Overlawyered » immigration law

International law roundup

Walter Olson — Fri, 11 May 2012 12:41:52 +0000

U.N. rapporteur lectures U.S. on Indian rights, calls for “some form of land restoration” [IPSNews] “So, the UN Wants the U.S. to Return Land to Indian Tribes…” [Claudia Rosett] In Chapters 10 and 11 of Schools for Misrule, I discuss the growing cooperation between Indian land-claim activists in this country and international organizations both within and without of the U.N. system. (More: I expand theme into a Daily Caller piece).
“Union Uses NAFTA To Fight Alabama Immigration Law” [Sean Higgins, IBD]
“UN hunger expert investigates Canada” [Hillel Neuer, National Post]“Everyone’s grievances can thus be transformed into human rights violations” [Jacob Mchangama and Aaron Rhodes, Freedom Rights Project, PDF]
Admittedly, at a “lefty Quaker school in the Northeast”: “You know international law is getting some traction when your fourth-grader is being taught about the Convention on the Rights of the Child.” [Peter Spiro, OJ]
New Third Circuit opinion in remanded U.S. v. Bond case, which tested limits of treaty power, could tee up issue for another SCOTUS outing [Spiro/OJ, FedSoc Blog, Liberty and Law; earlier]
“Canada’s Much Better and Very Different Alien Tort Statute” [Ku/OJ]
Implementation of United Nations’ Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) could draw inspiration from U.S. experience with institutional reform lawsuits [Michael Perlin via Bagenstos]

Tags: alien, Canada, child, disabled rights, immigration law, Indian tribes, international human rights, international law

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

April 9 roundup

Walter Olson — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 04:12:25 +0000

Forfeiture-happy customs agents bedevil family flying to Ethiopia [Volokh]
Lawmakers, ABA ex-bigs back campaign to grant law license to illegal alien [Miami Herald]
“NYT reports the FDA is stunned democracy requires they answer to elected political leaders as part of enacting laws” [@CraigBruney]
When did doghouses become a crime? [Alex Ballingall/Maclean's via @amyalkon]
Why Tennessee, famous for distilleries, used to have so few of them [Nashville City Paper via @radleybalko]
ESPN tells only one side of Title IX story [Eric McErlain, Daily Caller; Saving Sports]
Greece: “At the health department they were told that all the shareholders of the company would have to provide chest X-rays” [Mark Perry]

Tags: alcohol, animal rights, bar associations, FDA, forfeiture, immigration law, regulation and its reform, Tennessee, Title IX

April 9 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

March 16 roundup

Walter Olson — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 12:50:35 +0000

“A new target for tech patent trolls: cash-strapped American cities” [Joe Mullin, Ars Technica] Crowdsourcing troll control [Farhad Manjoo, Slate] “Why patent trolls don’t need valid patents” [Felix Salmon] “Why Hayek Would Have Hated Software Patents” [Timothy Lee, Cato] Et tu, Shoah Foundation? [Mike Masnick, TechDirt]
Cory King case: “Not Everything Can Be a Federal Crime” [Ilya Shapiro, Cato]
“Ban on smoking in cars with young children clears Md. Senate” [WaPo]
On religious exemption to birth control mandate, NYT wrestles with unwelcome poll numbers [Mickey Kaus]
“Undocumented Law Grad Can’t Get Driver’s License, But Hopes for Fla. Supreme Court OK of Law License” [ABA Journal]
Department of Justice launches campaign against racial disparities in school discipline [Jason Riley, WSJ via Amy Alkon]
James Gattuso and Diane Katz, “Red Tape Rising: Obama-Era Regulation at the Three-Year Mark” [Heritage]

Tags: immigration law, patent trolls, regulation and its reform, school discipline, smoking bans

March 16 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

January 11 roundup

Walter Olson — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 05:14:38 +0000

California’s Prop 65 and the numbness of overwarning [Tung Yin via Bainbridge]
Time to kill off medical-method patents [Alex Tabarrok, Medical Progress Today]
Spite decoration: “Gretna fence squabble continues in bitter fashion” [NOLA.com, Louisiana]
“The Problem With Immigration Lawyers and How to Fix It” [Dzubow/Asylumist via Legal Ethics Forum]
“Are NYC transit bus drivers prevented from calling police?” [Turkewitz]
“Circumvention tourism” is travel intended to sidestep medical regulation [Glenn Cohen, Prawfs]
Abolition of wasteful, arrogant California redevelopment agencies has Tim Cavanaugh ready to kiss a nurse in Times Square [Reason, similarly Gideon Kanner and Steven Greenhut]

Tags: California, eminent domain, immigration law, NYC, patent quality, Prop 65

January 11 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

“I don’t feel good about it — lying to people”

Walter Olson — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 14:35:46 +0000

A New Yorker writer sympathetically if uneasily profiles one of the many who choose to pursue legal immigrant status (with lawyers’ help) by petitioning for asylum on the basis of made-up atrocity stories. “‘I have never been raped,’ she admitted, giggling with embarrassment… ‘Telling that story makes me sad, because I know it’s true for someone.’” But not necessarily true for most of those in her position: “There’s one [a story] for each country,” explains a lawyer. “There’s the Colombian rape story — they all say they were raped by the FARC. There’s the Rwandan rape story, the Tibetan refugee story. The details for each are the same.” [Suketu Mehta, "The Asylum Seeker: For a chance at a better life, it helps to make your bad story worse," New Yorker](& Legal Ethics Forum)

Tags: immigration law, perjury

“I don’t feel good about it — lying to people” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

“Courts Put the Brakes on Agenda of G.O.P.”

Walter Olson — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 10:10:38 +0000

A. G. Sulzberger quotes me in yesterday’s New York Times on the wave of court challenges that has met legislation in state capitals on immigration, abortion, financing for Planned Parenthood, and other hot topics. Federal judges have recently issued injunctions blocking part or all of controversial state enactments on all these topics.

Tags: immigration law, New York Times

“Courts Put the Brakes on Agenda of G.O.P.” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

An asylum-fraud “industry”

Walter Olson — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 05:06:14 +0000

A front-page story in the New York Times details how some immigration middlemen engage in systematic coaching of false persecution stories. “West Africans claim genital mutilation or harm from the latest political violence. Albanians and immigrants from other Balkan countries claim they fear ethnic cleansing. Chinese invoke the one-child policy or persecution of Christians, Venezuelans cite their opposition to the ruling party, and Russians describe attacks against gay people. Iraqis and Afghans can cite fear of retaliation by Islamic extremists.”

Tags: immigration law

An asylum-fraud “industry” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

July 10 roundup

Walter Olson — Sun, 10 Jul 2011 05:53:52 +0000

Jury rejects Jamie Leigh Jones rape claim against Halliburton/KBR. Next, a round of apologies from naive commentators and some who used the case to advance anti-arbitration talking points? [WSJ; Ted Frank/PoL and more; WSJ Law Blog (plaintiff's lawyers sought shoot-the-moon damages)]
Time magazine vs. James Madison on constitutional law (spoiler: Madison wins) [Foster Friess via Ira Stoll]
Andrew Trask reviews new Curtis Wilkie book on the Dickie Scruggs scandal;
“Right to family life” evolution in human rights law deters UK authorities from deporting various bad actors [Telegraph]
Paging Benjamin Barton: How discovery rules enrich the legal profession at the expense of the social good [PoL]
USDA heeds politics, not science, on genetic crops [Henry Miller/Gregory Conko, PDF, Cato Institute Regulation]
“Legal Questions Raised by Success of Monkey Photographer” [Lowering the Bar]

Tags: agriculture and farming, arbitration, constitutional law, Dickie Scruggs, discovery, immigration law, international human rights, United Kingdom

July 10 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

For Maryland’s guest teachers, an expensive lesson in labor rights

Walter Olson — Thu, 19 May 2011 05:32:11 +0000

The U.S. Department of Labor ruled in April that Prince George’s County, Maryland, in suburban Washington, had violated federal labor law by failing to reimburse immigrant teachers for visa application fees. It fined the schools $1.7 million and also ordered them to pay $4.2 million in back pay to 1,044 teachers, most of whom come from the Philippines. “If that finding stands, the system will be unable to renew any three-year visas for its foreign employees.” Many teachers are distraught about the prospect of losing their jobs and green cards, which could happen as early as next month; Charisse Cabrera “said she would rather keep her job than recoup the back pay, about $4,000 per teacher.” [Washington Post, PhilStar.com]

Tags: immigration law, Maryland, schools, workplace

For Maryland’s guest teachers, an expensive lesson in labor rights is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

May 12 roundup

Walter Olson — Thu, 12 May 2011 12:18:14 +0000

Alabama state senate bans knowingly giving illegal immigrant ride in your car [Katherine Mangu-Ward]
Cato U., dynamite summer seminar from my institute, being held this year in Annapolis Jul. 24-29;
Calif.: “64% of Prop 65 settlements go to attorneys’ fees” [CJAC, earlier]
Mississippi jury votes $322 million to individual asbestos claimant [Fair Warning, Mass Tort Prof]
“Emails: Attorney nixed S.C. train injury fund” [AP/The State]
Trump files $100 million counterclaim against customer who sued his “Trump University” [Atlantic Wire, earlier] More: Lowering the Bar.
Two, three, a trend? Another trial-lawyer movie, this time starring Mark Lanier [WSJ Law Blog]

Tags: Alabama, asbestos, Cato Institute, Donald Trump, immigration law, Mark Lanier, Mississippi, movies film and videos, Prop 65, South Carolina, train

May 12 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system