Overlawyered » WO writings http://overlawyered.com Chronicling the high cost of our legal system Tue, 14 Feb 2012 16:11:47 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 en hourly 1 Gonna wash Salon right outta my hair http://overlawyered.com/2011/09/gonna-wash-salon-right-outta-my-hair/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/09/gonna-wash-salon-right-outta-my-hair/#comments Thu, 01 Sep 2011 14:25:24 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=24394 A howler-packed Michael Lind screed against libertarians and classical liberals asserts, among other tall things, that John Stuart Mill, Benjamin Constant, and Thomas Macaulay were apologists for “autocracy.” I do my bit to correct the historical record at Cato at Liberty. Meanwhile, Will Wilkinson and Jason Kuznicki challenge Lind’s gross misrepresentations of Mises and Hayek, while Damon Root and Roderick Long take on some of his other errors. Sam Schulman, on Twitter, has fun with “Michael Lind’s eccentric view of history, upon the pinnacle of which stands – Michael Lind.” And yet more: Sam Bowman, AdamSmith.org, Brad Schlesinger, Pejman Yousefzadeh.

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]]> http://overlawyered.com/2011/09/gonna-wash-salon-right-outta-my-hair/feed/ 2 Yes, it has come to this http://overlawyered.com/2011/08/yes-it-has-come-to-this/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/08/yes-it-has-come-to-this/#comments Wed, 31 Aug 2011 05:34:31 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=24367 You can “like” me on Facebook. Thanks to Cato’s Zach Graves for setting it up.

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]]> http://overlawyered.com/2011/08/yes-it-has-come-to-this/feed/ 11 Antiquities law ensnares coin collectors http://overlawyered.com/2011/08/antiquities-law-ensnares-coin-collectors/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/08/antiquities-law-ensnares-coin-collectors/#comments Wed, 24 Aug 2011 13:34:22 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=24294 As I note at Cato, antiquities law has been expanding to restrict private ownership of more and more ancient artifacts. The latest targets are numismatists; more on that in an op-ed that I published last week in the Examiner.

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]]> http://overlawyered.com/2011/08/antiquities-law-ensnares-coin-collectors/feed/ 4 “If I could press a button and instantly vaporize one sector of employment law…” http://overlawyered.com/2011/08/if-i-could-press-a-button-and-instantly-vaporize-one-sector-of-employment-law/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/08/if-i-could-press-a-button-and-instantly-vaporize-one-sector-of-employment-law/#comments Fri, 12 Aug 2011 16:32:45 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=24245 In a new Reason symposium on how to revitalize the American job market, I explain my answer to that question.

More: This set off a round of discussion on employment blogs including Jon Hyman (nominating FLSA for vaporization), Suzanne Boy (concur), Daniel Schwartz (leave laws), Suzanne Lucas (citing “the fabulous Overlawyered.com”), the ABA Journal, Tim Eavenson, Jon Hyman again, HR Daily Report, and Russell Cawyer. Also relevant on age discrimination laws: a June symposium in the NYT’s “Room for Debate” feature; ComputerWorld on age bias and IT.

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]]> http://overlawyered.com/2011/08/if-i-could-press-a-button-and-instantly-vaporize-one-sector-of-employment-law/feed/ 16 Happy Meals and Campbell’s Soup http://overlawyered.com/2011/07/happy-meals-and-campbells-soup/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/07/happy-meals-and-campbells-soup/#comments Thu, 28 Jul 2011 18:20:51 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=24062 This week has brought one nudge forward and one push back for the paternalistic “food policy” crowd, or so I argue in a new opinion piece for the New York Daily News (& welcome Instapundit/Glenn Reynolds readers, Center for Consumer Freedom “Quote of the Week“).

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]]> http://overlawyered.com/2011/07/happy-meals-and-campbells-soup/feed/ 4 Get ready to surprise yourself with a drug test http://overlawyered.com/2011/07/get-ready-to-surprise-yourself-with-a-drug-test/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/07/get-ready-to-surprise-yourself-with-a-drug-test/#comments Thu, 14 Jul 2011 18:41:19 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=23843 In my new post at Cato at Liberty, I quote a few highlights from Philip Greenspun’s account of his encounter with Federal Aviation Administration regulators intent on applying to the smallest aviation businesses the same rules that govern the largest. Per George Wallace, “All regulation aspires to the condition of a Monty Python sketch.”

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]]> http://overlawyered.com/2011/07/get-ready-to-surprise-yourself-with-a-drug-test/feed/ 1 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 Book review: “The Churchills” http://overlawyered.com/2011/06/book-review-the-churchills/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/06/book-review-the-churchills/#comments Sun, 26 Jun 2011 05:16:51 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=23570 Not really any legal content, but I’m in the New York Times Book Review today with a review of Mary S. Lovell’s enjoyably gossipy The Churchills, a history of England’s most celebrated political family, which concentrates more on the clan’s personal entanglements than its achievements in oratory or war-making. You can read it here.

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]]> http://overlawyered.com/2011/06/book-review-the-churchills/feed/ 0 Is the Supreme Court too “individualist”? http://overlawyered.com/2011/06/is-the-supreme-court-too-individualist/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/06/is-the-supreme-court-too-individualist/#comments Fri, 24 Jun 2011 19:51:48 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=23551 Some academic critics say the Wal-Mart v. Dukes decision is the latest in a string of decisions in which the Court has insisted that litigants be accorded individual rather than group or batch consideration, even though “a more collectivist view,” as Connecticut lawprof Alexandra Lahav contends, would carry with it more “potential for social reform.” I take up this charge, and defend the Court, at Cato at Liberty. More: John Steele at Legal Ethics Forum, with a link to Samuel Issacharoff’s work.

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]]> http://overlawyered.com/2011/06/is-the-supreme-court-too-individualist/feed/ 2 Welcome Philadelphia Inquirer readers http://overlawyered.com/2011/06/welcome-philadelphia-inquirer-readers/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/06/welcome-philadelphia-inquirer-readers/#comments Wed, 22 Jun 2011 12:02:58 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=23504 I’ve got an op-ed in today’s Philadelphia Inquirer on the Supreme Court’s Wal-Mart v. Dukes decision. The headline (”Reining in Frivolous Class-Action Lawsuits”) is theirs; I wouldn’t use the term “frivolous” to describe the case, which after all did convince the Ninth Circuit, if not any of the Supreme nine. An excerpt:

…The misconceptions about this case begin with the identities of the real combatants. On NPR’s Marketplace this week, Slate’s Dahlia Lithwick described the plaintiffs as “1.5 million female employees of Wal-Mart who are trying to file a class-action suit.” But, of course, most of those women are not “trying” to do anything of the sort.

Rather, a relative handful of them have hired lawyers, and those lawyers daringly sought to get themselves declared the legal representatives of the other 1.496 million (or however many), who have expressed no inclination whatsoever to sue. …

The message of this ruling is simple: Employees have to prove that they have been legally wronged, not just cash in because somebody else was.

More about Wal-Mart v. Dukes here, here, and here (& welcome readers from Ira Stoll/Future of Capitalism, Jonathan Adler/Volokh Conspiracy, State Bar of Michigan blog, Omaha World Herald (editorial), Real Clear Politics, and, on the headline issue, Elie Mystal/Above the Law).

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