Overlawyered » wayward Republicans

Not-so-new frontiers of privatization

Walter Olson — Fri, 12 Apr 2013 04:17:13 +0000

Half a century ago, selling the Tennessee Valley Authority was regarded as a free-marketeers’ politically impossible dream. Now guess who’s for it — and who’s against. (Hint on the latter: R-Tenn.) [Knoxville News via Future of Capitalism]

P.S. More on this welcome Obama initiative from Chris Edwards: “former Cato chairman Bill Niskanen was barred by Congress for even looking into TVA reform when he was on President Reagan’s CEA.” So progress marches on. And: Fortune 1933 article on TVA.

Tags: Tennessee, utilities, wayward Republicans

Not-so-new frontiers of privatization is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Copyright and D.C. lobbying: that was fast

Walter Olson — Mon, 19 Nov 2012 12:46:15 +0000

The House Republican Study Committee calls for reconsideration of over-restrictive copyright law, then un-calls for it a day later [TechDirt, rueful update; Alex Tabarrok]

P.S. And check out this upcoming Dec. 6 Cato discussion of the newly published Copyright Unbalanced: From Incentive To Excess (Mercatus Center; Jerry Brito, ed.)

Tags: copyright, RIAA and file sharing, U.S. House of Representatives, wayward Republicans

June 28 roundup

Walter Olson — Thu, 28 Jun 2012 04:10:18 +0000

Cato Institute settles lawsuit over its governance [Adler]
As regulators crack down on payday lending, Indian tribes fill the gap [Business Week] Tribal leaders say they are at war with the CFPB, and no, there is no Elizabeth Warren angle [Kevin Funnell]
“SEA LAWYER. A shark.” [1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue via Nancy Friedman]
Trial lawyers in Oklahoma, as in Texas and Florida, endow slate of favored GOP candidates [Tulsa World]
Simple reforms could ease path to more interstate adoptions of foster kids [Jeff Katz, Washington Post]
“Can you say ‘overzealous service mark claimant’?” [@internetcases]
“Today, anyone can sue anyone else, regardless of how ridiculous the claim may be. But it wasn’t always like this.” [Don Elliott, The Atlantic]

Tags: adoption, Cato Institute, debtor-creditor law, Indian tribes, Oklahoma, trademarks, wayward Republicans

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

June 11 roundup

Walter Olson — Mon, 11 Jun 2012 04:06:38 +0000

Nortel portfolio now used for offense: “How Apple and Microsoft Armed 4,000 Patent Warheads” [Wired]
Via Bill Childs: “This shows up in Google News despite fact that it’s lawyer advertising.” [TheDenverChannel.com] At “public interest watchdog” FairWarning.org, who contributed this article about Canadian asbestos controversies? Byline credits a law firm;
Another Bloomberg crackdown in NYC: gender-differential pricing in haircuts and other services [Mark Perry]
A “Pro-Business Regulation Push” from Obama White House? Oh, Bloomberg Business Week, sometimes you can be so droll [Future of Capitalism]
“Trial Lawyers’ Support of Republican Candidates Yields Less Than Stellar Results” [Morgan Smith, NY Times; Examiner editorial; more from TLRPac on Texas election results]
“Community banks to Congress: you’re crushing us” [Kevin Funnell]
If an emergency injunction could stop one reality-TV show, why couldn’t it stop them all? [Hollywood Reporter]

Tags: banks, chasing clients, Michael Bloomberg, patent litigation, regulation and its reform, sex discrimination, Texas, wayward Republicans

June 11 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

“McMahon’s wrestling company threatens JI with libel lawsuit”

Walter Olson — Tue, 29 May 2012 10:54:29 +0000

World Wrestling Entertainment executive Linda McMahon is again running for a Connecticut seat in the U.S. Senate, two years after she won the Republican nomination for the state’s other Senate seat but then lost badly to Democrat Richard Blumenthal. Chris Powell of the Manchester Journal-Inquirer, a prominent commentator on Connecticut politics, expressed scathing opinions on the type of entertainment purveyed by WWE under McMahon’s leadership, deeming it a “business of violence, pornography, and general raunch.” On Friday a WWE vice president, in a letter sent to news media throughout the state, “threatened the Journal Inquirer with a libel lawsuit.” In response, the newspaper contends that “The programs were issues in the Senate election two years ago and, by distributing its libel lawsuit threat throughout Connecticut’s news media, the McMahon campaign aims to prevent them from being mentioned this year.” [via Jared Eberle](& Rick Green, Hartford Courant)

Tags: Connecticut, libel slander and defamation, wayward Republicans

“McMahon’s wrestling company threatens JI with libel lawsuit” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

January 5 roundup

Walter Olson — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 05:57:22 +0000

Big business vs. free markets again: light bulb makers “fuming” over GOP effort to restore consumer choice [Sullum] Large grocery chains like DC’s bag tax [Tim Carney]
Eeeuw! Bystander can sue train fatality victim whose body part flew through air and hit her [Chicago Tribune]
“Recommended Cell-Phone Ban Comes as ‘Shocking,’ ‘Heavy-Handed’ To Some” [Josh Long, V2M]
“Exploding churros are newspaper’s fault, Chilean court rules” [AP]
In New Jersey and North Carolina, GOP friends of trial bar block legal reform bills [Armstrong Williams, Washington Times]
Kozinski vs. ill-prepared lawyer in case of Sheriff Arpaio vs. newspaper that covered him [The Recorder; Phoenix New Times case]
Federal judges block cuts to in-home personal care services in California, Washington [Disability Law, San Francisco Chronicle, KQED]

Tags: Alex Kozinski, cellphones, disabled rights, New Jersey, North Carolina, Phoenix, small business, wayward Republicans

January 5 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

From Florida governor to TV lawyer pitchman

Walter Olson — Fri, 06 May 2011 13:59:18 +0000

It only took Charlie Crist a few months, and was no particular surprise given his record in office [Daily Caller, WSJ Law Blog]. More: Turkewitz.

Tags: chasing clients, Florida, governors, wayward Republicans

From Florida governor to TV lawyer pitchman is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

March 21 roundup

Walter Olson — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 16:13:18 +0000

“Cleveland Browns lawyer letter is apparently real” [Lowering the Bar, earlier]
“Headlines of the Apocalypse: ‘Lady Gaga eyes legal action over breast milk ice cream.’” [@vsalus re: Breitbart via @EdDriscoll]
Chesley discipline prospects in Kentucky fen-phen scandal: “King of Torts Dethroned” [Laura Simons, Abnormal Use]
Busy construction-defect lawyers vex Fresno builders [Bee, Business Journal]
“NHTSA Postpones Back-Up Camera Requirement Rule” [The Truth About Cars, earlier]
Lawyers in Italy call strike to protest law requiring mediation of commercial disputes [WSJ Law Blog]
NYT’s Mark Bittman has a magical touch with food (alas) [Patrick at Popehat]
Beasley Allen lawyers sluiced $850K to Alabama GOP judicial contender [Birmingham News via PoL]

Tags: Alabama, construction defect, Italy, New York Times, NHTSA, Stan Chesley, wayward Republicans

March 21 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Life after the Florida governorship

Walter Olson — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 19:12:50 +0000

Former Florida Governor Charles Crist has signed on with the big Orlando personal injury firm of Morgan & Morgan, “run by one of his longtime political supporters, Democrat John Morgan.” [St. Petersburg Times] More: Timothy Carney, Examiner.

Tags: Florida, governors, wayward Republicans

Life after the Florida governorship is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Senate rejects CPSIA reform on budget vote, 39-58

Walter Olson — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 12:09:44 +0000

Not long ago the U.S. Senate refused to accept an amendment to the stimulus bill by Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) that would have reformed some CPSIA provisions and delayed the implementation of others. Last night it rejected a similar DeMint effort in the form of a budget amendment, and this time there was a roll call, which confirmed that the rejection was largely along party lines: every Democrat voted against the measure except for Sens. Mark Begich (Alaska), Kay Hagan (N.C.), Amy Klobuchar (Minn.), and Ben Nelson (Neb.), while every Republican voted in favor except Susan Collins (Maine), John Cornyn (Tex.), Mike Johanns (Neb.), Mel Martinez (Fla.), and John McCain (Ariz.). Independent Bernie Sanders (Vt.) voted against, while Sens. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.) and Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) did not vote.

Following Wednesday’s rally on Capitol Hill, small business people who fanned out to visit their Senators brought back many encouraging-sounding stories of the favorable “We hear you!” “We get it!” reactions they had received visiting the offices of Democratic Senators like Roland Burris (Ill.), Joseph Lieberman (Conn.), Jeff Merkley (Ore.), Jay Rockefeller (W.Va.), and Charles Schumer (N.Y.). Whether or not anyone in those offices hears or gets the outcry, it sounds as if the members even more clearly hear and get a different message: that of party discipline.

Kimberly Payne feels oddly hopeful: “The original vote on the CPSIA was nearly unanimous – this one was 39-58. I call that progress!”

The WSJ editorializes on the law again today, its third, concentrating this time on the youth motorcycle/ATV ban. More: Montana senators fiddle while small businesses perish (Mark Riffey, Flathead Beacon); the rally and the Democrats (Rick Woldenberg).

Public domain image: Yankee Mother Goose (1902), illustrator Ella S. Brison, courtesy ChildrensLibrary.org.

Tags: CPSIA, CPSIA and Congress, CPSIA and minibikes, Democrats in dissent, John McCain, wayward Republicans

Senate rejects CPSIA reform on budget vote, 39-58 is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system