Lyons Partnership, which owns the rights to the children’s character Barney, has backed off its threats against the proprietor of a parody website that portrays the lumbering purple dinosaur as evil (see Sept. 6). (Dawn C. Chmielewski, “Happy ending? Suit over Barney parody is settled”, Los Angeles Times, Nov. 29).
Archive for 2006
Back at the blogstand
Not only is Prof. Bainbridge back blogging, now split into three avatars, but Beldar is back, too.
“Kansas outlaws practice of evolution”
From The Onion, and it’s only a parody. Right? (Nov. 28).
November 29 roundup
- Tennie Pierce takes his dog-food settlement to the LA City Council (Nov. 22). I repeat my offer to LA politicians: I’ll eat dog food for a lot less than $2.7 million plus severance pay. [LA Times]
- Bogus $20 million asbestos verdict in NY; Chrysler had previously won 14 consecutive asbestos trials in a row; jury found Chrysler 10% liable, which made it responsible for 80% of the damages under New York law. Studies show no relationship between automotive products and asbestos illnesses. [Point of Law; Bloomberg; AP]
- “Madison County Gets $17.6 Million Windfall Despite Philip Morris’ Escape From $10 Billion Judgment.” Earlier: Jun. 20 and links therein. [Alton Telegraph via Products Liability Prof Blog]
- How tenant-friendly courts hurt tenants. [Point of Law]
- Murnane on Justice Bob Thomas libel verdict. [Illinois Justice Blog]
- One year ago on Overlawyered: $60.9 million cerebral palsy verdict. Arbitrary bench verdict arbitrarily reduced to $40.5 million; case on appeal to Eleventh Circuit. [West’s Medical Malpractice Law Report]
- One year ago on Point of Law: Ray Harron, asbestos doctor and Connecticut decision against freedom of contract.
- The unpersuasive case for judicial activism. [Whelan @ Weekly Standard]
- Federalist Society Convention podcasts beginning to be posted. [Federalist Society]
- Are African-Americans “lagging” at major law firms, and if so, why? [Point of Law; New York Times; Lat; Sander]
- Nice PETA expose video. [Penn & Teller @ Google Video]
“Don’t let Walter Olson have the say on this subject!”
That’s Stephanie Mencimer explaining (Nov. 28) why trial lawyers should buy multiple copies of her forthcoming book, entitled Blocking the Courthouse Door: How the Republican Party and Its Corporate Allies Are Taking Away Your Right to Sue, expressing views antipodal to our own.
Mencimer, a frequent contributor to such journals as Mother Jones and the Washington Monthly (see Jan. 19, 2005), has set up a website (previously noted by Ted) to promote her new book. It’s not unproductive of chuckles, in its way. For example, in one post earlier this month (Nov. 10), criticizing media coverage of patent hellhole Marshall, Texas, she piously avers that reporters should disclose who fed them tips. A fascinating idea! Does this mean she’ll be sure to disclose in her own writings who fed her tips? Or is this new standard only supposed to apply to journalism she disapproves of?
“I work for a lawyer”
Reminiscent of the classic “Do you know who I am?”, this pronouncement may not always succeed in its intended effect, especially when it comes as a preface to an exposition of why it is “illegal” for a flight attendant to refuse to serve you any more alcohol. (Alex Wade, “‘I know my rights, I work for a lawyer'”, Times Online (UK), Nov. 24).
Further update: Va.-Vt. lesbian custody battle
Reversing a lower court, the Virginia Court of Appeals “ruled Tuesday that Virginia state courts had a constitutional obligation to defer to the rulings of Vermont courts in a child custody dispute involving two lesbian partners who had entered into a Vermont civil union.” (Jurist, Nov. 28; opinion in PDF format). The ruling will come as no real surprise to those who’ve read previous posts in this space (Aug. 26, 2006; Dec. 16 and Aug. 15, 2004). Some social-conservative commentators had unwisely applauded the efforts of Liberty Counsel, a misnamed Religious Right litigation strike force, to help client Lisa Miller evade the jurisdiction of a Vermont court order ordering visitation rights to former partner Janet Jenkins.
“Judge rules paper money unfair to blind”
New frontiers in disabled rights: “A federal judge has ruled that the U.S. Treasury Department is violating the law by failing to design and issue currency that is readily distinguishable to blind and visually impaired people. Judge James Robertson, in a ruling on a suit by the American Council of the Blind, ordered the Treasury to devise a method to tell bills apart.” The court acted on the basis of the Rehabilitation Act, which guarantees to the disabled “meaningful access” to federal programs. (CNN Money, Nov. 28; decision in American Council of the Blind v. Paulson courtesy FindLaw; decision in PDF form at court website).
More: Here’s an interesting development: the National Federation of the Blind, the best known organization for blind Americans, has issued a press release sharply critical of the lawsuit and the ruling (“dangerously misguided”) (Yahoo/PRNewswire, Nov. 29). According to Dr. Marc Maurer, President of the National Federation of the Blind, “The blind need jobs and real opportunities to earn money, not feel-good gimmicks that misinform the public about our capabilities. Blind people transact business with paper money every day. … [The ruling] argues that the blind cannot handle currency or documents in the workplace and that virtually everything must be modified for the use of the blind. An employer who believes that every piece of printed material in the workplace must be specially designed so that the blind can read it will have a strong incentive not to hire a blind person.” More from the NFB press release:
Blind people traditionally identify paper currency by folding bills of different denominations in different ways. “In reality, blind people do not routinely find that we have been short-changed,” Maurer commented. Machines are readily available to identify paper money for blind people who run businesses or handle large amounts of cash. “Essentially, the United States Treasury has been ordered by the courts to come up with a solution for a nonexistent problem,” Maurer said.
Per the AP, “Government attorneys argued that forcing the Treasury Department to change the size or texture of the bills would make it harder to prevent counterfeiting,” but Judge Robertson was not swayed (“Judge Says Currency Shortchanges the Blind”, AP/Washington Post, Nov. 29). See also Dvorak Uncensored and Orin Kerr.
A thought on “hypocrisy” accusations
As a matter of federal tax policy, I oppose permitting deductions for state taxes. I would rather see lower federal rates across the board, and let the full impact of state taxes rest on the residents of the states that have high taxes, rather than have the entire nation subsidize a quarter or more of the tremendous tax rates paid by New Yorkers and Californians, thus reducing the pain of higher state taxes and allowing local politicians to escape the political consequences of profligate spending (not to mention preventing tax-cutting state politicians from realizing the full benefit of their policy).
But come April, I promise you that on my 1040 Schedule A, I’m going to deduct the thousands of dollars of state income tax I paid and collect the resulting refund. Does this make me a hypocrite? Of course not: it just means that I’m not an idiot.
I’m not arguing that people shouldn’t take deductions that are available to them; I’m arguing that the deduction shouldn’t exist. Self-flagellation on my taxes doesn’t make me any purer or my policy arguments any more correct, it just means that I suffer all the costs of a tax policy I oppose without realizing any of the benefits.
Cyrus Dugger, however, makes precisely this mistake when he criticizes a reformer for being a plaintiff in a lawsuit as a “hypocrite.” (Or, more accurately, thoughtlessly parrots the West Virginia Trial Lawyers Association’s accusation of hypocrisy.) That one argues that the law should be changed for the good of society doesn’t at all require that one refuse to take advantage of a bad law. There’s no requirement that reformers who find themselves in the situation of being plaintiffs abstain from receiving legally available non-economic damages. Reformers aren’t arguing that individuals are bad people for seeking non-economic damages, but, rather, the legal system’s award of unlimited non-economic damages is bad public policy. (For that matter, it’s far from clear that Stephen Roberts is even seeking non-economic damages above and beyond the cap he proposes—I have seen no one make that accusation.)
Similarly, Senator Trent Lott, an occasional reform supporter, sued his insurance company over Hurricane Katrina damage, seeking to rewrite the terms of the insurance contract that he agreed to, and using his power as a Senator to threaten the industry as a whole because State Farm refused to give him special treatment. However, the only thing Dugger can think to find wrong with Lott is “hypocrisy.” It strikes me that hypocrisy is the least of Lott’s sins compared to bringing an illegitimate lawsuit and abusing his authority as a Senator to punish the nation’s economy in order to seek personal gain for himself and his trial-attorney brother-in-law.
Tarheel heartbalm, cont’d
Newsweek looks at North Carolina’s cottage industry of tort actions by wronged spouses against the cads, hussies and assorted homebreakers who put an end to their domestic felicity (see May 22, 2005, Nov. 16, 2004, and May 18-21, 2000). “Although alienation of affection is rarely invoked in most states, a series of high-profile judgments in North Carolina, including one in 2001 for $2 million, have inspired more than 200 suits annually in recent years. Lawyers say people typically file these claims as leverage in divorce and custody disputes. ‘A wife says I’m going to sue your girlfriend if you don’t give me $50,000 more in property settlement. That’s an improper use of the [law], and it shouldn’t take place,’ says A. Doyle Early Jr., former chair of the North Carolina Bar Association’s family law section. … Conservative [i.e., Religious Right] groups like the North Carolina Family Policy Council say the law should stay on the books”. (Julie Scelfo, “Heartbreak’s revenge”, Dec. 4).