Legal Issues

Punch and Jude's Legal correspondent now reporting from New Orleans: I guess this is what you were looking for, Jude.

NBC is fighting a lawsuit over a scene from the new drama “Heroes”.

If you haven’t seen the first episode, we’ll explain. The series features a cheerleader who finds out she’s indestructible.

To test this power that she has discovered, she puts her hand in a garbage disposal, she pulls her mangled, bloody hand out to watch it heal itself right before her eyes.

Apparently the name of the manufacturer of the disposal was visible in the scene and they're all pissy about it. As a fan of the new show, I caught this scene as it aired a couple of weeks ago. Indeed, it was gruesome. But I can't imgine that viewers would have actually noticed the maker of the garbage disposal. And how would you prove your losses? Is there anyway to show how many people decided not to buy a garbage disposal because of a scene in a TV show?

And to be honest with you, it was kind of hot. Nothing turns me on like mangled cheerleader. In fact I bought 7 garbage disposals today because of that scene.

And in other legal news:

A woman who was ticketed for having an obscene anti-Bush bumper sticker filed a lawsuit in federal court Monday against a county in the state of Georgia and its officials.

Denise Grier, 47, of Athens, Georgia, got a $100 ticket in March after a DeKalb County police officer spotted the bumper sticker, which read "I'm Tired Of All The BUSH**."

A DeKalb judge threw out the ticket in April because the state's lewd decal law that formed the basis for the ticket was ruled unconstitutional in 1990.

Grier is seeking damages from the county for "emotional distress," according to the lawsuit.

I can't tell you how happy this makes me. Nothing gets my goat like police officers who ignore the constitution and abuse their power. I only wish that she could actually bankrupt these fuckers for this ridiculous abuse of power.This is basically the equivalent of arresting someone for burning the flag or a woman for getting an abortion. If the US supreme court decides an act is constitutional, everyone should be allowed to do it immediately. There shouldn't be any grace period for officers who don't realize that a criminal statute has been declared unconstitional.

But really that's all beside the point. These fuckers didn't arrest her for violating an unconstitutional law, they arrested her because they disagreed with her political speech. And using the law enforcement power of the state to silence someone's free speech is heinous shit. If we still execute people in this country, let's execute these assholes. Oh I'm being over the top? Sorry, I have no patience for this shit. In a free orderly society there aren't many things worse that blatently violating the law that you've sworn to uphold and are charged with enforcing.