Except when they are [Sullum, Reason] Why the DISCLOSE Act failed [Samples, Cato, earlier here, here]
Posts tagged as:
campaign regulation
I was on the Oregon-based radio show Tuesday evening to discuss the legislative battle over the DISCLOSE Act and the case of the passenger bumped by Southwest Airlines to make way for the second seat needed for an obese teen.
- Update: Australian judge tells Men at Work to pay 5% of royalties to “Kookaburra” owner, far less than was demanded [Lowering the Bar, earlier here and here]
- McDonald’s CEO pushes back vs. ogrish CSPI’s anti-Happy Meal campaign [Stoll, Mangu-Ward] “Milk, Coke and the Calorie Police” [Jason Kuznicki, Cato]
- “Lawyer sues basketball star LeBron James, alleging he is his father” [CNN, BLT] Update: judge tosses suit.
- Small business tort liability costs estimated at $133 billion [NERA study (PDF) for Chamber's Institute for Legal Reform (press release) via PoL]
- Crawlers, robots.txt and fear of litigation: “Some closure on my collision with Facebook” [Pete Warden]
- Now what was Citizens United supposed to open the floodgates for, exactly? [Bainbridge]
- DOJ “entered into undisclosed agreement with Amex to freeze out the employment of exec who ultimately was cleared of wrongdoing” [Podgor, Kirkendall via Steele]
- Easter egg in financial regulation bill could result in new pressure for gender, ethnic quotas across wide sectors of economy [Diana Furchtgott-Roth, Real Clear Politics; Mark Perry with some figures on the degree of gender balance in Dodd's and Frank's committees]
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- Real-life Lysistrata: “Kenyan man sues over sex boycott ‘stress’” [Telegraph]
- Kagan record not reassuring on campaign-speech issues [Allison Hayward, CCP, Daniel Shuchman/Reason] A “fair-weather originalist”? [Ilya Shapiro, Cato]
- Eugene Volokh thinks the Court made the right call in the student-group-recognition Christian Legal Society case, while Richard Epstein thinks it didn’t;
- Coverage of Ted Frank’s objection in A.G. Edwards settlement [Daniel Fisher, Forbes; Bill McClellan, St. Louis Post-Dispatch]
- West Virginia: “Was DuPont railroaded in Harrison County?” [Don Surber]
- “Predicate” approach hasn’t always worked well as way to curb government privacy incursions [Stewart Baker]
- “Florida Court Tosses Out $522 Million Verdict Against Accounting Firm” [Daily Business Review]
- Justice Department dereliction? “Inside the Black Panther case” [J. Christian Adams, Washington Times]
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- Shameless: House leadership exempts NRA lest it sink bill to regulate political speech [John Samples, Cato]
- Employment law: “Arbitration Showdown Looms Between Congress, Supreme Court” [Coyle, NLJ]
- “Wake Up, Fellow Law Professors, to the Casualties of Our Enterprise” [Tamanaha, Balkinization]
- Move to allow international war crimes trials over “aggression,” a notoriously slippery term [Anderson, Brett Schaefer/NRO "Corner" via Ku]
- Litigation slush funds: “Cy pres bill in Ohio House” [Ted Frank, CCAF]
- “Recent Michigan Prosecutions for ‘Seducing an Unmarried Woman’” [Volokh]
- Scalia: “…least analytically rigorous and hence most subjective of law-school subjects, legal ethics” [LEF]
- Silicosis settlement scandal update: “As 2 Insurance Execs Admit Bribes, PI Lawyer Says He Can’t Be Retried” [Houston Chronicle via ABA Journal, earlier]
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- Attention journalists: a trademark opposition and a trademark lawsuit are two different things [Legal Satyricon]
- I explain (slightly rudely) why I think the Citizens United decision will probably help the Dems this cycle [National Journal blogger poll] Plus: no big effect on campaigns? [Ann Althouse] And it’s not as if Chuck Schumer has made up his mind or anything: he’s titled his hearing on Citizens United next week “Corporate America vs. the Voter” [PoL, yet more here and here]
- Olson and Boies should realize these are not the days of the Warren Court [Dale Carpenter, Independent Gay Forum]
- Motorists beware Tenaha, Texas: the legal sequel [WSJ Law Blog, earlier here, etc.]
- “Detroit Lawyer Fined For Chasing Buffalo Air Crash Victims” [Turkewitz]
- Symbolic venue? Administration chooses to unveil new press-lenders-to-serve-minorities campaign at Jesse Jackson event [N.Y.Times]
- Remembering pinball prohibition [Popular Mechanics back in August, Radley Balko]
- Judge cuts “shocking”, “monstrous” $2 million award to $54,000 in Jammie Thomas-Rasset music-download suit [AmLaw Litigation Daily, earlier] Naughty librarians: “Offline Book ‘Lending’ Costs US Publishers Nearly $1 Trillion” [Eric Hellman]
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- Early reactions to Supreme Court’s blockbuster Citizens United ruling striking down ban on independent election advocacy [Point of Law, more, yet more]
- Vision Media Television Group continues its legal push against online critics, Section 230 or no [Consumer Law & Policy, earlier]
- Big FBI sting operation could leave firearms business “wounded”, some say [Point of Law]
- Runaway’s suit against McKeesport, Pa. school district dismissed on statute of limitations grounds [AP/Law.com]
- “Sandra Day O’Connor Backs Campaign to End Judicial Elections” [Schwartz, NY Times, my two cents]
- “Sheriff Joe’s Enabler” [Radley Balko on Maricopa County D.A. Andrew Peyton Thomas; earlier here, here, etc.]
- Why some D.C. lawyers make so much money year in, year out [Hill & Lat, Washingtonian, quotes Ted; Ribstein and more]
- “Hampshire woman jailed for false rape claim” [BBC]
- P.S. At this point, politically, Dems almost have to pass something labeled health care reform whether or not the resulting legislation makes any sense [my comment in National Journal blogger's poll, more]
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Watch what you say about Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fla.) [Adler/Volokh, WeaselZippers, Orlando Sentinel]
- British TV regulators field many complaints about performers’ setbacks on reality contest shows [Guardian via Marginal Revolution]
- “Judge Tosses Much of Campaign Contributions Case Against Katrina Lawyer” (Pierce O’Donnell, said to have reimbursed employees for donations to Edwards race) [NLJ, earlier]
- Patrick Fitzgerald, U.S. Attorney in Chicago, threatens to sue publisher over contents of forthcoming book [WSJ Law Blog, NY Mag "Intelligencer"]
- Late-night neighbor dispute: “Honking horn not constitutionally protected” [Seattle Times]
- “Strippers Sue to Be Classified as Employees, Not Independent Contractors” [NLJ]
- Boston-based James Sokolove, biggest legal pitchman, is planning to get even bigger with $25 million ad budget [Wicked Local via Ambrogi]
- What more satisfying for a lawyer than to win an anti-SLAPP motion against someone trying to silence one’s client? [Ken @ Popehat]
- “Despite crazy rules, convoluted taxes and rampant lawyers, America is still a great place to do business” [The Economist]
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Overlawyered readers may well recall the travails of disgraced former Ohio Attorney General Marc Dann. Dann dropped off the radar earlier this year after he was driven from office amid allegations of sexual harassment and workplace affairs within his office. Before stepping down, Dann touched off a brief constitutional crisis in Ohio, similar to what Illinois is now experiencing thanks to Rod Blagojevich.
Now Dann is back in the news, with a less sexy scandal involving campaign finance expenditures:
Former Ohio Attorney General Marc Dann used his campaign account to bankroll home repairs and family vacations, according to a newspaper review of state investigative reports.
Interestingly, beyond the expected “lies all lies!” defense, Dann responds that while he didn’t do it, if he did do it, he did it on the advice of counsel:
“The allegations that have been made in these complaints are either false or they lack a basis in law,” Dann said. “We operated the campaign committee lawfully, and all the expenditures were made with the advice of counsel and were appropriate.”
It would be nice to know which counsel advised the former attorney general that home repairs and family vacations were appropriate campaign expenditures. Assuming that the counsel wasn’t Marc Dann.
Via Instapundit, who observes that the AP’s treatment of this story leaves the reader puzzled as to Dann’s party identity. Perhaps Marc Dann was an independent.
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- Time for another aspirin: Harvard Law’s Charles Ogletree, key backer of lawsuits for slave reparations, mentioned as possible Attorney General [CBS News, BostonChannel WCVB, Newsweek; earlier speculation about post as civil rights chief]
- Calif. law requires supervisors to attend sexual harassment prevention training, a/k/a sensitivity training, but UC Irvine biologist Alexander McPherson says he’ll face suspension rather than submit [AP/FoxNews.com, On the Record (UCI), Morrissey, Inside Higher Ed, OC Register; ScienceBlogs' Thus Spake Zuska flays him]
- Fan “not entitled to a permanent injunction requiring American Idol singer Clay Aiken to endorse her unauthorized biography” [Feral Child]
- Local authority in U.K. orders employees not to use Latin phrases such as bona fide, e.g., ad lib, et cetera, i.e., inter alia, per se, quid pro quo, vice versa “and even via” [via -- uh-oh -- Zincavage and Feral Child]
- Participants in 10th annual Boulder, Colo. Naked Pumpkin Run may have to register as sex offenders [Daily Camera, Obscure Store]
- Joins drunk in car as his passenger, then after crash collects $5 million from restaurant where he drank [AP/WBZ Boston, 99 Restaurant chain]
- Election may be over, but candidates’ defamation lawsuits against each other over linger on [Above the Law, NLJ]
- School nutrition regs endanger bake sales, but they’ll let you have “Healthy Hallowe’en Vegetable Platter” instead [NY Times]
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- Leading California conservative blogger explains why he’s voting no on 8 [Patterico] #
- A text message arrives on your cellphone while you’re at a polling place. Illegal “electioneering”? [Doherty, Reason "Hit and Run"] #
- Humorless academic denounces bawdy un-PC hit comedy Little Britain [Feral Child] #
- Agree or disagree, it’s hard to find a more eloquent McCain endorsement than David Frum’s [NRO] #
- Audio of Ted’s talk at U. Chicago [Federalist Society chapter]
- Chemerinsky, other critics should apologize to Second Circuit chief judge Dennis Jacobs over bogus “he doesn’t believe in pro bono!” outcry [Point of Law and update]
- New York high court skeptical of ultra-high contingency fee in Alice Lawrence v. Graubard Miller case [NYLJ; earlier here and here]
- Panel of legal journalists: press let itself be used in attack on Judge Kozinski [Above the Law]
- Unfree campaign speech, cont’d: South Dakota anti-abortion group sues to suppress opponents’ ads as “patently false and misleading” [Feral Child]
- Even if you’re tired of reading about Roy Pearson’s pants, you might still enjoy Carter Wood’s headlines on the case at ShopFloor ["Pandora's Zipper", "Suit Alors!"]
- Rare grant of fees in patent dispute, company had inflicted $2.5 million in cost on competitors and retailers by asserting rights over nursing mother garb [NJLJ]
- Time to be afraid? Sen. Bingaman (D-N.M.) keen on reintroducing talk-radio-squelching Fairness Doctrine [Radio Equalizer]
- “Yours, in litigious anticipation” — Frank McCourt as child in Angela’s Ashes drafted a nastygram with true literary flourish [Miriam Cherry, Concurring Opinions]
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I was a guest this morning of the Texas-based radio broadcaster, discussing my recent City Journal article on supposed “criminal incitement” via campaign speech, as well as the danger of a straitjacket for broadcast opinion in the form of a revived Fairness Doctrine.
