Overlawyered » hostile environment

Free speech roundup

Walter Olson — Fri, 25 May 2012 04:34:49 +0000

Boilermaker union president resorts to litigation against satirical site [Levy; another case on demands for disclosure of anonymous commenters] More on ghastly NY bill to strip protection from anonymous online speech [David Kravets/Wired, Daily Caller, my take]
Defending people like Aaron Worthing and Patterico shouldn’t be a left-right matter [Popehat, Tapscott/Examiner, earlier] Maryland and indeed all states need stronger statutory protection against vexatious litigants [Ace of Spades] And as a longtime Charles Schwab customer I was at first distressed to find the Schwab Charitable Fund on this list, but since the fund is billed as “donor-advised” I take it some Schwab customer rather than the company itself got to choose the beneficiary;
“Indonesia Prosecution for Posting ‘God Doesn’t Exist’ on Facebook” [Volokh] Curious to see an argument for Euro-style hate speech laws appearing on the Liberty and Law site [David Conway]
“Cyberbullying and Bullying Used As Pretexts for Censorship” [Bader]
“EEOC: Wearing Confederate Flag T-Shirts May Be ‘Hostile Work Environment Harassment’” [Volokh, more, Bader]
Video on new freedom of assembly book [FedSoc]
Maybe Citizens United turned out so badly for the speech-suppressive side because a government lawyer was imprudently candid before the Court [Jacob Sullum, earlier on Toobin New Yorker piece]

Tags: bullying, campaign regulation, EEOC, hate speech, hostile environment, libel slander and defamation, Maryland, online speech, serial litigants

Free speech roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Staffer asks $1.75 M for exposure to difficult WA lawmaker

Walter Olson — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 04:11:45 +0000

“OLYMPIA — A Senate Republican senior attorney is seeking a $1.75 million settlement from the state, saying that Senate Republicans have created a hostile work environment by allowing Sen. Pam Roach back into the caucus in exchange for a vital vote on their budget plan last month. … Roach was banned from the Republican caucus two years ago after an investigation concluded that she had mistreated staff.” [Seattle Times]

Tags: hostile environment, Washington state

Staffer asks $1.75 M for exposure to difficult WA lawmaker is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Australian: “G’day sport” teasing is rights violation

Walter Olson — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 05:27:41 +0000

Anti-antipodean harassment? “An Australian community warden whose colleagues greeted him with ‘G’day Sport’ is taking his racial abuse case to the European Court of Human Rights.” [Telegraph; Dymchurch, Kent, U.K.]

Tags: Australia, hostile environment, international human rights, United Kingdom

Australian: “G’day sport” teasing is rights violation is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Employment law roundup

Walter Olson — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 10:12:54 +0000

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]

Tags: discrimination law, Ford Foundation, hostile environment, New York Times, OSHA, restaurants, wage and hour suits, workplace

Employment law roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Employment law roundup

Walter Olson — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 05:05:36 +0000

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]

Tags: age discrimination, EEOC, harassment law, hostile environment, unemployment benefits, workplace

Employment law roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Le suit: climate of sexual harassment at Yale “emboldened” murderer

Walter Olson — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 14:59:05 +0000

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.

Tags: hostile environment, third party liability for crime, Title IX, Yale

Le suit: climate of sexual harassment at Yale “emboldened” murderer is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

June 27 roundup

Walter Olson — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 12:57:27 +0000

“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]

Tags: banks, civil gideon, colleges and universities, Federal Trade Commission, Google, hostile environment, medical malpractice, prisoners, right of publicity, videogames

June 27 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

“Due Process Stops at the Campus Gates?”

Walter Olson — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 05:07:22 +0000

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.

Tags: colleges and universities, crime and punishment, hostile environment, Yale

“Due Process Stops at the Campus Gates?” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Behind a Yale fraternity’s suspension

Walter Olson — Wed, 25 May 2011 20:22:31 +0000

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.

Tags: colleges and universities, harassment law, hostile environment, Yale

Behind a Yale fraternity’s suspension is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

April 2 roundup

Walter Olson — Sat, 02 Apr 2011 05:12:25 +0000

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.

Tags: agriculture and farming, colleges and universities, free trade, guns, hostile environment, Title IX, Wal-Mart v. Dukes

April 2 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system