergic reaction to the cheese melted on it. Jeromy Jackson, who is in his early 20s, says he clearly ordered two Quarter Pounders without cheese at the McDonald's restaurant in Star City before heading to Clarksburg. His mother Trela Jackson and friend Andrew Ellifritz are parties to the lawsuit because they say they risked their lives rushing Jeromy to United Hospital Center in Clarksburg. The lawsuit alleges Jeromy "was only moments from death" or...

<p>Judge dismisses Valerie Plame's lawsuit accusing members of the Bush administration of leaking her identity... Developing..</p>

DRIVE-THRU DEBACLE | Says McDonald's workers balked at tiny hands, short arms In a lifetime of using her feet the way most people use their hands, Dawn Larson never felt as discriminated against as she did at McDonald's, she said. Born with Holt-Oram Syndrome, Larson has diminutive hands about six inches from her shoulder. That has never stopped her from leading a productive life."I drank my baby bottle with my feet. Nobody ever taught me how to do it, I just did it," Larson said. "I can ride a regular 10-speed bike. I can swim. It has not been...

LAS CRUCES, N.M. -- A lawsuit alleges Wal-Mart sold ammunition to an unstable man accused of fatally shooting another man six hours later in Las Cruces. Kenneth Rauch, 49, of Las Cruces has been charged with first-degree murder in the April 25, 2005, killing of Eusebio Escobedo, 27, of Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. The lawsuit, filed on Monday in state district court, lists the plaintiffs as Escobedo's children, fiancée and estranged wife. Their attorney, Ken Egan of Las Cruces, said Wal-Mart has a policy governing the sale of firearms, including background checks. The lawsuit alleges employees at a Wal-Mart in Las...

Just the Truth? Why the Republicans Have Changed Their Tune Over the years, Republicans have held hearings on Bill Clinton’s Christmas card list and called for answers on Socks the Cat’s fan mail. Yet they continue to stonewall attempts to question key players in the scandal surrounding the apparently politically-motivated firing of eight U.S. Attorneys. Despite emails showing that top White House advisers such as Harriet Miers and Karl Rove were involved in the decision, the White House has cited executive privilege and placed restrictions on their cooperation with Congress such as demanding closed-door hearings with no transcripts and even...

Lakewood, Wash. - The mother of a 9-year-old boy who boarded flights from Seattle to Texas and is suspected of leading police on a high-speed chase said in a television interview that she was stunned but proud of her son's actions. "He just showed me that, 'Mom, I'm going to achieve anything I want to do. I'm going to just do it.' So he did it, from driving a car to getting on an airplane," said Sakinah Booker on the syndicated TV show "Inside Edition," which was to air Wednesday. In the interview, her son, Semaj, describes using a man's...

A Texas man claims the Republican National Committee stole his W logo and he wants millions of dollars in damages. Jerry Gossett of Wichita Falls filed a copyright infringement suit against the committee and Spalding Group, a Louisville, Ky., consulting firm that designed the official W logo for the 2004 campaign, the Houston Chronicle reports. A federal judge in Texarkana scheduled trial for Nov. 7. Gossett copyrighted his logo in 2001. The design includes a capital W. with a period, a U.S. flag with two creases in it flying somewhat downward to the right and the number 43. The design...

Boy Charged For Meowing At Neighbor Lady Family Gave Cat Away After Neighbor's ComplaintsPOSTED: 2:26 pm EDT August 23, 2006 JEANNETTE, Pa. -- Meow. A Pennsylvania judge is being asked to decide whether that word is a harmless taunt or grounds for misdemeanor harassment. Police have charged a 14-year-old boy with that crime. Michael Loughner is accused of meowing whenever he sees his 78-year-old neighbor, Alexandria Carasia. The boy's family got rid of their cat after Carasia complained that it was using her flower garden as a litter box. Now, she said, the boy makes meowing sounds every time he...

DURANGO, Colo. (Reuters) - A Colorado judge ordered two teen-age girls to pay about $900 for the distress a neighbor said they caused by giving her home-made cookies adorned with paper hearts. The pair were ordered to pay $871.70 plus $39 in court costs after neighbor Wanita Renea Young, 49, filed a lawsuit complaining that the unsolicited cookies, left at her house after the girls knocked on her door, had triggered an anxiety attack that sent her to the hospital the next day. Taylor Ostergaard, then 17, and Lindsey Jo Zellitte, 18, paid the judgment on Thursday after a small...

(AP) WASHINGTON A federal judge ruled Thursday that the nation's top cigarette makers violated racketeering laws, deceiving the public for years about the health hazards of smoking, but said she couldn't order them to pay the billions of dollars the government had sought. U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler did order the companies to publish in newspapers and on their Web sites "corrective statements" on the adverse health effects and addictiveness of smoking and nicotine. She also ordered tobacco companies to stop labeling cigarettes as "low tar," "light," "ultra light" or "mild," since such cigarettes have been found to be no...

The clear message for employers in the case of Helen Green, who this week won more than £800,000 in damages against her former employer Deutsche Bank after a sustained period of "infantile" treatment by colleagues, is that it is not okay to look the other way if an employee is being bullied. * Examples of the treatment said to have been meted out to Ms Green included blowing raspberries at her and telling her "you stink". Some employers might be forgiven for believing that such juvenile behaviour should be ignored or simply brushed aside by the person on the receiving...