- Math curriculum wars in Seattle school district head for court [Seattle Times]
- Stuart Taylor, Jr. reviews new Abigail Thernstrom book on the Voting Rights Act [New Republic]
- Gail Wilensky: Dems could’ve gotten GOP votes for health care reform if they’d compromised on medical liability [The Hill]
- Erin Brockovich swoops down on Florida cancer cluster [Fumento/CEI, more, also on Florida case]
- Barry Goldwater was right: right-leaning bloggers favor lifting military gay ban by 62-37 margin in National Journal bloggers poll;
- Jim Copland vs. Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter [Point of Law, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, more]
- Why is there no iPod or iPhone equivalent for automobiles? Regulation might have something to do with it [Ryan Avent and more via Sullivan; McArdle and more (commenter: "Motorcycles would never, EVER be approved by NHTSA if they were invented today.")]
- So reassuring: for now FTC says it’s “unlikely to actually investigate individual bloggers” [Lewis, NYLJ] More from late last year on commission’s semi-retreat on blogger freebies [Publisher's Weekly, GalleySmith, GalleyCat, Reason "Hit and Run", William S. Galkin] Icons to make disclosure easy [Louis Gray]
From the monthly archives:
February 2010
Lawmakers in the island country are considering enacting new pro-speech laws that might serve as an umbrella for some non-Icelanders as well. But let’s not get our hopes up: libel tourism, and in particular “the principle that publication happens at the point of download, not the point of upload,” will continue to give plaintiffs an edge. [Arthur Bright/Citizen Media Law, Larry Ribstein/Ideoblog, Jesse Walker/Reason]
{ 1 comment }
Los Angeles has trouble getting rid of problem teachers too [L.A. Weekly, Brian Doherty/KCET] Our post a couple of weeks ago about New York City’s “rubber room” stirred considerable comment.
Some commenters find the damages to be elusive, though [Evanston, Ill.; Chicago Sun-Times via White Coat, Jake Aryeh Marcus/BlogHer via Carton/Legal Blog Watch]
{ 13 comments }
Are consumers as a group better off? [Tony Santaella, WLTX/USA Today via Carpe Diem]
Update Mar. 10: Continental, American announce similar cuts.
{ 6 comments }
“When I look closely at these claims, I am appalled to discover this patent claims, as a novel invention, things that I’ve done regularly, with a mix of my brain and a computer, since at least 1999.” [Bradley M. Kuhn via Pete Warden]
{ 1 comment }
Bob Dorigo Jones reports that volunteers won’t build one for fear of liability. He’s got a second post with more on lawsuit fears and Michigan charities.
The Arizona Supreme Court upheld an inmate’s sentence of death 25 years ago; he’s now died of natural causes at age 94, the sentence having been neither lifted nor put into effect in all those years. John Steele Gordon: “It seems to me this country should either abolish the death penalty or reform the system to make it effective.”
{ 14 comments }
Last week my colleagues at the Manhattan Institute put out a report in their Trial Lawyers Inc. series taking a look at the lobbying clout of the plaintiff’s bar in Washington and elsewhere. It’s full of interesting details and vignettes, and now Jim Copland, who presided over the compiling of the report, will be blogging it all week at Point of Law. His first installment is here.
{ 2 comments }
A new book on the Paula Jones/Bill Clinton legal mess [Janet Maslin, New York Times; my views back when]
A California federal judge has dismissed Alexander Stern’s case against the Japanese entertainment company, ruling that online multiplayer games such as EverQuest, unlike bricks-and-mortar establishments, are not “places of public accommodation” under the Americans with Disabilities Act [OnPoint News, opinion in PDF courtesy OnPoint, earlier here and here] (& Darleen Click, Protein Wisdom)
Look before you leap, Iowa Rep. Schultz [Ed Brayton]
{ 5 comments }
The Motorcycle Industry Council feels momentum is now on its side in its effort to re-legalize youth motorcycles and all-terrain vehicles, which flunk CPSIA’s ban on lead-containing alloys. [MotorcycleUSA.com] More background here and here.
{ 3 comments }
The BBC’s “Horrible Histories” kids’ show parodies a certain familiar sort of ad [via MetaFilter]:
- “U.S. Still Won’t Join International Criminal Court” [Julian Ku, Opinio Juris via Adler] International jurisdiction is a bit of a crime in itself [Stuttaford, NRO "Corner"]
- “Tourette’s Sufferer Sues Starbucks for Discrimination” [Seattle Weekly]
- Colorado: “Science Fair Bans Most Science” [Free-Range Kids]
- For best results in lawsuit against “Girls Gone Wild” producer, it helps not to have made X-rated films [OnPoint News]
- New Mexico revolt against Feds’ takeover of community bank [Bank Lawyer's Blog, more]
- Citizen’s United decision continued: “Yes, money is speech” [Rick Esenberg, Point of Law] “When Individuals Form Corporations, They Don’t Lose Their Rights” [Ilya Shapiro, Cato at Liberty]
- Thomas Lenard and Paul Rubin, “In Defense of Data: Information and the Costs of Privacy” [SSRN last year]
- Sex-harassment charge against six-year-old boy will cost Brockton, Mass. taxpayers $180,000 [Brockton Enterprise]
{ 4 comments }
Such was supposedly a law firm’s explanation for why they wanted a picture of San Francisco on their web page, though they didn’t have office there. [Clients From Hell]
{ 3 comments }
In legal settlements, that is, thanks to California’s Prop 65 [Cal Biz Lit] We’ve met the Center for Environmental Health before here and here.
P.S.: Bounty-hunting for lead residues has “sort of become big business in California” [Jennifer Taggart, quoted in the Washington Post]
There’s plenty of accident-chasing, barratry and “runner” use, per the presenters at one seminar [LareDOS]
