Where's Larry?

As I have recently said, I have a very clear idea of how many people read this blog and some sense of who they are. This is not a big-time operation. It is something I do primarily for my own amusement. So, why do I feel guilty? Why do I feel pressure to post? Who knows, but I do.

The reason I have not posted in a while is two fold. First, I was on vacation. That was good. I came home from vacation sick. That was bad. Pretty much all week, I have been down with fever. I feel like a lizard--I seem incapable of controlling my body temperature. At least I did. Today I am feeling much better, thank you.

What I have been doing with my time is watching my new favorite show: History Detectives. This is a very cool show in which a team of professionals investigate the interesting little stories and artifacts people submit. For example, a woman from Greenwich Village asked whether John Wilkes Booth may have plotted to kill Lincoln in her living room. They hunt down real estate records, theater historians, and other evidence to determine that Booth was in New York at the relevant time and that the house had been occupied by an actor friend of Booth's. Eventually, they found that Booth's friend had given testimony to the congressional investigation recounting a meeting with Booth in which he explained a plot to kidnap Lincoln. It's very cool when it comes together like that.

In another episode, two sisters in Louisiana wanted proof that their short sword (technically a dirk) was given to their ancestor by Napoleon. Turns out the dirk was made too late to have belonged to Napoleon. But, they dug up info on the ancestor and found out that he was present at the Battle of Wagram. In fact, he was a hero and captured the enemy flag. Guess what, Napoleon did in fact give him an honorary weapon. But it was a pistol, not a dirk. Again, it is cool to see family stories revealed.

That is all relevant to absolutely nothing. But, it is what was on my DVR and what I have been watching while doped up on cold medicine and too addle-brained to work. It beats the heck out of Oprah, Regis, or--Lord help me--The View.

My flu fog is lifting. I hope to be back to substantive work soon.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

CAFC Decision in Double Invoicing Case

The Federal Circuit has issued a decision on the merits in United States v. Inn Foods, Inc.  There had been a previous decision on jurisdiction, which was followed by a trial at the Court of International Trade and then this appeal on the substance. The initial issue is whether Inn Foods' invoicing practice amounts to fraud.  Inn Foods had been receiving an invoice from growers in Mexico that had a relatively low sales prices on it.  Subsequent to entry, Inn Foods created a second invoice at something more similar to market value, retaining the original invoice number, and paid at that higher amount.   Superficially, this looks like a standard-issue double-invoicing scheme.  But, in the age of reconciliation, is it really more like a provisional pricing mechanism?  It might have been possible to make that argument had Inn Foods adjusted its entries accordingly.  It didn't and the loss of revenue was approximately $624,000.  Based on testimony and evidence indicating both knowl
Read more

Target on Finality

Image
In the last post , about the Federal Circuit’s very important decision on due process and allegations of evasion of antidumping duties, I made a snarky, offhand comment that the government believes “liquidation is magic.” That was in the context of the government arguing that Customs’ liquidation of entries mooted an appeal, thereby taking away the importer’s right to further judicial review. I said that knowing full well that I still needed to write this post summarizing Target Corp. v. United States in which Target made what I want to be a valid and righteous argument that Customs’ improper liquidation of entries at a favorable rate of antidumping duty prevents the Court of International Trade from ordering Customs to collect the legally applicable duties. But it turns out that while liquidation is an important legal step, in at least one unusual circumstance it is not sufficiently powerful to overcome the full force of an Article III court. Understanding this case requires a lot
Read more

CAFC: EAPA Process Really Does Violate Due Process

Image
Hot on the heels of my complaining about how the EAPA law and process is stacked against importers, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has issued an important decision that will have a major impact on how those cases work. If you are unfamiliar with evasion cases under the Enforce and Protect Act and how Customs and Border Protection handles them, go back and look at these two posts: Part 1 , Part 2. Royal Brush Manufacturing, Inc. v. United States , is the decision in an evasion case against Royal Brush involving pencils allegedly transshipped from China through the Philippines. Customs determined that there was evasion of an antidumping duty order based in part on evidence that was not disclosed to Royal. Specifically, Customs sent a representative to the facility in the Philippines to photograph the interior and provide a report. Customs refused to disclose all the photographs to Royal. Moreover, CBP's report concluded that the facility did not have sufficient capacit
Read more