Overlawyered » Boston http://overlawyered.com Chronicling the high cost of our legal system Tue, 14 Feb 2012 11:28:52 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 en hourly 1 December 6 roundup http://overlawyered.com/2011/12/december-6-roundup/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/12/december-6-roundup/#comments Tue, 06 Dec 2011 13:23:12 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=26076
  • TSA: design of gun on purse is “replica gun” [Radley Balko]
  • “Note: Before Attaching Ankle Monitor, Make Sure Leg Is Real” [Lowering the Bar]
  • “Harm to others” rationale seems to fall by wayside as Boston bans workplace use of e-cigarettes [Jacob Sullum]
  • “Should legislation protect the obese?” [NYT "Room for Debate"]
  • German town drops charges against Pope Benedict XVI for failure to wear seat belt in Popemobile [WaPo, Lowering the Bar, Irish Times]
  • Ninth Circuit agrees to review litigation seeking court takeover of vets’ mental care [SFChron, WSJ Law Blog, earlier]
  • The shaky science of “shaken baby syndrome” [Pfaff, Prawfs, ABA Journal, earlier here, here] Jerry Brown should pardon dubiously convicted grandmother [Emily Bazelon, Slate]
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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2011/12/december-6-roundup/feed/ 1     Making Veteran’s Day friends http://overlawyered.com/2011/11/making-veterans-day-friends/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/11/making-veterans-day-friends/#comments Sun, 13 Nov 2011 22:08:23 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=25636 A staffer at Suffolk Law School in Boston solicited “much needed supplies to put in care packages to be sent to deployed troops” in Afghanistan, including a Suffolk student serving there. That didn’t sit well with Prof. Michael Avery, whose letter deploring the request, as well as the display of a large American flag at Suffolk, has been stirring discussion among Michael Graham listeners and Above the Law readers ever since.

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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2011/11/making-veterans-day-friends/feed/ 1     Food law roundup http://overlawyered.com/2011/09/food-law-roundup-2/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/09/food-law-roundup-2/#comments Tue, 13 Sep 2011 14:56:43 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=24546
  • Feds fund Boston campaign bashing sweetened drinks [Globe; see also on NYC] More on ObamaCare “Public Health Fund” subsidies to local paternalist initiatives on diet [WLF]
  • Thanks to federal funding priorities, New York education department had 40 experts on school lunches, only one on science education [Frederick Hess via Stoll]
  • Grocers hope to escape federal menu labeling mandate [FDA Law Blog] How regulations exasperate midsize restaurant operators [Philip Klein, Wash. Examiner]
  • “The Eight Dumbest Restaurant Laws” [Zagat]
  • Proposed federal standards on kid food ads extreme enough that many USDA “healthy” recipes would flunk [Diane Katz, Heritage] Do FTC’s guidelines violate the First Amendment? [WSJ]
  • Compared with what? “Egg farm regulations still skimpy” [Stoll] Deer blamed for E. coli in pick-your-own strawberries [USA Today]
  • U.K.: Your kids are too fat so we’re taking them away [Daily Mail; earlier here, here, etc.]
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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2011/09/food-law-roundup-2/feed/ 1     Att’n Boston Mayor Menino http://overlawyered.com/2011/04/attn-boston-mayor-menino/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/04/attn-boston-mayor-menino/#comments Mon, 11 Apr 2011 16:58:17 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=22476 It doesn’t count as a “healthier choice” unless you actually let people choose. [Amy Alkon] And: Are we surprised that federal tax money is bankrolling the Boston mayor’s demonize-sweet-drinks kick? Not really, given that the federal government has been dishing out money to Michael Bloomberg’s administration in New York for similar purposes.

    P.S.: “To encourage healthful eating, [a Chicago public] school doesn’t allow kids to bring lunches or certain snacks from home.” [Chicago Tribune]

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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2011/04/attn-boston-mayor-menino/feed/ 8     February 24 roundup http://overlawyered.com/2011/02/february-24-roundup-2/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/02/february-24-roundup-2/#comments Thu, 24 Feb 2011 15:56:31 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=21668
  • Judge Ciavarella defiant after racketeering conviction in Pennsylvania cash-for-kids horror [TheLegalIntel, Sullum and more, WSJ Law Blog, Greenfield, earlier]
  • Widener lawprof Lawrence Connell facing discipline over hypotheticals in class [Orin Kerr, NLJ, interview at NAS]
  • “Do we even want to remain a child care center if we have to eliminate all the parts we love?” [Free-Range Kids] Lawsuit fears tame a Frederick, Md. ice playground [same]
  • Marquette lawprof Rick Esenberg on Wisconsin showdown [first, second, third posts]
  • A patent owner, the Chicago Tribune and Sen. Durbin: Anatomy of a pool drain scare story [Woldenberg, AmendTheCPSIA.com]
  • Mayor Thomas Menino vows to save Boston from scourge of everyday low prices [Mark Perry]
  • “Comp Hearing Scheduled ‘On the Sly’ for Texting Cop Who Caused Fatal Accident” [Debra Cassens Weiss, ABA Journal] “Paying for bad cops” [Balko]
  • Demand for shaker abstinence: nosy, hectoring CSPI files suit asking that salt in food be subjected to FDA regulation [six years ago on Overlawyered]
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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2011/02/february-24-roundup-2/feed/ 1     $6.7 million awarded after drunk student’s fall http://overlawyered.com/2011/02/6-7-million-awarded-after-drunk-students-fall/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/02/6-7-million-awarded-after-drunk-students-fall/#comments Thu, 24 Feb 2011 05:08:05 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=21659 “A judge has awarded more than $6.7 million to the family of a Northeastern University student who fell down a set of stairs at a Boston bar in 2007 and died after a night of drinking. The judge’s award comes about three months after a jury ruled the bar violated the city building code but was not liable for the 21-year-old man’s death.” [Boston Globe; Herald; MyFoxBoston]

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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2011/02/6-7-million-awarded-after-drunk-students-fall/feed/ 2     December 4 roundup http://overlawyered.com/2010/12/december-4-roundup-2/ http://overlawyered.com/2010/12/december-4-roundup-2/#comments Sat, 04 Dec 2010 05:17:29 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=20476
  • Will they get group discounts on lawyers? Groupon vs. MobGob patent brawl [TechCrunch]
  • Why American courts should sometimes recognize Islamic law [series of Eugene Volokh posts]
  • No, it’s not a “public health issue”: “The Case Against Motorcycle Helmet Laws” [Steve Chapman, syndicated/RCP]
  • Failed system of justice on some Indian reservations [McClelland, Mother Jones]
  • Ten years ago: Morgan Lewis & Bockius handed mlb.com domain over to its client Major League Baseball [Ross Davies, SSRN]
  • City of Boston adds insult to injury after employee runs into building [TJIC, Popehat]
  • Citing fans’ drug use, feds seek forfeiture of farm used for Grateful Dead tribute concerts [Greenfield]
  • Johann Sebastian Bach, serial copyright violator [Cavanaugh, Reason]
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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2010/12/december-4-roundup-2/feed/ 0     Welcome WRKO listeners http://overlawyered.com/2010/05/welcome-wrko-listeners/ http://overlawyered.com/2010/05/welcome-wrko-listeners/#comments Mon, 17 May 2010 02:03:37 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=17384 I was a guest this evening on Kevin Whalen’s Pundit Review talk show on the Boston station. We mostly discussed the Elena Kagan Supreme Court nomination, on which I’ve blogged here, here, here, and here. More: a write-up, and audio.

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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2010/05/welcome-wrko-listeners/feed/ 0     Sorry, locavores http://overlawyered.com/2010/03/sorry-locavores/ http://overlawyered.com/2010/03/sorry-locavores/#comments Tue, 30 Mar 2010 15:38:55 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=16715 We know you’re looking for small-scale, locally produced meat, but it’s been marginalized thanks to regulation among other causes:

    The state [Vermont] has seven operating slaughterhouses, down from around 25 in the mid-1980s, [state meat inspection official Randy] Quenneville said. One is a state-inspected facility, meaning that meat inspected there cannot be sold over state lines. …

    Mr. Quenneville said a number of small, family-owned slaughterhouses started closing when strict federal rules regarding health control went into effect in 1999.

    Not entirely unrelatedly, here’s an article on underground restaurants in Boston, a trend that has spread from Portland, Ore.

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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2010/03/sorry-locavores/feed/ 7     Boston cops arrest people who videotape their actions http://overlawyered.com/2010/02/boston-cops-arrest-people-who-videotape-their-actions/ http://overlawyered.com/2010/02/boston-cops-arrest-people-who-videotape-their-actions/#comments Sat, 06 Feb 2010 13:10:39 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=15946 They’re invoking laws against wiretapping, which you might naively think were passed to protect the people from the authorities, not vice versa, [Boston Globe/Daniel Rowinski, New England Center for Investigative Reporting; Radley Balko, Reason "Hit and Run"] Now lawyer Simon Glik, who was arrested for recording an arrest, is suing three cops and the city [NLJ]

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