Overlawyered » judicial nominations

May 22 roundup

Walter Olson — Tue, 22 May 2012 04:10:24 +0000

Lacey Act madness: might Feds be empowered to disrupt summer concerts by seizing musicians’ Gibsons? [Bedard, DC Examiner; earlier; recent Heritage Foundation work; reworded to reflect comment from "Density Duck," below]
Contributors to new “Privatization Blog” include friend of this blog Coyote, e.g. here and here;
“Big Government Causes Hyper-Partisanship in the Judicial Appointment Process” [Ilya Shapiro] Fuels Culture War, too: “The faster the state expands, the more likely it is to violate your values” [Matt Welch]
Demagogy on expatriates: Schumer proposal for stiff tax on emigrants may have read better in original German [Ira Stoll, Roger Pilon/Cato, Paul Caron/TaxProf]
Georgia high court considers $459 million fax-spam verdict [AJC, AP, my take] “Hot fuel” class actions enrich the usual suspects [PoL]
New rebuttal to trial lawyer/HBO movie “Hot Coffee” [Victor Schwartz et al, auto-plays video] Ted Frank crossed swords with Litigation Lobby on the movie in January, particularly on the question of coffee temperature and the Liebeck case [PoL]
Overlawyered “will become the first [law] blog teenager this summer” [Bruce Carton, Legal Blog Watch] “I’ve been a fan of Walter Olson’s Overlawyered blog for years.” [Amy Alkon, Advice Goddess] Thanks!

Tags: accolades, endangered species, Georgia, hot coffee, judicial nominations, on other blogs, taxes

May 22 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

February 1 roundup

Walter Olson — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 05:03:31 +0000

“Hawaii may keep track of all web sites visited” [Declan McCullagh]
NEA (and now Obama) answer to public education woes: lock the exits by hiking school-leaving age [Steve Chapman, earlier]
On nomination filibusters, New York Times editorial policy has pulled a 360, not just a 180 [Whelan, 2003, 2005, earlier]
English copyright ruling “creates ownership in the idea of a photo’s composition” [Doctorow, BB]
New Maryland push for same-sex marriage will include stronger religious exemptions, a course I urged last year [Sun, my view] Detailed inquiry into the law of interstate marriage recognition and DOMA [Will Baude, Volokh]
When lawyers face prison for the advice they give [Jack Fernandez, Zuckerman Spaeder via Legal Ethics Forum]
FDA regulation of pharmaceuticals: “More reasons to discount adverse event reports” [Yeary, Drug & Device Law, the CPSC database analogy]

Tags: copyright, judicial nominations, Maryland, pharmaceuticals, photography, same-sex marriage, schools, United Kingdom

February 1 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Obama proposes up or down vote on judges

Walter Olson — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 13:32:52 +0000

Ted Frank: “It is ironic that Obama is calling for a 90-day ‘simple up or down’ vote on judicial nominees when he is the only sitting president in American history who has voted to filibuster a judicial nomination — and that was for someone well within the mainstream like Justice Alito.”

Tags: Barack Obama, judicial nominations

Obama proposes up or down vote on judges is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

December 12 roundup

Walter Olson — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 05:04:59 +0000

Liability suits bankrupt manufacturer of gasoline cans [Tulsa World]
Faces life imprisonment: “Greece’s statistics chief faces criminal probe” for “not cooking the books” [FT via @OlafStorbeck]
Man injured by runaway car can sue county on grounds bus shelter was built too close to street [Seattle Times]
Title IX trips up track teams [Saving Sports: Delaware, West Virginia, Maryland]
“‘Not gay enough’ softball players settle suit” [SF Chron]
Now it’s the Obama administration that’s upset with ABA over ratings of judicial nominees [Whelan]
Lawyer kiosks in UK newsstands [Knake, LEF] Lawyers open kiosk at Florida mall [ABA Journal]

Tags: bar associations, judicial nominations, Oklahoma, product liability, roads and streets, Title IX

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

Senate confirms McConnell to federal judgeship

Walter Olson — Fri, 06 May 2011 05:53:41 +0000

By a mostly partisan vote of 50 to 44, the U.S. Senate confirmed Rhode Island plaintiff’s lawyer and political kingmaker Jack McConnell to a federal district judgeship. McConnell made his Motley Rice law firm, based in South Carolina, into Rhode Island’s biggest political donor during the same period that state officials were hiring him to run, on contingency fee, what it was hoped would be a hugely lucrative suit against former makers of lead paint. The Motley firm, with associated law firms, is credited with having made billions from tobacco and asbestos litigation and has recycled large sums into the campaign coffers of state attorneys general and other friendly politicians. [Daily Caller, Plains Daily (North Dakota contributions), Politico, ShopFloor] Earlier here, here, here, etc.

Tags: judicial nominations, lead paint, politics, Rhode Island

Senate confirms McConnell to federal judgeship is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

April 11 roundup

Walter Olson — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 15:06:05 +0000

“Teacher threatens student with defamation suit for complaining about her grades” [Bassett, Calif.; San Gabriel Valley Tribune via TortsProf]
Rolls-Royce case: “Judge Posner Provides Preview of Wal-Mart v. Dukes Ruling?” [Trask]
But note Davidoff comments: “Plaintiffs Lawyers Eyeing Marcellus Shale Work” [Legal Intelligencer]
Massachusetts: for its 85-year-old administrator, is an anti-poverty empire forever? [Lawrence Eagle-Tribune via Zincavage]
Senate Judiciary advances Rhode Island nominee Jack McConnell by 11-7 vote [PoL, earlier]
Bonuses for arrests? Way to disgrace a law enforcement system [Greenfield, related]
“Insulting Your Boss Online Is Now Protected Speech” [AtL, earlier]
Treasury’s Do Not Shop list [five years ago on Overlawyered]

Tags: Facebook, judicial nominations, libel slander and defamation, oil industry, police, Rhode Island, Richard Posner, schools, Wal-Mart v. Dukes

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

Left assails Fifth Circuit judges based on clients they repped decades ago

Walter Olson — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 10:43:59 +0000

Hello? Guantanamo? It’s not as if you’d expect any sort of consistent policy on these matters from the imaginatively named Alliance for Justice. But it’s still strange that they’d open the door to future attacks on their own favored judicial nominees based on clients they represented long before reaching the bench. [Joel Cohen and Katherine Helm/Law.com, NLJ] More: John Steele at Legal Ethics Forum takes a different view, and I comment.

Tags: Fifth Circuit, judicial nominations, recusals

Left assails Fifth Circuit judges based on clients they repped decades ago is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

June 21 roundup

Walter Olson — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 14:04:20 +0000

After Mohawk Industries settlement, many employers could be sitting ducks for suits claiming that hiring illegal workers is RICO violation [Helman, Forbes, earlier]
Teen tries to help child lost in store, winds up facing felony rap of false imprisonment [Greenfield]
Federal magistrate in debt collection case: letter on law firm letterhead implies threat to sue [Legal Intelligencer]
On “professional” class action objectors [Ted at PoL]
Coal company claims ventilation system ordered by government regulators might have been a cause of deadly April mine explosion [WSJ]
Senate committee approves judicial nomination of John (“Jack”) McConnell, impresario of Rhode Island lead-paint litigation; William Jacobson explains critics’ charges regarding couching of legal fee as purported hospital donation [Legal Insurrection]
Hey, stop siphoning that oil slick, we haven’t checked your life jackets and extinguishers [GatewayPundit] Gulf oil rig registered for purposes of regulation in remote Pacific island chain [Legal Blog Watch] Richard Epstein on oil spill liability [WSJ] BP will never pay full price of accident [Popehat] Check back in 2031 to see how the litigation went [Alex Beam, Boston Globe]
American Constitution Society holds panel discussion on Iqbal and Twombly [BLT] “Is It Too Much to Ask That a Lawsuit Be ‘Plausible’?” [Richard Samp, WLF Legal Pulse]

Tags: BP Transocean oil spill, class action settlements, judicial nominations, pleading, Rhode Island, Richard Epstein, safety

June 21 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

“Goodwin Liu’s America”

Ted Frank — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 21:05:36 +0000

I have an op-ed about the pending Ninth Circuit nomination, which the Senate Judiciary Committee will consider tomorrow. If some of the language sounds vaguely familiar, it stems from an earlier Ted, and it especially amused me how much more appropriate Senator Kennedy’s words were for Professor Liu than for Judge Bork.

Update: and Ed Whelan’s NRO piece. And Ilya Shapiro and Evan Turgeon in the Daily Caller.

Tags: judicial nominations, Ninth Circuit, politics

“Goodwin Liu’s America” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

March 16 roundup

Ted Frank — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 14:22:39 +0000

Are you a member of Tyson chicken or H&R Block Express IRA class action settlements?

Jim Copland on Harry Reid and the trial bar. [NRO]

Jim Copland on the Ground Zero settlement, which may pay lawyers $200 million—but the judge plans fee scrutiny. [NY Post; NY Daily News]

Kevin LaCroix interviews the Circle of Greed authors. [D&O Diary]

Judgeships: Rhode Island lead paint trial lawyer in despite mediocre rating, but Sri Srinivasan out because of his clients—not Al Qaeda, but, heaven forfend, eeeevil corporations like Hertz.

There’s no evidence that workers on automotive brakes (which sometimes contain asbestos) get mesothelioma at a greater rate than the rest of the population, but auto companies still get sued over it. Ford fought one in Madison County, rather than settle, and won. [Madison County Record]

Overview of defensive medicine at work. [AP]

Pantsless Rielle Hunter on John Edwards: “He’s very honest and truthful.” [GQ]

Tags: asbestos, Bill Lerach, class action settlements, defensive medicine, Ford Motor, Ground Zero dust lawsuits, Harry Reid, judicial nominations, Madison County, politics, Rhode Island, Rielle Hunter

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