Thursday, November 8, 2007

Apparently, civil procedure matters

We went over venue rules in Civil Procedure today. They're pretty boring. But apparently they actually do matter: just ask Wesley Snipes, who just filed a Change of Venue motion in his upcoming tax-fraud case. (He's the defendant, in case you were confused.) The WSJ Law Blog has details here.

In a nutshell, Snipes is being sued in federal court in Ocala, FL. He contends that the venue will be biased towards him because he is black, and he would rather have the trial in the Southern District of New York (AKA Manhattan). He is backing up his claim with a phone survey that asks, among other things, what percentage of people believe the Confederate flag is a symbol of "pride, not prejudice." Unsurprisingly, that percentage is much higher in Ocala (63% agree) than in NYC (22% agree).

It's always funny when I'm sitting in class learning about something and reading about it online at the same time...

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