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Jackson Sends Microsoft Case To Supreme Court
[Xorian] us a coverage on c|net
(and here's a AP story on Yahoo) saying that Jackson has referred the Microsoft Case to the Supreme Court, skipping the appellate courts. 'Course, the Supreme Court doesn't have to take it if they don't want it, and since it's close to the end of the term, they might not get to it this term even if they did take it.
I'm seriously interested in whether there is a website, or something that allows gambling on the outcome of all of this.
Yes, it's called E-Trade
The regular
For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
Its just you. Or your notion of "newsworthy" is sufficiently unfocused. In fact, Judge Jackson bent over wildly at many junctures to the benefit of Microsoft throughout the pretrial, trial and interim motion practice. Microsoft was given liberal leave to introduce whatever evidence they wanted, including falsified video tapes, and then afterwards an opportunity to substitute the "real ones."
Of course, after the final verdict, it is routine for the judge to grant the victor the relief they sought. Perhaps that's what you forgot.
The long and short of this is that Microsoft lost, the judge decided the case and, in the end, thinks he is right about that decision and doesn't intend to reconsider. That galls some folks who thought he might give back with one hand what he took with the other, but who cares?
I think the fact findings are probably incontestable as a matter of law, and the findings of law raise close and difficult legal questions. In view of that, a bright judge made some tough calls, and didn't equivocate in the face of tough personal crticiism
This is called judicature. Its a good thing, not a bad thing.
MircoSoap ph33rz me!
[Honestly, each time I tried to submit this from a Windoze machine -four tries- the box crashed! Then I switched to a Linux machine and the ISP went down. Fortunately I have a backup ISP. Chill, Bill, it ain't that incriminating!]
Here's the specific section, 15 US Code 29(b), covering "what happens next". It's short and clear.
TITLE 15 - COMMERCE AND TRADE
CHAPTER 1 - MONOPOLIES AND COMBINATIONS IN RESTRAINT OF TRADE
Sec. 29. Appeals
(b) Direct appeals to Supreme Court
An appeal from a final judgment pursuant to subsection (a) of this section shall lie directly to the Supreme Court, if, upon application of a party filed within fifteen days of the filing of a notice of appeal, the district judge who adjudicated the case enters an order stating that immediate consideration of the appeal by the Supreme Court is of general public importance in the administration of justice. Such order shall be filed within thirty days after the filing of a notice of appeal. When such an order is filed, the appeal and any cross appeal shall be docketed in the time and manner prescribed by the rules of the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court shall thereupon either (1) dispose of the appeal and any cross appeal in the same manner as any other direct appeal authorized by law, or (2) in its discretion, deny the direct appeal and remand the case to the court of appeals, which shall then have jurisdiction to hear and determine the same as if the appeal and any cross appeal therein had been docketed in the court of appeals in the first instance pursuant to subsection (a) of this section.
If you can go to bed, knowing you did a valuable thing today, you're very lucky. If you can't... it's not bedtime
It's a plot.
Signal 11 is saving up Karma for the Great Slashdot Retaliation. Someday, he will grow tired of reading the same drivel, the same points of view, and the same whining. On that day, he will engage the full force of his massive Karma and begin trolling the living daylights out of Slashdot.
Not all Slashdotters have become moronic, some of us are suffering Karma hits on a daily basis for pointing out stupidity. We look forward to the day Signal 11 joins us. With the combined Karma of Signal 11 and Bruce Perens, we will be unstoppable! We will return Slashdot to its former glory!
I am merely a scout in this revolution. My hard-earned Karma is a mere drop in the bucket compared to Sig's. My role is to distract and annoy the moderators while Signal 11 grows larger and more powerful. Someday, my Karma will be entirely burned out and I will no longer be able to post at +2. It is a sacrifice, but I know history will record the name of "DonkPunch" as a hero. I therefore make this sacrifice with pride.
So, keep the faith, AC. One day soon, Slashdot will be redeemed!
(Or you could just read kiro5hin instead. Make no difference to me.)
Save the whales. Feed the hungry. Free the mallocs.
The activist Supreme Court has had this ass-backwards for decades, and the balance of the Court has remained such that they are not inclinded to revisit their mistakes (except to compound it as they did recently -- Renquist's dissent points out the fallacy of the majority opinion quite eloquently).
The court has turned the meaning of this protection around by prohibiting public displays of religion (though they typically only enfoce this against the Christian sects, other religions are deemed to bring a proper "diversity" to public life) instead of adhering to its proper intent, which is that the federal government could not create a state religion and tie the rights of citizenship to membership within the state religion. The authors of the Amendment were quite accepting of the individual states having an official religion, but because the states had different sects, they didn't want the federal government to choose one over the others. The Fourteenth Amendment, though, later prevented the states from having established religions.
The current SC decision is awful in light of the fact that the majority ruled that because a student-elected speaker might choose to use the platform to do something even remotely religious. Of course, the speaker could also simply read a poem, talk about the environment, or make an impassioned speech about homosexual rights. In none of the other cases would the school have been held culpable for the words spoken by an individual. The school had no control over what the stuent would say, and could therefore not even be held to tacitly endorsing the student's viewpoint.
The hostility toward religion, especially Christian religions, in current society is troubling. I mean, Pat Buchanan is attacked for being a right-wing fundamentalist, but Louis Farrakhan is not similarly labeled a left-wing Muslim. This despite the fact that both men are dangerous demagouges who use their religion as a hook to entice new folloers.
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I am going to play devils advocate for this one.
The Appellate court may have sided with MS in the previous ruling by Judge Jackson against MS, but that does not necessarily mean that they are firmly in MS's pocket. There are some key points as to why I believe that they are not.
1) They have decided to see this one En Blanc, unlike the previous two trials. But three of the Judges have been disqualified from sitting on the case due to conflict of interest. They are obviously trying to show that they are taking this case with the utmost seriousness.
2) That seriousness was also shown in their haste to accept the trial. As soon as MS had submitted their request for appeal the case was accepted, no waiting at all. They were expecting this, and have obviously started getting ready for the apeal.
3) Most of the Justices were appointed during the Reagan era. Now most would say that this would help MS, but it actually hurts them. Although they are conservative judges who most likely want to help big business, they also know that monopolies hurt business and hurt the economy and therefore are more likely to side against a monopoly.
Perhaps in the previous two appeals they didn't feel that the case was strong enough, or the punishment severe enough. Perhaps they have been waiting for MS to even more blatently abuse its power so that when it gets caught they can rule for a harsher penelty then what had been submitted before. Perhaps not, perhaps they will continue to side with MS. I'm just speculating here.
If one goes by the rulings from the previous cases then it seems obvious that they will rule in favor of MS, but that does not necessarily mean that they will. This isn't just about integrating IE into Windows anymore, this is much bigger and will have a much larger impact on the economy then the previous cases. The Justices have obviously been following the case, they know how MS acted throughout the trial. Not just one or two Justices but all of them, and they are informed enough to stop 3 of them from sitting due to conflict on interest. If they follow their conservative background then they will rule in favor of the economy, which is against MS.
We also may never know how they would rule if the Supreme Court takes it.
Only time will tell at this point.
Disclamer - Opinion of Person
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Jackson's opinions have, as I suspect for many people, reaffirmed my own faith in the intelligence, circumspectness, and wisdom of the judiciary. But of course that's not a universal condition.
But does anyone know what the connection is? Why does the Appellate in this circumstance seem so firmly in MSFT's pocket?
We're on the road to Tycho.
While I agree about 50% of the time with their decisions, their explanations are screwed up.
Since generally about 50% of people will agree with the Supreme Court in any given case, I propose that this costly organisation is replaced by a coin which is tossed on any controversial issue. This will reduce costs dramatically, with a maximum initial setup cost of 25 cents.
The separation of church and state is implicit in the 1st ammendment. The 1st ammendment guarantees not only freedom of speech, but the freedom to practice your own religion provided that you don't stomp on anybody else (so religions that practice mass murder don't get special exception from the laws of the land). Implicit in the freedom to practice your religion is the right to be free from other people forcing your religion on you. To put things that are particular to any religion or group of religions into a school or other government-sponsored setting is (for good reason) considered to be trampling the rights of the people who don't practice that religion. Hence the separation of church and state.
-Matt
-Cheetah