Overlawyered » Senate http://overlawyered.com Chronicling the high cost of our legal system Tue, 14 Feb 2012 11:28:52 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 en hourly 1 Hearings on Congressional insider trading http://overlawyered.com/2011/11/hearings-on-congressional-insider-trading/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/11/hearings-on-congressional-insider-trading/#comments Wed, 30 Nov 2011 05:00:57 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=26029 They’re coming up within the next few days, but Prof. Bainbridge warns that the draft legislation circulating from the office of Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) is “bizarre” and “toothless.” Earlier here, here, etc.

More: Gillibrand’s office says the weakness of the proposal was due to an inadvertent drafting error and that it will be given teeth. C-SPAN covers the hearing, the SEC and Sen. Scott Brown make their views known, Todd Henderson and Larry Ribstein take a contrarian position, and Prof. Bainbridge covers the scholarly testimony.

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]]> http://overlawyered.com/2011/11/hearings-on-congressional-insider-trading/feed/ 1 November 22 roundup http://overlawyered.com/2011/11/november-22-roundup-3/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/11/november-22-roundup-3/#comments Tue, 22 Nov 2011 05:35:53 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=25773
  • Furor continues over insider trading by Congress [Roger Parloff/Fortune, Bainbridge ("unimpressed" with reform proposal entitled STOCK Act), earlier] Rep. Bachus disputes claims in Peter Schweizer book [AW, Perry]
  • “Fort Hood victims’ families seek $750M from feds” [Kenneth Timmerman, Daily Caller]
  • “Chicago Lawyer Sues Southwest, Says Airline Breached Free-Drink Coupon Contract” [ABA Journal]
  • “Lawyer Solicitation: Penn State Sex Abuse Edition” [Turkewitz] Slate slags Merck CEO [Ted Frank]
  • Akaka Hawaii-racialization bill, smuggled in through the back door? [Ilya Shapiro, background]
  • Suits over Hurricane Irene electrical outages expected to spread [Connecticut Law Tribune, Chris Powell]
  • Fiasco envy? “RIAA Thinking Of Backing Righthaven” [Masnick, TechDirt] “Righthaven ordered to pay nearly $120,000 in attorney fees, court costs” [VegasInc., Ars Technica, American Power Blog]
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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2011/11/november-22-roundup-3/feed/ 2     Busting Congress for insider trading http://overlawyered.com/2011/11/busting-congress-for-insider-trading/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/11/busting-congress-for-insider-trading/#comments Tue, 15 Nov 2011 19:57:45 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=25676 Thanks to the sensational revelations from Hoover’s Peter Schweizer on 60 Minutes and elsewhere, the public is now aware of the uncanny investment success that members of the U.S. Congress enjoy when they personally bet on the stocks of companies with business in the capital. But is it lawful for them to be trading on inside information? I take up that question in my new Cato at Liberty post. More: Bainbridge, Stoll, @AndrewBreitbart.

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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2011/11/busting-congress-for-insider-trading/feed/ 5     Leahy hearing pushes “SCOTUS soft on business” theme http://overlawyered.com/2011/07/leahy-hearing-pushes-scotus-soft-on-business-theme/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/07/leahy-hearing-pushes-scotus-soft-on-business-theme/#comments Wed, 13 Jul 2011 15:49:59 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=23811 Hans Von Spakovsky’s write-up (complete with Schools for Misrule mention, for which thanks) sums up the event: “Leahy stacks hearing, still loses.” More: Adler, Kendrick, Bader, Pincus, Richer/Kendrick, Stoll.

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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2011/07/leahy-hearing-pushes-scotus-soft-on-business-theme/feed/ 1     February 13 roundup http://overlawyered.com/2011/02/february-13-roundup/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/02/february-13-roundup/#comments Sun, 13 Feb 2011 14:15:25 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=21459
  • Rules for Growth: Promoting Innovation and Growth Through Legal Reform is new book from Kauffman Foundation in which “formidable” contributors including Henry Butler, George Priest, and Peter Schuck prescribe pro-growth policy changes across a variety of fields [available at Kauffman or on SSRN via contributor Larry Ribstein, Diana Furchtgott-Roth/Real Clear Markets]
  • Nick Farr is awfully apologetic (not really) for saying those mean things about Hot Coffee, the new documentary film presenting Lawsuit Lobby view of the world [Abnormal Use, earlier] Related: TBD, more. More: Bob Dorigo Jones.
  • AEP v. Connecticut global warming case invites courts to supplant other branches’ role [Ilya Shapiro, Cato]
  • Washington jury awards $46 million to victim of shooting spree at Denny’s who charged negligent security [Kent Reporter, KOMO, Seattle Times, earlier]
  • New bipartisan Congressional Civil Justice Caucus forms on Capitol Hill [BLT, PoL]
  • Oh, Professor Tribe, your rhetorical moves on the Supreme Court and Obamacare are so transparent [Ann Althouse] (& Ilya Shapiro letter in NY Times)
  • DRI says “if you [defend] Med Mal cases the news isn’t good,” new filings show a drop; clients may take different view [For the Defense] James Pinkerton on med-mal reform [Serious Medicine Strategy] Jan. 20 medical liability hearing in the House [PoL]
  • Jury: “customer of size” not victim of airline bias [five years ago on Overlawyered]
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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2011/02/february-13-roundup/feed/ 0     Food safety bill: goodbye, artisanal cheese? http://overlawyered.com/2010/11/food-safety-bill-goodbye-artisanal-cheese/ http://overlawyered.com/2010/11/food-safety-bill-goodbye-artisanal-cheese/#comments Mon, 29 Nov 2010 12:08:00 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=20380 Even using the powers it has on the books now, according to one expert, the Food and Drug Administration could largely shut down the making of artisanal farmhouse cheese if it chose. This week the Senate will consider the Food Safety Modernization Act, which will put much more power in the agency’s hands and greatly ramp up regulatory and paperwork requirements for producers, though (in a welcome improvement) the new Senate version of the legislation does at least nod more toward the principle of “tiering” burdens for smaller local producers. Meanwhile, some press outlets continue to pretend that the only real debate is between do-nothing lawmakers who don’t care whether Americans die of food poisoning, and more interventionist lawmakers who are trying to keep that from happening. I’ve got a fuller report on the politics of the food bill — and of the lame duck Congress more generally — at Cato at Liberty.

    More: Bill advances toward expected Senate floor vote Tuesday [WaPo]. The Daily Caller reports on continuing small-farmer concerns, and recalls a raw-milk raid; David Frum wonders about elitism and its taint; Michelle Malkin questions the lame-duck railroad (& thanks to both of the last two for kind links).

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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2010/11/food-safety-bill-goodbye-artisanal-cheese/feed/ 4     October 12 roundup http://overlawyered.com/2010/10/october-12-roundup-3/ http://overlawyered.com/2010/10/october-12-roundup-3/#comments Tue, 12 Oct 2010 15:04:11 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=19652
  • Representing Prof. Michael Krauss, Ted Frank will file objection to Classmates.com class action settlement [CCAF]
  • Not without condescension, Harvard historian/New Yorker writer Jill Lepore asks why Woodrow Wilson’s so disliked these days; Radley Balko offers some help [The Agitator, NYT "Room for Debate"]
  • China needs true private property rights, according to Charter 08 document, which helped Liu Xiaobo win Nobel Peace Prize [Tyler Cowen]
  • Axelrod “foreign funders under every rug” demagogy might be turned against his own allies [Stoll; New York Times refutes earlier Obama talking point; Atlantic Wire; Sullum]
  • R.I.P. influential class actions and mass torts scholar Richard Nagareda [Vanderbilt Law School]
  • “Web Seminar Makes Case for Patent Troll Lawsuit Targets to Fight Back” [Washington Legal Foundation Legal Pulse]
  • Contrary to WSJ report, if Congressional staffers are profiting in stock trades by way of insider knowledge, they probably do face some risk of legal liability [Bainbridge; a not entirely unrelated inside-trading controversy]
  • Underpublicized: “California’s Proposed ‘Green Chemistry’ Regulations Move Forward” [Wajert]
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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2010/10/october-12-roundup-3/feed/ 2     Counting our blessings dept.: bills Congress didn’t pass http://overlawyered.com/2010/10/counting-our-blessings-dept-bills-congress-didnt-pass/ http://overlawyered.com/2010/10/counting-our-blessings-dept-bills-congress-didnt-pass/#comments Fri, 08 Oct 2010 16:00:30 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=19610 Carter at Point of Law compiles a list of mostly-bad bills Congress left town without passing [parts one and two] One very worrisome law of this sort, the we-sue-the-world Foreign Manufacturers Legal Accountability Act (FMLAA), is the subject of a new policy analysis by my Cato Institute colleagues Daniel Griswold and Sallie James (it’s the sort of aggressive trade restriction that could touch off major retaliation, not to mention its possible CPSIA-like effects on vintage dirtbike collectors; more background here, here, and here).

    Unfortunately, two troublesome enactments — the food safety bill and the misnamed Paycheck Fairness Act — were teed up by Majority Leader Harry Reid for possible expedited passage in the lame duck session.

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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2010/10/counting-our-blessings-dept-bills-congress-didnt-pass/feed/ 0     Trial lawyers’ Capitol Hill agenda http://overlawyered.com/2010/02/trial-lawyers-capitol-hill-agenda/ http://overlawyered.com/2010/02/trial-lawyers-capitol-hill-agenda/#comments Mon, 22 Feb 2010 14:44:07 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=16203 In his wrapup post at Point of Law, Jim Copland summarizes pending legislation — much of it sponsored by Sen. Arlen Specter (D-Pa.) — aimed at “loosening pleading standards, expanding securities litigation, rolling back federal preemption, limiting private arbitration, and cutting taxes on plaintiffs’ litigation.”

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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2010/02/trial-lawyers-capitol-hill-agenda/feed/ 0     “How the Plaintiffs Bar Bought the Senate” http://overlawyered.com/2010/02/how-the-plaintiffs-bar-bought-the-senate/ http://overlawyered.com/2010/02/how-the-plaintiffs-bar-bought-the-senate/#comments Tue, 09 Feb 2010 12:19:55 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=16008 My Manhattan Institute colleague Jim Copland has an op-ed today in the WSJ explaining how current campaign finance rules magnify the influence of trial lawyers, as through the favored status of “bundling”. Excerpt:

    Over the current six-year senatorial election cycle, four of the top seven donors to the campaign committee and leadership PAC of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D., Nev.) were plaintiffs firms. Plaintiffs firms were the top two donors to Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D., Ill.).

    The first piece of legislation signed by President Obama—the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009 — gutted statutes of limitation in employment lawsuits. The first legislative triumph for new Sen. Al Franken (D., Minn.), an amendment to the defense appropriations bill, foreclosed employment arbitration clauses for federal contractors.

    More from Jim at Point of Law, including a mention of Trial Lawyers, Inc.: K Street–A Report on the Litigation Lobby 2010, the newest installment in the Trial Lawyers, Inc. series, which will be available later today here.

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