Judicial Reports: LexPress: Counting Calories

By Jesse Sunenblick
jsunenblick@judicialstudies.com
Posted: 04-17-08 

A judge OKs a city health code enforcing the display of caloric information on restaurant menus. In other news, J.K. Rowling and her nemesis fight to the bitter end.

A BYPASS WITH THAT BURGER?
Last fall, Southern District Judge Richard J. Holwell rejected the city’s bid to enforce a stringent caloric display law in restaurants that already posted nutritional information, albeit on walls or tray liners, and not on menus, like the city wanted. Yesterday, over vociferous arguments from the restaurant industry, Holwell upheld a revised version of the health code that will apply to any city restaurant with 15 or more outlets nationwide. The New York Law Journal has the story. The New York Restaurant Association claims the law violates the First Amendment and is preempted by a subsection of the federal Nutrition Labeling and Education Act of 1990. Holwell disagreed, writing that the new health code “is not preempted by NLEA because that statute explicitly leaves to state and local governments the power to impose mandatory nutrition labeling by restaurants.” He added that “the required disclosure of caloric information is reasonably related to the government's interest in providing consumers with accurate nutritional information and therefore does not unduly infringe on the First Amendment rights of New York State Restaurant Association members.”

TEARS AND FEARS 
The New York Times reports from the final day of Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling’s trial. Rowling sued an American man, a fan who says he was cast out of the “Harry Potter community” after announcing his intention to publish a guide to the bestselling books. If she loses, Rowling, who alleges copyright infringement, presented a nightmare (and, perhaps, paranoid) scenario of “the floodgates” opening, and writers everywhere losing control of their material. “Can you imagine anyone reading this lexicon for entertainment value?” asked Southern District Judge Robert P. Patterson, a literature buff who earlier in the day urged the parties to settle. “Honestly, your Honor, no,” replied Rowling, who says the ordeal had led to writer’s block. “But if I may say it without being arrogant or vain, I think there are funny things in there — and I wrote them.” Patterson will rule on the case within three months.

PROMOTING PARADES
Lexpress reported earlier this week about new, pedestrian friendly NYPD measures for crowd control that have resulted from the department’s settlement of a lawsuit with the New York Civil Liberties Union. Today, The Gotham Gazette expands on the story, reporting on a new City Council measure aimed at modifying police regulations governing permits for parades and demonstrations, for the purpose of promoting the “fair and transparent accommodation of competing uses of city public spaces, which means to encourage First Amendment assemblies by de-criminalizing mere participation in, or proximity to, them.” The story examines the recent history of the crowd control debate, including the mass bike rides of the group Critical Mass that led the NYPD to attempt to bolster its permitting procedures. Said civil rights attorney Gideon Oliver, who helpd draft a similar bill in Washingon, D.C.: “The most important thing it does is that it decriminalizes ‘parading without a permit’ and points to best practices not just in Washington, D.C., but in other cities with large populations…It will provide the police department and other city agencies with the kind of information they need to police events.”

AN ULTIMATUM (AND A VENDETTA?) 
Finally, The Journal News reports that Westchester Supreme Court Justice Sam Walker has set an ultimatum for the city of Harrison to present its domestic violence and harassment case against Harrison Police Officer Ralph Tancredi. Walker has given the city until May 20^th to prepare for trial. Tancredi, who is accused of menacing a former girlfriend, Sofia Saenz, claims the case is retaliation for three federal civil rights actions he has filed against the city, in which he accuses top officers of secretly planting a video camera inside the men’s locker room at Harrison police headquarters and recording conversations at the police desk. The case has been jeopardized by Saenz’s reluctance to testify. Tancredi, meanwhile, withdrew a fourth civil rights lawsuit accusing Harrison police of coercion and false imprisonment following his August confrontation with Saenz’s boyfriend.

Posted by Jesse on April 17, 2008 09:39 AM to Judicial Reports