Funny, Funny Judges @laphamsquart

Lapham's Quarterly offers this selection of interesting footnotes from cases, some well-known, some obscure. Included is a Ninth Circuit case that introduces the phrase, "Holy Copyright Law, Batman!" to the legal lexicon, and a cite to "Who Let the Dogs Out?" with the wry comment from Judge Philip S. Straniere that although the song "allegedly has nothing to do with canines[,] ...I have not been able to understand the lyrics to any song written since the Fillmore East closed, I have appropriated the title solely to make a point and will ignore the content of the song."

A Website Devoted To Judicial Images

Via Maks Del Mar @maksdelmar: A terrific website devoted to judicial images: Judicial Images: Production, Management, & Consumption. 

Check it out.

Gavels? You Can't Handle the Gavels!

A Twitter account runs herd, quite amusingly but passionately, on the mistaken use of the image of judges' gavels in popular culture (mostly in images of English courtrooms and judges). It has its work cut out for it.  Do people get annoyed?


 





You be the judge. 

Check out the Twitter feed at Inappropriate Gavels.

Sarah Palin as a Courtroom TV Judge?

Will Sarah Palin be the next daytime court TV judge? Various media outlets, including The Hollywood Reporter, are reporting that she has signed a deal with production company Warm Springs (Montana), apparently to develop some kind of show like this for the 2017 season.

More here from TV Guide,  CBS, ABC, and CNN.

The former Republican Vice Presidential candidate and Governor of Alaska continues to be a popular presence in some quarters and has a large Twitter following (1.24 million as of today), but unlike those courtroom TV judges banging a gavel on today's shows, she doesn't have a law degree.

UK TV Judges! Please Stop Banging Those Gavels!

We see UK tv judges using gavels all the time in tv courtrooms. But, as the Guardian points once again in this article, real life UK judges don't use them in real life courts....We can ask that the writers cease and desist. Cut it out. Stop it. Halt. But I think that they won't, because gavel banging is colorful (sorry, colourful) and makes an exciting noise, and resonates (sorry again) with viewers who may be more familiar with US tv courtrooms, in which tv judges do use gavels. The power of pop culture!