For those who care about such things, there’s now a slightly updated version of my biographical page up, with (finally) a current photo of the new clean-shaven me (as I’ve been since last December).
Archive for September, 2006
“Death after two-hour ER wait ruled homicide”
In Waukegan, Ill., 49-year-old Beatrice Vance died of a heart attack after waiting two hours in a hospital waiting room. A coroner’s jury has declared her death a homicide. (Lake County News-Sun, AP, Chicago Tribune). Medical blogs are discussing: GruntDoc, MedPundit, KevinMD. Plus a discussion at Prof. Bainbridge’s. (cross-posted from Point of Law).
Thumbs down on Va. marriage amendment
As in earlier rounds (May 31 and Nov. 2, 2004, etc.), some proponents are advancing the view that despite its sweeping and ambiguous language, the amendment wouldn’t really endanger any existing legal rights of unmarried persons in Virginia. The Roanoke Times editorially rejects that view: “The legal views conflict sharply. This can mean just one thing: years of litigation under every facet of law that touches upon human interactions. In the antagonistic court arena, the relationships of families and friends will be ripped apart. … Voters should reject this unfair amendment, which has the potential for so many unintended consequences.” (“The anti-family amendment” (editorial), Roanoke Times, Sept. 19). See also Mar. 20, 2005 (sequence of events in Michigan).
Chant and wave placards? Not without insurance you don’t
In Valparaiso, Indiana, Martha Seroczynski stages weekly protests at the county courthouse against the war in Iraq. The Porter County Board of Commissioners has asked her to show proof of homeowner’s insurance and name the county as an additional insured. It’s a county policy of some years’ standing; “Valparaiso Elks Club member Jeanie Stevens said her organization was required to show proof of insurance for its Flag Day ceremony on June 14 at the square.” Ms. Seroczynski’s insurer, however, has raised objections, and that’s aside from the question of why having insurance should be a prerequisite for the right to protest in the first place. County attorney Gwenn Rinkenberger has attempted to resolve the problem by asking Ms. S to sign a waiver promising not to sue the county if injured, but she refuses. “Her right to protest does not relieve us of our responsibility to protect the liability of the other 140,000 citizens of this county,” County Commissioner John Evans has said. (“War protester asked for insurance proof to continue protests”, AP/Fort Wayne (Ind.) News-Sentinel, Aug. 27; Robyn Monaghan, “Protester furor fuels free speech debate”, Northwest Indiana Times, Sept. 6).
“10 wacky airline lawsuits”
Sources and, in all too many instances, identifying details are missing, but maybe you could inquire further through the author’s website. (James Wysong, MSNBC, Sept. 15).
The next class-action defendant?
Mike of the Crime & Federalism blog seems to have identified the next culprit to blame for the obesity epidemic. The record, however, should reflect that I beat him to the punch in publishing, in a law-review article that a reader informs me is the first to mention Count Chocula in the footnotes.
Sexist beer ads
Now it’s a group of Italian female lawyers who are suing to suppress that particular variety of commercial speech. (Nick Pisa, “Parking is no joke as Italy’s women sue over beer ad”, Daily Telegraph (U.K.), Sept. 17). For earlier precedents in the U.S. (Stroh’s sued over “Swedish bikini team”) and Canada (Ontario vs. Molson’s and Labatt’s ads), see Carlin Meyer, “Sex, Sin, and Women’s Liberation: Against Porn-Suppression”, Texas Law Review, April 1994 (PDF), at footnote 314. Another example: RealBeer.com, July 16, 1999 (Venezuela).
Comair: “Second autopsies possible”
In Flight 5191’s aftermath: “Some families are planning to hire private pathologists to perform second, independent autopsies, in addition to the ones performed by the state medical examiner’s office.” The idea would be to look for evidence that victims did not die from blunt force trauma from the crash, as officially conducted autopsies suggest, but instead survived that trauma and thus could have suffered prolonged agonies in the ensuing blaze, as Fayette County Coroner Gary Ginn initially assumed before getting the autopsy results. If an argument could be sustained that the loved ones’ sufferings were prolonged, the door would be opened to getting huge additional monetary awards from defendants, aside from the millions expected to be paid anyway. (Linda B. Blackford, Lexington (Ky.) Herald-Leader, Sept. 17).
Gun rights, in many languages
Gun control groups and transnational bureaucracies sympathetic to their cause imagined that it would be easy work to float new treaties and other initiatives restricting gun sales and ownership. Then 64 percent of Brazilians voted against a gun ban, and an unwelcome truth began to dawn on them: talk of individual rights is not just something for Americans. (Joshua Kurlantzick, “Idea Lab: Global Gun Rights?”, New York Times Magazine, Sept. 17).
WBAL “Ron Smith show”
I was a guest on the high-rated Baltimore show this afternoon, discussing my BlackBerry column.