From Wales: “A Jedi church leader is considering legal action after he was asked to leave a supermarket for wearing his hood.” [Ananova, Daily Post, Telegraph] Earlier on U.K. Jedi legal complications: SSFC guestposting last year (Woolworth’s won’t sell kids light sabers lest they be mistaken for weapons). More: Popehat.
Archive for September, 2009
September 18 roundup
- Details emerge on new demonstration grants for patient safety and medical liability [Point of Law, NLJ] GOP underwhelmed by Obama gestures [Fox News and earlier, Salt Lake Tribune, Washington Times, Examiner and more]
- Trial lawyer charity effort donates Wii sets to rehab hospitals [Daily Business News Detroit] Wait a minute – what about those lawsuits contending Wii was a defective product?
- No, John Edwards didn’t invent trial tactic of “channeling” thoughts of deceased. And is inflaming jury passion and prejudice “what good closing argument for a good trial lawyer is about”? [ABAJournal, Hochfelder/PoL, earlier]
- “It took Arizona state police months to realize the same driver was involved” in monkey-mask speed-cam evasions [MargRev, LtB]
- Connecticut lawyer’s complaints allege that business structure of Total Attorney service amounts to improper fee division [LegalBlogWatch]
- “Want to Complain About a Cop? Better Bring Your I.D. — And Maybe A Toothbrush” [Ken at Popehat]
- Tenth Circuit, McConnell writing, reinstates SCO suit against Novell over Linux [WSJ Law Blog]
- New York employment law could bite Human Rights Watch in memorabilia controversy [Volokh]
“Company hawking ‘free’ credit scores goes after blogger who calls this a bait and switch”
Paul Levy at Consumer Law & Policy reports that a firm called Adaptive Marketing has brought a pre-litigation discovery proceeding seeking to unmask the identity of a pseudonymous blogger who accused the firm and its parent, Vertrue, of improper business practices. The company “ran into controversy a few months ago for using former New York Times columnist Ben Stein in its TV ads for ‘free credit scores.'” More: Felix Salmon, and an update from Levy. Related: new AP story on rash of lawsuits seeking to reveal identity of anonymous bloggers and commenters.
NYC to ban smoking in parks and beaches?
Even the NYT detects libertarian objections among Gothamites to the city’s latest paternalistic scheme. More: Jacob Sullum; William Saletan (ban based on “cultural contamination” rather than actual physical risk) and followup (science of outdoor secondhand smoke).
“The menu of malpractice reforms”
Philip K. Howard has a by no means exhaustive list, in The Atlantic.
National Lawyers Convention, Nov. 12-14 in DC
Let me whole-heartedly recommend the Federalist Society National Lawyers Convention coming up in November. The list of speakers–including Justice Alito, Judge Douglas Ginsburg, Judge Frank Easterbrook, former Judge McConnell, Judge Edith Jones, Richard Epstein, and on and on–is all you need to know, and the panels are designed to provide debate on the issues, including affirmative action, preemption, and bailouts. I learn something with every panel I attend. It’s not just for Federalists, and is perhaps the most entertaining source of CLE credit out there.
September 17 roundup
- Myrtle Beach Chamber of Commerce: “Elmer Fudd” commenter defamed us [Sun-News via Patrick at Popehat]
- “New Texas law seeks common sense instead of ‘zero tolerance’ in punishment of students” [Star-Telegram]
- Oprah can relax, poet’s self-scripted $1 trillion lawsuit against her is dismissed [THR Esq., Lowering the Bar and more, New Jersey Lawsuit Reform Watch]
- Overview of big push for new federal food safety laws [Kristin Choo, ABA Journal]
- And thanks for all the booze: “Chronic drunk costs SF taxpayers at least $150,000/year” [Obscure Store, Common Room]
- “We have made a grave mistake in politicizing the economy so deeply, and should back away now.” [Tyler Cowen, NYT]
- As a phrase, “sex toy product liability” is probably going to bring us the wrong sort of search engine traffic [Law and More]
- Overturning Supreme Court’s Iqbal/Twombly pleading jurisprudence emerging as key Congressional objective for trial lawyer lobby [Freddoso, Examiner; recent post of mine at Point of Law, and much other coverage there]
Do doctor apologies curb malpractice suits?
A new study, based on video simulation, may raise doubts. [ACP Internist, Kevin MD, Ronald Miller]
CPSIA: WSJ reactions
My Monday piece in the Wall Street Journal on the many failings of the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act drew links and reactions from Holly Jahangiri, Jonathan Adler at Volokh (including an interesting, if not particularly CPSIA-related, commenter anecdote about old books and library guidelines), Peter Reynolds/Return Play to Kids, Katherine Mangu-Ward/Reason “Hit and Run”, Carter Wood/ShopFloor, Bookworm Room, and Hans Bader/CEI “Open Market”. The WSJ comments also include one from Bill Upton of Ann Arbor, Michigan which includes the following disturbing assertion: “The CPSC has ruled that the paper, internal bindings and standard inks in [post-1985] children’s books are safe, but other standard components, including the top-coatings used to protect the vast majority of book covers, still don’t have a green light.”
Letting lawyers sue on behalf of animals?
One hopes Prof. Sunstein has rethought this one by now [Christopher Beam, Slate; related here and here]