July 6 roundup

  • “Kagan refused to identify anything the government couldn’t do under its Commerce Clause power” and “consciously left herself plenty of breathing room to cite foreign law inappropriately” [Ilya Shapiro, more]
  • Multiple civil/criminal hats? “The odd responses of the attorney general to the oil spill” [WaPo editorial]
  • Phillies Phanatic, “‘Most-Sued Mascot in the Majors’ Is Back in Court” [Lowering the Bar, which also hosts Blawg Review #271 this week]
  • Federalist Society has a new blog;
  • California will pay $20 million to woman abducted for nearly two decades [AP]
  • Charges dropped against teen who tried to help lost kid in shopping mall [Lenore Skenazy, earlier]
  • Two libertarians arrested after videotaping police in Greenfield, Mass. [Balko, earlier here and here]
  • “‘Ambulance Chaser’ Lawsuits Hound Apple Over iPhone 4” [Atlantic Wire]

2 Comments

  • I won’t say that I thought I couldn’t get any angrier at the state of policing in this country, because I knew I could.

    The Skenazy link is worth a Two Minutes’ Hate all on its own.

  • The taxpayers of California (a state on the verge of bankruptcy, btw) will pay $20 million to the abducted woman and her children. Never mind the fact that for many years during her “abduction” she was free to walk away at any moment. The vote was nearly unanimous.

    I have sympathy for her, and the police did make some mistakes, but unless you consider the state to be solely responsible for your welfare, this “gift” doesn’t make any sense. It also means that neither her, nor her children, nor her children’s children will ever need to work a day in their lives (same goes for their attorney). I don’t see how this is “healing” anything.

    At the very least, I hope there are two caveats: 1) that some of the money will at least come from the estate of the couple that abducted her, and 2) if she makes any lucrative book/movie deals, she will pay the state back for the funds.