There are some ironies in Donald Trump's libel case against the BBC. Letters Blogatory takes a look at two of them.

Today is the second anniversary of October 7. I want to share some personal reflections about that day and the past two years. October 7 was, for me, a lightning bolt. If you’ve been struck by lightning you aren’t the same person the day after as you were the day before. The October 8 Ted… Continue Reading October 7, 2025

Both the FAA (9 U.S.C. § 6) and the Uniform Arbitration Act (RUAA § 5) say that an application to a court under the statute must be made by motion. In some courts, this creates a problem, because the clerk doesn’t know what to do with a motion that is not filed in a civil… Continue Reading New guidance on procedure under the Uniform Arbitration Act

I had an interesting and unusual experience this week. I help a lot of lawyers take depositions without compulsion abroad. But it’s not that common for me to have to take a deposition abroad in a state that is a party to the Evidence Convention and where advance permission from the competent authority in that… Continue Reading Oh, vendors

The Nonhuman Rights Project has filed a new habeas corpus case supposedly on behalf of two elephants, this time in California. The most important thing, I think, is that the new filing shows that these cases were not just a personal project of Steven Wise, the longtime head of the NhRP, who died last year.… Continue Reading Elephant Habeas: NhRP files a new case in California The post Elephant Habeas: NhRP files a new case in California appeared first on Letters Blogatory. Letters Blogatory by Ted Folkman and contributors is © 2011-2024 and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Images may be separately licensed.

Ezra Klein had a column in yesterday’s Times about New York’s Jewish community and the apparent split in attitudes towards Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee for mayor. The column is classic Klein—classic Obama-era wonky center-left smart-sounding commentary. And it has the classic Obama-era wonky center-left smart-sounding blindness on Jewish issues today. There is a lot… Continue Reading Ezra Klein Is Not Helping

There are a lot of issues in the news these days that I want to write about. I want to write about the undermining of traditional American foreign policy and economic policy. I want to write about the attacks on the separation of powers and the need for Congress to find its backbone. I want… Continue Reading The antisemitism emergency The post The antisemitism emergency appeared first on Letters Blogatory. Letters Blogatory by Ted Folkman and contributors is © 2011-2024 and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Images may be separately licensed.

The case of the day is Devas Multimedia Pvt. Ltd. v. Antrix Corp. Ltd. (S. Ct. 2025), my “case to watch” from March 7, 2025. Antrix was an Indian state-owned enterprise that promoted and marketed the Indian space program. It signed a satellite leasing contract with Devas, an Indian company, und which Antrix would build… Continue Reading Case of the day: Devas v. Antrix

The case of the day is Chanel, Inc. v. Individuals, Business Entities and Unincorporated Associations Listed on Schedule A (S.D. Fla. 2025). This is a typical internet luxury good knockoff case. There are a lot of these cases nowadays. It’s usual for the plaintiff to sue a long list of seemingly dodgy foreign people and… Continue Reading Case of the Day: Chanel v. Individuals on Schedule A The post Case of the Day: Chanel v. Individuals on Schedule A appeared first on Letters Blogatory. Letters Blogatory by Ted Folkman and contributors is © 2011-2024 and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Images may be separately licensed.

I’m shocked by the news that two young staffers at the Israeli embassy, Sarah Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky, were murdered last night at an American Jewish Committee event in Washington last night. I serve on the New England regional board of the AJC, an organization devoted to confronting antisemitism, upholding democratic values, and advocating for… Continue Reading Murders at an AJC event

I’m enjoying having a back-and-forth with friend of Letters Blogatory Bill Dodge on “Schrödinger Service.” The name comes from the famous thought experiment in quantum physics, where the setup allows a tiny, random quantum event to lead to consequence that we can observe in the macroscopic world. If a radioactive atom decays, then a vial… Continue Reading More on Schrödinger Service

A look at an EDNY case on serving a Chinese defendant by serving the defendant's US lawyer. Is that okay under the Hague Service Convention?