The author and Pacific Legal Foundation attorney was at the Cato Institute on Monday to discuss his new book on the tradition of constitutional protection for economic liberty overthrown by the Supreme Court in its New Deal-era “switch in time.” That panel (with commenters David Bernstein of George Mason and Clark Neily of the Institute for Justice) doesn’t seem to be online yet, but there’s a Cato audio podcast with Sandefur, and his book is available here.
Archive for 2010
Convicted in double-fatality crash, trooper wants compensation
“Former Illinois State trooper Matt Mitchell is asking the state to compensate him for injuries from a crash in which he hit and killed two Collinsville sisters at triple-digit speeds.” Mitchell pleaded guilty to reckless homicide after the incident, in which, headed for an accident scene, he “was driving 126 mph in busy day-after-Thanksgiving traffic on Interstate 64 near O’Fallon while sending and receiving e-mails and talking to his girlfriend on his cell phone.” “People get hurt at work all the time,” said Mitchell’s lawyer, Kerri O’Sullivan of St. Louis’ Brown and Crouppen. “It’s our job as lawyers to help people with the difficult and complicated administrative process of worker’s compensation.” [Belleville News-Democrat]
U.K.: Woman who made up rape story is jailed
“A woman who falsely claimed she had been raped has today been jailed for a year. Elizabeth Wilkinson’s allegation resulted in the arrest of an innocent father of two.” [Lancashire Telegraph]
September 21 roundup
- Facing four harassment claims, embattled Philadelphia housing chief files his own suit for $600K+ [Inquirer]
- “Ohio State Abuses Trademark Law to Suppress a Fan Magazine and Website” [Paul Alan Levy, CL&P]
- “Judge Dismisses Baltimore Blight Suit Against Wells Fargo, Will Allow Refiling” [ABA Journal]
- Trial lawyer taking behind-the-scenes hand in Louisiana politics [OpenSecrets via Tapscott]
- “Are hedge funds abusing bankruptcy?” [Felix Salmon and WSJ]
- North Carolina alienation-of-affection law strikes again: “’Mistress Ordered to Pay $5.8 Million’ to Wronged Wife” [Volokh, Althouse]
- “Lawyers take a haircut on a contingency fee in Colorado” [Legal Ethics Forum]
- ADA lawsuits close another beloved eatery [Stockton, Calif.; six years ago on Overlawyered]
“Not Guilty by Reason of Caffeine”
“Reports today say that a 33-year-old Kentucky man will argue in his murder trial this week that he should be found not guilty of killing his wife because he was under the influence of caffeine at the time.” [Lowering the Bar] Update: Lawyer doesn’t mention caffeine theory on trial’s first day [ABA Journal] From commenter Shtetl G: “I would be more sympathetic if he claimed lack of caffeine caused the murder.”
“Tory blitz on compensation culture is revealed”
“Health and safety regulations which burden Britain and lead to good samaritans facing prosecution are to be swept away in a blitz on ‘compensation culture'”. Among the measures are rollbacks of liability for volunteers, emergency service responders and school recreation. “A coalition source said: ‘What we are determined to see is a great extension of personal freedom, at the same times as a rolling back both of the state and the power of the courts.'” [Telegraph]
“North Carolina Sheriffs Want To Know Who Is Taking Painkillers”
For your own good, of course — and so that they can make more arrests. [Radley Balko]
September 20 roundup
- “Family sues for $25 million over death of Virginia Beach homeless man” [Pilot Online]
- New paper proposes voucherizing indigent criminal defense [Stephen Schulhofer and David Friedman, Cato Institute, more]
- “Why the Employee Free Choice Act Has, and Should, Fail” [Richard Epstein, SSRN]
- Free-market lawprofs file brief in class action arbitration case, Concepcion v. AT&T [PoL]
- Enactment of Dodd-Frank law results in flood of whistleblower-suit leads for plaintiff’s bar [Corporate Counsel, ABA Journal] “Will Whistle-Blowing Be Millions Well Spent?” [Perlis/Chais, Forbes]
- Sept. 28 in House: “Congressional Hearing on the Problems of Overcriminalization” [NACDL]
- Abusive-litigation angle seen in NYC mosque controversy [Painter, Legal Ethics Forum]
- Snark alert: Mr. Soros does something nice for Human Rights, and Human Rights does something nice for him [Stoll]
“The Most Insane Zero Tolerance Story Yet”
Of course everyone has their own favorite insane zero tolerance story. This one, which involves a Swiss Army Knife, an excursion to private school and a series of figures assuring the protagonist “I would love to make this all go away, but my hands are tied,” is Lenore Skenazy’s.
The continuing exploits of RightHaven
RightHaven, the copyright mill which sues unauthorized online reprinters of Las Vegas Review-Journal material without bothering with such courtesies as notice or takedown requests, has now sued more than 100 blogs, online discussion sites, small businesses, community groups, and other defendants (sample: an EMT blog.) Among newer targets is Nevada GOP Senate hopeful Sharron Angle, whose candidacy the paper has endorsed [Politics Daily]. The Las Vegas paper, which has been identified in the past with a conservative editorial line and even sometimes with the cause of lawsuit reform, is apparently of the opinion that suing bloggers and other online mentioners will get it linked to more often [TechDirt]. A site named RightHavenLawsuits.com has compiled what it intends to be comprehensive lists of the lawsuits and of news and opinion coverage of the phenomenon.
Other recent developments: a regional newspaper chain of which the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette is the best-known unit has apparently signed on as a second major client with RightHaven [“We’re up to our armpits in Righthaven defendants,” a referral coordinator for the Electronic Frontier Foundation says; Wired] TechDirt looks into the question of why the company demands the domain names of groups it sues. Ways of protecting oneself before the fact are bruited at Instapundit, Daily Pundit, and Las Vegas Trademark Attorney. More commentary: Legal Ethics Forum (on a grievance filed with the Nevada state bar against RightHaven CEO Steven Gibson), No Lawyers – Only Guns and Money, Las Vegas Sun. A few weeks ago at Cato at Liberty I compared the RightHaven business model to that of ADA filing mills, patent trolls, and the California subculture of entrepreneurial lawsuits against small businesses and school districts over paperwork violations.