Overlawyered » terrorism

Free speech roundup

Walter Olson — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 04:16:34 +0000

Keeping prosecutors busy? Georgia lawmaker files bill that would make Internet defamation a crime [Fulton County Daily Report]
Sarkozy calls for law banning visits to pro-terror websites [Ken Paulson, First Amendment Center]
“Ron Paul Campaign Drops Effort To Identify Anonymous Videographer” [Paul Alan Levy]
Playboy caused how many divorces? Junk science in the service of big-government conservatism [Andrew Stuttaford, NRO] How Santorum’s plans to get porn off internet go beyond GWB’s [Josh Barro] Contra Santorum, “arrival of Internet was associated with reduction in rape incidence” [Steve Chapman]
“Brian Deer and the British Medical Journal File An Anti-SLAPP Motion Against Andrew Wakefield” [Popehat]
Iowa passes law penalizing animal rightsers who spy on farms [Reuters, earlier] Illinois turns thumbs down on “ag-gag” proposal [Steve Chapman]
“What’s happened to free speech in Britain?” [Alex Massie, John O'Sullivan/NRO, earlier here and others]

Tags: animal rights, France, free speech, Iowa, libel slander and defamation, online speech, Ron Paul, terrorism, United Kingdom

Free speech roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Some heroes for our time

Walter Olson — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 21:53:06 +0000

My new post at Cato at Liberty is on Italian labor law professors Pietro Ichino and Carlo Dell’Aringa, who live under police protection because of their support for liberalization of the job market; two other professors, Massimo D’Antona and Mario Biagi, have been killed by Red Brigades gunmen. More: Coyote.

Tags: employment at will, Italy, law schools, terrorism

Some heroes for our time is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

“Human rights court blocks Abu Qatada deportation”

Walter Olson — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 16:29:49 +0000

British prime minister David Cameron is fuming over the latest in a long string of rulings by the European Court of Human Rights, which now has stepped in to protect a militant Islamist cleric from deportation to Jordan, where he has been convicted in absentia of plotting terrorist attacks. [Independent, Telegraph]

More: Cameron calls for reform of ECHR, says it is turning into court of “fourth instance” for general appeal of British judicial decisions [Telegraph, Guardian, New Statesman, Conservative Home]

Tags: international human rights, terrorism, United Kingdom

“Human rights court blocks Abu Qatada deportation” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

November 22 roundup

Walter Olson — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 05:35:53 +0000

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]

Tags: airlines, contracts, Hawaii, military, RightHaven, Senate, terrorism, U.S. House of Representatives, Vioxx

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

October 14 roundup

Walter Olson — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 05:24:11 +0000

Pre-terror-attack antibiotic availability? HHS doesn’t think you’re sophisticated enough to handle that freedom [Stewart Baker]
Uh-oh: some New York lawmakers want “a more refined First Amendment” [Slashdot, Lucy Steigerwald]
Wal-Mart v. Dukes decision could curb certification of some wage and hour class actions [Fox]
“Miss. Supreme Court Removes Judge from $322M Asbestos Case Because of Dad’s Lawsuits” [ABA Journal]
Mass. town wants to seize family motel under forfeiture law, IJ objects [Jacob Sullum, Mark Perry]
Will FDA use its new tobacco-regulatory power to stub out cigars? [DC]
“Dole settles pesticide litigation” [WSJ Law Blog, background]

Tags: banana pesticide litigation fraud, FDA, First Amendment, forfeiture, recusals, terrorism, tobacco, Wal-Mart v. Dukes

October 14 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

“UK advocacy group proposes to sue predator drone operators”

Walter Olson — Wed, 11 May 2011 13:38:40 +0000

Kenneth Anderson at Instapundit notes the latest outbreak of “lawfare,” the use of litigation against diplomatic and military actors. “As with most of these advocacy campaigns, the point is not to win cases, but to create a public narrative that says the practice is unsavory and illegitimate, and leverage that into personal legal uncertainty for officials, whether in office or once they leave government.” I’ve got much more on the phenomenon — and its large base of support in present-day legal academia — in Schools for Misrule.

Separately, Gabriel Schoenfeld at National Affairs argues that “when it comes to the American government’s efforts to provide for the common defense, a far-reaching legalism has taken hold,” and Anderson has more on the legalities of last week’s Bin Laden raid.

Tags: international human rights, military, terrorism

“UK advocacy group proposes to sue predator drone operators” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

9/11 first responders compensation bill

Walter Olson — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 16:32:36 +0000

Only stony-hearted Scrooges could oppose it, right? Earlier here, here, etc. More: PoL; Senate passes modified bill.

Tags: terrorism, toxic torts

9/11 first responders compensation bill is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

“A 9/11 Bonanza for Trial Lawyers”

Walter Olson — Wed, 08 Dec 2010 14:14:01 +0000

The National Review on a dubious federal compensation bill for Ground Zero emergency responders. More: PoL.

Tags: terrorism, toxic torts

“A 9/11 Bonanza for Trial Lawyers” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

November 26 roundup

Walter Olson — Fri, 26 Nov 2010 12:07:52 +0000

Reason TV interviews Richard Epstein;
On the SEC’s big new “insider trading” sweep [Ribstein, Bainbridge, Lambert, Salmon, more Ribstein]
Losing = winning? Ambitious claim for fees in environmental case [California Civil Justice, scroll]
“Unintended consequences department: canceled flights” [Ted at PoL] And check out Ted’s new TSA Abuse Blog, on one of the hottest issues of the moment. More on that from Popehat and Simple Justice;
H.R. 1408, the Inclusive Home Design Act, would compel handicap accessibility in private home design, yet another dreadful idea from Rep. Jan Schakowsky of CPSIA fame [AmendTheCPSIA]
“This place would be a shoplifter’s paradise (and a liability insurance abuser’s motherlode) in the United States, but we were in Japan, where they don’t seem to worry as much about that kind of thing.” [Mark Frauenfelder, BoingBoing, on the Showa Kan museum of everyday midcentury life in Takayama]
UK: “I moved out for decorators and squatters took over my house” [Evening Standard]
From the ruins of Pompeii, a reflection on government and disaster relief [Dum Spiro Spero]

Tags: airlines, attorneys' fees, disabled rights, emergency services, Jan Schakowsky, real estate, Richard Epstein, Securities and Exchange Commission, terrorism

November 26 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

September 3 roundup

Walter Olson — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 13:26:44 +0000

TSA asserts security-line authority against … suspected embezzlers? [Coyote, Ken at Popehat]
“How the Next Hurricane Could Bankrupt Florida” [Eli Lehrer, Frum Forum]
In Yahoo settlement “vast majority of the class gets nothing” [Frith, Cal Civil Justice]
Royal road to legal riches: work for the federal prosecutor in Manhattan [David Zaring, Conglomerate]
Taxpayers, get ready to bail out union pension plans [The Lid]
Japan moving closer to U.S.-style securities litigation? [D&O Diary]
“Is the Contemporary Supreme Court Really That Conservative?” [Bartels, ConcurOp]
“EEOC encourages anonymous harassment complaints” [eleven years ago at Overlawyered]

Tags: class action settlements, Florida, Japan, labor unions, prosecution, securities litigation, Supreme Court, terrorism

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