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Archive for 2006
A Free Market in Body Organs
I write a twice-monthly column for the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. Here’s my latest; it’s the first in a series in which I make the case for a free market in transplantable human body organs. In other words, I argue in favor of allowing adults to receive whatever prices they negotiate for whatever of their organs they choose to donate.
“Student Sues Illinois University After Deer Attack”
“The truth about false confessions”
They’re a lot more common than you might think, according to this website. See Apr. 6.
Birthday cupcakes? Relax
A rarity indeed: a thoughtful rebuke to food nannyism that somehow managed to make it into the New York Times (Harriet Brown, “Well-Intentioned Food Police May Create Havoc With Children’s Diets”, May 30).
Abstinence-only education
It’s open to question in the case of tobacco, too (Philip Alcabes, “Blowing Smoke About Tobacco”, Washington Post, May 30).
Cat defense fails: Morgan Stanley v. Meow
Via Matt Marcotte, a squatter’s attempt to avoid dispossession of the mymorganstanleyplatinum domain name by registering it in the name of his cat failed when the arbitrator noted that cats are unable to read or write. Morgan Stanley v. Meow (May 22, 2006).
Damned If You Do Department: Campus Suicides
We’ve previously noted that colleges, out of fear from liability over student suicides, have been taking extreme steps to preempt the problem by requiring medical leaves of absence. George Washington University discovered that avoiding suits from Scylla doesn’t mean that Charybdis won’t sue: Jordan Nott has sued the school after being barred from campus after seeking hospitalization for suicidal thoughts. Liability reform is clearly needed: either schools aren’t responsible for student suicides, or they aren’t responsible for the steps they take to prevent such suicides. (In the famous Elizabeth Shin/MIT case, the parties recently settled after a court ruling expanding schools’ liability in suicide cases, including the possible liability of administrators without mental health credentials.)
Amanda Schaffer, writing in Slate, argues for a middle ground—a program based on one at the University of Illinois intervening in the lives of suicidal students without kicking them off campus. But Schaffer doesn’t recognize that the middle ground doesn’t resolve liability issues, including hindsight-based lawsuits for the cases where the middle ground isn’t successful; even the Illinois program has reduced suicides by only half. Educational reform can’t happen without legal reform.
New Orleans judicial expense account spending questioned
A reader asks me to blog about an expose in this Sunday’s New Orleans Times-Picayune, calling it “appalling.” In 2003-2004, one judge (presumably the highest-spending judge) spent $16,717/year on travel, compared to the average $8,000 spent by other judges.
I don’t know whether this is a good judge or a bad judge, but that shouldn’t matter to my analysis. I’m less appalled. Someone has to be the highest-spending judge, and this one doesn’t appear to have violated any rules. $4,400 in taxpayer money was spent to teach a course in Colorado, but if the judge had been reimbursed by the Louisiana Association of Defense Counsel, different people would be complaining about the supposed conflict of interest. The newspaper successfully nitpicks rental-car and airport transportation costs—but the judge must have travelled coach, because there’s no complaint about his airplane tickets. One can question the political savvy of a judge who doesn’t realize that his expense account reports are going to be scrutinized. One can also complain that the money comes from civil district court filing fees, but, at the end of the day, money is fungible and it doesn’t really matter what pot the money comes from. It would probably be more efficient to end travel reimbursements and just raise salaries—but because of tax implications, maybe not.
Louisiana state judges make less than first-year associates in private law firms, and I’m not about to complain that a judge was a little generous with himself in taking advantage of available and legal perks to the tune of a few thousand dollars. There appears to already exist a check in the system, in that this judge’s request for a week-long educational trip to Italy was rejected.
Or am I so overly jaded by plaintiffs’ bar abuses in the billions that I should be more appalled? Feel free to comment in the comment section, but be polite and on-topic.
Milberg Weiss partners bail out
They’re “rushing out the door”, reports Justin Scheck in The Recorder (“Top Milberg Weiss Partners Head for the Exits”, May 30).