Chronicling the high cost of our legal system
From the monthly archives:
I’ve got some thoughts up at Cato at Liberty on President Obama’s new nominee.
Other views: Ted and Carter at Point of Law, Ilya Somin, Jonathan Adler, and Jim Lindgren at Volokh. And Ilya Shapiro digs into Kagan’s record on the First Amendment with some not especially reassuring results, while Radley Balko finds cause for concern on criminal law and civil liberties.
{ 6 comments }
Lenore Skenazy has details of a story from Edmonton, Alberta. Update courtesy reader Jerry Vandesic: suit dropped.
{ 7 comments }
Lawyers are doing very, very well from the rising wave of prosecutions under the 33-year-old Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. But what other good is being done? Nathan Vardi takes a close look in a cover story (and sidebars) at Forbes. Some background: Point of Law.
A bill in the California legislature held out hope for encouraging wider adoption of the lifesaving devices, but couldn’t make it past the Litigation Lobby. [John Frith, California Civil Justice Blog]
{ 3 comments }
I blogged at Cato at Liberty yesterday about a copy of the U.S. Constitution sold with a parental advisory warning (hat tip: reader Clark S.). According to the warning, it might be a good idea not to let kids read the nation’s founding document until having a discussion with them about how views on race, sex, etc. have changed since it was written. It’s just boilerplate, of course, as found on other books from the same publisher. More: Eugene Volokh and Damon Root, Reason “Hit and Run”. And reader L.S. points out that in their prefatory matter the publishers also purport to prohibit readers from using or reproducing the text of the Constitution without permission.
P.S. First Things commenter Jared: “I presume, in the interests of not being chauvinistic about the present, that which they publish written today also carries a similar warning label: ‘This book is a product of the cultural mores and prejudices of the early twenty-first century…’”
{ 5 comments }
More kind comments on my move from Ramesh Ponnuru at NRO “Corner” and David Lat and Elie Mystal at Above the Law (earlier). And I’m very grateful for Chris Rizo’s full-length treatment at Legal NewsLine, even if it’s hard for me to imagine anyone calling me a “godfather” of anything.
{ 2 comments }
Germany: “Teacher with rabbit phobia to sue 14-year-old for drawing bunny.” The educator “says she was traumatized by the drawing, and claims the girl knew it would terrify her.” [Telegraph]
{ 14 comments }
It might sound good, says Ted at CCAF, till you actually give it a look. A fairness hearing is coming up May 14.
And then sues would-be suicide over foot injury sustained in the jump. The unusual case reached an Illinois appellate court last year, which ruled that a suit could proceed against the would-be suicide, though not his wife, who had also been named as a defendant on the grounds that she had requested the plaintiff’s help. [Illinois Injury Lawyer Blog]
{ 4 comments }
Losing plaintiffs in a medical malpractice case “argued that it would be unfair to assess costs given the financial disparity between the parties,” but the court found that argument unpersuasive. It should be noted that the “costs” being shifted in this and most other federal cases do not include attorneys’ fees and most other big-ticket expenses of litigation. Or, as Beck et al put it in their summary of the case, “No, it’s not fee-shifting – but at least it’s something.”
“Sunda Croonquist, whose shtick for years has been to describe her life as a half-black, half-Swedish woman who marries into a Jewish family, was sued two years ago after her mother-in-law, sister-in-law and brother-in-law said her jokes were holding them up to public ridicule.” A federal judge in New Jersey, however, has now ruled that the comedy routines were not actionable: many were opinion, not susceptible to being taken literally or otherwise protected under the First Amendment. [AP/MSNBC, earlier] More: Tim Cavanaugh, Reason “Hit and Run”.
{ 1 comment }
The suit claims the hit MTV reality show profits “from showing fights that cast members deliberately provoked.” A New Jersey judge has denied a motion to dismiss. [AP/Daily Caller] More: Courthouse News, Asbury Park Press.
{ 3 comments }
BoingBoing has the details. From a commenter: “shouldn’t these kids be playing violent video games or something?”
{ 2 comments }
I’ve got a new post up (my first, in fact) at Cato at Liberty taking issue with my friends at the Competitive Enterprise Institute over their petition to the Federal Trade Commission asking it to investigate General Motors’s ridiculous bailout ad campaign.
{ 7 comments }
{ 1 comment }
This week the traveling roundup of law-related posts is hosted by a nonlawyer — one who got sued over his blogging — in celebration of World Press Freedom Day. [Public Intellectual via Popehat; earlier coverage of the case]
Get your copy today! My new book tackles the question of why so many bad ideas come from the law schools. "Cutting-edge commentary, hard-hitting, witty, astute." -- Publisher's Weekly. "Excellent... A fine dissection of these strangely powerful institutions" -- Wall Street Journal.
Individual liberty, free markets, and peace: the world's premier libertarian think tank. Publishes Cato at Liberty, where I blog on contemporary policy issues.