Chronicling the high cost of our legal system
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In my new post at Cato at Liberty, I quote a few highlights from Philip Greenspun’s account of his encounter with Federal Aviation Administration regulators intent on applying to the smallest aviation businesses the same rules that govern the largest. Per George Wallace, “All regulation aspires to the condition of a Monty Python sketch.”
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First was the ban, then came the legalization, and now along comes the right to sue your employer for being disapproving or at least uncooperative about it. Former Gov. Schwarzenegger vetoed a similar bill. [Nancy Berner, Cal Labor] I wrote about related issues last year.
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“Eat a bagel, lose your baby” [Jacob Sullum, Reason] For more on the problematic legal status of the classic bagel and European-bread enhancement, see Michael Pollan’s classic 1997 Harper’s article.
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I’ve got some thoughts at Cato at Liberty on the overreaching way California’s Proposition 19 tried to curtail employers’ liberty in employment decisions related to pot smoking — which might have contributed to the measure’s defeat at the polls on Tuesday. Earlier here. Jacob Sullum points out that much of employers’ tendency to treat off-job marijuana use more harshly than off-job alcohol use is itself stimulated by government mandates and exhortation, prominently including drug testing programs (& welcome Instapundit readers). More: Nancy Berner, California Labor & Employment Law Blog (“Merely smelling marijuana on a worker’s clothes after lunch would not be sufficient to justify a write-up” had the measure passed.)
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Headline stories of the week:
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Children inform on their parents. [Radley Balko]
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If you thought such happenings were just an urban legend, the “Kafkaesque” experience of this Florida woman might make you think again. [John Pacenti, Daily Business Review via Radley Balko]
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The California Beer & Beverage Distributors has contributed money to defeat the marijuana-legalization measure, as have police groups. One consideration that might shed light on the latter stance: “Police forces are entitled to keep property seized as part of drug raids and the revenue stream that comes from waging the drug war has become a significant source of support for local law enforcement.” Surprisingly, the politically active prison-guards union has not (yet) thrown its weight onto the “no” side, though prison supervisors have. [Ryan Grim, HuffPo via Tabarrok]
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“A law that makes drug dealers liable for the injuries they cause does not apply to two pharmacies, a California appeals court has ruled, rejecting the case of a woman who got addicted to painkillers she acquired illegally from an employee of the pharmacies.” [Heller, OnPoint News]
A new law enforcement trend seems to press impaired-driving law into service as a way of pursuing other, unrelated law enforcement goals [Sullum, Reason]
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Counting the weight of water in reaching for maximum penalties: “The Minnesota Supreme Court, in a 4-3 decision, has now ruled that Bong Water (water which had been used in a water pipe) was a ‘mixture’ of ’25 grams or more’ supporting a criminal conviction for Controlled Substance crime in the first degree.” [Minneapolis Criminal Lawyer via Greenfield] More: Sullum.
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Sally Harpold was cuffed and arrested for buying two packages of cold medicine within a week in violation of Indiana law, though no one contends she or anyone she knew intended to cook them down into methamphetamine [Terre Haute Tribune-Star] Harpold’s story has been racing around blogs well known to our readers: Radley Balko/Reason “Hit and Run”, Ken at Popehat, Amy Alkon (with bonus kind words for @walterolson), Legal Blog Watch, BoingBoing. The Vermillion County, Indiana prosecutor is offering no apologies.
P.S. A Popehat commenter finds new reason to doubt those reassurances on CPSIA enforcement along the lines of “don’t be silly, they’d never go after grandmothers over rummage sales or homemade crafts“.
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It’s taking a toll on liberty, per a Janice Rogers Brown dissent [Volokh; Novelty, Inc., v. DEA (PDF)]
Individual liberty, free markets, and peace: the world's premier libertarian think tank. Publishes Cato at Liberty, where I blog on contemporary policy issues.
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