No news out of Washington, except that Dick “Darth” Cheney filed his own brief in the gun rights case pending in the Supreme Court, differing with the administration’s position.  Well, that’s not quite accurate, even though the boys over at ScotusBlog phrase it that way.  Turns out that a majority of the House and Senate have filed their own brief (which Cheney, as an officer of the Senate, has signed off on) advocating an affirmance of the appellate court’s determination that DC’s gun ban is unconstitutional; the administration’s position is that the case should be remanded so that the court can apply a different standard of review.  Someday I’ll get around to explaining all this, although I did a post a month ago which sets forth some of the questions the decision might raise.

Down in Columbus, the Seven Robed Ones issued a couple of opinions.  The first was something about residual trust assets which you couldn’t get me to read at gunpoint.  Of more significance was the decision in Al Minor & Assoc. v. Martin, involving a pension analyst who’d started up his own business, and raided his former company’s clients.  Even though he hadn’t actually taken the customer lists, the Court held that his use of the information he’d memorized violated Ohio’s Trade Secrets Act.

The 2nd District was late in handing down their decisions a couple of weeks back, so they’ll be included in this week’s update.  Let’s get to that:

Civil.  9th District reverses juvenile court’s determination that it lacked subject matter jurisdiction over civil protective order because divorce case between parties was pending in domestic relations court… Good case from 12th District on when grandparents can intervene in child dependency proceeding… 4th District affirms summary judgment against deputy who was injured while investigating burglary when deck collapsed, says “fireman’s rule” prohibiting liability of homeowners in such situations also extends to independent contractor who constructed deck…

Criminal.  Taking circular reasoning to dizzying heights, 9th District reaffirms its holding that failure to file alibi notice and call alibi witnesses can never establish ineffective assistance of counsel claim on direct appeal, because court is limited to trial court record, and since witnesses didn’t testify, they’re not in there… 10th District reverses grant of judicial release, says trial court didn’t make necessary findings under 2929.20(H)… 5th District affirms DUI conviction, holds that defendant not entitled to introduce blood test taken 3 1/2 hours after arrest where he didn’t have expert testimony linking result to question of impairment… 12th District says speedy trial violated when court sets case for backup trial, then waits until after speedy trial has run to journalize entry saying case was continued… 2nd District holds that mere change of heart generally not sufficient to warrant vacating plea…

This week’s Moment of Eeewwww… The 2nd District’s decision in State v. McComb involves the propriety of a stop and frisk which the court acknowledges involved “a somewhat intrusive pat-down of McComb’s buttocks.”  The opinion faithfully recites the officer’s procedure:

“I keep my hand in a flat open palm area, go basically in between the cheeks of the buttocks and up and pat down the buttocks area. And I can tell you, through past experience, I have recovered knives hidden in the buttocks area.”

Sure you have.