Buying at auction a car confiscated by government authorities — seems like a thrifty idea, no? However, in at least three cases in the vicinity of San Diego and nearby Tijuana, Mexico the buyers appear to have gotten more than they bargained for: illegal drugs were later found concealed in the cars, and the hapless motorists in all three cases spent time in jail before the seeming mixup was straightened out. A lawyer for one of the buyers, U.S. citizen Adrian Rodriguez, is now trying to prove that the Customs Service conducted a less than thorough search for contraband before the auctions because it didn’t want to impair the cars’ auction value by cutting them up too drastically. The agency denies the charge. (Anna Cearley, “Customs evidence preserved?”, San Diego Union-Tribune, Sept. 27).
Archive for October, 2004
EC fax mistake
Five German banks appealed a 100-million Euro fine by the European Commission. The European Court of the First Instance reversed the fine when the EC attorney faxing a brief “accidentally placed it face upwards in the fax machine”; the court received 100 blank pages instead of the brief, and defaulted the appeal. Press accounts are unclear whether the EC’s right to review that decision has effectively been waived. (James Kirkup, “EC loses ?70m after lawyer botches fax”, The Scotsman, Oct. 16). Washington state also had a similar problem when an attorney forgot to appeal an $18 million judgment against the state. (Sep. 13, 2000) (via Fark).
O’Reilly roundup
I was traveling last week and missed the brouhaha over sexual harassment allegations against TV host Bill O’Reilly, precipitated by his pre-emptive lawsuit charging that the demands of accuser Andrea Machris and attorney Benedict P. Morelli amounted to extortion. The controversy has been covered well by others, however, including Jim Lindgren and Eugene Volokh at Volokh Conspiracy, Oct. 13, who discuss the fine line between extortion and “normal” litigation behavior with reference to the example of the Cosby case; William Dyer (“Beldar”, Oct. 13 and Oct. 16), who is critical of the O’Reilly camp’s strike-first legal approach, and much else besides; and Jacob Sullum at Reason “Hit and Run” (Oct. 15), who writes from a standpoint opposed to harassment law in the first place. Attorney Morelli was last seen in these columns Nov. 23, 2003, regarding his representation of Wall Street complainant Christian Curry in another sensational case. More: Radley Balko also comments. Update Oct. 29: case settles.
RFK Jr.’s “Crimes Against Nature”
I’m in Sunday’s New York Post with a review of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s new volume on environmental policy, “Crimes Against Nature”. It’s fair to say I didn’t much care for the book; in fact, I found it staggeringly bad (“the book affords the fun of a pratfall on every page, most of them occasioned by Kennedy’s epic self-righteousness and astounding disregard for conventional accuracy”). (“Crimes of Ego”, Oct. 17). For more on RFK Jr., see Oct. 5, Apr. 19-21, 2002 and links from there (& welcome Instapundit, Volokh Conspiracy readers)(bumped Oct. 18).
Recount battles (even before the election)
“Not a single ballot has been counted in the presidential election, yet Florida is already teeming with lawsuits charging the state and its county elections supervisors with voter disenfranchisement, a legal muddle likely to grow worse before Election Day.” (Abby Goodnough, “In ’04 Florida, Lawsuits Begin Before Election”, New York Times, Oct. 14). “The legal combat in Ohio over the fundamental issue of who can vote is recurring in virtually every battleground state this year, in what experts say is fast becoming, in its final weeks, the most litigious, lawyer-fraught election in history.” (James Dao, “As Election Nears, Parties Begin Another Round of Legal Battles”, New York Times, Oct. 18). See also Sept. 22.
Stifling archaeology, the tribal way
Colorado Republican Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell is attempting to insert broadening language into the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act “so that any ancient skeleton can be claimed by modern American Indian tribes even though they have no known connection to the remains,” thus reversing the disposition of such cases as the Kennewick Man controversy (see Aug. 9, Aug. 2 and links from there). Such a step “could significantly reduce — and perhaps cripple — legitimate scientific inquiry into the origins of human settlement in the Western Hemisphere. The retiring Campbell apparently hopes that one of his last acts in Congress will be to undermine the sort of vital study that is undertaken in virtually every other region of the globe.” (“Campbell’s assault on science” (editorial), Rocky Mountain News, Oct. 13)(via Moira Breen, by way of Jim Henley). More: Tim Sandefur comments at Panda’s Thumb (Oct. 4).
“Fix the McCain-Feingold law”
“Now it is official: The United States of America has a federal bureaucracy in charge of deciding who can say what about politicians during campaign season. We can argue, and people do, about whether this state of affairs is good or bad, better or worse than some alternative. What is inarguable is that America now has what amounts to a federal speech code, enforced with jail terms of up to five years.” (Jonathan Rauch, National Journal/Reason, Oct. 7). More: Columnist/blogger Dan Kennedy is troubled by efforts to charge the management of the Sinclair Broadcast Group with campaign finance violations (and maybe even subject them to criminal prosecution) for airing a documentary highly critical of Democratic candidate John Kerry (“Media Log: A Small Matter of Free Speech”, Boston Phoenix, Oct. 12). More on Sinclair and the FCC: Ron Orol, “Sinclair Uproar Threatens Purchase of TV Stations”, The Deal, Oct. 22.
Update: PetsWarehouse again
In the latest development in one of the Internet’s most celebrated and protracted legal disputes (Apr. 8 and links from there), pet store owner Robert Novak has announced that the Alabama Supreme Court has dismissed a default judgment against him arising from a case filed by attorney John Benn of Sheffield, Ala. Novak has also regained control of the domain petswarehouse.com, which had for a while been taken over by his adversaries. The controversy originally arose when Novak sued members of a listserv who had expressed dissatisfaction with their experience as customers of his Long Island-based pet store; he has also sued a widening circle of list operators, search engines and other online intermediaries. See PetsWarehouse site; press release, Oct. 5; Defense Fund; PetsForum; Dynamoo.
Overlawyered on Livejournal
A reader informs us that Livejournal users can subscribe to Overlawyered to receive posts on their friends list. It’s not perfect–the feed appears to miss posts on the occasions when items get bumped to the top of the site–but we’re always happy to provide this additional service given that we had nothing to do with it.
Annals of zero tolerance: Civil War replica musket
“A student who took part in a Civil War re-enactment was arrested and could get expelled after a replica musket was found in his car at school.” Joshua Phelps, 17, attends Pine Bush High School about 70 miles north of New York City. “Crawford town police confiscated the musket, handcuffed Phelps and charged him with misdemeanor criminal possession of a weapon, punishable by up to a year in jail.” (“Civil War musket has teen in jam with the law”, AP/South Florida Sun-Sentinel, Oct. 14)(more on zero tolerance).