Overlawyered » India

Free speech roundup

Walter Olson — Wed, 02 May 2012 04:04:15 +0000

“People’s Rights Amendment” paves way for government control of media and trampling of many other rights. Is your Rep a sponsor? [Volokh, more, Somin]
Indian skeptic charged with blasphemy for revealing secret behind “miracle” of weeping cross [Doctorow] “Arab world’s most famous comedian” jailed in Egypt on charges of “insulting Islam” [Volokh]
“Is the Real Intent of Cyber-Bullying Laws to Eliminate Criticism of Politicians?” [Coyote]
Timothy Kincaid: why I oppose the California “don’t say ex-gay” therapy-ban bill [BTB]
More on unreasonable IRS demands of tea party groups seeking nonprofit status [Stoll, Anne Sorock/Bill Jacobson, Houston Chronicle, earlier]
Denmark Supreme Court, 7-0, strikes down conviction of Lars Hedegaard for criticizing Islam in own home [Mark Steyn] Institute of Public Affairs launches campaign to defend free speech in Australia [Andrew Bolt case earlier] Free speech in Britain looking the worse for wear [Cooke, NRO] Belgian court throws out lawsuit seeking ban on allegedly racist “Tintin” comic book [Volokh] Group files criminal complaint against Swiss magazine over cover story on Roma crime [Spiegel]

Tags: Australia, Belgium, bullying, Denmark, free speech, hate speech, India, Switzerland, United Kingdom

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

“Indian court forces Facebook, Google to censor content”

Walter Olson — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 18:22:52 +0000

“The Delhi High Court has ordered 21 companies, which have already been asked to develop a mechanism to block objectionable material in India, to present their plans for policing their services in the next 15 days.” A private complaint had charged the internet firms with permitting the dissemination of material offensive to Hindus, Muslims and Christians. [Emil Protalinski, ZDNet]

Tags: Facebook, Google, hate speech, India

“Indian court forces Facebook, Google to censor content” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

January 26 roundup

Walter Olson — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 05:01:35 +0000

Judge Edith Jones rules: 5th Circuit spanks judge who overturned result of anti-traffic-cam vote [The Newspaper, background]
“UK Nanny State: Let’s Send Gamers To Rehab” [Nick Sibilla, Reason] “If Poker Is a Public Health Issue, What Isn’t?” [Jacob Sullum]
Struggle Resolutely Against Misleaders of the People In Weather Broadcasts Everywhere! [TP; reactions from Tony Hake/Examiner, Geoff Fox, Andrew Revkin, Watts Up With That]
Jury awards $178 million in bariatric-surgery case against Jacksonville hospital, sum greater than GDP of several small island nations [Florida Times-Union]
Sikh sues Jay Leno over comparison of Romney vacation home to Golden Temple of Amritsar [Daily Mail]
Redevelopment without prerequisite “blight” akin to Hittite sack of Babylon [Gideon Kanner]
Convinced hospital broke naming promise, jury tells it to pay $1 million to country singer Garth Brooks [AP]
“Dean of law bloggers” — why, thank you, sir [Hans Bader, CEI]

Tags: accolades, climate change, eminent domain, Fifth Circuit, global warming, hospitals, India, red light cameras, videogames

January 26 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

International law roundup

Walter Olson — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 05:13:07 +0000

More on John Fonte’s new book Sovereignty or Submission [FrontPage interview, W. James Antle III/Washington Times, Clifford May via Israpundit, earlier here and here] U.N. Human Rights Council finds much to criticize about U.S. rights record, including inadequate attention to rights of clean water and sanitation; State Department response to “universal periodic review”;
“The President Can’t Increase Congress’s Power Simply by Signing a Treaty” [Ilya Shapiro, Cato, on Supreme Court case of U.S. v. Bond]
Another “international norms vs. American sentencing practices” showdown headed to SCOTUS? [Hans Bader]
France, Turkey restrict talk of Armenian genocide in opposite ways, and both are wrong [Walter Russell Mead]
Transnational prosecutions on an inexorable upward arc? Depends on how you count them [Jeremy Rabkin, TAI]
International law pressed into use to remake family law and gender customs [Stephen Baskerville]
“Time to Fix the European Court of Human Rights?” [Julian Ku, Opinio Juris]
“We are fighting the caste system with capitalism”: open market in India helps Dalits [NY Times]

Tags: Europe, family law, France, India, international human rights, international law, Supreme Court, Turkey

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

January 9 roundup

Walter Olson — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 05:12:45 +0000

Illinois now requires showing of ID, signing of log to buy drain cleaner. So long as you’re not trying to vote! [Consumerist via @amyalkon]
Tribute to no-longer-anonymous Ken White of Popehat and his work defending bloggers from legal threats [Scott Greenfield; earlier; Ken's defense in Maryland of blogger Aaron Worthing; new case of science blogger in Texas]
Politicos mobilize against risk that Wal-Mart will bring fresh produce choices to Harlem [Greg Beato] India frets about whether to allow chain stores, recapitulating a debate U.S. once went through [Tabarrok, MR]
Colorado legislators honored at a luncheon where I spoke [CCJL]
HHS launches initiative to audit health providers for compliance with HIPAA data privacy law, and many are unprepared [American Medical News, Dana Thrasher, Dom Nicastro/HealthLeaders Media]
New scholarship on effects of Twombly/Iqbal [Drug and Device Law series first, second, third, CL&P]
Congratulations to the outstanding Abnormal Use for winning the ABA’s “Blawg 100” vote for best torts blog; we feel pretty good about placing third without mounting a campaign. While exploring that site, don’t miss its stellar coverage of the tendentious documentary “Hot Coffee”.

Tags: bloggers and the law, Colorado, HIPAA, hot coffee, Illinois, India, legal blogs, pleading, Wal-Mart

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

Big Food regulatory net

Walter Olson — Tue, 24 May 2011 05:24:52 +0000

It’s not hard for a small chicken farmer to get caught in it, as we find in this Jesse Walker account. The food safety bill passed last year similarly carves out a little exemption for small producers who sell directly to consumers at farmer’s markets and the like, while not exempting those who sell through intermediaries — even though the intermediary in such a case may be simply a neighboring farmer who is headed in to the city market.

Related: India’s ingenious dabbawallah lunch-distribution system, which could probably never get past health codes in this country [37 Signals via Market Urbanism]

Tags: agriculture and farming, food safety, India, small business

Big Food regulatory net is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Jezebel, the Dodgers and eminent domain

Walter Olson — Sun, 15 May 2011 12:12:11 +0000

Gideon Kanner recalls how the forcible 1950s displacement of a modest Mexican community made way eventually (after the dropping of a public housing scheme) for the construction of L.A.’s baseball stadium. Some of the residents resisted: “Their principled fight became a footnote in the wretched history of eminent domain law which holds that once a condemnor acquires title to private property by eminent domain, it is not bound to put it to the ‘public’ uses for which it was taken.” ["The Curse of Chavez Ravine"]

In other eminent domain news, voters in the Indian state of West Bengal have ousted the long-ruling Communist party; a rival party “began to gain momentum when angry farmers erupted in protest against the Communist government in 2007 and 2008 after it seized farmland to set up an automobile factory.”

Tags: baseball, eminent domain, India, Los Angeles

Jezebel, the Dodgers and eminent domain is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

March 14 roundup

Walter Olson — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 05:28:17 +0000

A San Francisco cosmetic surgeon sues her online critics — in Virginia? [Paul Alan Levy, CL&P]
SCOTUS ruling in “cat’s-paw” case could gut summary judgment in many bias suits [Hyman]
Cuomo spokesman’s smart retort to Litigation Lobby attack on Medicaid reform panel [LoHud.com]
“Tennessee Cops Posed as a Defense Attorney To Get Suspect To Incriminate Himself” [Reason]
“Illinois golfer not liable for head shot” [Lowering the Bar]
Trade friction mounts due to anti-India provisions in Zadroga (9/11 recovery workers) compensation bill [PoL]
Is a tax-funded federal nonprofit entity funneling money to environmental suits against the government? [Ron Arnold, Examiner]
FCRA class action deemed “lawsuit abuse problem in a nutshell” [Examiner editorial]
“Fatherhood by Conscription: Nonconsensual Insemination & the Duty of Child Support” [Michael Higdon, SSRN via Instapundit]

Tags: Andrew Cuomo, Center for Justice & Democracy, debtor-creditor law, discrimination law, environment, family law, golf, India, libel slander and defamation, police, September 11

March 14 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

January 24 roundup

Walter Olson — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 12:57:44 +0000

Trouble with hunting bad/burdensome regulations: most of them have entrenched advocates [NY Times] “Obama — the Great Deregulator?” [Jeff Jacoby, Boston Globe]. Earlier here and here;
Now we find out: tax hikes on outsourcing in 9/11 compensation bill infuriate India, were never vetted by Hill tax panels [PoL; more on Easter eggs in bill] Law firm that advertises for 9/11 dust clients is fan of Sen. Gillibrand [Stoll]
France will stop censoring some historical images of smokers in ads [NY Times]
“2010: The Year of the Angry, Company-Suing Plaintiff” [WSJ Law Blog] “The most sued companies in America” [Fox Business, counting federal-court suits only]
Death by drunk driving: As bad as purposeful murder? Worse? [Greenfield]
EPA gets specific on its plans to advance “environmental justice,” combat disparate racial impact in project siting, etc. [WLF, Popeo, earlier here, here, here, etc.]
Winners of Chamber’s “Most Ridiculous Lawsuits of 2010″ competition [US Chamber ILR]
“If the FCC had regulated the Internet” [Jack Shafer, Slate]

Tags: advertising, alcohol, Environmental Protection Agency, Federal Communications Commission, France, India, regulation and its reform, September 11, tobacco

January 24 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

When a Holy Saint sues

Walter Olson — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 16:56:01 +0000

For more than three years a Sikh religious leader, styled by some “Third Holy Saint,” has been suing lone journalist Hardeep Singh under United Kingdom libel law over a critical article printed in the Sikh Times, drawing an outcry from some libel-law reformers there [Jack of Kent, Index on Censorship]

Tags: churches, India, libel slander and defamation, United Kingdom

When a Holy Saint sues is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system