A securities lawyer has been advertising for snitches at screenings of Oliver Stone’s new Wall-Street-bashing movie. [NYPost]
Archive for 2010
“Lawyer Bluster on Display in Oil Spill Litigation”
Because snagging a place on the Plaintiff’s Steering Committee is kind of like money in the bank, if not better. [WSJ Law Blog]
September 28 roundup
- Senators and their Constitutional duties: Christine O’Donnell 1, Dahlia Lithwick 0 [Bernstein/Volokh, Shapiro/Cato, Garnett/Prawfs] More: Ted at PoL.
- 15-year-old sentenced to 20 years for killing dog, family says that isn’t long enough [USA Today]
- “Fla. man settles McDonald’s suit over hot sandwich” [AP, earlier]
- “Blasphemy laws by the back door” [Stuttaford, Secular Right, on UK Koran prosecution] “A Defense of Free Speech by American and Canadian Muslims” [The American Muslim]
- “15 new legal blogs prove the blawgosphere is alive and kicking” [Ambrogi, Law Technology News; reactions, Greenfield and Balasubramani]
- A video on your right to videotape cops [David Rittgers, Cato; Greenfield, Balko]
- “My Lie: Why I Falsely Accused My Father” [Meredith Maran interview, Salon]
- “Judge-Mandated Racial Quotas For Plaintiffs’ Law Firms” [Krauss, PoL]
Why isn’t there more research on contraceptives?
Asks Nicholas Kristof; his surmise number 1 will come as no surprise to longtime readers. [New York Times; MI way back when]
Beer lobby fighting California pot initiative
The California Beer & Beverage Distributors has contributed money to defeat the marijuana-legalization measure, as have police groups. One consideration that might shed light on the latter stance: “Police forces are entitled to keep property seized as part of drug raids and the revenue stream that comes from waging the drug war has become a significant source of support for local law enforcement.” Surprisingly, the politically active prison-guards union has not (yet) thrown its weight onto the “no” side, though prison supervisors have. [Ryan Grim, HuffPo via Tabarrok]
Hurricane destroys city, women hit hardest
Scott Greenfield vs. Susan Kuo on feminism and disaster recovery.
“Handicapped man sues Tampa strip club”
In Tampa, the Mons Venus strip club “is being sued for its alleged uninviting nature to people with disabilities.” Kendrick Duldulao, who uses a wheelchair, says there are no suitable ramps, “the hostess stand is too high, and the toilets and jukebox are inaccessible.” [BayNews9.com] More: Radley Balko (“Reached for comment, other Mons Venus patrons replied, ‘There’s a jukebox?'”)
Standing and the left-right divide
With cases like the ObamaCare challenge, it’s less clear that broad constitutional standing necessarily advances “liberal” political goals, and advocates on both sides may be adjusting their positions (even) farther toward a tactical or instrumental view of standing controversies. (Ilya Somin; Somin v. Kerr on the merits); Linda Greenhouse, NYTimes “Opinionator”.
“The regulatory origins of the flash crash”
Could it be that cutting spreads of middlemen market-makers wasn’t a great way of advancing investors’ interests? “Maybe the government shouldn’t mess with markets unless it really understands how they function and the costs of regulation. Which it usually doesn’t.” [Larry Ribstein, Truth on the Market]
Symposium on California Prop 64
In 2004 Californians voted to curtail s. 17200, the state’s distinctively liberal “unfair competition” law which had brought into existence an entrepreneurial sector of lawyers to sue businesses even in the absence of an injured consumer as client. The Federalist Society’s State Court Docket Watch has just published a symposium on the lessons and aftermath of Prop 64, with participants including William Stern of Morrison & Foerster, Scott Leviant of Spiro Moss, Jeremy Rosen of Horvitz & Levy, and Shaun Martin of the University of San Diego School of Law