Although lawsuits against “Ladies’ Nights” discounts have prevailed in California and Colorado, a New York judge has thrown out Roy Den Hollander’s much-publicized suit seeking class action status on behalf of men not offered discounts at China Club and other Manhattan nightclubs. (AP/CBS News, Sept. 29; earlier here, here, here, and other posts at our tag). More: Hollander was advancing the relatively unusual argument that the discounts were unconstitutional, which failed when the judge declined to find that they constituted state action; earlier lawsuits against the discounts have generally been based on anti-discrimination statutes, and the case might have come out very differently had those theories been relied on.
Archive for 2008
Microblog 2008-09-29
- Kodachrome photos from New Deal era [via Susan Cartier Liebel] #
- “Bailout Watch” site [CEI] #
- Be very alarmed on credit panic [Nouriel Roubini] #
- Knew there was trouble when the toaster salesman offered a free bank. #
- Word of the day, “bageling”: when a stock goes to zero, i.e. “O” [ClusterStock] #
- “The GOP’s Wall Street friends”? Think again [David Frum] (& followups here and here) #
Kernel of sense
New York City: Judge Matthew Cooper has dismissed a suit for dental repairs by a moviegoer who said he broke his tooth on an unpopped kernel of popcorn at Manhattan’s AMC-Lincoln Square Cinema, ruling that plaintiff Steve Kaplan “could not reasonably expect every kernel to be popped”. (“N.Y. Judge: Broken-Tooth Popcorn Suit’s a Dud”, AP/1010 WINS, Sept. 29).
More: “Anyone who has ever made fresh popcorn … soon learns the bitter truth that the final product is almost always marred by the presence of unpopped, partially popped or burnt kernels,” wrote Judge Cooper. “Until such time as the same bio-engineers who brought us seedless watermelon are able to develop a new strain of popping corn where every kernel is guaranteed to pop, we will just have to accept partially popped popcorn as part and parcel of the popcorn popping process.” The judge suggested that the dentally risk-averse consumer stick to Raisinets or Milk Duds in future, although, he conceded, Milk Duds do have a reputation for pulling out your fillings. (NYLJ).
September 29 roundup
- Watch where you click: “Kentucky (secretly) commandeers world’s most popular gambling sites” [The Register/OUT-LAW]
- Erin Brockovich enlists as pitchwoman for NYC tort firm Weitz & Luxenberg [PoL roundup]
- U.K.: “Millionaire Claims Ghosts Caused Him to Flee His Mortgage, I Mean Mansion” [Lowering the Bar]
- Prosecution of Lori Drew (MySpace imposture followed by victim’s suicide) a “case study in overcriminalization” [Andrew Grossman, Heritage; earlier; some other resources on overcriminalization here, here, and here]
- Exonerated Marine plans to sue Rep. John Murtha for defamation [Pittsburgh Post-Gazette]
- Snooping on jurors’ online profiles? “Everything is fair game” since “this is war”, says one jury consultant [L.A. Times; earlier]
- Allentown, Pa. attorney John Karoly, known for police-brutality suits, indicted on charges of forging will to obtain large chunk of his brother’s estate; “Charged with the same offenses are J.P. Karoly, 28, who is John Karoly’s son, and John J. Shane, 72, who has served as an expert medical witness in some of John Karoly’s cases.” [Express-Times, AP, Legal Intelligencer]
- School safety: “What do the teachers think they might do with the Hula-Hoop, choke on it?” [Betsy Hart, Chicago Sun-Times/Common Good]
Guestblogger thanks
Thanks to Baylen Linnekin for his guestblogging contributions last week. Be sure to check out his handsomely executed “irreverent food blog”, Crispy on the Outside, whose recent topics include bacon thefts in Lancashire, a new California menu-labeling law, and Quebec’s recent legalization of yellow margarine; of particular interest are his food law and banned categories.
Videos critical of Church of Scientology
YouTube received a flurry of takedown notices, but “quickly realized something was fishy, and began investigating.” It “rapidly became clear” that the entities filing the takedown demands “did not hold the copyrights to the materials they claimed to be infringed, including footage from a Clearwater City Commission meeting and a man-on-the-street interview. In addition, many of these videos were obvious fair uses, such as independent news reports.” (Eva Galperin, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Sept. 25)(via Ardia).
Microblog 2008-09-28
- Net present value of a J.D. degree $470,000? [TaxProf Blog] #
- Lawyer busted after sending identical twin sister to cover court appearance [Stumblng Tumblr] #
- MoFo analysis of some bailout & crisis legal issues, thanks @stevematthews [JDSupra] #
- Follow my old friends at libertarian magazine Reason on Twitter [@reasonmag]#
Siccing lawyers on broadcast campaign ads
“While no one tracks the number of legal notices broadcasters receive on political ads, station managers and lawyers say attempts to block ads are growing both in number and intensity, particularly in states with closely contested elections. … While some stations buckle under the pressure and drop the ads, most refuse.” (Sarah McBride, “Campaigns Pressure Stations Over ‘527’ Ads”, Wall Street Journal, Sept. 26). More: Jesse Walker, Reason “Hit and Run” (NRA ads in Pennsylvania); Eugene Volokh (Missouri “truth squad” controversy).
Making pets into millionaires
Brain-harvesting lawsuit against Washington State proceeds…
The Washington State Supreme Court ruled yesterday that the family of an organ donor may go ahead with its suit against King County and a Maryland research institute. The suit alleges the County harvested the entire brain of the decedent, Jesse Smith, and provided it to to the Stanley Medical Research Institute of Maryland, although his family had agreed only to provide a tissue sample. (Gene Johnson, “Wash. high court allows brain-harvesting lawsuit”, AP, Sept. 25).