I don’t know what to make of this so I’ll just report it: The Oklahoma Bar Association and the Oklahoma Supreme Court last week co-sponsored an event worth three hours of continuing legal education credit.
The event was a free showing of “My Cousin Vinny” followed by a panel discussion moderated by the chief justice of the Oklahoma Supreme Court.
The movie was two hours. The discussion was scheduled for an hour and a quarter.
The panel included two other judges, a district attorney and the principal chief of the Osage Nation.
Do you get the feeling they’re at the end of the school year and the teacher wanted to kill some time by showing a movie?
Lesson plans are exhausting.
By the way, I recommend perusing some of the other Oklahoma options in the “general” category. My favorite is the four hours of credit you can get by paying $300 for “A Comedic De-Briefing of the Law: 2022-2023,” taught by someone from “Comedian of Law, LLC.”
You get the CLE credit even though the course comes with a “disclaimer” that the bar association had nothing to do with the material presented and “makes no warranty, express or implied, relating to the accuracy or content of these materials.”
I’m guessing there’s not going to be a test.
Comedy news. I don’t know what to make of this either, so I’ll just report it, too: The company that produces “Last Week Tonight” last week sued the U.S. Department of Justice, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security for failing to turn over documents relating to the use of the song “God Bless the USA” at naturalization ceremonies.
I can understand legitimate comedic requests. The odd part for me is the response, at least as described in the lawsuit, from the defendants. They claimed they needed an extra 10 days to comply because the request presented “unusual circumstances.” The 10 days ended on June 8. No response as of last week.
In case you’re wondering, the original request was made in April, before the writers strike began. Entertainment lawyers are not striking. At least not yet.
I suppose the request is unusual but it doesn’t seem all that complicated either. Is there a scandal here they’re hiding? Does this have something to do with national security?
Why is it on the “complex” track?
You also may be wondering about the comedy expose angle for “Last Week.”
Is subjecting potential new citizens to cheesy, jingoistic music a form of torture that we need to know about?
That’s plausible, but there might be a clue about another issue in the lawsuit. The complaint said Justice’s Office of Information and Policy had 1,163 pending complex requests at the end of 2022. They’d been pending an average of 619.66 days. Justice’s Civil Division had another 133 pending.
The immigration services agency, according to the suit, listed the song info request as number 939 out of 1,106 pending requests.
Someone needs to file a Freedom of Information Act request for documents relating to the granting of FOIA requests. If nothing else, I’d like to know how many requests come from comedy shows.
I’m hoping for answers once the writers strike is over.
from Courthouse News
