Under the Civil Rights Attorney’s Fees Award Act of 1976, plaintiffs collect fees if they win even in part, but pay no fees if they lose. That puts a bludgeon in the hands of objectors in church-state lawsuits (as well as in many other kinds of lawsuits characterized as being about civil rights). Rep. John Hostettler of Indiana has introduced the Public Expression of Religion Act, a bill that would attempt to level the playing field as regards claims of religion-related civil rights violations by public officials. It would do so, however, by eliminating fee entitlements entirely; that would indeed deprive long-shot suits of much of their in terrorem effect, but at the cost of undercutting valid claims brought under the act. Why not take a look at moving toward full two-way fee shifting instead? (Christopher Levenick, “High Noon at Sunrise Rock”, WSJ/OpinionJournal.com, May 27).
Chronicling the high cost of our legal system
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Point of Law- Around the web, November 9Small favors dept.: managers of House health bill agree to amendment reducing incentive for states to repeal existing fee/award limits, but states without such limits would still be accorded new incentives not to adopt them [Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Pero]... […]Walter Olson
- Medical malpractice reform omitted from House health care billThe lack of medical liability reform in the House health care bill and the political power of trial lawyers were two points argued late Saturday when Republicans moved to recommit the health care bill, H.R. 3962, to committee. A motion... […]Carter Wood
- House passes chemical facility security bill, welcomes litigationThe U.S. House of Representatives on Friday voted 230-193 to pass H.R. 2868, the Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Act. (Roll call vote.) All but 21 Democrats voted in favor; Republicans all opposed. With the announcement yesterday of October's 10.2 percent unemployment,... […]Carter Wood
- "Spano's Suicide: Housing Plan Doomed County Exec"The New York Post has now picked up a slightly shortened version of my City Journal piece on the housing lawsuit that contributed to a voter revolt in Westchester. P.S. The Weekly Standard "Scrapbook" feature discusses the piece, as do... […]Walter Olson
- "Chloroform for tort reform"The Washington Times assails as "dishonest" and a "poison pill" the House health bill's provisions bribing states not to enact limits on malpractice awards and attorneys' fees.... […]Walter Olson
- Around the web, November 9
- Volokh
- Virginity Among Unmarried Heterosexual 25-to-45-Year-Old AmericansI just saw a fascinating study on the subject, Eisenberg et al., Who is the 40-Year-Old Virgin and Where Did He/She Come From? Data from the National Survey of Family Growth. Unfortunately, the New Scientist blog post about the study erred in an important way: It reported that among men and women “aged 25 to 45,” [...] […]Eugene Volokh
- More on California Tax-Services Model — William Voegeli Responds to CommentsLast week I blogged about a very interesting article in the Manhattan Institute’s City Journal by Claremont Review of Books contributing editor William Voegeli titled “The Big-Spending, High-Taxing, Lousy Services Paradigm” (Autumn 2009). It compared the tax-services models of California and Texas. VC commenters were spirited as ever and raised a […]Kenneth Anderson
- Bloggers: 10% unemployment would be disaster for Dems in 2010. Split on whether Cap/Trade will passIn last week’s National Journal of political bloggers, one question asked: “If unemployment remains at roughly the current level, what impact will that have on the 2010 midterm elections?” One hundred percent of the Right, and 89 percent of the Left bloggers thought it would hurt Democrats, and most thought it would hurt them a [...] […]David Kopel
- Monday Bear BloggingRenewing the intermittent tradition of Monday bear blogging, I thought I’d note this story. Copyright © 2009 This feed is for personal, non-commercial use only. The use of this feed on other websites breaches copyright. If this content is not in your news reader, it makes the page you are viewing an infringement of the [...] […]Jonathan H. Adler
- CVSG in Staub v. Proctor HospitalThe Court didn’t grant cert in any cases today. It did, however, call for the views of the Solicitor General in Staub v. Proctor Hospital, 09–400, a case presenting the question of the proper standard to employ in determining whether an employer can be held liable based on the unlawful intent of officials who [...] […]John Elwood
- Virginity Among Unmarried Heterosexual 25-to-45-Year-Old Americans
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