Overlawyered » hostile environment 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 Employment law roundup http://overlawyered.com/2012/02/employment-law-roundup-3/ http://overlawyered.com/2012/02/employment-law-roundup-3/#comments Tue, 07 Feb 2012 10:12:54 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=27399
  • Fueled by liberal foundation grants and federal money, “Restaurant Opportunities Center” launches litigation campaign against chain-eatery leader Darden [Orlando Sentinel] Still to be explained: why the Detroit Chamber of Commerce would be so happy to announce a business-backed non-profit’s funding for ROC.
  • Major employment plaintiff’s firm Outten & Golden promotes Hearst magazine intern class action [Romenesko, Reason]
  • “Retaliation Charges Pose Growing Threat to Free Speech” [Hans Bader, CEI]
  • Debate: “Should state outlaw requirements that job applicants be employed?” [Pia Lopez/Ben Boychuk, Sacramento Bee]
  • “Is it time to do away with McDonnell Douglas?” [burden-shifting test in job bias cases; Jon Hyman]
  • Supposed exemption from OSHA for under-10-employee businesses is mostly myth [Eric Conn, EBG]
  • WSJ is kind enough to pick up my item on Italian labor law professors as a “Notable and Quotable” today;
  • New York Times fires 23 employees after searching their emails and finding that they had forwarded blonde and ethnic jokes and other common forms of workplace humor [eleven years ago on Overlawyered]
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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2012/02/employment-law-roundup-3/feed/ 1     Employment law roundup http://overlawyered.com/2011/12/employment-law-roundup-2/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/12/employment-law-roundup-2/#comments Thu, 15 Dec 2011 05:05:36 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=26086
  • Age discrimination law (including my views) discussed [Reihan Salam, NRO] “3d Cir.: Employees Fired for Pornographic Emails Lose Age-Discrimination Case” [Molly DiBianca]
  • Will Obama administration lawsuit derail employer use of career-readiness certificates? [Charlotte Allen, Minding the Campus]
  • A warning for Gov. Cuomo: “The case against pension-financed infrastructure” [Edward Zelinsky, OUP]
  • EEOC is on the warpath and employers had better hope they escape unscathed [Hans Bader, CEI]
  • Since we know unemployment extensions have no incentive effects, this story from the Midwest is purely imaginary [Marietta, Ohio Times, related]
  • Court rejects “announcement of same sex marriage harassed me” hostile environment claim [Volokh] “Jobs with a higher risk of sexual harassment pay workers more” [WaPo] Half of all students harassed? Surprising it’s only half [Katie Roiphe, NYT]
  • Funny-sad “666″ workplace suit: “The safety sticker of the beast” [Volokh]
  • “Do you know what an employment lawsuit costs?” [Jon Hyman]
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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2011/12/employment-law-roundup-2/feed/ 2     Le suit: climate of sexual harassment at Yale “emboldened” murderer http://overlawyered.com/2011/09/le-suit-climate-of-sexual-harassment-at-yale-emboldened-murderer/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/09/le-suit-climate-of-sexual-harassment-at-yale-emboldened-murderer/#comments Sat, 10 Sep 2011 14:59:05 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=24516 Citing a Title IX complaint, the lawsuit claims that the university’s failure to crack down harder on male behavior was in part responsible for the sensational crime in which a fellow lab worker strangled the pharmacology student and stuffed her body into a wall. [Yale Daily News, Slate "XX Factor" (despite feminist sympathies, doubting basis for suit), New York Daily News] More: Scott Greenfield, Max Kennerly.

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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2011/09/le-suit-climate-of-sexual-harassment-at-yale-emboldened-murderer/feed/ 7     June 27 roundup http://overlawyered.com/2011/06/june-27-roundup/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/06/june-27-roundup/#comments Mon, 27 Jun 2011 12:57:27 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=23568
  • “Electronic Arts Has Right to Refer to John Dillinger in Its Video Games” [Volokh]
  • Fans of “Civil Gideon” (constitutional entitlement to publicly funded lawyers in civil cases) glum that SCOTUS didn’t give idea much of a boost in Turner v. Rogers case last week [Concurring Opinions symposium, ABA Journal]
  • Feds (in particular, the FTC) go after Google [AW, Manne & Wright/TotM, Stoll]
  • “The Dept of Education, Yale, and the New Threat to Free Speech on Campus” [Greg Lukianoff/HuffPo] “In Making Campuses Safe for Women, a Travesty of Justice for Men” [Christina Sommers, Chron Higher Ed] Feds crack down on campus flirting and sex jokes [Michael Barone, D.C. Examiner] Heather Mac Donald on Yale hostile-environment complaint [City Journal, earlier] “Why Cross-Examination Rights Matter in Campus Sexual Harassment Cases” [Hans Bader]
  • Trial lawyer propaganda coup? HBO airs plaintiff’s-side “Hot Coffee” documentary [Abnormal Use, Ted Frank/PoL, Schwartz/NYT, more, yet more]
  • Financial institutions abroad will be pleased to be roped into U.S. regulatory schemes. Won’t they? [Dan Mitchell, Cato at Liberty]
  • Proposal for judge-guided negotiations in NY med-mal cases leaves Ted Frank underwhelmed [PoL]
  • “Virginia inmate sues after gruesome tries at sex change” [AP]
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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2011/06/june-27-roundup/feed/ 2     “Due Process Stops at the Campus Gates?” http://overlawyered.com/2011/06/due-process-stops-at-the-campus-gates/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/06/due-process-stops-at-the-campus-gates/#comments Fri, 03 Jun 2011 05:07:22 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=23222 My Cato colleague Ilya Shapiro on the Obama Education Department’s unsettling insistence that colleges and universities, on pain of losing federal dollars, pare back the due process accorded to those accused of sexual misconduct. [Cato at Liberty]

    Plus: earlier on Yale’s submissive reaction to Title IX complaint and suspension of a fraternity. More: “hostile environment” Title IX complaints leveled against other schools as well; Cathy Young on campus sexual assault numbers.

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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2011/06/due-process-stops-at-the-campus-gates/feed/ 4     Behind a Yale fraternity’s suspension http://overlawyered.com/2011/05/behind-a-yale-fraternitys-suspension/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/05/behind-a-yale-fraternitys-suspension/#comments Wed, 25 May 2011 20:22:31 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=23126 Federal regulators and private complainants step up pressure for tougher university disciplinary action against offensive males — and speech-related offenses will be very much under scrutiny. [Greg Lukianoff/Daily Caller, Harvey Silverglate and Kyle Smeallie/Minding the Campus, Caroline May/Daily Caller]

    More: The Yale Alumni Magazine notes that DKE (Delta Kappa Epsilon) brought the University “bad publicity.” And Dave Zincavage has been blogging critically about the affair. Further: Scott Greenfield.

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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2011/05/behind-a-yale-fraternitys-suspension/feed/ 9     April 2 roundup http://overlawyered.com/2011/04/april-2-roundup-5/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/04/april-2-roundup-5/#comments Sat, 02 Apr 2011 05:12:25 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=22334
  • Schumer: ban gun ownership by persons arrested but not convicted of drug offenses [Jeff Winkler, Daily Caller]
  • Urban-farming pioneer in Oakland may come a cropper for selling produce without license [SFGate via Perry]
  • Harvard-trained Obamanauts’ revenge? Feds investigate Yale for alleged sexually harassive environment [Zincavage] Related: strings attached to federal money for university “sexual assault prevention” include mandatory student sensitivity-training attendance [TBD, more]
  • Trade dumping law as competitive shakedown mechanism [Tabarrok]
  • “Forwarding a Sentence-Long Message from a Listserv = Copyright Infringement?” [Volokh]
  • “Product Defect Case Over Ear Candle Cleared for Trial” [OnPoint News, McConnell/D&D, Abnormal Use]
  • Oh, Title IX, couldn’t you at least leave our booster club alone? [Saving Sports] Wrestling team axe is just the start for men’s sports cuts at Liberty U. [same]
  • “Wal-Mart v. Dukes [Lawyers] Ask Courts To Fix The World” [Dan Fisher, Forbes] Liptak/NYT on use of “social framework” evidence in case [Mass Tort Prof] Rhetoric about “day in court” tends to obscure actual stakes [Daniel Schwartz] More: Hans Bader, and Jon Hyman with many links.
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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2011/04/april-2-roundup-5/feed/ 8     “I’m harassed by your affairs with others” http://overlawyered.com/2010/12/im-harassed-by-your-affairs-with-others/ http://overlawyered.com/2010/12/im-harassed-by-your-affairs-with-others/#comments Thu, 09 Dec 2010 21:44:27 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=20553 “Third-party” harassment claims pose a legal headache for employers. [HR Capitalist]

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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2010/12/im-harassed-by-your-affairs-with-others/feed/ 0     “Father Sues District Over Reading About Slavery” http://overlawyered.com/2010/11/father-sues-district-over-reading-about-slavery/ http://overlawyered.com/2010/11/father-sues-district-over-reading-about-slavery/#comments Fri, 12 Nov 2010 05:03:32 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=20107 A father in Sterling Heights, Michigan, says his fifth-grade daughter “was racially harassed by a fifth-grade teacher’s reading aloud from a book about slavery.” [WFTV, Volokh]

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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2010/11/father-sues-district-over-reading-about-slavery/feed/ 2     U.K.: “School ‘no touch’ rules to be scrapped” http://overlawyered.com/2010/10/u-k-school-no-touch-rules-to-be-scrapped/ http://overlawyered.com/2010/10/u-k-school-no-touch-rules-to-be-scrapped/#comments Sun, 03 Oct 2010 12:49:46 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=19510 “‘No touch’ rules discouraging teachers from restraining and comforting children are to be scrapped, Education Secretary Michael Gove has said.” [BBC] And the incoming Cameron government is proceeding with a previously signaled broad effort to roll back excessive health and safety rules that discourage harmless goings-on in schools, workplaces and the community [BBC, earlier] On the other hand, the Conservatives intend to go forward with most of a package of new measures devised by the previous Labour government that would expand discrimination and harassment law in the direction of wide-open U.S.-style rights to sue [Telegraph, Daily Mail]

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