Overlawyered » fair housing 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 “The court that broke Jersey” http://overlawyered.com/2012/02/the-court-that-broke-jersey/ http://overlawyered.com/2012/02/the-court-that-broke-jersey/#comments Fri, 10 Feb 2012 13:58:28 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=27515 Steve Malanga on New Jersey’s perennially activist Supreme Court [City Journal]. We’ve periodically discussed the court’s lamentable jurisprudence in its Abbott (school finance redistribution) and Mount Laurel (towns given quotas to build low-income housing) decisions. The court has also nullified constitutional limitations on borrowing by the state.

Tags: , ,

Related posts

]]> http://overlawyered.com/2012/02/the-court-that-broke-jersey/feed/ 1 Dogs in the dorms http://overlawyered.com/2011/12/dogs-in-the-dorms/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/12/dogs-in-the-dorms/#comments Thu, 01 Dec 2011 05:31:31 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=25991 The Justice Department has sued the University of Nebraska-Kearney and its regents and employees for allegedly “denying reasonable accommodation requests by students with psychological or emotional disabilities seeking to live with emotional assistance animals in university housing.” [Disability Law]

More/update: Inside Higher Ed.

Tags: , , ,

Related posts

]]> http://overlawyered.com/2011/12/dogs-in-the-dorms/feed/ 6 November 14 roundup http://overlawyered.com/2011/11/november-14-roundup-3/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/11/november-14-roundup-3/#comments Mon, 14 Nov 2011 12:28:58 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=25582
  • Seeking to address widespread pharmaceutical shortages, Obama executive order downplays government role in causing them [Fair Warning, WSJ editorial, earlier here, here, here, here, etc.]
  • “The school has a strict no-hugging policy….” [WKMG Orlando]
  • Retired Justice John Paul Stevens isn’t buying the “Thomas should recuse” meme [USA Today via Legal Ethics Forum]
  • Not COPPA-cetic: among other unintended consequences, Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act has encouraged parents to help kids to falsify ages online [Danah Boyd via Jim Harper, Suderman, Reason, Stewart Baker, earlier]
  • Lawmaking from the bench: Maryland high court strikes down law limiting landlords’ lead paint liability [Ronald Miller] “Maryland court sides with plaintiffs in slip-and-fall cases” [Emily Babay, Examiner]
  • Trial lawyers help bail out Bexar County Democratic party [San Antonio Express-News]
  • Supreme Court agrees to hear case arguing that aggressive enforcement of local housing code violates federal Fair Housing Act [Magner v. Gallagher, SCOTUSBlog, Illinois Municipal League, http://www.inversecondemnation.com/inversecondemnation/2011/11/potemkin-village-hawaiian-style.html">Fisher/Forbes]
    • Tags: , , , , , , ,

    Related posts

    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2011/11/november-14-roundup-3/feed/ 0     September 6 roundup http://overlawyered.com/2011/09/september-6-roundup/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/09/september-6-roundup/#comments Tue, 06 Sep 2011 05:09:46 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=24430
  • “For any value of x, ‘X’s Law’ is a bad idea.” [David Wagner on this Radley Balko post]
  • “Politicized hiring at DOJ” shoe is on the other foot now [Caroline May, Daily Caller; Hans Bader/CEI]
  • “THE FACTS: Nothing is unconstitutional until courts declare it to be so,” quoth AP. Whaaaa? [Taranto]
  • Pull back your town’s Section 8 program, get sued or investigated [James Bovard, WSJ]
  • New Jersey Turnpike Authority legal payouts include $150K in legal fees to ADA claimant [Press of Atlantic City]
  • NYT’s faux-criticism of Title IX enforcers: colleges aren’t cowed enough by them [Joshua Thompson, PLF Liberty Blog]
  • After silicosis-payout scandal, lawsuits aim at defrauded insurer among other parties [Brenda Sapino Jeffreys, Texas Lawyer, earlier]
    • Tags: , , , , , ,

    Related posts

    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2011/09/september-6-roundup/feed/ 0     March 23 roundup http://overlawyered.com/2011/03/march-23-roundup-3/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/03/march-23-roundup-3/#comments Wed, 23 Mar 2011 14:35:27 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=22113
  • New Yorker suing boss for $2M because working in New Jersey caused him “anguish” [Biz Insider]
  • British lawyer’s libel threats impede UK publication of Paul Offit vaccine book [Respectful Insolence]
  • Lawsuit settlement leads to Florida push to curb tobacco discounter [WSJ; background, Jeremy Bulow]
  • Allegation: attorneys made personal use of cy pres fund in Armenian genocide settlement [PoL]
  • “Telecommuting employees raise special wage and hour issues” [Hyman]
  • UK bias cops wonder whether to ban gay-preferred along with gay-not-preferred guesthouses [Ed West, U.K. Telegraph]
  • Copyright mills: “Local law firm wants to defend people sued by local law firm” [TBD] Related: [Citizen Media Law, Coleman]
  • “Top 10 Reasons to Not Open a Bar or Restaurant in NYC” [NY Enterprise Report]
    • Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

    Related posts

    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2011/03/march-23-roundup-3/feed/ 0     November 5 roundup http://overlawyered.com/2010/11/november-5-roundup/ http://overlawyered.com/2010/11/november-5-roundup/#comments Fri, 05 Nov 2010 11:06:53 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=19989
  • HUD “defers to Constitutional considerations” and dismisses complaint against woman who’d posted note at church seeking Christian roommate [Fox News, earlier; Oct. 28 statement from Michigan Department of Civil Rights]
  • Judge denies class action status in Pelman obesity suit against McDonald’s [Bloomberg, earlier]
  • “Campers mauled by bear at Lake Louise lose lawsuit against Parks Canada” [Calgary Herald]
  • Supreme Court hears oral argument in Schwarzenegger violent-videogame case [Ilya Shapiro, Cato at Liberty]
  • Oh, that liberal media: “Consumers’ right to file class actions is in danger” [David Lazarus, L.A. Times, on AT&T v. Concepcion arbitration case]
  • NLRB files first complaint challenging employer’s social networking policy [Schwartz, Hyman]
  • Publisher’s threats against 800Notes.com gripe site bolster case for libel-tourism law [Paul Alan Levy, CL&P; earlier on Julia Forte case]
  • Nevada Supreme Court finds homeowner not liable for motorist’s crash into garden wall [seven years ago on Overlawyered]
    • Tags: , , , , , ,

    Related posts

    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2010/11/november-5-roundup/feed/ 3     Denounced anonymously for “seeking Christian roommate” request http://overlawyered.com/2010/10/denounced-anonymously-for-seeking-christian-roommate-request/ http://overlawyered.com/2010/10/denounced-anonymously-for-seeking-christian-roommate-request/#comments Sat, 23 Oct 2010 05:03:20 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=19811 A woman “posted an advertisement for a Christian roommate on her local church’s bulletin board.” Someone who saw it denounced her anonymously to the Fair Housing Center of West Michigan which proceeded to file a civil rights complaint against her to the Michigan Department of Civil Rights. Nancy Haynes, executive director of the housing center, calls the woman’s notice “a clear violation on its face;” while the Fair Housing Act does not subject actual choice of roommates to penalties, it forbids advertisements expressing a preference.

    The Fair Housing Center of West Michigan might ask for an initial reimbursement of $300 for time spent on the issue and training for the woman, in addition to pulling down the ad, Haynes said.

    “Our interest really lies in her getting some training so that this doesn’t happen again,” she said.

    [WOOD via Amy Alkon]

    Tags: , ,

    Related posts

    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2010/10/denounced-anonymously-for-seeking-christian-roommate-request/feed/ 47     “Spano’s Suicide: Housing Plan Doomed County Exec” http://overlawyered.com/2009/11/spanos-suicide-housing-plan-doomed-county-exec/ http://overlawyered.com/2009/11/spanos-suicide-housing-plan-doomed-county-exec/#comments Sat, 07 Nov 2009 13:59:25 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=14622 The New York Post has now picked up a slightly shortened version of my City Journal piece on the housing lawsuit that contributed to a voter revolt in Westchester (cross-posted from Point of Law).

    P.S. The Weekly Standard “Scrapbook” feature discusses the piece, as do John Derbyshire and Ron Coleman. And reader Paul Rath writes: “We face the same issue at the other end of the state, near Buffalo. Unfortunately, we have the same race-baiting and over-simplified arguments in our press here as well.” For more on how towns expose themselves to litigation if they attempt to earmark sub-market-rate housing for local residents or workers, see this Oct. 23 New York Times report on Connecticut.

    Tags: , ,

    Related posts

    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2009/11/spanos-suicide-housing-plan-doomed-county-exec/feed/ 0     After a housing-suit settlement, Westchester voters rebel http://overlawyered.com/2009/11/after-a-housing-suit-settlement-westchester-voters-rebel/ http://overlawyered.com/2009/11/after-a-housing-suit-settlement-westchester-voters-rebel/#comments Thu, 05 Nov 2009 10:37:53 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=14586 I’ve got a new piece up at City Journal on Tuesday’s sensational Westchester County upset, in which GOP challenger Rob Astorino knocked off Andy Spano, the longtime Democratic incumbent county executive, by a convincing 58-42 percent margin. Taxes were a key issue, but so was the county’s consent to what was billed as a landmark housing-reform settlement in which it agreed to arm-twist affluent towns into accepting low-income housing. Many Westchester residents were wary of the potential consequences — and downright insulted when Spano suggested that to resist the lawsuit further would be to make the generally liberal-leaning county a “symbol of racism”.

    The federally brokered settlement is itself of interest far beyond Westchester, if only as the occasion of a truly remarkable rhetorical flourish from an Obama Administration official, HUD deputy secretary Ron Sims: “It’s time to remove zip codes as a factor in the quality of life in America.” It was also hailed at once in some quarters as a model for similar legal action against other suburban jurisdictions considered guilty of not being hospitable enough to low-income housing. The Westchester voter revolt, I argue in the piece, may serve as a signal to local officials elsewhere to fight, rather than roll over, when the social engineers and their lawyers come knocking (cross-posted from Point of Law).

    Tags: ,

    Related posts

    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2009/11/after-a-housing-suit-settlement-westchester-voters-rebel/feed/ 4     Fractious in Framingham http://overlawyered.com/2009/06/fractious-in-framingham/ http://overlawyered.com/2009/06/fractious-in-framingham/#comments Mon, 08 Jun 2009 04:04:34 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=11583 A long-running controversy pits some elected officials and townspeople of Framingham, Mass., west of Boston, against a social service agency that has proposed the town as a site for halfway houses and other residential facilities for recovering addicts, the homeless and others. Two years ago things turned particularly unpleasant:

    …[South Middlesex Opportunity Council] filed suit in federal court this week demanding damages not just from town officials, but from citizens who have dared criticize the agency and challenge its plans.

    SMOC’s 99-page complaint [which alleged violations of the Fair Housing Act, federal Rehabilitation Act, Americans With Disabilities Act and Civil Rights Act -- ed.] piles up charges against selectmen and planning board members not just in their official capacity, but as individuals. It targets town employees, both named and unnamed. It calls for damages against four Framingham Town Meeting members and two citizens for comments made on a private Web site and e-mails distributed on a privately-operated mailing list.

    The ACLU of Massachusetts expressed unease at the naming of private citizens as defendants over their advocacy efforts. While the lawsuit has been narrowed somewhat in the two years since then, it continues to engender much acrimony as it drags on:

    Aggravating the ill will is a recent revelation that a man charged with shooting a local police officer had lived in a home run by the agency, the South Middlesex Opportunity Council, or SMOC.

    Tags: , , , , ,

    Related posts

    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2009/06/fractious-in-framingham/feed/ 1