In case you were thinking that Maine appellate practice isn't particularly high on the national radar screen, let two recent experiences disabuse you of this notion.
First, the cover story of this month's ABA appellate magazine ("the Judges' Journal") is "Cultures in Court." Sure enough, our culture case, State v. Kargar, 679 A.2d 81 (Me 1996) [http://www.pierceatwood.com/files/452_State%20v.%20Kargar%20(W1066587).PDF ], was featured. There have been a lot of articles written about this case (including one authored by Prof. Wanderer and myself, 77 Buffalo L. Rev. 829). This particular story discusses many other cases in which cultural issues were implicated as well, in a variety of contexts. It's written by a professor of political science and anthropology, so it's not a black and white law review type article, and quite informative reading. (There's also an interesting article in the journal about Chief Justice Marshall from the Massachusetts SJC.)
Second, I was watching the last Law & Order on televisison recently, and something seemed familiar …. yes, they were using aspects of our In Re Spado, 2009 ME 76 [http://www.courts.state.me.us/court_info/opinions/2009%20documents/09me76sp.pdf]. They certainly played fast and loose with not only the factual predicate but the law (there can't be any adult same-sex adoptions in New York, for example), but it was a new experience for me to have someone use one of my cases in a fictional tv show.
On a completely different note, Prof. Wanderer is uploading the new version of the Uniform Maine Citations to the U. of Maine Law School site, so there is no excuse for outdated citing anymore. MRS, not MRSA etc. http://mainelaw.maine.edu/academics/pdf/UMC3rdupdate2009.pdf
