Emerging theories of “associational discrimination” under the Americans with Disabilities Act may put the law on your side. [Philip Miles via Ohio Employer’s]
Archive for 2010
Diner: no one warned me how to eat artichoke leaves
A customer unfamiliar with the vegetable ordered the grilled artichoke special at a North Miami Beach restaurant, and says the server should have warned that you’re not supposed to eat the fibrous, indigestible upper mass of the leaves, just the heart and pulpy bottom portion. He’s suing. [Matthew Heller, OnPoint News] More: Above the Law.
Why Can’t Chuck Start a Business?
A new video from the Institute for Justice fingers municipal licensing and regulation.
Special court just for women defendants
That idea should ring Equal Protection alarm bells, no? [Greenfield]
November 5 roundup
- HUD “defers to Constitutional considerations” and dismisses complaint against woman who’d posted note at church seeking Christian roommate [Fox News, earlier; Oct. 28 statement from Michigan Department of Civil Rights]
- Judge denies class action status in Pelman obesity suit against McDonald’s [Bloomberg, earlier]
- “Campers mauled by bear at Lake Louise lose lawsuit against Parks Canada” [Calgary Herald]
- Supreme Court hears oral argument in Schwarzenegger violent-videogame case [Ilya Shapiro, Cato at Liberty]
- Oh, that liberal media: “Consumers’ right to file class actions is in danger” [David Lazarus, L.A. Times, on AT&T v. Concepcion arbitration case]
- NLRB files first complaint challenging employer’s social networking policy [Schwartz, Hyman]
- Publisher’s threats against 800Notes.com gripe site bolster case for libel-tourism law [Paul Alan Levy, CL&P; earlier on Julia Forte case]
- Nevada Supreme Court finds homeowner not liable for motorist’s crash into garden wall [seven years ago on Overlawyered]
Marijuana legalization and employment law
I’ve got some thoughts at Cato at Liberty on the overreaching way California’s Proposition 19 tried to curtail employers’ liberty in employment decisions related to pot smoking — which might have contributed to the measure’s defeat at the polls on Tuesday. Earlier here. Jacob Sullum points out that much of employers’ tendency to treat off-job marijuana use more harshly than off-job alcohol use is itself stimulated by government mandates and exhortation, prominently including drug testing programs (& welcome Instapundit readers). More: Nancy Berner, California Labor & Employment Law Blog (“Merely smelling marijuana on a worker’s clothes after lunch would not be sufficient to justify a write-up” had the measure passed.)
Silhouette cowboy
The state of Texas’s use of a cowboy silhouette on vehicle inspection stickers could prove expensive if a photographer proves his claim that the image was illegally appropriated by a prison inmate who scanned it from a magazine without consent or payment. [San Antonio Express-News]
“Use good judgment in all situations”
Nordstrom, the successful retail chain, used to boast that its entire employee manual consisted of that admonition. But things have changed since then, and per Wikipedia “new hire orientations now provide this card along with a full handbook of other more specific rules and legal regulations.” [Bruce Carton, Legal Blog Watch]
Found in a cookie jar?
ABA Journal: “A South Carolina lawyer known for his TV commercials and billboards has turned over $994,000 in cash kept in a closet of his Myrtle Beach law office after a court-appointed bankruptcy investigator stressed the importance of disclosing his assets.” In initial filings, attorney Pavilack said he owed an estimated $72,500,000 to creditors and had $50,000 in assets; two months later he revised the asset disclosure upward to $8.9 million. A bankruptcy examiner says Pavilack’s financial affairs are in disarray and that it may be impossible to disentangle what he owns or where money went given a pattern of unexplained money transfers among a maze of business accounts. [Myrtle Beach Sun-News via Lowering the Bar]
“FASB Disclosure Proposal: Back To The Drawing Board”
A much-criticized scheme to require businesses to disclose details of their litigation exposures is on hold for now. [Cal Biz Lit; earlier here, here, etc.] More: Carter at ShopFloor.