Overlawyered » Barack Obama http://overlawyered.com Chronicling the high cost of our legal system Tue, 14 Feb 2012 16:11:47 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 en hourly 1 “Never let law profs near the Oval Office” http://overlawyered.com/2012/02/never-let-law-profs-near-the-oval-office/ http://overlawyered.com/2012/02/never-let-law-profs-near-the-oval-office/#comments Tue, 07 Feb 2012 18:33:33 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=27421 My Cato colleague Gene Healy points out that President Obama is the fourth chief executive who also taught constitutional law, joining William Howard Taft, Woodrow Wilson and Bill Clinton. “Taft did comparatively little damage, but the rest hardly inspire confidence that familiarity with constitutional scholarship encourages fidelity to the national charter.” [Washington Examiner] He lets me have a parting shot:

My Cato Institute colleague Walter Olson, author of “Schools for Misrule: Legal Academia and an Overlawyered America”, explains that “legal academia rewards cleverness in coming up with strained arguments for ideologically favored (or just expedient) positions; marginalizes as eccentric thinkers who favor original understanding as a guide” to the Constitution and often reduces law to “politics by other means.”

Unfortunately, that training has served Obama well.

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]]> http://overlawyered.com/2012/02/never-let-law-profs-near-the-oval-office/feed/ 0 January 31 roundup http://overlawyered.com/2012/01/january-31-roundup/ http://overlawyered.com/2012/01/january-31-roundup/#comments Tue, 31 Jan 2012 05:06:21 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=26199
  • Latest of periodic Towers Watson (formerly Towers Perrin/Tillinghast) surveys: tort costs fell in 2010 excluding oil spill liability [Towers Watson]
  • “Will Newt Neuter the Courts?” [James Huffman, Defining Ideas] Obama’s high court appointees are fortunately friendlier toward civil liberties than he is [Steve Chapman]
  • Unanimous Cal Supremes: companies not legally responsible for other companies’ asbestos products used as replacement for theirs [Cal Biz Lit, Jackson, Beck, Mass Tort Prof]
  • Claim: jurors considered policy implications of verdict and you can’t have that [On Point; defense verdict in Baltimore, Maryland school-bullying case]
  • Airfare display mandate: “‘Protecting’ Consumers from the Truth About the Cost of Government” [Thom Lambert, TotM]
  • Critical assessment of AP-backed new copyright aggregator “NewsRight” [Mike Masnick] Promises not to be “Righthaven 2.0″ [Cit Media Law]
  • Restatement (Third) of Torts drafters vs. Enlightenment scientific views of causation [David Oliver in June]
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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2012/01/january-31-roundup/feed/ 2     Cato commentary on State of the Union http://overlawyered.com/2012/01/cato-commentary-on-state-of-the-union/ http://overlawyered.com/2012/01/cato-commentary-on-state-of-the-union/#comments Wed, 25 Jan 2012 13:56:53 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=27124
    My Cato colleagues discuss President Obama’s remarks on judicial nominations, the auto bailout, Dodd-Frank and the Cordray appointment, federal control of education and more.

    P.S. “America’s best think tank” [Glenn Reynolds]

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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2012/01/cato-commentary-on-state-of-the-union/feed/ 0     Obama proposes up or down vote on judges http://overlawyered.com/2012/01/obama-proposes-up-or-down-vote-on-judges/ http://overlawyered.com/2012/01/obama-proposes-up-or-down-vote-on-judges/#comments Wed, 25 Jan 2012 13:32:52 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=27120 Ted Frank: “It is ironic that Obama is calling for a 90-day ’simple up or down’ vote on judicial nominees when he is the only sitting president in American history who has voted to filibuster a judicial nomination — and that was for someone well within the mainstream like Justice Alito.”

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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2012/01/obama-proposes-up-or-down-vote-on-judges/feed/ 10     Obama proposal: no leaving school until age 18 or graduation http://overlawyered.com/2012/01/obama-proposal-no-leaving-school-until-age-18-or-graduation/ http://overlawyered.com/2012/01/obama-proposal-no-leaving-school-until-age-18-or-graduation/#comments Wed, 25 Jan 2012 13:19:42 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=27116 Aside from the wisdom of obliging every single young person to serve out such a sentence — conveniently, until draft age, when the State may have other plans for their time — there’s an interest-group angle. Ira Stoll traces it to the National Education Association, which stands to gain from the idea a measurable boost to its dues-paying ranks, and which has in fact proposed mandatory schooling for nongraduates up to age 21. More: Hans Bader, CEI (quoting Overlawyered commenter Kurt); Nick Gillespie, Reason.

    P.S. Watch out for the truancy cops, too [Free-Range Kids; Loudoun County, Va. mother says she was handcuffed and arrested after fifth instance of school tardiness]

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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2012/01/obama-proposal-no-leaving-school-until-age-18-or-graduation/feed/ 7     January 6 roundup http://overlawyered.com/2012/01/january-6-roundup-2/ http://overlawyered.com/2012/01/january-6-roundup-2/#comments Fri, 06 Jan 2012 12:04:01 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=26631
  • Senate takes a bathroom break for five minutes, and Obama uses recess appointments to install unconfirmable nominees. Legal? [Roger Pilon via National Right To Work, Richard Epstein, Mark Calabria, Adler link roundup]. What the New York Times thought back then about recess appointments; what it thinks now.
  • Pepsi defense: our bottling would have dissolved that dead mouse into something jelly-like [Althouse, MC Record via AW]
  • Federal panel proposes slashing definitional thresholds so as to enable diagnosing of hundreds of thousands of new child lead poisoning cases [AP]
  • “Appeals Court Rules Husband Can Be Charged Criminally For Reading Wife’s Email” [Doug Mataconis, Outside the Beltway]
  • Its original goals accomplished, Voting Rights Act “preclearance” lurches on. SCOTUS should review [Cato amicus brief by Ilya Shapiro and Anna Mackin, further]
  • “‘Karma’ Facebook post leads to criminal charges” [Fox Tampa via Balko]
  • As senator, Santorum sought extensive new federal powers to regulate pet dealing, scaring many animal rescue groups [NCRAOA, PDF]
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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2012/01/january-6-roundup-2/feed/ 2     December 19 roundup http://overlawyered.com/2011/12/december-19-roundup/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/12/december-19-roundup/#comments Mon, 19 Dec 2011 05:09:06 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=26261
  • Too much of a stretch: US nixes copyright in yoga exercises [Bloomberg, earlier]
  • “Know your rights dealing with cops” material construed as probative of criminality [Popehat] Is Justice Scalia really an “unlikely” champion of defendants’ Constitutional rights? [LATimes, Adler] “Overcriminalization: The Legislative Side of the Problem” [Larkin/Heritage, related Meese] When feds spring false-statements trap, it won’t matter whether you committed underlying offense being investigated [Popehat] “‘Clean Up Government Act’ sparks overcriminalization concerns” [PoL]
  • Former Attorney General Mukasey on ObamaCare recusal flap [Adler]
  • American Antitrust Institute proposals might be discounted given group’s longstanding pro-plaintiff bias [Thom Lambert]
  • NYC: “The tour guide said that the way to get rich is to be a zoning lawyer.” [Arnold Kling]
  • “Obama’s Top Ten Constitutional Violations” [Ilya Shapiro, Daily Caller] In at least two major areas, “Obama has broken with precedent to curtail religious freedom” [Steve Chapman]
  • Ted Frank-Shirley Svorny med mal debate wraps up [PoL, Bader]
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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2011/12/december-19-roundup/feed/ 0     November 23 roundup http://overlawyered.com/2011/11/november-23-roundup-4/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/11/november-23-roundup-4/#comments Wed, 23 Nov 2011 13:02:02 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=25696
  • Big win for Ted Frank against cy pres slush funds [CCAF, Fisher, Zywicki, CL&P, @tedfrank ("Ninth Circuit rules in my favor ... but I still think I'm right".)]
  • “Can the Vatican Be Subject to ICC Prosecution?” [Ku/OJ]
  • “Tennessee: ATS Sues City Over Right Turn Ticket Money” [The Newspaper]
  • “Law firms dominating campaign contributions to Obama” [WaPo]
  • Does that mean it’s an entitlement? Punitive damage limits face constitutional challenges in Arkansas, Missouri [Cal Punitives]
  • Businessman sues to silence critical blogger, case is dismissed, now files suit #2 [Scott Greenfield]
  • Going Hollywood? “The Supreme Court should move to Los Angeles” [Conor Friedersdorf]
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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2011/11/november-23-roundup-4/feed/ 2     October 12 roundup http://overlawyered.com/2011/10/october-12-roundup-4/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/10/october-12-roundup-4/#comments Wed, 12 Oct 2011 05:13:02 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=24881
  • After President Obama’s Orlando photo-op with construction workers came the high-ticket fundraiser at the home of med-mal titan John Morgan [Orlando Sentinel]
  • “Lawyer Sues Facebook, Says Tracking Cookie Violates Wiretap Laws” [ABA Journal]
  • The bone-marrow bounty that could save a life — and the law that gets in the way [Virginia Postrel]
  • New coalition to repeal New York’s unfair Scaffold Law;
  • “How the FDA Could Cost You Your Life” [Scott Gottlieb on medical device lags, WSJ]
  • Mississippi: new release of sealed Scruggs-scandal documents [YallPolitics, Freeland]
  • What I learned (about false accusation) at Dartmouth [Gonzalo Lira]
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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2011/10/october-12-roundup-4/feed/ 4     June 20 roundup http://overlawyered.com/2011/06/june-20-roundup-3/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/06/june-20-roundup-3/#comments Mon, 20 Jun 2011 13:11:34 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=23460 Politics edition:

    • Mother ship? White House staffers depart for Harvard Law School [Politico]
    • New York: “Lawmakers consider lawyer-friendly med-mal bills,” even as many key legislators moonlight at personal injury firms [Reuters]
    • David Brooks on explosive political potential of Fannie Mae scandal [NYTimes] After Kentucky bar panel’s vote to disbar Chesley, Ohio AG pulls him off Fannie Mae suit [Adler, Frank, Beth Musgrave/Lexington Herald-Leader]
    • Alabama legislature removes Jim Crow language from state constitution — but black lawmakers oppose the idea [Constitutional Daily]
    • AAJ lobbyist Andy Cochran works GOP turf, has convinced trial lawyers to sponsor Christian radio program [Mokhiber, "Seventh Amendment Advocate"]
    • Centers for Disease Control funnels grants to allies for political advocacy on favored public-health causes [Jeff Stier, Daily Caller]
    • Must have mistaken her for a jury: “John Edwards Sought Millions From Heiress” [ABC News] “One thing [worse than Edwards's] conduct is the government’s effort to put him in jail for it.” [Steve Chapman]
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