The subject of the case is bankruptcy. When a person files bankruptcy, all creditors must immediately stop trying to get their money \u2013 no phone calls, no emails, no letters, and any pending collection lawsuits are paused. This is called the \u201cAutomatic Stay<\/strong>\u201d and is one of the protections offered to debtors who file bankruptcy \u2013 you no longer are hounded about your unpaid bills.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Automatic Stay applies to governmental entities, too. The City<\/strong> electric department, the City trash department, etc. cannot hound you for payment. Specifically, the statute says it applies to the Federal <\/strong>government, the States <\/strong>and \u201cother domestic or foreign governments.\u201d That seems to apply to all governments, simple enough?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Well, Brian Coughlin<\/strong> borrowed $1,100 from a payday loan business owned by the Lac Du Flambeau Band<\/strong> of Lake Superior<\/strong> Chippewa Indians<\/strong>. Coughlin filed bankruptcy and \u201cThe Band<\/strong>,\u201d as they call themselves, did not stop trying to collect and now argues before the Supreme Court that the Automatic Stay does not apply to Native American Nations<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Coughlin says \u201cother domestic or foreign governments\u201d is simple to read and apply \u2013 The Band is a domestic or foreign government, end of story. The Band argues that \u201cother domestic or foreign governments\u201d does not include Native American Nations because in every other law where the federal government says that United States law controls over Native American sovereign freedom then that law specifically says Native American Nations are included. And they are right, there is no known law that imposes control over the freedom of Native American Nations without specifically saying so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Since the bankruptcy law does not say Native American governments, the tribe argues, Congress did not intend to include them \u2013 because they are always specific when it comes to telling Native American Nations what to do. I bet you did not think you would hear a good argument why the words \u201cother domestic or foreign governments\u201d does not include Native American governments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For three years Coughlin and The Band have been arguing these three words, which happens all the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Trump <\/strong>is indicted again. This time it is about classified documents, and, the kickers, obstruction of justice and false statements. For Trump supporters, the obstruction and false statement charges should draw concern. While the special counsel and media may bloviate about how serious the classified document charges are, no one is listening, partially because Joe Biden got caught with his own stash of classified documents, and the American public is pretty big on the law of the goose and the gander.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Also named in the indictment is Walt Nauta<\/strong>, a former presidential aide who kept working for Trump after Trump left office. Nauta faces six charges. Trump and Nauta, along with others, are charged with conspiracy to obstruct justice for allegedly conspiring to keep documents from the grand jury. They are also charged with withholding a document or record, corruptly concealing a document or record, concealing a document in a federal investigation, scheme to conceal, and two counts of false statements and representations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It seems pretty clear what the Feds are alleging \u2013 Trump was caught red-handed with the classified documents but lied to cover it up, which is a common fact pattern in politics \u2013 it isn\u2019t the scandal that gets you, it is the cover up that gets you. See Watergate<\/strong>, Clinton\/Lewinski<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The FBI <\/strong>and US Attorneys<\/strong> are pros at prosecuting obstruction-type charges, and anyone supporting Trump needs to be concerned about these charges being a centerpiece of the recent indictment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Justice Elena Kagan<\/strong> sang \u201cI\u2019m a Barbie girl, Living in a Barbie world\u201d from the bench of the United States Supreme Court<\/strong>. No cap. She\u2019s talking about trademark law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Court, in a unanimous decision last week, sided with Jack Daniel\u2019s Tennessee Whiskey<\/strong> in its legal fight with VIP Products<\/strong>, a dog toy maker whose \u201cBad Spaniels<\/strong>\u201d squeaky toy looks like almost exactly like a Jack Daniels<\/strong> bottle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Justice Elena Kagan had a good time announcing the decision, holding up the Bad Spaniels novelty dog toy, then singing the words \u201cI\u2019m a blond bimbo girl, in a fantasy world.\u201d In the non-entertaining world of trademark law, the Court explained, the defining characteristic of a trademark is that it signals the \u201csource\u201d of a good or service to consumers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For example, when you see the word \u201cOreo<\/strong>\u201d on a package of cookies, you know those cookies came from the same company as every other pack of Oreo cookies. That makes \u201cOreo\u201d a trademark.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Court held that using someone else\u2019s trademark, or a modified version of it like the \u201cBad Spaniels\u201d mark that looked just like Jack Daniels, violates trademark law. Bad Spaniels had argued that the First Amendment protected poking fun at Jack Daniels as a parody. The Court said parodies are fine as long as it is clear that the parody is not coming from the original owner of the trademark, for example, \u201cI\u2019m Fat\u201d by Weird Al<\/strong> and \u201cBarbie World\u201d by Aqua<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mitchell Driskell practices law with the Tannehill Carmean firm and has been an Oxford lawyer for twenty two years. You can call him at 662.236.9996 and email him at mitchell@tannehillcarmean.com. He practices criminal law, civil law and family law.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n War of the Words There is a case pending before the Supreme Court that is a good example<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":123458,"featured_media":114720,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18405],"tags":[5,18283,4,18284],"class_list":["post-129746","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mitchell-driskell","tag-mississippi","tag-mitchell-driskell","tag-oxford","tag-the-local-lawyer"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/MitchellDriskell-columnHeader-03.jpg?fit=996%2C504&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129746","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/123458"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=129746"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129746\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/114720"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=129746"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=129746"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=129746"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}It isn\u2019t the Crime, It\u2019s the Cover-up<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019m a Barbie Girl, Living in a Legal World<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/TheLocalVoiceLigature-25web.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"