Both houses of the legislature in Connecticut have approved legislation aimed at requiring the labeling of (near-ubiquitous) foodstuffs with genetically modified (GMO) ingredients. The Senate’s version includes an “all jump off together” clause preventing it from going into effect until at least four states have joined in on the idea, which must cumulatively have a population of at least 20 million, and must include at least one state adjacent to Connecticut. [Greenwich Time, Ron Bailey, related ("food companies should just go ahead and slap labels on everything they sell reporting: 'This product may contain ingredients derived from safe modern biotechnology.'")] Earlier here (NY Times is surprisingly sensible on subject), here, here, here, etc.
Tagged as:
Connecticut,
environment,
food safety
Daniel Fisher explains how new restrictions by Connecticut lawmakers on ammunition sales are having the presumably unintended effect of incentivizing hunting and sporting users of guns to seek concealed-carry permits. [Forbes]
Tagged as:
Connecticut,
guns
- “Victory For Blogger Patterico In Free Speech Case” [Ken at Popehat, earlier]
- “Watch ‘disparate impact’ become the new HUD jihad if it succeeds in [Westchester]” [Jackson Jambalaya, earlier]
- “Big Tobacco uses Big Government to keep out Small Competitors” [Tim Carney, DC Examiner]
- Casinos or no, Connecticut tribes want the federal dole [AP]
- High cost of litigation to California municipalities [L.A. Daily News, new CALA report in PDF] “San Francisco’s iconic cable cars cost city millions of dollars in legal settlements” [AP]
- Morning sickness drug Bendectin, famed casualty of unfounded litigation, returns to market renamed diclegis [MedPageToday, David Bernstein; background here, etc.; classic account from Peter W. Huber's Galileo's Revenge] Another Bendectin sequel: Barry Nace, former ATLA/AAJ head, draws 120-day suspension from West Virginia high court [Chamber-backed WV Record]
- “Tennessee’s ‘guns in parking lots’ bill a net drain on liberty [George Scoville; similarly Bainbridge and earlier] Another pro-gun but anti-liberty idea: Colorado lawmaker wants to force firms to hire guards if they deny armed customers access to their premises [KOAA, SecurityInfoWatch, Durango Herald (idea nixed in committee)]
Tagged as:
California,
Colorado,
competition through regulation,
Connecticut,
guns,
Indian tribes,
taxpayers,
tobacco
- “Who killed gun control?” [David Boaz] Democratic senators from rural states are in touch with public opinion back home. Is that actually sinister? [Jennifer Rubin]
- Failed bill applied tough regulations to gun “transfers,” not just sales, and the difference was often not well explained in the press [Kopel via Lynch] The un-empirical debate [Sowell via Lynch]
- We’re informed the late Margaret Thatcher was “divisive” in tone. What are we to think of Pres. Obama’s tone on gun bills? [Jacob Sullum; similarly]
- Hometown paper: “As lead sponsor in House on gun legislation, Rep. Diana DeGette appears to not understand how they work” [Denver Post, followup in which DeGette digs in deeper]
- Argument that making insurance obligatory for gun owners would generate insurer records documenting who owns guns, to which government might in due course demand access [Tom Blumer; related, Alex Pappas/Daily Caller; earlier here, here, here]
- Bloomberg’s armed Bermuda bodyguards draw critics’ fire again [Cheryl Chumley, Washington Times; earlier]
- “Connecticut’s Gun Control: A Rush To Pass Laws That Couldn’t Have Prevented Tragedy” [Tuccille, Sullum]
Tagged as:
Barack Obama,
Connecticut,
guns
- “The Consortium has hired Arnold & Porter, and they can threaten whomever they want, the facts be damned.” [Popehat]
- Former Social Security administrators: NPR’s just imagining things, pay no attention to that report on the growth of the disability program [NADR.org, earlier] Ronald Reagan got rolled on the SSDI disability program, and we’re all paying the price [Avik Roy]
- Katrina qui tam: “Jury returns verdict for the Rigsby sisters against State Farm” [Freeland, earlier]
- Probate dispute had become cause celebre in Connecticut: “Judge Rules In Favor Of Caretaker In Smoron Farm Case” [Hartford Courant]
- Judge’s text message complains of “‘docket from hell,’ filled with tatted-up… gap tooth skank hoes” [Above the Law]
- “FTC Clarifies Obligations of Product Reviewers, But Does Not Ease Concerns” [DMLP]
- “Trump Dismisses ‘Spawn of Orangutan’ Lawsuit” [Lowering the Bar, earlier]
- If you’re one of those who occasionally send me links from the Alex Jones site InfoWars, now you know why I never use ‘em [Dave Weigel]
Tagged as:
Connecticut,
Dickie Scruggs,
Donald Trump,
FTC endorsement rules,
judges,
science and scientists,
State Farm,
wills and trusts
- Appalling: pursuing the logic of equality arguments, prominent constitutional law scholar Erwin Chemerinsky has proposed abolishing private/religious/home K-12 schooling [Eugene Volokh, Rick Garnett, Marc DeGirolami]
- How wrong is the NRA on school security? So wrong that even Marian Wright Edelman makes more sense [Gene Healy]
- Schools, marriage, and self-replicating elites: Ross Douthat tells some secrets of the NYT-reading class [NYT]
- Critics flay Connecticut bill to require school mental health checkups of children [Raising Hale]
- “How the Anti-Bully Movement is Hurting Kids: An Interview with Bully Nation’s Susan Porter” [Tracy Oppenheimer, Reason]
- Montgomery County, Maryland pols concerned some public schools might become unfairly good [DC Examiner] Also in Maryland, there’s a push to emulate a truly bad New Jersey idea by shifting the burden of proof onto schools in special education disputes [WaPo]
- Telephone frustration in New Haven: “How public schools drive us away…” [Mark Oppenheimer]
Tagged as:
bullying,
Connecticut,
disability & schools,
Erwin Chemerinsky,
guns,
Maryland,
New Jersey,
psychiatry,
schools
- “Lying to Doctors for Fitness for Duty Exam Can Still Get You Fired …But Only If You’re a Police Officer” [Connecticut cop smashed into two cars during epileptic seizure; Daniel Schwartz]
- “Emotional labor”: is having to be cheerful to customers a form of capitalist slavery? [Tim Noah v. Andrew Sullivan]
- CalPERS: “The pension fund that ate California” [Steve Malanga, City Journal]
- Restaurant Opportunities Center (ROC), other “worker centers” on the rise: “Will ‘alt-labor’ replace unions?” [Salon; critical anti-ROC site via Matt Patterson/CEI]
- Without benefit of an act of Congress, EEOC is interpreting the law to prohibit transgender bias [Workplace Prof]
- “The Nation: Government-Mandated Lunch Breaks are Somehow Libertarians’ Fault” [Shackford, Reason]
- Historian challenges received account of Haymarket Affair [Ron Radosh]
Tagged as:
Connecticut,
disabled rights,
EEOC,
labor unions,
police,
transgender,
wage and hour suits,
workplace
- Congress acts to squelch bounty-hunting suits over lack of fee stickers on bank ATMs [Kevin Funnell, Alexander Cohen/Atlas Society, earlier here and here]
- Because I would not stop for Tax/He kindly stopped for me [John Carney on Dec. 31 death incentive]
- Having signed up six-year-old client, lawyer files $100 million claim in Sandy Hook massacre [CT News Junkie; another of Mr. Pinsky's publicity-related endeavors]
- One list (among many) of the craziest US lawsuits of 2012 [Samantha Rollins, The Week]
- “Sue to silence the NRA? Wind up paying its legal fees, more likely.” [@andrewmgrossman on this diary of a (would-be) speech-suppressing litigant] When some politicians aren’t bashing gunmakers, they’re shoveling money at them [Matt Welch on New York; my Reason piece a way back on Connecticut] “Should People Be Forced To Buy Liability Insurance For Their Guns?” [Megan McArdle]
- Also re: Newtown, “Laws made in the shadow of tragedy normally look odd to the healed mind.” [Tom Coale, HoCo Rising] And Radley Balko last year, via @amyalkon, on why “Laws named after crime victims and dead people are usually a bad idea.” [HuffPo]
- Could ubiquity of cellphones help explain plunge in crime rate? [ABA Journal on study by Klick et al]
Tagged as:
banks,
Connecticut,
crime and punishment,
guns,
taxes
Who to blame after a freak atrocity? For many of those who’ve felt obliged to comment, the question seems rather who not to blame:
- Lack of a national gun registry [cited by the New York Times, though the relevant weapon in Newtown was properly registered and posed no tracing difficulties to authorities; Jacob Sullum]
- Non-prosecution of people who lie on gun applications [cited by NYC Mayor Mike Bloomberg, though there's no indication that anyone lied on a gun application in the Lanza case; Jacob Sullum again]
- Lack of cops in schools [Eli Lehrer on one of the NRA's bad ideas]
- Violence in videogames [Jacob Sullum on another of the NRA's bad ideas; more, Scott Shackford, Andrew Sullivan]
- Advances for secular and socially liberal causes in the recent U.S. elections [Michael Potemra and Peter Wehner on the comments of James Dobson]
- Congress, for its role in blocking an organized campaign to bankrupt gun makers through tort suits [Slate and, earlier, Erwin Chemerinsky, trying to revive this truly bad idea]
- People who want to reform public education and the organization of teaching [Katherine Mangu-Ward, though the union advocates she cites are claiming something closer to "this proves we're right" than to "school choice causes shootings."]
- In general, those terrible people who disagree with us ["Reading discussions on the web, you might come to believe that we don’t all share the goal of a society where the moral order is preserved, and where our children can be put on the bus to school without a qualm. But we do. We just disagree about how to make it happen." -- Dave Hoffman, Concur Op]
(& welcome Scott Greenfield, Jack Shafer readers)
Tagged as:
Connecticut,
guns,
schools,
videogames
- More intimidation of city councilors by Southern California police unions [Reason, earlier]
- Illinois Gov. Quinn calls for federal bailout of state pension plans [Ted Biondo, Rockford Register-Star, Ivan Osorio/CEI] Illinois Policy Institute launches campaign against idea [Frank Keegan, State Budget Solutions, IllinoisWatchdog.org]
- Former TSA Agent Says Stealing from Passengers’ Bags Is Common [Daniel Politi, Slate]
- “Chicago Teacher’s Strike Illustrates the Need for Choice” [Steve Chapman]
- California’s Potemkin public pension reform [Greenhut, City Journal] Report on political clout of California public service unions [Daniel DiSalvo, MI]
- College example shows how rules that lock in job security for some often leave others insecure [Virginia Postrel]
- Connecticut sweetheart labor deal: “Now, the governor doesn’t exactly report it that way in the press” [Zachary Janowski, City Journal]
Tagged as:
airlines,
California,
Chicago,
colleges and universities,
Connecticut,
Illinois,
labor unions,
police,
public employment
Through garden tours and charitable dinners, Chrissie D’Esopo has raised some $175,000 over the years at her beautiful home in Avon, Ct., near Hartford. Following a lawsuit over a slip and fall — not to mention the claim filed by the visitor’s uninjured husband — she’s decided to call it quits, but might reconsider on hearing of a recently passed Connecticut recreational-immunity law that extends legal protection to property owners who do not profit from a visitor’s presence. Notes a commenter: “This is why we can’t have nice things.” [Hartford Courant]
Tagged as:
Connecticut,
recreation,
slip and fall,
volunteers
- Romney’s view of government benefits as politically hypnotic mirrors a “gratitude” fallacy advanced by many progressives [Julian Sanchez, Cato]
- Ascendancy of “constituent services” on Hill is a bad sign on many levels [Fred Bernstein, NYT]
- Dems vs. ACLU: platform vows to obliterate Citizens United [Damon Root]
- Union-backed “Protect our Jobs Amendment” (POJA) ballot proposal, constitutionalizing “collective bargaining” concept, would take Michigan down path of Italian labor law [Emilio Rocca, CEI "Open Market"]
- Isn’t it sad there’s a major political party contemptuous of science? Actually there are two [Alex Berezow/Hank Campbell, RCP]
- Yale unions defeat uniformed-worker unions in battle to take over New Haven government [NH Independent] SEIU almost had Connecticut-5 House seat in pocket, till FBI arrested candidate’s finance manager [PSI]
- Checking up on the outcome of a 1995 class action co-repped by attorney Barack Obama [Hans Bader]
Tagged as:
Barack Obama,
Connecticut,
Michigan,
Mitt Romney,
science and scientists
“Is It Libel to Say Someone Was Arrested When the Arrest Record Has Been Erased?” Last year the New Jersey Supreme Court said no in a case raising the same issue as to convictions, saying the law’s expungement provision
is not intended to create an Orwellian scheme whereby previously public information — long maintained in official records — now becomes beyond the reach of public discourse on penalty of a defamation action. Although our expungement statute generally permits a person whose record has been expunged to misrepresent his past, it does not alter the metaphysical truth of his past, nor does it impose a regime of silence on those who know the truth.
Now, however, a lawsuit filed in Connecticut seeks to assert similar liability as to mention of an erased arrest record. The state erasure statute provides that the person whose record is erased “shall be deemed to have never been arrested within the meaning of the general statutes with respect to the proceedings so erased and may so swear under oath.” Eugene Volokh finds the theory of liability constitutionally defective:
the First Amendment protects other people’s rights to talk about arrests that had — as a matter of historical fact — actually happened. A statute can’t rewrite history, and force others to pretend that something didn’t happen when in fact it did happen.
(& Above the Law)
Tagged as:
Connecticut,
crime and punishment,
libel slander and defamation
Lawyers from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), as part of a wider campaign to pursue maximally feminist interpretations of Title IX, successfully litigate to prevent Quinnipiac University from naming competitive cheer as a varsity sport [American Sports Council "Saving Sports"] More: Richard Epstein on Title IX; background.
Tagged as:
ACLU,
Connecticut,
Title IX
- I dreamed someone sabotaged the memory care unit by switching Rosa DeLauro’s name tag with Rosa Luxemburg’s [Fox; Raising Hale, Labor Union Report with more on alleged nursing home sabotage and the Connecticut pols that enable it]
- New York’s Scaffold Law will inflate cost of Tappan Zee Bridge rebuild by hundreds of millions, according to Bill Hammond [NYDN]
- “In Michigan, a ballot measure to enshrine union rights” [Reuters, WDIV]
- Massachusetts voters rejected unionizing child care providers, but legislature decided to do it anyway [Boston Herald]
- SEIU flexes muscle: “Surprise strike closes SF courtrooms” [SFGate, NBC Bay Area]
- If it goes to arbitration, forget about disciplining a Portland police officer [Oregonian via PoliceMisconduct.net] Boston police overtime scandal [Reason] Related, San Bernardino [San Diego Union-Tribune]
- Louisiana teacher union furor: “Now There’s A Legal Defense Fund For Schools The LAE Is Threatening To Sue” [Hayride, earlier]
- As unions terrorize a Philadelphia construction project, much of the city looks the other way [Inga Saffron, Philadelphia Inquirer, PhillyBully.com; via Barro]
Tagged as:
Boston,
Connecticut,
Louisiana,
Massachusetts,
Michigan,
New York,
Philadelphia,
police
- Vice President Biden raises at least hundreds of thousands of dollars at AAJ annual convention in Chicago [PoL] Romney’s law and legal policy team [Brian Baxter, AmLaw Daily]
- Law star Ted Cruz advances toward Senate [David Lat, AtL]
- Can Republicans make hay out of Democrats’ platform endorsement of same-sex marriage? New Pew poll, as well as May polling round, offers reasons to doubt that [my new post at Maryland for All Families]
- “Why Citizens United Has Nothing to Do with What Ails American Politics” [Ilya Shapiro, The American, more]
- Bridgeport mayor Joseph Ganim, of gun-suit fame, a step closer to getting law license back after serving 7-year prison term for corruption [Courant] Eight more indictments as the Connecticut corruption scandals roll on [Conn Post]
- Rob McKenna’s star on rise in Washington; he’s pursued public-liability reform as the state’s attorney general [Daily Caller, earlier]
- Bypassing public financing, West Virginia judicial candidates pour their own injury-law fortunes into races [Richie Heath, Charleston Daily Mail]
- “How hot is it in DC today? Congressman Paul is using a paper money substitute because his actual money melted.” [Tim Carney]
Tagged as:
AAJ,
Connecticut,
Joe Biden,
Maryland,
same-sex marriage,
West Virginia
