Overlawyered » same-sex marriage

Against North Carolina Amendment One

Walter Olson — Tue, 08 May 2012 13:05:37 +0000

Patrick at Popehat, who lives in Durham, N.C., interviewed his neighbors Gale and Elizabeth, who are a same sex couple, “about how Amendment One would affect them. This is what they had to say.” Earlier here (conservatives who oppose Amendment One include John Locke Foundation president John Hood) and here (most North Carolinians don’t realize measure would ban legal recognition of civil unions and domestic partnerships).

P.S. More from Richard Painter. And Gene Nichol (UNC Law) writes about the other time North Carolina amended its constitution to restrict marriage, which was back in 1875 [News & Observer]

Tags: North Carolina, same-sex marriage

Against North Carolina Amendment One is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

May 3 roundup

Walter Olson — Thu, 03 May 2012 04:07:59 +0000

Salute to Bill Childs, who blogged with distinction at TortsProf, on departing academia for private practice [Sheila Scheuerman and Chris Robinette]
North Carolina voters who know that Amendment One would ban civil unions oppose the measure by 22 points; unfortunately, most don’t know that [Greg Sargent, WaPo; earlier] Patrick at Popehat proposes 5 things Tar Heels can do to help defeat it;
Cellphone app to hail nearby taxi? DC government searches for a way to keep that illegal [Julian Sanchez, Cato at Liberty]
Can’t the left-wing Alliance for Justice be at least minimally consistent on Supreme Court ethics? [Freedman, Legal Ethics Forum]
On lawyer jokes [David Conway and commenters, Law and Liberty]
“2,000 patents have been granted for shaped pasta” [Doctorow; see also Martin Weiss ("It pays to noodle around in the lab")]
Texas barratry law trips up state rep [Southeast Texas Record, ABA Journal]

Tags: cellphones, humor, legal blogs, North Carolina, patent quality, same-sex marriage, Texas, Washington D.C.

May 3 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

North Carolina Amendment One

Walter Olson — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 04:21:25 +0000

The proposed constitutional amendment, which would ban legal recognition of nonmarital relationships, is opposed by figures that include John Locke Foundation president John Hood; Rep. Renee Ellmers (R-N.C.); noted foes of same-sex marriage David Blankenhorn and Elizabeth Marquardt (ban “goes too far“); and not least by Patrick at Popehat, who says, regarding the likelihood that the “parade of horribles” conceivable from the ban would ever come to pass in North Carolina, remembers the days “when I was represented in the United States Senate by Jesse Helms and John Edwards, simultaneously.”

Related: Moorfield Storey blog on Hayek and gay marriage.

Tags: North Carolina, same-sex marriage

North Carolina Amendment One is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Other people’s marriages

Walter Olson — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 15:29:57 +0000

Does same-sex marriage have any effect on wider social measures of family intactness? As the institution becomes more familiar — yesterday the GOP-run New Hampshire legislature declined 116-211 to repeal that state’s law — experience continues to suggest that there isn’t really a measurable effect: U.S. states such as Massachusetts and Iowa that recognize same-sex marriage boast some of the nation’s lowest rates of divorce and unwed childbearing, but that was also true before their law changed. I explain in a new post at Cato geared toward the current debate in Maryland.

Tags: divorce, Maryland, same-sex marriage

Other people’s marriages is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

March 2 roundup

Walter Olson — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 14:30:02 +0000

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, who crusades against distracted driving, worsens the problem by honking at motorists he sees using phones [WTOP via Mike Riggs, Reason] Expensive new mandate for back-up cameras in cars may be delayed until after election [Ira Stoll and more, Ann Althouse]
With reporter Lee Stranahan, the late Andrew Breitbart shone an investigative spotlight on the USDA’s billion-dollar settlement with lawyers representing black farmers, and there was indeed much to investigate [Big Government]
Substance on floor may have been own baby oil: “Oiled Stripper Loses Slip and Fall Lawsuit” [Erik Magraken; B.C., Canada; related on-the-job pole-dance injuries here and here]
Honeywell’s new thermostat design deserves high marks, its patent litigation maybe not so much [Farhad Manjoo, Slate]
Socialism takes too many evenings: @ChadwickMatlin live-tweets Park Slope Food Co-op meeting [The Awl]
Auto bailout a success? Really? [Mickey Kaus, Todd Zywicki, Ted Frank, Prof. Bainbridge]
Way to go Maryland: proud of my state for enacting law recognizing same-sex marriage, signed by Gov. O’Malley yesterday [WaPo]

Tags: agriculture and farming, autos, Maryland, NHTSA, patent litigation, same-sex marriage, strippers and exotic dancers

March 2 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

February 9 roundup

Walter Olson — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 05:07:43 +0000

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]

Tags: animal rights, attorneys general, class actions, colleges and universities, Ninth Circuit, patent trolls, pharmaceuticals, same-sex marriage, Yale

February 9 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

“If Senator Santorum is a ‘strong supporter of the 10th amendment’…”

Walter Olson — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 12:05:51 +0000

“… he might want to read it.” [Jonathan Adler, Volokh Conspiracy]

Tags: constitutional law, same-sex marriage

“If Senator Santorum is a ‘strong supporter of the 10th amendment’…” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

September 28 roundup

Walter Olson — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 05:57:58 +0000

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]

Tags: child support, divorce, foie gras, Massachusetts, regulation and its reform, same-sex marriage

September 28 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

September 12 roundup

Walter Olson — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 12:37:28 +0000

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]

Tags: advertising, CPSC, CPSIA, cruise ships, Dickie Scruggs, forfeiture, Google, hospitals, Katrina, Rick Perry, same-sex marriage, Texas

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