Friday, August 7, 2020

Appellate news from afar

In appellate news from other far-flung states, we have:
  • Appeals court won't use word 'grandfathering' because of racist origins -- "The Massachusetts Appeals Court has taken a stand against the word “grandfathering” in a footnote highlighting its racist origins. ... Law360, the Associated Press and the New York Times had coverage of the footnote. NPR wrote about the origins of “grandfathered” in this 2013 article."
  • Ga. Axes 'Weird' Precedent Rule To Even Up With Other Courts: "In a bid to better align itself with common practice and provide more clarity to litigants, the Georgia Court of Appeals is scrapping an unusual rule that stripped a decision of its precedential value if there was less than full concurrence among judges, a move attorneys in the state say is long overdue. Appellate attorneys and judges told Law360 the court's physical precedent rule was an obscure relic that hampered its ability to make meaningful decisions. Under the rule, a judge's dissent rendered a decision as having physical precedent only, meaning it was persuasive but not binding."