11th Circuit argument centers on "dildos and cock rings"

No joke.  While David Ovalle was waiting to see the Lolita arguments, he got to see Paul Petruzzi argue that his client -- a drama teacher convicted of attempting to have sex with a 16-year old former student -- was prejudiced by the passing around of this "highly inflammatory evidence" which was found in his client's car.  Petruzzi didn't hold back, openly discussing the evidence during his argument.  Ovalle had some fun with this on his twitter feed.  And Petruzzi got the last word.

Meantime, that wasn't the only argument with some excitement, as the Lolita supporters showed up this morning:

The government “rubber stamps” the license for the Miami Seaquarium despite the park keeping Lolita the killer whale in inhumane conditions, an animal rights group told a federal appeals court Tuesday.The “highly intelligent” whale is kept in a tank that is too small and “without shelter from the hot Miami sun and without the company of another orca,” a lawyer for the Animal Defense Fund told a three-judge panel Tuesday.Tuesday’s court battle was the latest push in a long-running campaign to free Lolita, a 20-foot, 7,000-pound killer whale that has performed at the Virginia Key marine park for over four decades. The whale, captured in the cool ocean waters of the Pacific Northwest, was recently added to a federal endangered species list, a protection given to her wild family nearly a decade ago.The court hearing was packed with Lolita supporters, some wearing T-shirts emblazoned with her name.Over the decades, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has routinely renewed the Seaquarium exhibitor’s license — a practice that became the focal point of a 2012 lawsuit filed by the ADF and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.At issue: Lolita’s supporters believe the annual license renewal flies in the face of the 1967 Animal Welfare Act, which calls for the “humane” care and treatment of marine mammals. Seaquarium managers have repeatedly rebuffed the accusations, saying the killer whale, long a top attraction, is well care for and healthy.A South Florida federal judge threw out the initial lawsuit but Lolita supporters appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals of the 11th Circuit, which granted Tuesday’s oral arguments held in downtown Miami.

Gotta love Miami!

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/environment/article16159679.html#storylink=cpy