Not all courts are Supreme

Lawyers are glued to the Sotomayor confirmation hearings this week, but as they proceed judges are presiding over cases with little or nothing to do with enumerated Constitutional powers, partisan bickering or wise Latinas:

In New Jersey, a judge dismissed Donald Trump's defamation case against the author of Trump Nation: The Art of Being the Donald. He sued because the author estimated Trump's fortune at only $150 million to $250 million, while the Donald's own estimate was about $4 billion. The judge decided that since the author had reason to believe the estimate, which he gathered from three different sources, Trump couldn't prove the necessary "actual malice" to win the case. And speaking of large numbers, can the decision lift the book from its current Amazon sales rank of 2,760,735?

Meanwhile, back at the shire, heirs of J.R.R. Tolkien, along with a charity they run, are suing Time Warner Inc. for $220 million. The Hobbit heirs say the studio owes them a percentage of receipts for the Lord of the Rings films – which Time Warner says have made $6 billion. If the two sides don't settle, the case will go before a Los Angeles court in October. You can find more detail here .

And finally, speaking again of books, a Kindle user is suing amazon.com in federal court, claiming that the cover that is supposed to protect the Kindle actually breaks it. Disgruntled Seattle reader Matthew Geise wants the judge to certify a class action so everyone with the same complaint can join the lawsuit.