Overlawyered » same-sex marriage http://overlawyered.com Chronicling the high cost of our legal system Tue, 14 Feb 2012 18:22:52 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 en hourly 1 February 9 roundup http://overlawyered.com/2012/02/february-9-roundup-3/ http://overlawyered.com/2012/02/february-9-roundup-3/#comments Thu, 09 Feb 2012 05:07:43 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=27470
  • Ninth Circuit panel strikes down California’s Prop 8 [Volokh, Kerr, Magliocca, Lithwick, Steve Chapman]
  • Judge dismisses PETA “killer whales enslaved” case [Caroline May/Daily Caller, CNN, earlier]
  • “Patent Troll Claims Ownership of Interactive Web – And Might Win” [Joe Mullin/Wired, earlier; more on testimony by Web father Tim Berners-Lee] Update: Ding Dong! Jury rejects claim;
  • “Further Analysis of the Bottle-Rocket Case” [Lowering the Bar, earlier]
  • As patients suffer: “The War Over Prescription Painkillers,” start of a Radley Balko series [HuffPo parts one, two so far]
  • Richard Epstein on federal fiat and Yale disciplinary procedure [Defining Ideas] Under new-style rules at Yale, will a professor even be aware he’s been accused and henceforth is to be “monitored”? [KC Johnson]
  • Jim Copland testimony on abuses in government contingent-fee litigation [Manhattan Institute, PDF] “Parens patriae” proposal to replace class actions with state attorney general suits, but with private entrepreneurial bar still in saddle [Adam Zimmerman/Prawfs on Myriam Gilles/Gary Friedman, SSRN]
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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2012/02/february-9-roundup-3/feed/ 3     February 1 roundup http://overlawyered.com/2012/02/february-1-roundup-4/ http://overlawyered.com/2012/02/february-1-roundup-4/#comments Wed, 01 Feb 2012 05:03:31 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=27256
  • “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]
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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2012/02/february-1-roundup-4/feed/ 0     “If Senator Santorum is a ’strong supporter of the 10th amendment’…” http://overlawyered.com/2012/01/if-senator-santorum-is-a-strong-supporter-of-the-10th-amendment/ http://overlawyered.com/2012/01/if-senator-santorum-is-a-strong-supporter-of-the-10th-amendment/#comments Fri, 06 Jan 2012 12:05:51 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=26640 “… he might want to read it.” [Jonathan Adler, Volokh Conspiracy]

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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2012/01/if-senator-santorum-is-a-strong-supporter-of-the-10th-amendment/feed/ 3     September 28 roundup http://overlawyered.com/2011/09/september-28-roundup-3/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/09/september-28-roundup-3/#comments Wed, 28 Sep 2011 05:57:58 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=24757
  • 3M sues prominent Washington lawyer/lobbyist Lanny Davis, says threat of bad publicity improperly used as lawsuit leverage [Above the Law, more, Legal Ethics Forum]
  • House Oversight Committee report on expanding regulatory state;
  • Does lefty talking-points dispensary ThinkProgress approve of silencing affirmative action critic Roger Clegg? Decide for yourself;
  • Robin Fretwell Wilson and Jana Singer debate on scope of religious exemptions in law’s recognition of same-sex marriage [FedSoc Engage] New Heritage backgrounder on same topic cites my writing (in the course of disagreeing). Michael Barone on the politics of the issue, and why he supports the evolution of the law [Examiner]
  • California: chefs to defy foie gras ban? [LA Weekly via Alkon, earlier on Chicago]
  • “Massachusetts curbs lifetime alimony payments” [NY Times; Jennifer Braceras, Boston Herald] Many state child support formulas overstate cost of child raising [Bader]
  • In the mail: new John Fonte book on transnational legal structures, “Sovereignty or Submission” [Encounter Books]
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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2011/09/september-28-roundup-3/feed/ 4     September 12 roundup http://overlawyered.com/2011/09/september-12-roundup/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/09/september-12-roundup/#comments Mon, 12 Sep 2011 12:37:28 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=24482
  • Ninth Circuit: Holland America cruise line not responsible for customer’s swimming mishap at Mexican beach [Metropolitan News-Enterprise]
  • “President Perry would mean high noon for trial lawyers” [Kurt Schlichter, Washington Examiner; Politico; Prof. Bainbridge ("If the trial lawyers hate Rick Perry, maybe I should reconsider him")] Christie praises Perry’s “laudable” record on liability reform [PolitickerNJ] “Perry’s ‘loser pays’ is an economic winner” [Patrick Gleason and Jason Russell, Washington Times; Mass Tort Prof; background] Missing the point on the Texas med-mal experience [Coyote, earlier here, here, etc.] A bad sign: Gov. Perry reaches out to Maricopa County sheriff Joe Arpaio [NRO, background] Another: courting social conservative vote, he pledges interference in state marriage law Houston Chronicle.
  • Alan Lange and Tom Dawson discuss their Dickie Scruggs book [Above the Law, background]
  • Hospital pays $25M to settle lawsuit charging lack of Katrina preparedness [White Coat]
  • Democratic majority on CPSC plans to ram through burdensome CPSIA testing and certification rule next month [Commissioner Nancy Nord, more]
  • For matching willing buyers with sellers through Canadian pharmacy ads, Google agrees to pay fine of $500 million, a forfeiture geared to the revenue the pharmacies (not it) took in from the ads [Atlantic Wire, Chris Fountain]
  • “Woman Won’t Have to Pay for Her Own Cavity Search” [Lowering the Bar]
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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2011/09/september-12-roundup/feed/ 3     WSJ op-ed on same-sex marriage and religious exemptions http://overlawyered.com/2011/06/wsj-op-ed-on-same-sex-marriage-and-religious-exemptions/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/06/wsj-op-ed-on-same-sex-marriage-and-religious-exemptions/#comments Thu, 30 Jun 2011 05:13:50 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=23670 I’ve got an op-ed in today’s Wall Street Journal on New York’s vote last Friday to legally recognize same-sex marriage. I also applaud the inclusion of protections for religious institutions (and would have favored strengthening the protections beyond the current level). The WSJ frames the discussion as “Two Views from the Right,” and they’ve got Maggie Gallagher giving the opposite side.

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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2011/06/wsj-op-ed-on-same-sex-marriage-and-religious-exemptions/feed/ 6     Federalist Society videos online http://overlawyered.com/2010/12/federalist-society-videos-online/ http://overlawyered.com/2010/12/federalist-society-videos-online/#comments Fri, 10 Dec 2010 14:55:43 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=20563

    The Federalist Society has posted numerous videos from its recent National Lawyers’ Convention, including sessions on the aggressive regulatory stance of today’s Environmental Protection Agency, the constitutionality of Obamacare, anonymity and the First Amendment in media and campaign-regulation law, NYU’s Richard Epstein debating Yale’s Bill Eskridge on the court battle over California’s Prop 8, recusal and campaign rules for judges, Dodd-Frank, and the Christian Legal Society v. Martinez case on accreditation of student groups, among other topics. And civil procedure/Iqbal-Twombly buffs may be interested in a luncheon panel held just yesterday in D.C. (I was in the audience) in which four law professors (Don Elliott of Yale, Martin Redish and Ronald Allen of Northwestern, and Rick Esenberg of Marquette) outlined ideas for reforming the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure to reduce discovery costs and improve screening of cases in the earliest stages of filing.

    The video above is of the Society’s 10th annual Barbara Olson Memorial Lecture, in which Second Circuit Chief Judge Dennis Jacobs provocatively criticizes legal academia and other precincts of influential legal thinking for misunderstanding the role of the military and its relation to the law.

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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2010/12/federalist-society-videos-online/feed/ 1     Law firms that represent anti-gay causes http://overlawyered.com/2010/10/law-firms-that-represent-anti-gay-causes/ http://overlawyered.com/2010/10/law-firms-that-represent-anti-gay-causes/#comments Wed, 06 Oct 2010 16:27:23 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=19573 The Human Rights Campaign has issued a report rating major law firms (among other large employers) on how well they address LGBT issues. It takes off points for law firms that have represented anti-gay clients, such as Foley & Lardner, which has represented opponents of gay marriage in litigation in the District of Columbia.

    Many nonlawyers will not see anything unusual in this. The thing is, it’s a passionately held tenet of N.Y. Times-reader legal liberalism — sometimes, at least — that law firms must not be publicly shamed for electing to represent “bad” clients in important legal matters. After all, representing those clients does not necessarily mean they share the clients’ objectives or viewpoints. For example, former Bush administration defense official Cully Stimson was widely excoriated after he suggested that it was to the discredit of leading law firms that they had thrown a tremendous effort into the pro bono defense of Guantanamo detainees.

    Elie Mystal at Above the Law and John Steele at Legal Ethics Forum are among those to raise the question whether there is any real consistency to all this. And does it make a difference whether the “bad” client is being represented pro bono, or is paying handsomely, as with Sen. Kristen Gillibrand’s repping of Big Tobacco as a young lawyer?

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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2010/10/law-firms-that-represent-anti-gay-causes/feed/ 2     Presidential decrees and hospital visitation rights http://overlawyered.com/2010/04/presidential-decrees-and-hospital-visitation-rights/ http://overlawyered.com/2010/04/presidential-decrees-and-hospital-visitation-rights/#comments Fri, 16 Apr 2010 16:33:03 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=16973 Beldar offers one dissenting view. More: David Link, Independent Gay Forum.

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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2010/04/presidential-decrees-and-hospital-visitation-rights/feed/ 1     January 30 roundup http://overlawyered.com/2010/01/january-30-roundup-4/ http://overlawyered.com/2010/01/january-30-roundup-4/#comments Sat, 30 Jan 2010 13:13:42 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=15835
  • Attention journalists: a trademark opposition and a trademark lawsuit are two different things [Legal Satyricon]
  • I explain (slightly rudely) why I think the Citizens United decision will probably help the Dems this cycle [National Journal blogger poll] Plus: no big effect on campaigns? [Ann Althouse] And it’s not as if Chuck Schumer has made up his mind or anything: he’s titled his hearing on Citizens United next week “Corporate America vs. the Voter” [PoL, yet more here and here]
  • Olson and Boies should realize these are not the days of the Warren Court [Dale Carpenter, Independent Gay Forum]
  • Motorists beware Tenaha, Texas: the legal sequel [WSJ Law Blog, earlier here, etc.]
  • “Detroit Lawyer Fined For Chasing Buffalo Air Crash Victims” [Turkewitz]
  • Symbolic venue? Administration chooses to unveil new press-lenders-to-serve-minorities campaign at Jesse Jackson event [N.Y.Times]
  • Remembering pinball prohibition [Popular Mechanics back in August, Radley Balko]
  • Judge cuts “shocking”, “monstrous” $2 million award to $54,000 in Jammie Thomas-Rasset music-download suit [AmLaw Litigation Daily, earlier] Naughty librarians: “Offline Book ‘Lending’ Costs US Publishers Nearly $1 Trillion” [Eric Hellman]
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