According to FIRE, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, an “anti-bullying” bill lately introduced in Congress would alter the definition of harassment in such a way as to give university administrations a strong incentive to punish many forms of controversial student speech, and also press those administrations to monitor students’ use of Facebook and other social media in intrusive ways. I’ve got a new post at Cato at Liberty relaying some of the warnings (welcome Instapundit and Fark readers).
Tagged as:
bullying,
colleges and universities,
Facebook,
harassment law,
social media
- Lawsuit of the Day: Partner Booted From Three Firms Sues ‘Em All! [Legal Blog Watch]
- Drawing wrong lessons from the Rutgers suicide [Greenfield and more (proposed "Tyler's Law"), John Schwartz/NYT (quoting Orin Kerr), Volokh and more, Above the Law]
- John Sullivan leaving after 15 years at helm of Civil Justice Association of California [L.A. Times]
- Maybe consumers don’t feel so victimized by overdraft “protection” after all [Bank Lawyer's Blog]
- Yes, it’s another dust-up pitting all sensible Supreme Court commentators against Dahlia Lithwick, if you like that sort of thing [Kerr, Bodie/Prawfs, Ponnuru, Frank; bonus, Richard Epstein on Erwin Chemerinsky and Hans Bader on a prize flight of Lithwick fancy]
- Blog post relatively sympathetic to Righthaven copyright trollery draws many responses [Robert Zelnick, Patently-O]
- “Should they have let the guy’s house burn down?” [Tyler Cowen; Firey, Cato]
- “Drunken man passes out, wins $850K from police” [six years ago on Overlawyered]
Tagged as:
banks,
bullying,
Dahlia Lithwick,
fire departments,
online speech,
RightHaven,
Supreme Court
Tagged as:
banks,
bullying,
California,
international law,
medical malpractice,
New Jersey,
Philadelphia,
schools,
third party liability for crime,
trademarks,
transit
- “What Really Happened To Phoebe Prince?” [Emily Bazelon, Slate, related series on "cyber-bullying"; ABA Journal]
- Obama backs so-called Paycheck Fairness Act; why business should resist [USA Today, Hyman, ShopFloor, Furchtgott-Roth] Another slant on “paycheck fairness” [AP on Bell, Calif., sequel]
- Unlinked back in February: “Doctors cut back hours when risk of malpractice suit rises, study shows” [Eric Helland and Mark Showalter, JLE, Brigham Young release via Bob Dorigo Jones]
- Also unlinked from back when: thanks for kind mention to Mark Herrmann in “Memoirs of a Blogger,” PDF [Litigation mag courtesy WSJ Law Blog, Drug and Device Law]
- Ditto: Nora Freeman Engstrom on accident-law settlement mills, “Run-of-the-Mill Justice” [Georgetown Journal of Legal Ethics, SSRN, via LEF, Ronald Miller]
- Australia: “Welfare cheat wins right to IVF on jail time” [Melbourne Age]
- “The Nightmare of Legal Discovery” [Lammi, WLF Legal Pulse, related from WLF]
- Tribunal: “Mosquito” teenager-repellent device violates European Convention on Human Rights [Ku, Opinio Juris]
Tagged as:
Australia,
bullying,
discovery,
international human rights,
legal blogs,
medical malpractice,
prisoners,
workplace
- Town counsel of Southborough, Mass. considering legal action against online critic [Evan Lips/MetroWest Daily News, Jacob Sullum/Reason, Aspen Daily News]
- “Drowning in laughter”: pic of ill-advised safety sign [Turley]
- Canadian lawyer accused of fabricating evidence of jury tampering [Times Colonist h/t @ErikMagraken]
- One union (SEIU) wins $1.5 million verdict against another (NUHW) [Fox, Jottings]
- “Anti-Law School Blogs Seek to Keep Others from Making ‘Same Mistake We Did’” [Legal Blog Watch, WSJ Law Blog] Instruction at University of Texas law school has room for improvement [Blackbook Legal] Chief Justice Roberts: law review articles aren’t particularly helpful for practitioners or judges [WSJ Law Blog]
- “Illinois Hospital Loses Tax-Exempt Status for Not Being Charitable Enough” [NLJ]
- “Cyber-bullying” proposal in Suffolk County, N.Y. could criminalize repeated insults [Volokh]
“Where’s the State Action in Tort Awards Based on Speech?” [same]
- George Will: administration “can imagine the world without the internal combustion engine but not without Chrysler” [WaPo/syndicated]
Tagged as:
autos,
bullying,
Canada,
Chrysler,
labor unions,
law schools,
libel slander and defamation,
Massachusetts,
taxes
But only when it’s aimed at one’s spouse, according to the report. [BBC, Barbara Kay/National Post, Ann Althouse] For the active campaign in the U.S. to create rights to sue over “bullying”, psychological and otherwise, in workplace, school and other contexts, see this tag. Quebec has enacted a law to ban “psychological harassment” at work, explained in part here and here.
Tagged as:
bullying,
Canada,
family law,
France
Bloomberg reports that the trial in Italy is going forward
on charges related to a clip uploaded to Google Video in 2006.
The clip was created and posted on the Web by a group of students at a Turin school, who filmed themselves bullying a disabled classmate. Google says that it removed the video as soon as it was notified and that it helped Italian police identify those responsible. The trial has been closed to the media at Google’s request.
“Seeking to hold neutral platforms liable for content posted on them is a direct attack on a free, open Internet,” Google spokesman William Echikson said in June.
More: AP.
Tagged as:
bullying,
Google,
Italy,
privacy,
YouTube
