Chronicling the high cost of our legal system
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Eugene Volokh and Mark Hamblett of the New York Law Journal cover the opinion (PDF) in Gibson v. Craigslist (S.D.N.Y.) A sentence from the plaintiff’s opposition to the motion to dismiss: “For public policy concerns, [Craigslist] must be immediately regulated or shut down.” Earlier: Sept. 7, 2008.
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[Bumped May 27 to reflect added material] I’ve written a piece for Forbes.com on President Obama’s nomination of the Second Circuit judge to the Supreme Court. In addition, expect coverage of the nomination from multiple voices over the next week at Point of Law; Marie Gryphon has already started off with a post on Sotomayor’s controversial ruling on a Second Amendment issue (Heller incorporation, for those who follow that area). More: SCOTUSBlog has a four-part series on Sotomayor’s rulings in civil litigation: first, second, third, fourth. Michael Fox catalogues her rulings in labor and employment cases, to which Daniel Schwartz adds analysis. And thanks to Instapundit, Eugene Volokh, Carter Wood/ShopFloor, Joe Weisenthal, Carolyn Elefant/Legal Blog Watch, Henry Stern/Yonkers Tribune, and Jonathan Adler at both Volokh.com and NRO “Corner” for the links.
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Eugene Volokh discovers a Mississippi statute that appears to criminalize students’ possession of scissors in many instances, and a South Carolina statute that goes even further.
… and prepare to reveal your recent romantic breakups. More: George Jonas.
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Aspiring Jedi in the United Kingdom are out of luck this holiday season (assuming that Jedi have an analogue to Christmas), as the Woolworth’s retail chain, still a going concern over there, has restricted light sabers for purchase by adults only. The store’s fear? The Star Wars themed toys might be mistaken for firearms.
“A toy” “An automatic pistol”
While even firearms opponents in the UK concede this decision is over the top, is it more appropriate to blame retailers, who may suffer liability in the event that a child was, I don’t know, injured because some fool mistook a light saber for a real firearm, or the activists and Labour government who have created laws that make such liability a real worry? After all, the chain, like most merchants, presumably weighed its own risks, and found profits from sale of toy light sabers wanting in the balance.
You’re on your own, kid.
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A Brooklyn jury has awarded $4,548,000 to Anderson Alexander, a former New York City police detective injured when the office chair he was sitting on tipped over and he shot himself in the knee with a 9 mm Smith & Wesson he was holding.
“This case is not about him shooting himself,” Alexander’s lawyer Matthew Maiorana told the Daily News. “This case is about a broken chair and an unsafe workplace.”…
Alexander, 49, who retired on a three-quarters-pay disability pension, moved to South Carolina, where he works as a sheriff’s deputy.
(Scott Shifrel, “Ex-city cop wins huge award after chair he sat in broke, sending bullet into his knee”, New York Daily News, Nov. 26).
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How strange to think that the Supreme Court’s writ would stop at the borders of Cook County, Ill. (Steve Chapman, “Chicago defies forgotten 2nd Amendment”, Chicago Tribune, Nov. 27).
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The Bay State’s notoriously draconian laws have tripped up author Peter Manso, a 67-year-old Cape Cod resident. Manso claims the prosecution is retaliation for his writing on highly publicized crimes, but whether or not that premise is borne out, the story is an unnerving one: ten years ago the state changed an earlier provision making firearm identification cards valid for life to one requiring four-year renewals, and since then old holders who failed to get with the program have been getting tripped up, facing the prospect of long prison terms even over their protest that they never had the change called to their attention. (Jonathan Saltzman, “Writer on Cape slaying indicted on gun charges”, Boston Globe, Aug. 23; J.D. Tuccille/Examiner) (via Never Yet Melted).
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“A Manhattan boutique owner is suing craigslist.com for $10 million, claiming he was shot with a gun purchased on the popular Web site.” Police say Jesus Ortiz, described as a schizophrenic resident of Calvin Gibson’s East Village neighborhood, shot Gibson in an apparently random attack. Gibson “claims Ortiz told the cops that he bought the gun on craigslist, and that the suspect’s mother told others the same story.” (Jennifer Fermino and Philip Messing, “Man Shot by ‘Craigslist’ Gun Takes Aim at Site”, New York Post, Sept. 5).
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In Longview, east Texas, the Patterson Nissan dealership held a contest awarding prizes to the participants who could hold their hands on a car the longest. One contestant dropped out, ran to a nearby store where he broke a gun out of its case, and shot himself. The dealership has now settled the lawsuit by Richard Thomas Vega II’s widow claiming that the stress and sleep deprivation of the event amounted to “brainwashing” and that the sponsors failed to make allowances for temporary loss of sanity. (AP/FoxNews.com, Aug. 17).
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This is the silliest claim I’ve seen in a long while. The shooting victim’s family filed a claim against the school their son attended because it allegedly failed to enforce the dress code. The “feminine-dressing” boy was thusly singled out for abuse. (“Family of shooting victim files claim against Huenume School District”, VenturaCountyStar, Aug. 14).
Update: I revised the title for accuracy.
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For readers in the New York City area: Tomorrow evening (Tues.) I’m going to be one of three persons discussing the Constitution’s Second Amendment, and the Supreme Court’s Heller decision recognizing that it protects an individual and not merely a “collective” right, at a monthly meeting of the New York Civil Liberties Union. Details here. Also offering their views will be NYCLU’s Arthur Eisenberg, a proponent of the collective-rights view, and Damon Root of Reason magazine, who discusses the event here. There will even be pizza and refreshments.
This doesn’t pretend to be anything more than a bit of unattributed circulating email humor, but it still made me laugh:
Scenario: Jack goes quail hunting before school, pulls into school parking lot with shotgun in gun rack.
1958 – Vice Principal comes over, looks at Jack’s shotgun, goes to his car and gets his shotgun to show Jack.
2008 – School goes into lock down, FBI called, Jack hauled off to jail and never sees his truck or gun again. Counselors called in for traumatized students and teachers. …
Full thing at Never Yet Melted.
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Point of Law Volokh