Posts tagged as:

regulation and its reform

EPA regional administrator Al “crucify them” Armendariz [Heritage "Foundry," Christopher Helman/Forbes]

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Alex Tabarrok applies a Straussian reading to a WSJ op-ed by former FDA commissioner Andrew von Eschenbach. [Marginal Revolution]

April 9 roundup

by Walter Olson on April 9, 2012

March 16 roundup

by Walter Olson on March 16, 2012

  • “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]

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February 29 roundup

by Walter Olson on February 29, 2012

  • Jackpot justice and New Jersey pharmacies (with both a Whitney Houston and a Ted Frank angle) [Fox, PoL, our Jan. 3 post]
  • New Mexico: “Trial lawyers object to spaceport limits” [Las Cruces Bulletin]
  • Dodd-Frank: too big not to fail [The Economist] Robert Teitelman (The Deal) on new Stephen Bainbridge book Corporate Governance After the Financial Crisis [HuffPo] Securities suits: “trial lawyers probably won’t be able to defend a defective system forever” [WSJ Dealpolitik]
  • Uh-oh: U.K. Labour opposition looks at unleashing U.S.-style class actions [Guardian] “U.K. Moves ‘No Win, No Fee’ Litigation Reforms to 2013″ [Suzi Ring, Legal Week]
  • More on controls on cold medicines as anti-meth measure [Radley Balko, Megan McArdle, Xeni Jardin, earlier here, here, here]
  • Recognizable at a distance: “In Germany, a Limp Domestic Economy Stifled by Regulation” [NY Times]
  • Fewer lawyers in Congress these days [WSJ Law Blog]

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February 19 roundup

by Walter Olson on February 19, 2012

  • Self-service arrangement: Pennsylvania judge charged with fixing her own parking tickets [Lancaster Online]
  • Economist cover story: “Over-regulated America“. Obama hesitant about heavy-handed regulation? Really? [Veronique de Rugy, NRO]
  • Argument for letting money market funds “break the buck” without federal backstop [David Henderson, EconLog]
  • Suing apps makers? “Entertainment Lawyers Go Wild for ‘Secondary’ Copyright Lawsuits” [WSJ Law Blog] SWAT raid on Kiwi copyright scofflaw? [Balko] Despite its editor’s views, NYT finds it hard to avoid breaching copyright laws itself [Carly Carioli, Boston Phoenix] “Contempt Sanctions Imposed on Copyright Troll Evan Stone” [Paul Alan Levy] More: “obscene materials can’t be copyrighted” offered as defense in illegal download case [Kerr]
  • Tenure terror: “Teacher in Los Angeles molest case reportedly paid $40G to drop appeal of firing” [AP]
  • FDA rejects lead-in-lipstick scare campaign [ACSH vs. Environmental Working Group]
  • A horror story of eyewitness I.D. [claim of DNA exoneration in Va. rape case; AP via Scott Greenfield]

If there’s something a little off in the phrase “job-killing regulation,” there’s something much more off in the notion of job-creating regulation, or so I argue in my new Cato post (& WLF, Above the Law).

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In the earlier and sounder conception of federalism, local and national government were meant to check each other’s overweening power. Nowadays, unfortunately, the two often interact in a cooperative way to encourage bigger government at both levels, as Washington bribes the states to spend and regulate more. I explain at Cato at Liberty (& Damon Root, Reason).

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The U.S. government really doesn’t believe in making it easy, which is why you might think of using a financial institution in Singapore, where they will be happy to do business. “The whole affair was just another friendly reminder of why I try to avoid doing anything in the US at all. Regulations, financial tracking, consumer protection… it’s just too damn difficult to get anything done.” [Simon Black, Sovereign Man]

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“When the companies that supply motor fuel close the books on 2011, they will pay about $6.8 million in penalties to the Treasury because they failed to mix a special type of biofuel into their gasoline and diesel as required by law. But there was none to be had. Outside a handful of laboratories and workshops, the ingredient, cellulosic biofuel, does not exist.” [Matthew L. Wald, New York Times; Kenneth Green, AEI]

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December 20 roundup

by Walter Olson on December 20, 2011

November 2 roundup

by Walter Olson on November 2, 2011

  • A request for anti-SLAPP lawyers in Maine and Maryland [Popehat]
  • “Gallup: Government Regulation the Top Concern Among Small Business Owners” [NRO Corner] Almost as if in rebuttal to claims from Treasury economist [Business Roundtable]
  • Foreclosure law firm in upstate NY under fire after pics posted of its Halloween party [Nocera, Mystal]
  • “GAO Report Details Secrecy Of Asbestos Trusts” [Dan Fisher, Forbes] Crown Cork & Seal seeks successor-liability bill in Massachusetts [Eagle-Tribune]
  • Case against FMCSA’s rule change on truckers’ hours-of-service [Marc Scribner, CEI]
  • Richard Epstein on John Paul Stevens as justice and, now, author [Hoover]
  • Feds say lawyer who advised giant theft ring was partly paid in chic shoes and other designer gear [ABA Journal]

So maybe it’s time to find a new way of expressing the idea of our Byzantine tax code, the Byzantine regulations of federal agencies, and so forth. [Brian Palmer, Slate; link fixed now, thanks reader Bob]

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“’Stricter regulation’ will be the number one driver of increased litigation according to general counsels and other corporate law officials surveyed by Fulbright & Jaworski.” [WSJ Law Blog]

September 28 roundup

by Walter Olson on September 28, 2011

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July 22 roundup

by Walter Olson on July 22, 2011

  • Illinois prisoner sues for land to start his own country [AP]
  • “Have you got a piece of this lawsuit?” Important Roger Parloff piece on litigation finance [Fortune, now out from paywall] “Hedge Funds Finance Medical Malpractice Claims” [Jeff Segal, Michael Sacopulos and Wayne Oliver, Forbes via White Coat]
  • Criminalizing bad parenting: more scrutiny of “Caylee’s Law” proposals [Steve Chapman, L.A. Times and Boston Globe editorials, New Scientist]
  • Deal with ADA complainant averts closure of popular Popponesset Marketplace in Mashpee, Mass. [Cape Cod News]
  • Because it’s not as if NYC needs electricity or anything: Bloomberg gives $50 million to Sierra Club campaign to stop coal burning by utilities [WaPo] “Environmental justice” arguments deployed against pipeline that would bring Alberta tar sands oil to U.S. [John Kendrick, WLF]
  • Unimpaired have permanent right to sue: Fla. high court throws out asbestos-reform law [PBP]
  • Red tape demanded by quality-of-life progressivism suffices to strangle poorer urban economies [Walter Russell Mead]

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Colorado really intends to regulate day-care centers to a fare-thee-well [Popehat, KKCO]

P.S. As Hans Bader rightly points out, the requirement that day cares publicly avow enthusiasm about diversity also gets into some troubling First Amendment territory of government-compelled speech.

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June 30 roundup

by Walter Olson on June 30, 2011