Egyptian blogger Abdelkareem Nabil Soliman, a 22-year-old law student, has been arrested by authorities for remarks critical of Islam on his blog. Tom Palmer has details (Nov. 6) and there is a defense site: FreeKareem.org.
Archive for 2006
In his debt
“We can thank him, in large part, for happy events from the elimination of the draft to the conquest of inflation,” writes Brian Doherty. What a privilege to have lived in the same era as Milton Friedman (Reason “Hit and Run”, Nov. 16). More: Alex Tabarrok, Tom Kirkendall (via Coyote), Arnold Schwarzenegger, Steve Chapman.
Gas-dealer bonanza: middlemen unlawfully skimming the pot?
“Class members and class counsel Eugene Stearns are claiming that companies that process class action claims are illegally taking a large part of class members’ winnings in the $1.1 billion Exxon-Mobil breach-of-contract case. Stearns argues the recovery companies are engaging in the unlicensed practice of law and duplicating work already done by his law firm. Florida federal Judge Alan S. Gold has voided members’ contracts with one processing company and Stearns’ firm is challenging other contracts.” Stearns boasts (or is it complains?) that he is getting not “an additional dime” for his work protecting the gas station owners from the percentage-seeking middlemen, but he is probably not in too great need of dimes at the moment, his firm having been awarded an eye-popping $249 million in fees in the action itself. (Carl Jones, “Class Action Processors Accused of Illegally Pocketing Big Share of Awards in ExxonMobil Case”, Miami Daily Business Review, Nov. 16).
The Alamo — and its orange stripe
Tourists from around the country descend on San Antonio to snap pictures of the famed Alamo, which looks pretty much as it must have looked in Texas’s pre-statehood days, with one big exception: the curb in front of the historic battle site and running the length of the building has been painted a garish orange, as an accident-prevention measure. TV station KSAT has a video clip of the controversy, and one local man’s efforts to get the decision reversed (“Bright Orange Curb Welcomes Visitors To the Alamo“).
“In California Your Unlicensed Contractor May Really Be Your ‘Employee'”
For purposes of suing you, at least. That’s what happened to homeowner Glenn Brodeur, who hired his neighbor Ernesto Mendoza, an unlicensed roofing contractor, at a set fee to do the roofing work. “Mendoza arrived at Brodeur’s house with a gang of workmen, started on the project, and within a few hours fell off the roof and was seriously injured.” In the current state of California law, unlicensed contractors — but not licensed ones — have the right to sue homeowners in tort in such situations. (B. Scott Douglass, Mondaq.com, Nov. 1).
Activists sue demanding N.Y. foie gras ban
Correspondent R.C. directs our attention to the curious claim of “harm” by the last-named plaintiff:
Animal rights activists have asked a state judge to stop foie gras production in New York, saying the ducks used are overfed to such an extent that they are diseased and unfit for sale under state law.
The lawsuit, if it succeeds, could spell the end of foie gras production in America, a goal animal rights groups have long sought. The two Sullivan county farms that are defendants in the suit are the only foie gras producers in the country, other than a Northern Californian foie gras farm that may shut down under a California state law banning the industry….
The first challenge the suit faces is to convince a judge that the animal-rights activists who filed the suit have suffered enough harm to allow them standing to sue. The plaintiffs in yesterday’s suit offered several ways that they had been harmed by the foie gras industry.
One plaintiff, Caroline Lee, claims that the state’s regulatory departments are misspending her tax dollars by inspecting birds raised for foie gras production without concluding they are diseased. Another plaintiff, an animal rescue organization, Farm Sanctuary, claims its employees have been “aesthetically and emotionally injured” by being exposed to the “suffering” of abandoned ducks that they rescue from foie gras production. Another plaintiff, a New York restaurateur, Joy Pierson, claims that her decision not to serve foie gras has caused her to lose customers at her two Manhattan restaurants, Candle 79 and Candle Café, according to the complaint.
(Joseph Goldstein, “In New Lawsuit, Activists Seek Ban On Production of Foie Gras in N.Y.”, New York Sun, Nov. 16). More: Nov. 10, Nov. 2, Aug. 18, Jun. 8, Apr. 27, etc.
Smoke in Belmont, Calif.? Only in single-family detached houses
“Belmont is set to make history by becoming the first city in the nation to ban smoking on its streets and almost everywhere else. The Belmont City Council voted unanimously last night to pursue a strict law that will prohibit smoking anywhere in the city except for single-family detached residences. Smoking on the street, in a park and even in one’s car will become illegal and police would have the option of handing out tickets if they catch someone.” (Dana Yates, “Belmont to be first U.S. city to ban all smoking”, San Mateo County Daily Journal, Nov. 15). More: Jacob Sullum, Reason “Hit and Run”, Nov. 16.
Update: Taster’s Choice guy suit
Kevin Underhill at Lowering the Bar, a law/humor blog, has amusing live coverage (Oct. 27) of the appeal in a California court of Christoff v. Nestle USA, the $15.6 million award for using a model’s photo on a coffee label without ensuring that the proper permissions were in place (see Feb. 2, 2005).
Sid Schwab (SurgeonsBlog) on getting sued
His first: “news of the lawsuit was in the newspaper before anyone had had the decency to contact me. What kind of people act like that?” Not that everyone sympathizes: “Ho hum,” says Greedy Trial Lawyer, who read the first two posts in Schwab’s series. “Get out the violins.” Don’t miss this one, or the outpouring of reader comments (parts one, two, three)(cross-posted from Point of Law).
Wrongful birth reaches Germany
“A court ruling which ordered a gynecologist to pay child support for up to 18 years as compensation for botching a contraceptive implant was condemned by the German media as scandalous on Wednesday. The Karlsruhe-based federal appeals court ruled on Tuesday that the doctor must pay his former patient, now a mother of a three-year-old boy, 600 euros ($769) a month because she became pregnant after he implanted her with a contraceptive device.” (“Doctor ordered to pay for unwanted baby”, Reuters, Nov. 15; “GYN’s “Human” Error Will Now Be Getting Child Support”, Deutsche Welle, Nov. 15). Similar: Apr. 9 (Scotland), May 9 and Jun. 8, 2000, etc.